Odes to Common Things, by Pablo Neruda, Ken Krabbenhoft, and Illustrated by Ferris Cook

            This anthology of odes is the bilingual edition in English and Spanish. The odes teach the reader to view even mundane and ordinary objects in a new light. There are odes about a bar of soap, bread, a chair, and more objects that people pass without giving a second thought. Every two-page spread, starting with the table of contents, has the ode in Spanish on the left page and the English ode on the right. My favorite poem from the anthology is “Ode to a pair of socks.” This ode adds a surprising amount of figurative language that compares the speaker’s feet in the socks to “navy-blue sharks” and “two cannons,” and this depth of figurative language is evident throughout the anthology (75, 77). Each of the odes connects the object to a greater purpose or depth of meaning that is truly surprising upon first reading it. For example, the “Ode to the spoon” connects the spoon to the problem of world hunger and hope for eliminating this global issue. Additionally, the illustrations add a simplistic but strikingly beautiful touch to each ode that helps the reader visualize the object while reading.

            This book would be most suited for a fourth, fifth, or sixth-grade classroom. The odes utilize a higher vocabulary, figurative language, and some intense themes, so it would not be appropriate for younger grades. Furthermore, I would love to use this book for upper-elementary EL’s because the book is printed in Spanish and English side by side. This way, the students could go back and forth between the languages as they feel comfortable and learn new vocabulary or help them understand the theme and figurative language of the poem by reading it in their native language. I could either have this book in my classroom library or use one or two of the poems as a whole-class lesson. After studying some of these odes, the students could write their own ode to an everyday object. However, I would challenge the students to incorporate figurative language and to give their object a deeper meaning than what is at face value. This way,

students can express their creativity and write about what is important in their lives. Then, to add an artistic layer, the students could draw their object using a variety of media and share their poems with the class if they choose.