Heavy Medal Mock Newbery Finalist: MY HEAD HAS A BELLYACHE by Chris Harris
Introduction by Heavy Medal Award Committee Member Elaine Fultz:
When I’M JUST NO GOOD AT RHYMING appeared on the scene, there was much rejoicing (in my head), and I tried to get it into the hands of every child. Any child who accepted was changed. Is this poetry?, they asked. Yes, I told them. Yes! And now we welcome MY HEAD HAS A BELLYACHE. This book mooooves. It’s animation. It’s animation in a book for 21st century kids who relish books with action. (What a Crossover!) When will the wandering “buffalo” appear and in what clever context? In “WORLD, WATCH OUT!” the poem goes tumbling down the stairs and the last line will require reading after turning the book upside down. It’s Press Here for middle graders.
Ask kids to name a poet. They will say, “Shel Silverstein,” unless one of their parents teaches English. Then they might say, “Emily Dickinson,” or “Edgar Allan Poe.” This has always ticked me off. I LOVE poetry, and as both a librarian and former English teacher, I have read and recommended many other poets through the years. Douglas Florian! Joyce Sidman! Valerie Worth’s deceptively simple poetry of things! But poetry lovers are rare in society and in elementary education (most of my colleagues will not argue this point), so our kids get Shel Silverstein for birthday gifts and Shel Silverstein for poetry units. Many educators collect piles of poetry books to share with their students, but Shel’s “chapter book” appeal outshines the picture book poetry, no matter how exceptional. UNTIL NOW.
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MY HEAD HAS A BELLYACHE is a poetry page-turner. When will that meteor arrive? Readers must turn the page to see what wondrous nonsense comes next. One page-turn takes readers from the meditative voice of a grandmother in “THIS USED TO BE A RIVER,” to a forty-seven word title which is a (mock) editorial mistake because the poem itself was switched with the title. And, there are the page numbers themselves. Many of them have a tiny corresponding fact aligned with the number. Page 21, “BLACKJACK!” Page 128, “A GALLON IN OUNCES.” Eventually the poet’s children arrive in the book to help, or add to, the chaos.
The historic awards given to graphic novels have set the precedent for acknowledging the artwork’s role in a distinguished Newbery winner or honor. We see that here, too. Andrea Tsurumi’s comical, predominantly green, illustrations are ideal companions to each poem. MY HEAD HAS A BELLYACHE is a poetry smorgasbord. It’s playful and profound by turns. Is it time for a poetry collection to win the Newbery again?
Heavy Medal Award Committee members and others are now invited to discuss this book further in the Comments section below. Let the Mock Newbery discussion begin!
Filed under: Book Discussion, Heavy Medal Mock
About Steven Engelfried
Steven Engelfried retired from full-time library work a couple years ago and now works as a part-time Youth Librarian at the West Linn Public Library in Oregon. He served on the 2010 Newbery committee, chaired the 2013 Newbery Committee, and also served on the 2002 Caldecott committee. You can reach him at sengelfried@yahoo.com.
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Elaine makes a passionate case for more poetry for children!
With respect to Newbery criteria, this text excels in appropriateness of style and presentation of information for a child audience. I thought the tone, variety, and substance of the poetry was pitch perfect for kid readers. The attention to detail throughout rewards the careful reader who will find humor in everything from the title page, to the copyright page, to the highly entertaining page numbering, as Elaine noted.
Visual gags and in-book jokes notwithstanding (I did really enjoy the meandering buffalo and imminent meteor strike), there’s no real development of plot, delineation of characters, or delineation of a setting in an anthology of poetry. In a year where we’ve had some truly fantastic thematic development in novels, especially with regards to themes like grief, trust, and authority, the lack of thematic threads beyond the occasional pithy or even profound observation feels underdeveloped in comparison (which also feels unfair because joy is important, especially in dark times, and humor is hard to write!).
Here, I acknowledge that the lack of those items isn’t a flaw for the work it intends to be. However, I wonder if it’s more challenging for a title like this to rise to the level of excellence in books where authors have more to work with, so to speak. But I look forward to learning more from others in the discussion who will see things I didn’t!
One final comment from me – I’m not sure that the illustrations are a merely a companion to the text. I think they are integral to a lot of why MY HEAD IS A BELLYACHE works so well in contrast to AN AMERICAN STORY, where I think the text can stand on its own literary merit, even though the illustrations are stunning in their own right and A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING where the dialogue, commentary, and text structure are also notable without considering the illustrations.
