Author: Kwame Alexander
Format: Audiobook
I Gave This Book 4 Roars! 🦁🦁🦁🦁
Poetic Elements: The words are beautiful and well chosen to make reading a book sound like a magical experience.
“Award-winning poet Alexander compares reading a book to
peeling the gentle skin of a clementine, digging into its juiciness, enjoying
it ‘piece by piece, part by part,’ until you can ‘watch a novel world unfurl
right before your eyes.’ And who better to illustrate this delicious poem than
Caldecott Honoree Sweet. The artwork is done in watercolor, gouache, mixed
media, handmade and vintage papers, and found objects, including old book covers
and a paint can lid. Not a splash of color, a piece of paper, or a line is out
of place. Starting with the initial collage that incorporates the building
blocks of reading (the letters A to Z) and the lines from a poem by Nikki
Giovanni that careful readers will have to pay attention to see, the tone is
set. ‘So get/real cozy/between/the covers/And let your/fingers wonder/as they
wander…’ for there is much to relish in this poem and its exuberant images. ‘Squeeze/every
morsel/of each plump line/until the last/drop of magic/drips from the infinite
sky.’ The book includes a note from both the poet and the artist. VERDICT A
beautiful book not to be rushed through, but to be enjoyed morsel by tasty
morsel.”
~~ Lucia Acosta, Children's Literature Specialist
“[This] love poem to literacy conjures up startling,
luscious images...By turns dreamy and ecstatic.”
~~ Publishers Weekly, Review
Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award 2020
Sharing - I like the idea of introducing this poem as part of an awareness of poetry awards. I would suggest that after listening to the audio version, watching the 2020 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Ceremony with Winner Kwame Alexander would be a great way to expose children to poetry awards.
Activity: Children will also enjoy the book being read to them. HowTo Read A Book
