Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant

Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems

Written by Jack Prelutsky

Illustrated by Carin Berger

Jack Prelutsky, 2006

31 pages

Collection of Poetry

            Have you ever heard of an umbrellaphant?  Or a toadster?  What about a clocktopus?  These are just a few of the wacky creatures you will read about in this poetry collection!  The author combined animals with everyday items to create these very amusing creatures that will keep any reader entertained.  Do you want to know what each creature is made of and what they do?  Read Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant by Jack Prelutsky to find out!

            Carin Berger created these unusual illustrations using collages.  Although collages are not my favorite form of art, this artistic medium was very fitting for this poetry collection given the different creatures that were created.  Berger used both single pages and doublespreads to display her collages, adding variety to the setup of the book.  Each collage was individualized, using its own different materials.  I really enjoyed looking at each collage, and students will enjoy picking out the different materials that were used.

            This poetry collection can be used in many ways in classrooms ranging from kindergarten through fifth grade.  Using the illustrations in the poetry collection as a basis, the teacher could ask the students to make a collage of their own version of one of the creatures in the story.  This collection could also be used to work on the students’ inference skills.  Before reading these poems, the teacher could tell the students the different creatures that were created in these poems, and the students would have to write down what they thought made up each creature.  After reading each poem, the students could see if their guesses were correct.  These poems could also be used in a writing activity.  After reading the poems with the class, the teacher could ask each student to create their own creature by combining an animal with a household object they use every day.  They would then write a poem about their creature similar to what they heard in the poems.  Therefore, this poetry collection could be used in the classroom in a variety of fun ways.