Dirty Laundry Pile: Poems in Different Voices Book

Dirty Laundry Pile is an excellent anthology of poems that kids find hilarious. It is an excellent tool for teaching children about the different perspectives of objects and animals. Poems are written from the point of view of the vacuum cleaner, washing machine, etc. The poems are well written and vary in structure to offer children different levels of poetry. The pictures that accompany the poems are whimsical and bright painted. Children are intrigued by the poetry and want to keep on reading.

I am using the poem about the vacuum cleaner because it begins with words like "munch crunch" which make the kids giggle thinking about the dirt being "food" for the cleaner to eat. I think we can really find some good poetic traits (like onomatopoeia, visualizing, etc.) to analyze in this poem, aside from the rhyming structure.


Though it is marked as good for grades 3-6 my second graders enjoy the poetry as well. Some of the language is a little difficult but they still appreciate the humor.