Children's Poetry Analysis: "Daniel Finds a Poem" by Micha Archer

 "Daniel Finds a Poem" is a children's book by Micha Archer. The book explores a young boy named Daniel questioning what poetry is. Throughout the book, he asks about poetry and various animals in nature respond with different phrases. By the end of the book, Daniel put together each phrase to comprise a poem, where he finally understands what poetry is. "Daniel Finds a Poem" is an example of free verse poetry as it does not follow traditional rhyme schemes or word patterns. However, the final poem pieces together to form a rhythmic flow comprised of natural elements as well as alliteration. This illustrations in this book contain rich and vibrant artwork with soft line work. The illustrations reflect the innocence of childhood and set a soft tone and mood. There are also elements of collage work within the artwork, adding texture to the illustrations and making the artwork interesting to look at. The shape and design of the illustrations are reminiscent of children's artwork, which add to the theme of learning and growth within a child. 

This text would be beneficial in the classroom as you can use it as a way to teach children how to write poetry and see poetry in the things around them. An activity to do after reading could include taking the class outside to observe different elements of nature and describing them. They could then take those ideas and inspiration from the book to turn their findings into poetry. This book is especially helpful in teaching young children how to write poetry as it is free verse and has limited rules on structure, making following the writing style easy for them to understand.