The Wonder Book

More Poetry!

I actually haven't seen that much about either autism or poetry

this month. 

This saddens me.

I think both require us to interact with cognitive differences.

And I think we are reluctant to do so, even though

we know that thinking differently enriches us.

Whether you have autism or love someone who does,

every day you encounter someone who thinks very

differently than you do.

And unless you think constantly in rhyme, metaphor,

synecdoche (yeah, I'm going to look it up)*, metonymy

(that too)** and meter, poetry is a different way of 

thinking as well.

I associate The Wonder Book with

a book of mythology, but Amy Krouse Rosenthal 
seems to mean wondering about stuff. And she
wonders about the same kind of stuff my boy
does, and she often wonders in rhyme.
Paul Schmid did the line drawings, including
the two page spread of kids wondering in
a tree:
"I wonder what sheep count when they're
trying to fall asleep . . ."

My Boy's Comments:

According to The Wonder Book, Miss Mary Mack is now
a mother. In the poem "Half Birthday," there were a
lot of half words, and the picture had a half birthday
cake. Eeny Minney and Miney Mo is so funny, 
because it’s about two characters.

*"A synecdoche (/sɪˈnɛkdəkiː/, si-nek-də-kee; from Greek synekdoche (συνεκδοχή), meaning "simultaneous understanding")

is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something, or vice-versa." (Wikipedia)

For the funniest piece ever written about synecdoche, read James Thurber. Read James Thurber anyway. Also Robert Benchley.

**"Metonymy (/mɨˈtɒnɨmi/ mi-tonn-ə-mee)^[1] is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is called not by its own name but 

rather by the name of something associated in meaning with that thing or concept." (Meriam Webster via Wikipedia)