I appreciate Elaine’s animated introduction but tend to agree with your points, Kyra. Harris excels in appropriateness of style. A sense of humor that matches that of “mischievous kids and immature grown-ups” shines throughout, especially when Harris adds notes and footnotes to his poems (for example, in I Love^1 My Siblings So Much!). I wonder, too, how the collection stands when compared to other Newbery hopefuls that showcase more developed themes, characters, settings, and plots.
Kyra mentions the role of illustrations in MY HEAD, and that’s definitely an element to consider. The Newbery is given “primarily for the text” according the Terms and Criteria. It past years on Heavy Medal we’ve talked about how “text” can be defined as something broader than strictly words. We can look at it more as the content and meaning of the work, as created by the author. In the example of MY HEAD, the illustrations definitely impact the quality of many poems. But we might ask: is the artistic quality of those illustrations the generates that, or is it the idea or concept of what the illustrations depict?
In “World, Watch Out!” (p 6-7) for example, the words alone are nice, but need the illustration to really work:
World, watch out. I’m on my way,
And NOTHING’S stopping me today!
Down these stairs I bound with glee –
World, you’ll be AMAZED by me!
I cannot fail! I’ll NEVER LOSE
Whoops. I didn’t tie my shoe.
The illustration shows the kid falling down the stairs. Well, just the feet of the kid, with a trailing scarf, flying hat, untied shoes, and a couple of dogs observing. It really adds a lot. But it doesn’t seem like the poet would have written that verse to stand alone; he would have had in mind a visual scene that would provide a specific action suggested by the poem. Maybe not exactly as the illustrator ended up interpreting it, but something that would convey the similar things. He also would have had the idea to make the “E” from “LOSE” tumble out of the poem. And separating the last line and having it read upside down. So, although I do think the illustrator did an excellent job, I also think we can give the poet some credit for the visual appearance that’s so crucial. Which, could, if you interpret it broadly, could amplify the poet’s role in that “primarily for the text” area.
This collection really blew me away! I thought the appropriateness of style was a soaring point here—sure setting is something this book doesn’t really have to grapple with, but did like the authorial voice as a character itself!
Elaine, this is the most stand-up-and-cheer intro for a book yet! I agree, “It’s Press Here for middle graders.” And a welcome alternative to Shel Silverstein!
Once again, Kyra makes a couple salient points: “The attention to detail throughout rewards the careful reader who will find humor in everything from the title page, to the copyright page, to the highly entertaining page numbering.” And also, “In a year where we’ve had some truly fantastic thematic development in novels, especially with regards to themes like grief, trust, and authority, the lack of thematic threads beyond the occasional pithy or even profound observation feels underdeveloped in comparison (which also feels unfair because joy is important, especially in dark times, and humor is hard to write!).” Double underline that last parenthetical!
I enjoyed the humor, of course, but there are heartfelt poems here too, and a lot of play with various lengths (some were more like jokes) and forms (haiku, limerick, etc.), some of which brought to mind Paul Janeczko’s work and anthologies. Whether or not it gets any Newbery love this year, I think it’s safe to say it’s one of the best poetry collections of 2023.
This is my top 2023 multi-generation (family) Read-Aloud. The book is engaging, from the title page to the end notes. A highlight of the poetry is the way it can be read. It was a fun opportunity to engage in a multi-generational reading relationship.
Not many poetry books have a Newbery award. 1989 Newbery Medalist JOYFUL NOISE (Paul Fleischman,) is a book that can be enjoyed by a single reader, but comes to life with two voices. My Head Has a Bellyache shares that strength.
For example, the “duet”” poem “Wait, Who’s Reading to Whom?” (26) “The Grown-Up” and the “Child” are represented visually in 2 columns (black text for grown-ups, kids in green) to be performed together. Back-and-forth rhyming ensues. When the poem finally comes together, it is in a parallel reading, with phrases slightly altered for each part. It’s startling and hysterical to have an adult read “Your Tiny Young Feet” while at the same time, “Your Smelly, Old Feet” is read by a child.
