Bing Bang Boing by Douglas Florian

Florian, Douglas. Bing Bang Boing. San Diego, California: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994.

ISBN: 9780152337704

“Bing Bang Boing” is a collection of poems written and illustrated by Douglas Florian.  The poems are of varying length, topic, and style.  Many of the poems are short and most of them are comical and lighthearted.  Each poem is simple and would be easily understood by the child reader.  Most of the poems are accompanied by simple illustrations which help the reader to understand and envision the poem.

The drawings and the poems work together to make poetry more accessible to young readers.  The illustrations are simple and unpolished.  A child may look at the drawings and think to himself “I could do that.”  This is exactly what we want as educators!

Students should understand from reading poems in this collection that the topic of poetry does not have to be elaborate or grandiose.  Sometimes poetry is just fun!  Sometimes poems are just silly!  “Bing Bang Boing” is an excellent introduction to teach children this truth.

Pencilly

The pencil is a splendid thing

For which there’s no replacer.

But better than the pencil is

The little pink eraser.

Hailstones

Hailstones big as marbles,

Hailstones two feet wide.

Hailstones big as boulders—

Better stay inside.

If I were to introduce these poems to a class, I’d first point out that each is only 4 lines long.  I’d ask the students to address any other similarities.  My hope, of course, would be that the students would notice and address the rhyming of lines 2 and 4.  In order to put poetry in the hands of my students, I’d ask them each to find an item in the room and write a short 4 line poem about the object.  I’d ask each student to do their best to add in a rhyme on line 2 and 4.