Friends and Foes: Poems About us All by Douglas Florian

Bibliography

Florian, Douglas. Friends and Foes: Poems about Us All. New York, NY: Beach Lane Books, 2018. ISBN 144248795X

Summary

A light, playful book of rhyming poems about “friends and foes”. Full of friendship lost, imaginary friends, and bullies, these twenty-five poems will delight young readers. 

Analysis

Friends and Foes is full of the silly, rhyming poetry of Douglas Florian, as well as his colorful, humorous, illustrations. On the cover of this bright, yellow book, is a giant drawing of a bird in flight with all sorts of friends atop. Some friends are holding onto each other, one is flying a kite, and another is down below looking up at the bird. It’s imaginative and silly, like the poems inside. Inside, there is a table of contents displaying the titles of all twenty-five poems, so readers can easily find a specific poem. Some poems, like What Friends Are For and I like You are two page spreads. The illustrations add to the understanding of the poems, specifically in one of my personal favorites, Billy the Bully, where the illustration of a large, angry “Clarisse” makes clear the meaning of the last two lines. Poems are easily accessible and literal, but they also touch on topics like friends lost in Moved and We Used To Be Friends, and complicated feelings like in Jealous. The consistent rhyme scheme makes the poems fun to read aloud and good for choral readings too. Though simple, poems include colorful vocabulary too, and reading the poems aloud will introduce children to words such as “atrocious”, “spiteful”, “ferocious”, and “wreak havoc” from Billy the Bully. This is a fun book that you won’t want to miss. 

Sample Poem

Old Friends

We’re old friends. That’s what we are.

We’re old friends. We go back far.

We’re old friends. We’re friends true and true.

We’re old friends. But just like new.

We’re old friends. I don’t want to jinx it--

but I know what she thinks before she even thinks it!

Activity Ideas

Have two students read the poem together, each saying one set of lines. It’s an easy, fun example of a two voice poem. Then, let students pair up, recite the poem, and write their own two voice poem to share with the class. 

Another poem that would be really fun to share from the book is Billy the Bully. It starts pretty much as expected describing a bully, but there is a surprising twist at the end when the reader realizes that someone else is bigger than Billy. Read this aloud to students, wait for them to wonder a bit about what has happened at the end of the poem, then show them the hilarious drawing. Talk about how funny the unexpected can be, and let them try ways to create “unexpected endings” in their own poems.