Runny Babbit

Title: Runny Babbit
Author/Illustrator: Shel Silverstein
Publisher: HarperCollins; First Edition, First Printing edition (March 15, 2005)
Genre: Poetry
Readability Lexile: Ages 7 and Above
Summary and Target Audience:
This silly and nonsensical book will take readers through the world of switcheroo's- words and the world of Runny Babbit will come alive with the typical and entertaining illustrations of Shel Silverstein and his fabulous pen. In this madcap world, pea soup is sea poup, Capture teh Flad is Fapture the Clag and snow boots are bow snoots. Good luck with all of the wordplay! Great for children learning to decode in "small doses" as it can be overwhelming.  Children as early as seven and adults as old as eighty will have fun with all of the words in these poems.


Evaluation of the Text:


Good Story- Although silly, this text is still a good story filled with fun and funny characters.  Watch as the characters learn and grow in their upside down world.  The poems range from discussions about Runny Babbits home life with his mother to his relationship with his friends. These poems will keep you giggling all day!


Personalities match their actions- Because it is such a nonsense story book, the characters themselves are nonsense and backwards.  For example, his mother washes Runny Babbit and hangs him out to dry, and his friend comes and asks him what hie is doing and he says he's just hanging around.  All of the characters have their own upside down personalities to match the events of the poem.


What did the author want to tell me- To be frank, I believe the point was to honestly not have a point. There is no central or overlying theme other than to play with words and make nonsense poetry.  Having fun and being silly along with the ability and the fun that can be had from playing around with vocabulary and poetry would be the main themes from this text.


Literary Elements:

 Irony- A lot of the poems in this text are simply ironic due to the nature of the certain characters predicament or the conversations of the characters after or during the fact.  For example, the following poem is ironic because of the idea of hanging around or upside down and the fact that Runny Babbit is hanging from the line of wash:
Runny Meets Guddy:
Runny Babbit not all guddy
Makin' puddy mies
His wamma mashed him with the clothes
And hung him out to dry
Toe Jurtle said, "what re you doin'
So high agrove the bound?"
Runny Babbit sinned and gaid
"Oh, I'm just rangin' hound." 


Theme- As mentioned above, the theme is silliness and wordplay.  Runny Babbit experiences many diffeent scenarious with his friends and deals with the situations with a smile and a wink.  For example, Runny Babbit dresses up like a king and tells all his friends to "dow bound" and "riss his king" to which they say "no way you thilly sing."


Imagery- These poems, while short and sometimes a little difficult to decode, are still full of imagery.  When Shel uses his nonsense words to describe a situation and the reader says them out loud, the image pictured can be completely different than what the text is saying.  Such as the poem where Runny Babbit was asking his friends to bow down and kiss his ring and they replied with "thilly sing" the reader may imagine a song or something like a silly song since thilly is very close to the sound of silly.


Illustrations-
As mentioned on the four other posts on Shel Silverstein, the illustrations are awesome and fun and give the reader the ability to image the characters in their own way.


Mini-lesson:
Because this book is a play on words, I would use it to help the students with decoding.  Some of the students I was working with over the past year were practicing their decoding skills and were older and bored with worksheets.  What would be helpful would be to work through these poems together and say them out loud together and pick out the words that don't make sense.  Then to play with the beginning letter would also be helpful to solidify their understanding.
I also found the following lesson plan online which would be a great activity as well:

I teach Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook because I love the poetry style and illustrations of Shel Silverstein. This lesson can be used as part of a study of Shel Silverstein’s poetry or as a study of poetry in general. There is also a focus on decoding unknown words and with his style of poetry, it is fun and predictable. The children really enjoyed the word play and the illustrations—they especially enjoyed the character cards and the creation of their own "billy sooks."

OBJECTIVE
The students will learn and appreciate the style of an alternate form of poetry, demonstrate an ability to decode unfamiliar "words," such as "runny babbit," and use correct grammar and writing skills to write a "billy sook."
MATERIALS

• Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook by Shel Silverstein
• chart paper
• blank books, one for each student
  

SET UP AND PREPARE
Share the following background information with students:

Shel Silverstein (1930-1999). Shel said he never planned to be a writer of children’s books. “I would much rather have been a good baseball player or a hit with the girls. But I couldn’t play ball. I couldn’t dance. So I started to draw and write.” (Publishers Weekly, 1975). He also became a songwriter—writing “A Boy Named Sue” for Johnny Cash, “The Cover of the Rolling Stone,” for Dr. Hook, and “I’m Checking Out,” for the film Postcards from the Edge. He wrote songs, stories, and plays until his death in 1999. This book, Runny Babbit, was discovered by his children after his death and published by them in 2005.

