Sidman Poetry - Meow Ruff: A Story in Concrete Poetry

1. Bibliographic Citation

Sidman, Joyce. 2006. Meow Ruff: A Story in Concrete Poetry. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 9780618448944

2. Summary and Review

In Meow Ruff, a dog that escapes from his house and a cat that is left in a parking lot meet up and forge an unlikely friendship during a thunderstorm. However, this book is about so much more than that. The background objects including a house, the trees, a car, the ground, a table, the clouds, and the rain are all created out of concrete poetry. On the first page of the book before we even meet the dog and cat, the tone for the book is set with the cloud and ground poems. A simple “wisp” is the only cloud in the sky. While the sidewalk says, “Sidewalk/poured rock/flat gray footway/tramped-on/not lawn.” Similar descriptions of the grass continue throughout. As the pages progress, the clouds get fluffier and the text gets puffier along with the poems, “large white steamy bread loves rising in the sun’s bright heat, a billowing batch of cumulus.” Then the storm arrives and the rain comes, forcing the dog and cat to seek shelter under a table. The rain is depicted as words falling vertically from the word clouds. The rain begins as “drip, drop” and progresses to “wet sky missiles,” “sudden ferocious drilling,” and “fat fingers tapping.” This book is an example of an illustrator playing an equally, if not more important, role as the author. Joyce Sidman wrote the beautifully descriptive words but Michelle Berg transformed them into art. While all the text in this book may be a bit overwhelming to a young child, with the proper guidance from an adult, it can become a wonderful introduction to concrete poetry. Kids will enjoy finding more and more little hidden elements such as the worm, ants, and ladybugs on some of the pages. I cannot do this book justice in including a poem to share without the illustration, so below are two photos of the same page showing a tree and the sun coming out after the rain.   

3. Awards and Reviews

Booklist Book Review Stars, March 2006

Minnesota Children’s Book Awards Finalist, 2007

Best Book Choices, 2007

4. Activities

Display the website “Concrete Poetry” in which students can create their own concrete poems using the computer. http://www.wild-about-woods.org.uk/elearning/concretepoetry/

Students may pick an object listed on the website or choose to draw their own. Then, using the SMART Board, allow the students to add words to the object they chose. This website even allows students to add words that aren’t already listed in the word bank. This can be done as a whole class or in small groups. The poems can then be printed and colored.

5. Related Books

Outside the Lines by Brad Burg ISBN 9780399234460       

Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape by J. Patrick Lewis ISBN 9780689848896

Come to My Party and Other Shape Poems by Heidi Roemer ISBN 9780805066203