1. This book is a collection of "first-person" accounts of the lives of several insects. Using specific poems as examples, write about how these poems might relate to the lives of humans.

2. The illustrator of Joyful Noise is Eric Beddows, who has also illustrated under another name. Research his background and other works.

3. Written before Joyful Noise, I Am Phoenix is another Paul Fleischman book of poems for two voices. Read this volume and write a comparison of the two.

4. Fleischman's prose writing has been compared with that of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Read some of Fleischman's mysteries and write about the similarities and differences between his stories and those by the other two authors.

5. The author and his father, also an author of books for young people, have written profiles about each other (see references below). Read these...