Brian Cleary

Rhyme Time. . .
You may be aware that there is such a book as a RHYMING DICTIONARY (found in all libraries and most bookstores). In it are listed all the possible rhymes which help poets, verse writers and songwriters to find rhymes for the words they've chosen.

This little chart will not replace a RHYMING
DICTIONARY, but it does serve as a simple tool for finding rhymes.

Let's say you're looking for a rhyme for the word, "thing."

Run the "ING" sound up and down the chart and see which beginnings will make a real word you can use. Begin with "B" and you'll find "BING" which probably won't help you, but down the chart and you'll see DING, KING, RING, SING, WING, ZING, BRING, CLING, FLING, SLING, STING, SWING AND STRING.

As you can see, not every letter or blend (like "cr") in front of your rhyming syllable (ING in this case) will give you a real word, but you'll probably end up with a larger list of possible rhymes than if you didn't have the chart.

Try writing your own 4, 6 or 8-line poem (about something you find interesting) using your new rhyming chart.

Single      Double       Triple

(Vowel)

B             BL

              BR

              CH

D             DR

F             FL

              FR

G             GR

H

J

K(C)          KL(CL)

              KR(CR)

L

M

N

P             PL

              PR

Q(KW)

R

S             SH           SHR

              SK(SC)       SKR(SCR)

              SL

              SM

              SN

              SP           SPL

                           SPR

              SQ(SKW)

              ST           STR

              SV

              SW

T             TH

              th           thR

              TR

              TW

V

W

Y

Z

Brian P. Cleary's books are: Jamaica Sandwich? It Looks a Lot Like Reindeer, Give Me Bach My Schubert and You Never Sausage Love

Put the Pal in Palindrome
Let's start with a definition: A palindrome is a word, name, verse, sentence or number which can be read identically forward or backward. Here are a few examples:

Words, Numbers and Names

           radar

           racecar

           kayak*

           wow

           did

           mom

           1991

           747

           Anna

           Otto

*Pronounced Ki'yak, this word refers to a small boat

Phrases and Sentences

Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!**

Smart rams***

Neil, I'm an alien!**

See how the phrase reads the same backward and forward? Pretty cool, huh? (Add huh to my small list of palindromes.)

It's a great mental exercise that will do for your brain what riding your bike or rollerblading does for your body. Get together with a friend and come up with one of your own. E-mail 'em back and forth, or just write 'em down when you think of one and show your buddy what you've written. That way you're putting the pal in palindrome.

**The actual title of a very funny book written by JON AGEE

***Examples from his very funny book.

What's an Anagram?
Glad you asked. It's a word, phrase or sentence in which the letters can be rearranged to make another word, phrase or sentence. It's another mind-bender, but give it a try. Here are some I've come up with. . .

garden -- danger
satin -- saint -- stain
station --I sat not
rail -- liar
slime -- smile -- limes -- miles
rebate -- beater

Now, writing a phrase was not easy, but I did one. You give it a try now. Here's my attempt:

Was she the star on this tour?
(rearrange letters)
The rat hash stew is not sour.

Hey, I never said I was any good at this -- it's just an exercise.

Pun-ishment
Puns are a lot of fun. They're a play on words, usually for the sake of a laugh. The word is usually identical or similar to a word that has a different meaning. Puns are often the star feature in a knock-knock joke, and they are a great way to learn new words.

Here's an example from when I was your age (which was a long, long time ago).

I heard a joke:
Why are the Irish always wealthy?
Because their capital is always Dublin.

Everybody laughed, but I didn't really get it, so I asked my dad what it meant, and he explained it. The word capital, he told me, can mean the headquarters for your government (like ours in Ohio is Columbus), OR capital can mean money. If their capital is always Dublin (or doublin'), then they'll always have plenty of money, right?

I use lots of puns in the books I write. See if you can come up with a pun. If you do, you may be able to write your very own knock-knock joke!

Brian P. Cleary's books are: Jamaica Sandwich? It Looks a Lot Like Reindeer, Give Me Bach My Schubert and You Never Sausage Love

Homophone Booth
Homophones are words that sound identical (the same), but mean something different, like dear and deer, or too, to and two.

Fill up the homophone booth with your own homophones, and then try to work as many as possible into one paragraph.

Are you a poet (and don't know it)?
Poetry doesn't have to rhyme, and in fact many of the great poets write in what is called free verse (which is an unrhymed style). But for now, let's look at rhyme and meter. You already know what rhyme is, but you may be asking about meter.

Meter is simply the amount of syllables and the beat or stress that we put on each word. Your ear has a natural sense of meter, so it's not as complicated as it sounds. Watch this. . .

I think that I may never see
My brother Joe on MTV

This might be the first two lines of a poem. Notice that each line has the same number of syllables (8 in this case), and that we naturally stress the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th syllables when we say it or read it.

It's like we don't have to think when we bounce our heads to a favorite song; it just sort of happens.

Sometimes the first and second lines will not have an identical number of syllables, but it's usually very close. Also, you can make up your mind if you want to have every line rhyme or every other (or second) line rhyme. I went with every other. Example:

Harry had a little scam--
He'd fleece you for your dough.
Everywhere that Harry went,
The cops were sure to show.

I wrote this based, of course, on "Mary Had a Little Lamb." First line has seven syllables, and the second has only six, but it sounds ok, doesn't it? Hopefully, it makes you want to learn what the word fleece means in line 2. Maybe it has more than one meaning.
Also, there's another little poet trick, in line 4, called alliteration:

The cops were sure to show.

Sure and show each start with the "sh" sound, right? Well, that's all alliteration is--using two or more words with the same sound on purpose, as in this example:

When Billy brought his baseball home

Enough with the technical stuff! Let's have some fun! We'll write a poem together. I'll write the first two lines and you can complete it. Use pencil just in case you don't love what you first write. I almost never like the first thing I write.

What's outside my window?!
It's seven stories high

I just want a little house--
a place to put my stuff in,

Try this. . .Get in a group of eight and have one person write the first line of a poem and pass it to the second person, then the third, and so on. See how it turns out. Good luck!

Brian Cleary is available to speak to educators, librarians, and school audiences.
Contact him at baberuth60@aol.com

Brian P. Cleary's books are published by Lerner and can be ordered through most bookstores, or by calling 1-800-328-4929

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Lakewood Public Library