Brandon Mora

04/15/15
Professor Zack De Piero
Writing 2
Feeling Like a Child Again
Have you ever read a poem or a story and noticed it was extremely cheesy? Childrens
poems tend to be short and quite obnoxious. Likewise, some childrens stories tend to be funny,
unrealistic, but entertaining to read. As children most people have been exposed to tales such as
Paul Bunyan, Green Eggs and Ham, and possibly The Dentist and the Crocodile. The
structures of these stories are in a random order as well as is made up of various topics and ideas.
In order to accurately defining a genre one must first find the conventions of that one genre and
utilize the connections among various writing pieces to define the genre. For childrens stories
and poems there is an obvious childish tone and is written in a simple manner in order for
children to understand the concept of the piece of writing.
Furthermore, the childrens stories and poems consist of conventions that express various
emotions and are fairly creative. One of the two main conventions that all of the poems utilize
are unrealistic locations for the characters to be as well as exaggerated conversations between the
characters. The other convention that I found that was mentioned in most childrens stories
included a moral so children can learn from the characters mistakes. A few examples of the
exaggerated conversations was between the two characters in Green Eggs and Ham and between
the Crocodile and the Dentist. The story of Paul Bunyan signified that be an outcast in society is
tough but eventually everyone find their own specific place in the world and they are able to be

happy in that place. Though childrens books and poems are mainly meant to be read by children;
that does not necessarily have to be the case because theses books and poems are written by
adults and the information does reign true in life even after we pass childhood.
There are some poems that are completely absurd and do not make any sense but to a
childs mind it is entertaining and exciting to read. The poem that displayed this absurdity was
The Dentist and the Crocodile. A short summary of this is that there was a crocodile that wanted
to get his teeth checked by a dentist, but the dentist feared being eaten and kept his distance from
the crocodile. The crocodiles owner eventually found her crocodile and took him from the
dentists chair. This poem was written by rhyming at the end of every sentence. The sentence
structure were sort of odd as some sentences ended in the middle of the lines of the poem. Since
the crocodile was talking it was obvious this was meant to be a funny poem. The poem was also
highly descriptive of the crocodiles teeth and the dentists fear was implied through his actions.
The overall moral of this message can be do not judge a book by its cover because it is not
entirely addressed that the crocodile would have eaten the dentist, and the dentist abruptly
assumed so. The tone of this poem was ironic as well as playful as it featured a crocodile who
was going to get his teeth examined. Many genres relating to children follow a similar structure
since they are written for one main audience which is children.
Similarly, the structure of the Paul Bunyan poem is close to the same format as the
crocodile poem. Shel Silverstein wrote the poem Paul Bunyan which uses massive
exaggerations to describe the giant person that Paul is. There was also rhymes within the poem,
specifically the poem was broken up every third line and every first and second line rhymed. As
many people already know the story or have heard of the story of Paul Bunyan this is pretty

enticing for them. The story is for children but there was a mention of hell which indicates a dark
topic for some young children. Nonetheless, this story exaggerates some of the acts such as Paul
Bunyan fighting a storm, him drinking kerosene, and him dying and coming back to life. This is
used to make children wonder as well as make kids enjoy the story. In the end the poem is
similar to the other poem as it utilizes imagery and exaggerations to make their piece of writing
comical and enjoyable for children.
Lastly, the infamous story of Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss is probably regarded as
one of the most famous childrens story. The structure of this story is jumbled as the format
differs from page to page. The randomness of the story also intrigues children as it stimulates
them to continue thinking on what the characters will do. The rhyming scheme is also odd and
interesting as there are rhymes in every page and the rhymes lead to some comedy. The moral in
the end of the story is in regards that not all new things are terrible and one should not be afraid
to try new things. In total the story is both comical and stimulating for both children and adults.
Genres are complex to explain but as genres surround us it is our analysis of them that
define who we are. In Kerry Dirks Navigating Genres he analyzed the various forms that
genres can be defined as well as the multiple uses that genres can have in our life. Dirk analyzed
the quote Miller is saying that all genres matter because they shape our everyday lives which
proves that genres are an essential part in our lives (Dirk 27). Specifically texts have various
forms of genres, depending on their structure as well as the manner that they are written in.
Being able to accurately identify a genre helps in order for a person to break up a piece and
understand the information in a simpler way. People also may not notice but if a person were to
look around they would see that there are many genre before our eyes whether they be images,
written texts, certain concepts.

Genre is both an interesting and knowledgable topic to write about. The childrens genre
is pretty massive as there are various childrens stories from horror to comical. The genre the
pieces of writing focused on was the aspect of comedy. Whether the stories focused on
unrealistic situations to old folk tales the main conventions followed through the genre. To sum it
up, genres can be interpreted in various ways and can be supported with multiple uses of
conventions.

Works Cited
Dahl, Roald. "The Dentist and the Crocodile." Poetry Speaks to Children. Naperville,: Source,
2005. Print.

Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Vol. 1. Parlor, 2010.
Print.
Seuss, Dr. Green Eggs and Ham. London: Collins, 1962. Print.
Silverstein, Shel. "Paul Bunyan." Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems & Drawings of Shel
Silverstein. 30th Anniversary Special ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. Print.