A Year on My Street

A Year on My Street is a poetry book written by Mary Quattlebaum and illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith. Okay, so I actually read this book with my reading practicum child in 2nd grade, and she really loved it. The poems are simple, fun, and very relatable for children, especially those living or who have lived in urban areas. There is a particular poem in their that my reading child liked about a girl going out in her new red boots. With this poem, I was able to get my child to think about the new coat she had just gotten and what made it so special to her, and from that a new poem began to emerge about what she loved about her new coat. The book follows the events of an urban neighborhood from spring until winter. The pictures are bright and interesting for the reader to look at, and relate well to the poems written. I'm not sure what else there is to say about this particular book, it's a picture book, it's a poetry book, it's meant just for kids! Use it, your kids will love it, and they will see how poetry can look, not just rhyming words together.