I read this aloud with my mom, and the word race of perspectives had us laughing together until we really engaged our core muscles! We laughed so hard that my sister begged to join. So we read together and each one of us found something really different that we loved about the story. See a video of us reading this poem together on 8.27.23 https://vimeo.com/900913792/4bf2de67dc?ts=0
Incredible details help organize and punctuate the page. Even the organization of page numbers shares fun bits of information. Some of my favorite examples are:
Page 27/ THREE NINES
Page 32/ THE POINT AT WHICH WATER WILL FREEZE
Page 50/ The USA’s NUMBER OF STATES
Page 61/THE TOP HOME RUN RECORD WHEN MARIS DID WIN IT
Some character elements are woven through the book, while others are literary punctuation marks that deliver big laughs. For example, we meet a meteor in the preface that occasionally whizzes through other poems (16) before finally destroying a poem (89) and landing (90.) A curious Buffalo leaves his designated page (35) and wanders through the stories, leaving tracks that can be found in a “hide-and-seek” trail that weaves all the way to the index and end page. Unlike “Where’s Waldo,” visual learners are looking for tracks and text.
Harris also collaborates with the reader, inviting them to be an editor and choose how certain poems are read. More than a million variations are possible in “I Have a Million Friends ( The Longest Poem Ever Written) (99.) Readers with siblings may appreciate the poem “I Love(1) My Siblings So Much!” (21) in which they may replace words of affirmation with less loving sentiments. For example, a numbered footnote is (1) TO MAKE FUN OF. This was my sister’s favorite part, (but she likes to torture me with puns.)
The theme of identity is embedded in the choice each reader makes. Will they read it a certain way? Will they discover more than one way to read it? Will it be with a grown-up or alone? But there are emotional moments and deep thought given to the underlying theme of individuality in the framework of the poem: “What Will You Be?” Part I (40,) Part 2 (92,) Part III (142, ) and the concluding “We’re Not Who We Used to Be Going to Be! (What Will you be Part IV) (162.) It reminded kids of all ages that we all have a different path to finding our place in life, and we can (and should) laugh and have fun along the way. This was the thing my mom pointed out. It reminded her “Oh, the Places You Go” by Dr. Seuss and “Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein.
I think that the real power of this book is that it is good for a range of readers. The age category for readers: anyone with a heartbeat. It will get pumping with this one. It’s cardiovascular laughter for the mind.
I always struggle with poetry and this book was definitely one of those that was hard for me. However everyone’s [points above give it a lot of merit.
I was most impressed by the overall presentation of the book, how everything tied together and the themes– of individual poems (friendship, family, ridiculousness) that really tied throughout the whole book.
Emily you sum up my feelings. I found myself rather meh about the whole thing (and I’m even that way about Silverstein. GASP. I know). I read it and then quickly forgot about it. Sometimes I chuckled. However, poetry is a tough sell for me and my patrons/students. They won’t really be interested in it.
(I had it on display for a long time and I rarely saw it checked out)
I’m kind of on this boat. I enjoyed the book and laughed aloud at some parts. I thought it was VERY clever; no detail escaped the author’s care, from drawing a cross-country “buffalo” to making fun facts with the page numbers. I also thought some of the poems were as touching as others were funny, such as “You, Me, a Canoe, and All Sunday,” so I certainly recommend it to reluctant readers of all ages. But I’m just not sure it meets Newbery criteria…
I’m feeling in the same boat. I’ve had a lot more success recommending to adults than children (this recently included recommending it to my dental hygienist). It, along with ANIMALS AND PANTS, will serve as the cornerstones of my National Poetry Month lessons this year, but I’ve had very few takers with it on the shelves.
There are SO many things to love about this book, but I don’t know how well they align with the Newbery criteria. Other poetry collections that have gotten Newbery recognition have a more cohesive theme (JOYFUL NOISE, WILLIAM BLAKE).
I enjoyed all of the poetry and green/black illustrations in this book! I agree with Elaine that this gives Shel Silverstein a run for his money. I enjoyed the different tones of the poems. I loved the silliness of “The Spelling Test” – A is for Whistle/B is for Green/C is for Marker/D is for Bean/E is for Xylophone, Pillow or Zest/And F is for what’s at the top of my test” and the hopeful tone in “Watch Out, World!” This book reminded me of another poetry favorite from 2023 – “Zilot and Other Important Rhymes” by Bob Odenkirk. However, “My Head is A Bellyache” stands out with all of the different kinds of poems offered.