Sunday, September 29, 2013

My Dog May Be A Genius (My First Book Talk Video)


So, as part of my Children's Lit class, I was given an assignment to choose one or more books of children's poetry and promote them by giving a book talk, writing a script, making a book trailer, or any other format approved by my professor. I chose to do a book talk, using myself as narrator, and my three dogs as actors. It's not excellent quality, and my inexperience with creating and editing videos and doing voiceovers is apparent. However, I think it turned out well enough, and I was happy with the end product. So I thought I would share it here (especially since I haven't written another post since my very first one)!

Here's a link to the video just in case there are playback issues:

This is a brief description and explanation of my video that I submitted as part of the assignment:

I chose Jack Prelutsky’s book My Dog May be a Genius: poems, based, first and foremost, on the fact that Prelutsky was the first ever Children’s Poet Laureate, which is an esteemed honor and great achievement. I chose this particular set of poems primarily because of the title poem, My Dog May be a Genius. It’s one of my favorite poems because it described the idea that our pets, more specifically a dog, may actually be much smarter than they lead us to believe.1 I love dogs, I have three of my own, so this is an idea I’ve pondered many times. I suppose that’s why I chose to use both myself, as narrator, and my dogs, as the actors, in my book talk.

I would recommend this book of poetry to kids ages 6 to 10. The poems are funny and whimsical, and cover a wide array of subjects.  I think the sense of humor Prelutsky uses in his poetry is universal, and can be appreciated by people of all ages, especially children. I think the characters he creates in his poems, such as Crumbo Crumme2, the Blue-Bean Bonking Bupple3, and Winterwood the wizard4, are clever, creative, and memorable. 

1 Prelutsky, Jack, and James Stevenson. My Dog May be a Genius: poems. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books, 2008. Print.
2 Prelutsky, 21.
3 Prelutsky, 124-125.
4 Prelutsky, 66-67.


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