2010 Winner: BUTTON UP

This is the 2010 winner of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award:

Schertle, Alice. 2009. Button Up. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Here is a Digital Trailer for BUTTON UP created by graduate student Cheryl Bagley.



There are TWO Readers' Guides for this book presented below.

Here is a Readers' Guide for BUTTON UP created by graduate student
Larissa Newman.

Recommended ages 4-8

1. Summary of book

This is a collection of “wrinkled rhymes” coming from the perspective of clothing: shoelaces, jammies, and even undies! There are 15 poems that invite you to read them with their vivid illustrations and an unusual viewpoint. The quirky animals included in the poems each have a special something that they would never part with. Grab your favorite blanket to hear the flowing verse of Alice Schertle and find a comfy spot to read these fun-filled poems!

2. Review excerpts/awards

*Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, 2010 Winner, United States


*Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, 2010 Winner, Grades K-3, United States

*Kirkus-Starred Review: ". . . these creatures have personality, exuberance and high style that perfectly match the verses. Loads of fun."

*Booklist-Starred Review: "The whimsical illustrations pair perfectly with the wittiness of the text, and the whole is a clever and original poetic treat."

*Horn Book-Starred Review: "From delicately comical to downright funny, the art perfectly reflects the contagiously rhythmic, playful verse. Made for sharing, and worth learning by heart, too."

*School Library Journal-Starred Review: “…these poems will give readers a new perspective on getting dressed.”

3. Questions to ask before reading

*Do you have a favorite item of clothing that you wear all the time? How would you feel if you had to part with it?

*Look at the cover of the book. What do you think about the ostrich in the turtle neck and the title (Button Up!) and how are they related?

*Imagine what it would be like if you were a favorite pair of undies or a jersey. What would be some exciting places and things you would get to do?

*Read some of the poem titles to get them questioning about and predicting what this book will be about.

4. Suggestions for reading poems aloud

*”Props”—Have the children pick one of their favorite poems from the book and gather items to match. Then they can expressively read the poem aloud to the class and they wear or hold the items.

*”Partners”—Let the students choose a partner and divide up the stanzas. Each partner can practice reading theirs and then perform for others. Great for speaking and fluency practice.

*"Joshua’s Jammies”—Have a jammy day and let children wear their favorite pajamas to school and let them recite the poem inserting their own names or have groups of children recite the poems chorally.

5. Follow up activities

*Poem Writing
Alice Schertle writes poems about simple items that are important, especially to children. Invite the children to bring something that is dear to them from home. Then let them write a poem from the perspective of the article they bring. Create a clothesline to hang their clothes poems from. You can use construction paper to create paper clothes or a t-shirt pattern.

*Poetry Journal
After reading these whimsical poems have children write in their poetry journals about the connections they made with any of the poems.

*Language Arts
“Word Detectives” Let these poems guide you into word work. Children can locate rhyming words, contractions, blends, etc. Poems can easily be copied to chart paper to do these tasks as a group.

"Jennifer’s Shoes”
The teacher can wear a favorite pair of her shoes and read the poem aloud with great expression. Then she could talk and write down ideas to start her poem about all the things and places where her shoes have been.

6. Related web sites

*An interview with Alice Schertle
http://www.leeandlow.com/p/schertle_interview.mhtml

*All You Need for a Snowman acted out with felt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhKP1oXmP-k

*Lee Bennett Hopkins Acceptance Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-aYviJUtCs

*Alice Schertle Biography
http://www.climbinsideapoem.com/samples/Schertleprofile.pdf

7. Related books

*Other poetry books by Alice Schertle

Schertle, Alice. 2007. Very Hairy Bear. Ill. by Matt Phelan. Orlando: Harcourt Children's Books.

Schertle, Alice. 2009. Little Blue Truck Leads the Way. Ill. by Jill McElmurray. Orlando: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Schertle, Alice. 2002. All You Need for a Snowman. Ill. by Barbara Lavallee. Orlando. Harcourt Books.

Schertle, Alice. 2004. All You Need for a Beach. Ill. by Barbara Lavallee. Orlando. Harcourt Books.

*Other poetry books with familiar topics

Franco, Betsy. 2009. Messing Around on the Monkey Bars: and Other School Poems for Two Voices. Ill. by Jessie Hartland. Candlewick.

Prelutsky, Jack. 1996. A Pizza the Size of the Sun. Ill. by James Stevenson. Greenwillow Books.

Lansky, Bruce. 2004. Miles of Smiles (Kids Pick the Funniest Poems). Ill. by Steven Carpenter. Meadowbrook.


Here is a Readers' Guide for BUTTON UP created by graduate student
Lisa Keefer.

Recommended ages 4 - 8

1. Summary of Book

This collection of poems by Alice Schertle takes a look at clothing from a unique perspective. In this distinctive and humorous book, 15 different articles of clothing take on a life all of their own as each shares its view of the world. Whether it is Violet’s hiking hat, Harvey’s galoshes, or Emily’s undies, each article of clothing examines its function to the wearer in engaging rhyme. Joshua’s jammies emphatically state that they are the “jammies Joshua wears” and are not for the llama, or penguins, or gnu any of the other animals represented by the toys scattered on the floor in the picture. Tanya’s old T-shirt does not think that it is fair that Tanya is the one who grew so much that “now she’s big as a sofa”, but it, (the t-shirt), gets used as a dust rag. The colorful, double-paged watercolor illustrations by Petra Mathers give life to each article of clothing. They add to the humor of each of the whimsical poems by representing the characters as animals rather than children.

