Tippintown

Bibliography

Brown, Calef. 2003. Tippintown. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0618149724

Plot Summary

Calef Brown introduces the reader to the fantasy town of Tippintown. In Tippintown things are a little unique. Instead of hide and seek, one my play in a game of hide and shriek. Enormous heads have something to say and porpoises have a proper education. While the journey through Tippintown has to end sometime, our tour guide promises that tomorrow’s tour is sure to be your greatest journey yet.

Critical Analysis

The rhythm of this poem picture book was created with a longer, rhyming stanza on the left page, followed by a one-line, droll coda on the right side of the page. This rhythm can be difficult to read at first. Before reading it out loud to a group of students I had to read through it in my head several times. Students enjoying the book were never able to get the timing quite right. The use of rhyming words was helpful to the reader for developing the intended rhythm.

Brown’s language found in the poem helps to create a mystical word, but the words are able to be understood by the young reader the book is intended for. While the illustrations Calef included in the book help to create an understanding of a magical world, the poem stands alone encouraging the imagination to run wild while picturing assortment trees with flower and fruits of various sizes and shapes or gargoyles enjoying a day on the town.

Review Excerpts

“Brown is… similarly quirky and irreverent, a satirist without insult… A gleeful book for solo or shared reading.” –School Library Journal

“What an imagination Brown has! His often metrically challenged rhyming text doesn't tell much of a story, but it does provide a whimsical launching pad for his double-page pictures, which, though occasionally a wee bit too evocative of Maira Kalman, are, nevertheless, diverting in their offer of a pleasant excursion for the imagination.” –Booklist

Connections

Have students visualize their own illustrations before seeing Calef Brown's.
Official Calef Brown website

Other books by Calef Brown:
-Soup for Breakfast
-Dutch Sneakers and Fleakeepers
-Flamingo on the Roof: Poems and Paintings
-Polkabats and Octopus Pants