Baseball, Snakes, and Summer Squash: Poems About Growing Up

by Donald Graves

This unsentimental and ambitious collection of poems by Donald Graves chronicles the American childhood of a boy as he moves with his family to a house in the country, and the changes the boy experiences in that year. From formidable lessons learned from a bully, and facing parents after breaking curfew with his brother, to math woes and misadventures with his independent Scottish terrier, Rags, the poet's convincing voice gives the reader a generous, spirited perspective of growing up. Black-and-white illustrations add an appealing visual element to this coming-of-age collection.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1996

Reviews

[Paul Hankins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fans of Donald Graves's work will not want to miss this collection of loosely connected narrative poems from 1996. This would be a super mentor text for boy writers as they explore their "writing territories" and how they might be rendered in verse.

Donald Graves uses the poetic form to reach into the reader with the truth of our own childhoods.

"First Baseball Glove"--about a father who senses his boys need something while the practical-thinking mother sighs.

Or "Elizabeth," wherein a cluster of boys can have the same affections for a girl and talk about these openly without coming to fisticuffs.

A trip to the doctor's office causes some trepidation for the boy everyone calls "Rabbit" (Donald's nickname as a child) when a neighborhood friend informs him of what happens there.

"Multiplication" will surely bring back memories of the flashcards--and the initial frustrations--of trying to learn our multiplication tables.

"Fireworks" and "Stealing Wood from Mr. Sweet" are good demonstration of how a narrative can be condensed down into the poetic form and back again. I'd like to use both of these with students to show how this could be done.

[Muhymin Riyad · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book Baseball,Snakes,and Summer Squash by Donald Graves is poems about growing up and major things that happened to him and how he felt about them.I liked how he added big things in his life such as him moving to a new place but also little things to like his dog and going to his grammy house and things like that.I loved most of the book but one thing that bothered me was him getting bullied and he doesn't stand up for himself.I would recommend this to someone who wants to start reading poems because you can read one poem a day and you'll learn a new story every night.My favorite line was probably “Not Growing Huh” because it was sarcastic but it was true.

[Srb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although these poems tend to be longer, I think kids will really like these as well. They are poems about growing up. Many of the topics are things most kids experience, so I think they will find it easy to connect to the topics and find themselves in the poems. What kid can't relate to bullies, lying, thunderstorms, or growing pains?

I have a feeling that seeing someone else write about familiar items will inspire students as they begin to write their own poems. This book will reinforce the idea that a poem can be about anything. I definitely will be using this book to model poetry in my classroom!

[Dayna Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great little book of poems about boys growing up in America as it was. A wonderful collection of poems to get boys into poetry and to allow adults to reminisce about their own childhood.

[Melanie Swider Wenz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for mini lessons, small groups, and conferring.