Performance Poetry: You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Scary Stories to read together
by Mary Ann Hoberman
Illustrated by michael emberley

Hoberman, Mary Ann, and Michael Emberley. You Read to Me, I'll Read to You Very Short Scary Stories to Read Together. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co., 2007. 9780316017336

Plot Summary

In the fourth book of the series, two voices can be heard, talking back and forth and sometimes together at the same time. Using alliteration, rhyme, and repetition, readers can pretend to be monsters, ghosts, and ghouls in thirteen original poems, with an introduction and an end. Expressive illustrations help give each character plenty of personality, including the sassy witch, the nasty ogre and giant, and tricky trick-or-treaters looking for a snack.

Analysis

Mary Ann Hoberman has once again written a book of poetry that is sure to delight readers of all ages as they say the poem aloud to each other. This style of poetry is best suited for reluctant readers who can rely on the rhyme, rhythm, and alliteration to help them along. Each poem ends with both participants saying some variation of "You read to me! / I'll read to you!". This repetition gives readers the chance to learn the flow of the poem and they will come to expect the ending of each one as they read through the book. One reader's text is colored blue and the other reader's text is colored purple. When both readers are expected to speak together, the text is colored orange. The theme of this poetry book is all creatures spooky and scary, but not too spooky or scary for young readers. A witch, a skeleton, an ogre, a giant, a ghost, a dinosaur, and more will all be characters that readers will easily recognize. The familiarity of the characters will help readers feel comfortable as they put their reading skills to the test.

Michael Emberley's illustrations are expressive and whimsical. Each page spread has one poem and the illustrations travel around the page and reflect the contents of the poems. In the poem "Scaredy Cats", the only illustrations are the eyes of the scared bugs before they turn their flashlights on and realize that there wasn't anything to be afraid of after all. The eyes looked up and down, left and right as they searched for something scary hiding in the dark. These details give each character a unique personality. 

Excerpt

Introduction

    I'll read here

    And you'll read there.

                        Both sides give you

                        Quite a scare.

            Then, with middle

            Words before us,

            Read together

            In a chorus.

            Now we know

            Just what to do:

You'll read to me!

                        I'll read to you!

Connections

The nature of this poetry book would work well with playing dress up. Children could use simple props to represent each character and say the lines of the poems back and forth between each other. The props could be masks made from paper plates. Children could design and color their own masks using crayons, markers, white streamers for "mummy wrappings", and felt for other features of their creature's face. This could be performed in front of a group or just by themselves as a fun exercise in practicing reading aloud. 

Reviews

One reviewer for Kirkus Reviews wrote, "These stories, ideal for reading aloud, use spooky settings to express the joys of reading. Each poem spans two facing pages and, at 9”x12”, the book is large enough to accommodate multiple small illustrations that retell each story pictorially . . . Text throughout comes in multiple pastel shades, nicely matching Emberley’s impish illustrations, in pencil, watercolor and pastels."

Hoberman, Mary Ann. “You Read to Me, I'll Read to You,” August 1, 2007. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/mary-ann-hoberman/you-read-to-me-ill-read-to-you-3/.

One reviewer for Booklist Online wrote, "The fourth uproarious poetry picture book in Hoberman and Emberley's popular You Read to Me, I'll Read to You series continues the pattern of simple, rhyming, illustrated stories for two voices. This time, though, the stories are not playful, fractured versions of old rhymes and tales; they are new shivery tales to read together. The clear words with gorgeously gruesome, comic-style pictures tell of wild action and monster characters as lurid as they come--ghouls, ogres, zombies, skeletons, phantoms--all of them readers."

“You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Scary Tales to Read Together.” You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Scary Tales to Read Together, by Mary Ann Hoberman | Booklist Online, 2007. https://www.booklistonline.com/You-Read-to-Me-I-ll-Read-to-You-Very-Short-Scary-Tales-to-Read-Together-Mary-Ann-Hoberman/pid=1976068.