Show students other books by Shel Silverstein. (See a list in Related Resources.) You could play some of the music Shel Silverstein wrote while students look through these books. (I found a CD, “Best of Shel Silverstein,” which has poetry readings as well as songs on it—fantastic!)

Write the following character names from the book on an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper and make copies for the students: Runny Babbit, Millie Woose, Snerry Jake, Toe Jurtle, Wormy Squirm, Goctor Doose, Bumping Jean, Skertie Gunk, Ploppy Sig, Gillip Phiraffe, Rirty Dat, Calley At and Kittle Litten, Flutterby, Batty Meaver, and Franny Fog.
DIRECTIONS
After presenting the Shel Silverstein background information, read Runny Babbit, a Billy Sook in a shared reading session. Remove the book's cover and don't show any illustrations yet so as not to give the students too many clues.

Way down in the green woods
Where the animals all play,
They do things and they say things
In a different sort of way—
Instead of sayin’ “purple hat.”
They all say “hurple pat.”
Instead of sayin’ “feed the cat.”
They just say “ceed the fat.”
So if you say, “Let’s bead a rook.
That’s billy as can se,
You’re talkin’ Runny Babbit talk,
Just like mim and he.(p.4 & 5).

Reread the page and have the students join in the parts that speak Runny Babbit—“hurple pat," “ceed the fat," “let’s bead a rook," etc.

Pass out the lists of character names to individual students or groups of students. Invite students to rewrite the characters names in “regular language” and then illustrate each character to make 'character cards.' For example—Millie Woose is Willie Moose. The illustrations are then shared with the class.

Display these character cards as you read various poems from the book. Invite students to point to the character cards which depict the characters in the poems, then compare their illustrations with those from the book. This reading of the book may go on for several periods of time. Invite students to read the poems out loud after they are shared by the teacher.

Pay special attention to the words while reading and ask students what the word play is. For example: "Runny’s Rig Romance," is Runny has a firlgriend.

After a poem is shared, ask students what the author is telling us. A good beginning might be poems about reading…"Runny’s Heading Rabits," and "Runny’s Rittle Leminders." There are several that will cause chuckles with the students, such as "Runny Hets Gandsome," "Runny Bakes a Tath," "Runny’s Cat and Hoat," "Runny Stets Gretched," etc. The students can identify the characters, the actual words, and the content of the poems as they are shared with the class.


After the shared reading and enjoyment of the book, the students now use their writing workshop to create their own "billy sook." The students are asked to recall the patterns in the poems by Shel Silverstein. It would be great to "revisit" a favorite poem or two. Together they create a glorious word play poem. The students are then directed to pick up their pre-made writing books and begin their writing workshop. They may work on these books for several periods. Once completed, they are shared with classmates, fellow teachers, and parents.
SUPPORTING ALL LEARNERS
This lesson, I think, is best used as a whole class shared reading lesson, but could also be used in guided reading lessons. I think students with short attention spans would benefit from the variety in the lesson as well as the short poetry "stories."  ELL students would have some difficulty with this lesson as the word play may be too confusing for them. Students could be given several options as to the work they would perform with this lesson. Some could work on the billy sook or some could work on the poetry performance. 

Note: Shel Silverstein uses the word “butt” in a poem which might bother some readers. He also uses “sea poup”, which is pea soup.
LESSON EXTENSION

Students may now select a poem to memorize and present to their classmates/parents in a poetry reading format.  Students learn their favorite poems, practice their poetry sample, amplifying and projecting their voices. They may make masks and props to enhance their presentations. The students may choose to perform one of their own compositions in addition to any of those from Shel Silverstein.

Related Resources
Other books by Shel Silverstein:
Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book
Lafcadio the Lion Who Shot Back
The Giving Tree
Where the Sidewalk Ends
The Missing Piece
A Light in the Attic
Falling Up
Runny Babbit

CD—Best of Shel Silverstein

www.music.msn.com/artist/?artist=16071948   
www.shelsilverstein.com
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/silverstein.htm