2. Review excerpts/awards

*Arizona- Grand Canyon Reader Award Nominees 2012. Nonfiction Books
*Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
*Utah- CLAU Beehive Book Award Nominees Children’s Poetry 2011 *Vermont- Red Clover Award Nominees 2010-2011

*SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL starred review: “Told from the points of view of various anthropomorphic articles of clothing, these poems will give readers a new perspective on getting dressed.”

*BOOKLIST starred review: “From untied shoelaces to a hand-me-down sweatshirt, 15 articles of clothing tell their side of the story in verse. Alongside each poem, Mathers' charming watercolors show a variety of decked out animals in vignettes and double-page spreads that add to the humor.”

*KIRKUS, starred review: ". . . these creatures have personality, exuberance and high style that perfectly match the verses. Loads of fun."

*HORN BOOK, starred review: "From delicately comical to downright funny, the art perfectly reflects the contagiously rhythmic, playful verse. Made for sharing, and worth learning by heart, too."

3. Questions to ask before reading

Invite children to discuss the following:
*We wear different articles of clothing for different types of weather and activities. How many articles of clothing can you think of?
*What kinds of clothing are appropriate for summer? What about fall, spring, winter, rainy days, or snow? Can some clothing be used in several seasons? Does where you live make a difference as to what you might wear during that season?
*Can you imagine what it would be like if your shoes, pants or shirt could talk? What would they say? Do you think that clothes get their feelings hurt?
*Are the poems in this book real or make-believe? Could you make poems about clothing that are realistic? What about descriptive poetry such as Cinquain or an Acrostic poem?

4. Suggestions for reading poems aloud

“The Song of Harvey’s GALOSHES”- After first reading the poem aloud to the children, read the poem in unison. Next, invite the children to read the portion of the poem which echoes. Ex: When it’s raining Harvey always puts us on, (puts us on).On the next stanza, have leader and children alternate reading the words. Ex: (adult)-“Squash”, (children) – “galosh.”

“Joshua’s JAMMIES”- After first reading the poem aloud, the adult reader will read the lines: “We are the jammies that Joshua wears” Volunteers will participate by reading one of the 11 response lines, (volunteer 1: not jammies for penguins, volunteer 2: “not jammies for bears” etc).

“Bill’s BLUE JACKET”- Divide the class or whole group into 5 small groups and assign each to read one of the 5 stanzas of the poem. To make this reading more kinesthetic, have children mimic performing the actions, (such as taking the jacket off the hook and shaking it out), as they read their lines. Invite the whole group to participate in singing this poem to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

5. Follow up activities

*Clothing Fabric Collage:
Students will draw a character on a sheet of construction paper. They could draw a self-portrait, or an animal character such as Petra Mathers did in her illustrations. Next, the children will clothe the figure using shirts, pants, shoes, etc. which they have cut out of fabric scraps. If the group is just learning the names of various articles of clothing, they should label the items.

*Poetry Writing
Alice Schertle writes many of the poems in this book as quatrains, (a stanza of four lines and a rhyme scheme). Invite children to choose an article of clothing and write about it in a quatrain. Children need to choose a rhyming pattern to use, (abab, abba, aabb), and pick an article of clothing to write about and illustrate. They can work individually or in small groups. Gather the poems together into a poetry journal or scrapbook for the class.

*An alternate to creating a class journal, would be for individuals to make and decorate a cover for their own poetry book.

*Creating and extending patterns
Give children 5 to 10 each of die cut patterns of different articles of clothing and large pieces of butcher paper. Have them work in pairs or on their own to create patterns in abab, abba, aabb format such as are found in a quatrain. Encourage students to tell about the pattern they created and to come up with questions about extending the patterns. Students should glue the die cut pieces onto the butcher paper and write the questions they have written under the pattern.
*Make a list of the purpose of clothing and the types of clothing appropriate for the weather conditions. Be sure to include things such as hats, shoes, socks, etc. This could be turned into a graph of the types of clothing worn in each season.

6. Related web sites/blogs

* http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Schertle/e/B000APKQV8
(Look here for information about more books written by Alice Shertle.)

* http://www.jacketflap.com/persondetail.asp?person=4983
(Look here for a brief biography about Alice Shertle and information about more books by this author.)

*http://www.poetryarchive.org/childrensarchive/home.do
(Look here for a variety of children’s poetry about clothes and many other topics.)

*http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/child.htm
(Erin has quite a collection of children’s poetry on this page. Many of the links connect to poetry about clothing.)

*http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/videoitem.html?id=171
This link to the poetry foundation connects to the Children’s Poetry Laureate page, where children’s poet Mary Hoberman reads a selection of her poems including “The Llama Who Had No Pajamas” and “I Like Old Clothes.”

7. Related books

* Books by Alice Schertle:
• Schertle, Alice. 2009. Little Blue Truck Leads the Way. Ill. by Jill McElmurry. Orlando Florida: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
• Schertle, Alice. 2007. Very Hairy Bear. Ill. by Matt Phelan. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Schertle, Alice. 2007. All You Need for a Snowman. Ill. by Barbara Lavallee. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

*Other children’s books about clothing:
• Barrett, Judy. 1988. Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing. Ill. by Ron Barrett. Atheneum
• Berry, Joy. 2010. I Love Getting Dressed (Teach Me About). Ill. by Dana Regan. Joy Berry Books
• Hall, Margaret C. 2003. Clothing (Around the World). Heinemann Educational Books.
• Hall, Margaret C. 2003. Clothes (Around the World). Heinemann Educational Books.
• Sills, Leslie. 2006. From Rags to Riches: A History of Girls' Clothing in America. Holiday House.
• Andersen, Hans Christian. 2004. The Emperor's New Clothes. Ill. by Virginia Lee Burton. Sandpiper
• Calmerson, Stephanie. 1991. The Principal's New Clothes. Ill. by Denise Brunkus. Scholastic.