Review: NCTE Award Poetry

Title: Scien-Trickery: Riddles in Science

Author: J. Patrick Lewis

Illustrator: Frank Remkiewicz

Citation: Lewis, J. Patrick. Scien-Trickery: Riddles in Science. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc., 2004.

ISBN: 0-15-216681-5

Review: Scien-Trickery: Riddles in Science is a collection of scientific riddles written by NCTE Award-winning poet J. Patrick Lewis. With topics ranging from germs to laser beams to humidity, this collection covers a broad spectrum of scientific concepts. Each poem contains clues to the topic either in the words or in the watercolor and colored pencil illustrations created by Frank Remkiewicz, followed by the answer to the riddle written upside down beneath the poem. Though accurate in detail and chock full of scientific vocabulary, Scien-Trickery lacks a unifying theme as well as creative use of figurative language. With patterns that often seems forced and little sense imagery, the poems in this collection lack emotional impact.

Potential Use: Educators could pick and choose poems from Scien-Trickery: Riddles in Science to introduce topics of study in the science curriculum. Many of these poems lend them self to warm-up introductory activities. For example, if the topic of study for the day was gravity, an educator might introduce the subject with the following poem:

Gee!

It keeps you from flying

Off into space.

It's what makes you fall

Flat on your face.

And if it could talk

Like you and I do,

I think it would say,

"I'm pulling for you."

Answer: Gravity

As a follow-up activity, students could also try to create their own riddles based upon the day's science topic. Using the poems in Scien-Trickery for inspiration, students could write their own riddles and exchange them with classmates to solve.