Blog #13

The Blood-Hungry Spleen:

And Other Poems About Our Parts

Written by: Allan Wolf

Illustrated by: Greg Clarke

Candlewick Press

2003

53 pages

Poetry

            I chose this particular book because of the topic: the human body.  This can be incorporated into many different lessons ranging from language arts to science.  The Blood-Hungry Spleen is a specialized book of poetry for children.  This type of collection of poetry is written by the same poet and on the same topic for a specific age group. This collection of poetic works is all written by Allan Wolf on the topic of parts of the human body.  This collection is written for older children in higher grades.  These poems reveal interesting thoughts and facts about the different body parts through creativity of the poet using all different types of poetry.  The poems are written about parts such as the spleen, skin, eyes, ears, the navel, the brain, the stomach, and even hormones and reproductive organs.

            The illustrations in this book are illustrated by Greg Clarke.  Clarke used acrylic paints to illustrate the poems and create a scene to give humor and explanation to each poem.  The artwork is painted in calming colors such as light blue, maroon, and cream.  There is a variety of layouts inside the book.  The book contains single-page spreads, double-page spreads, and many vinette illustrations.  The text of the book is found in most formal and informal text placement.  The book has a dual image cover to attract readers.

            This book is appropriate for older readers.  This book should only be read aloud to younger children, making sure to not give a student a chance to see some of the questionable illustrations pertaining to the reproductive organ poems.  There are no explicit depictions.  However, it is my personal judgment that younger audiences should not be allowed to handle this book to find images that are questionable.  All these illustrations are covered up, but even the text is graphic in nature when describing anatomical differences between the male and female body types.  Older children outside of elementary school whom are learning about the reproductive organs and science of the different body parts would be mature enough to view this book independently.  For elementary school, the teacher could incorporate a single poem into a science lesson on body parts.  It could also be a part of a poetry study.  I also think this would be something fun to read aloud between lessons in the classroom just to give my students a brain-break.  This book has won no awards.