We Go Together! A Curious Selection of Affectionate Verse

We Go Together! A Curious Selection of Affectionate Verse is both written and illustrated by Calef Brown. 

This picture book is a collection of simple poems about affection. Within these pages, the pictures and poems portray different scenes and vision of affection. The affection is shown in a variety of types of people and even towards objects. The poems are pretty simple and easy to understand. The illustrations are fun and eye catching.

We Go Together! A Curious Selection of Affectionate Verse is somewhat a realistic fiction poetry. On each turn of the page, there's a new poem. The author, Brown, created 18 different short poems about different kinds of friendship. Brown used a lot of examples of figurative languages and was creative with his words. I chose this mainly because of the illustration of the front cover. It is not very often that you get to see a cat and a dog walking along side each other sharing an umbrella! It caught my eye and I immediately became interested. Then when I started reading it, I found myself smiling as I read. It was cute and simple. I could feel the connection towards the poem because I have affection towards my loved ones and even towards certain objects. The quirkiness of the poems made me think about the relationships in my life. Here's an example of a poem that I liked from the book: 

Laughter 

I cackle 

and you chortle.

Together we chorkle. 

It sounds like two porpoises 

sharing a snorkel. 

You guffaw

and I giggle. 

Together we guffle. 

It sounds like two badger cubs 

having a scuffle. 

(Calef Brown, 2013)

As you can see, the author played with the words and the terms of affection is evidently there. The poems in the book are written in a format similar to what is seen above. This book is a great read and it is perfect for children to read. It may intrigue children who aren't interested in poetry. Introducing them to this type of book can open doors for children to become involved in literacy because they are able to share a similar experience as they read.