TOASTING MARSHMALLOWS: CAMPING POEMS by Kristine O'Connell George

(Source: George, Krinstine O. George. New York:Houghton Mifflin Company. http://www.kristinegeorge.com/toasting_marshmallows.html)

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY: George, Kristine O’Connell. 2001. Toasting marshmallows: camping poems. Ill. Kate Kiesler. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN: 0-618-04597-X

2. PLOT SUMMARY: Toasting marshmallows takes the reader on a journey with a young girl on a camping trip with her family. The story begins, as any camping trip would, with the set up of the tent. Throughout the story, the young girl does many things with various family members including hiking, toasting marshmallows, fishing and rowing in a lake, and walking in the forest. Some problems must be faced during the weekend such as a storm, mosquitoes and other insects, and the uncertainty of noises and events of the night. In the end she must return home. She does so with the promise to return next year and with the smell of the woods on her clothes to remind her of the wonderful time she had.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS: Kristine O’Connell George tells a wonderful story through her free verse poetry. It is obvious that Ms. George was very careful with the arrangement of the lines and verses for each poem contained in this book. The words for the first poem, “Tent”, are cleverly arranged in the shape of a pyramid. The addition of the illustration of a bright orange tent on the adjacent page causes the reader to clearly understand that this pyramid of words is actually a tent, not a pyramid. This careful placement is evidenced in the reading of all of the poems. Such placement helps the reader to know when to speed up or to slow down the reading. It helps the reader to know other things also, such as when there are more than two person’s speaking, as in “Two Voices in a Tent at Night”.

This book is a marvelous blending of words and illustration. Kate Kiesler does a beautiful job of using acrylics to set the stage for each and every poem in this book. She makes Ms. George’s words come alive. For example, in “Campfire” Ms. George writes: “I lean against Mom,/ my head on her shoulder,/ Warm all over.” Ms. Kiesler provides the visuals of a young girl leaning on her mom’s shoulder and adds to the emotion of this poem by showing the girl’s little brother sitting in her dad’s lap, asleep in front of the campfire. Ms. Kiesler doesn’t miss any details. For example, in “Abandoned Cabin”, Ms. Kiesler is sure to include in her drawing the Queen Anne’s lace and the carpet of green moss referred to in the poem.

Ms. George’s word choices are appropriate for children and easily establish an image in one’s mind of the event she is describing. For example, in “Anchored” Ms. George writes: “Outside our tent I can see/ gray spiders spinning silver,/ looping silky lines/ through smoky wisps/ of campfire, . . ..” No child would need a picture to imagine such a thing. In another example, the first lines of “Two Voices in a Tent at Night” read: “Shhhhh . . ./ something is scratching/ on our tent.” These words will surely capture a child’s attention and immediately upon hearing these words will feel the nervousness of a child, in a tent at night, hearing an unknown noise. There are no rhymes in these poems, although every once in a while a rhyming verse will be found. Take for example the “Owl” wherein Ms. George writes: “I hear you, Owl./ Your one lone vowel/ . . ..” Obviously, Ms. George only rhymes in the natural course of her free verse format. It is never something that is forced into her writing.

Throughout her free verse poems, Ms. George uses alliteration and assonance, however it is all very subtle. One must look closely to find it as her words seem to be something that is unforced and without thought. For example, in “River Messages”, Ms. George is using alliteration when she uses the words scallops, scribbles, scrolls, and skips. An example of assonance is found in “Owl” with the use of the words owl, vowel, round and sound. The fact that these literary elements are so naturally woven into the poems is one of the things that make Ms. George an award winning poet.

4. BOOK REVIEW EXCERPT(S):

BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN’S BOOKS, 54, no. 9 (May 2001) 336-37: “Though more plainspoken than lyrical, this is nonetheless an effectively atmospheric series that could serve as both camping introduction and memento." (Source: Book Review Digest Plus, WilsonWeb database, accessed via TWU Library Online)

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, 248, no. 11 (03/12/2001) 90: “. . . George’s poems shine, the images clear and startling. . . .Readers will definitely want S-mores.” (Source: Academic Search Complete, EBSCO Host database, accessed via TWU Library Online)

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, 47, no. 47 (July 2001) 93-4: “Some of Kiesler's artwork sweeps across double pages to provide a dramatic vista-a meandering hiking trail, a field of wild mustard, a star-studded night sky-while other pictures reveal small, but equally telling details.” (Source: Book Review Digest Plus database, accessed via TWU Library Online)

5. CONNECTIONS IN A SCHOOL LIBRARY SETTING:
* This would be a good book to read to elementary students as they are returning from summer vacation. After reading the book, the teacher could move into a poetry lesson and have the children write poetry about their summer vacations.
* Students could do a social studies lesson about camping sites such as Yellowstone and Yosemite. They could locate the parks on maps, they could calculate the distance from their school to these places, and they could look up the weather at these parks.
* Students could problem solve about things that they might take on a camping trip.
* The teacher could set up a tent in the classroom and read other camping related books.

Other Related Items:

• Hafner, Marylin. 2000. Molly and Emmett's camping adventure. Ohio: Cricket/McGraw-Hill Books.
• McCully, Emily Arnold. 2000. Monk camps out. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books
• Warren, Cathy. 1983. The ten-alarm camp-out. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books
• Bauer, Marion Dane. 1993. Yellowstone. Ill. John Wallace. Minnesota: Voyager Press.