Poetry Review #44

How to Read a Book

Author: Kwame Alexander
Format: Audiobook 

Publisher: HarperAudio, 2019

ASIN: B07MXP96N5

Narrator: Kwame Alexander

Reading Ages: 4 - 8 years

Genre: Children's Poetry, Story in Verse

I Gave This Book 4 Roars! 🦁🦁🦁🦁

Why 4 Roars? This is a lovely book about books. I think the audio version worked really well for this piece of poetry. I would recommend it wholeheartedly. 

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

Appeal: A big part of the appeal of this poem is the love of books and reading. It is just that simple for the listener. If you connect with books, this poem will resonate with you.

“[This] love poem to literacy conjures up startling, luscious images...By turns dreamy and ecstatic.”

~~ Publishers Weekly, Review

Overall Quality: The illustrator of the physical version of this book was Melissa Sweet. However, I just think for me, the audio version created it's own imagery in the listener's head.  

Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award 2020

Connections:

Spotlight Poem -

“Find a tree - a black tupelo or dawn redwood will do - and plant yourself. It’s okay if you prefer a stoop, like Langston Hughes.”

~~ Kwame Alexander

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 

Poetry Friday!

Check Out:

Heidi at my juicy little universe

Poetry Friday schedule can be found at 

A Year of Reading

Another great poetry resource:

The Poetry Foundation

"The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library."

~~ Albert Einstein

Poetry Friday!

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Kat at Kathryn Apel

Poetry Friday schedule can be found at 

A Year of Reading

"The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library."

~~ Albert Einstein

Poetry Review #43

Poetry for Kids: William Shakespeare

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Dr. Marguerite Tassi
Illustrator: Merce Lopez
Publisher: MoonDance Press, 2018
ISBN: 978-1633225046
Reading Ages: 8-12 years
Genre: Children's Literary Biography,                             Children’s Poetry, Shared Poetry                        Reading

I Gave This Book 4 Roars! 🦁🦁🦁🦁

Why 4 Roars? I love the idea of this book. It is wonderful for younger thespians interested in Shakespeare. The dramatic dialogue and poetry in this collection are perfect for shared poetry reading sessions. I do think that some readers will have a difficult time with the meanings and comprehension. 

Poetic Elements: It's Shakespeare! Sonnets anyone? (Little songs or sonetto, from the Latin word sonus meaning a sound.) You can find the 14 lines, a particular rhyming scheme, Iambic pentameter, and a volta or the turn from the problem to the solution in many of the selections the editor used. 

"An enticing entree to the glories of Shakespeare's verse." 

~~ Kirkus Reviews

Appeal: The editor wisely pulled selections that might appeal to younger readers. However, there are some selections that lean heavily into romantic love such as “Let Me Not to The Marriage of True Minds,” and “Why Light Is Light, if Silvia Be Not Seen?,” and of course “O Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore Art Thou Romeo?” 

Overall Quality: The selected poems are rich, vibrant and very appealing. Children interested in Shakespeare will love the collection.  

 "A richly illustrated selection of 31 poems and excerpts from Shakespeare's most popular works. The selected writings provide a fantastic scope of Shakespeare's oeuvre. ... López's illustrations are intricate, dramatic, and moody; they help bring life and meaning to the words." 

~~ School Library Journal

Layout: The book has an introduction, poems, What William was Thinking section and an index. At the end of each poem there is also a short definition of difficult words.

Connections:
Spotlight Poem -

“Round About The Cauldron Go” 

(Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I)

"Round about the cauldron go;

In the poison’d entrails throw.

Toad, that under cold stone

Days and nights hast thirty one

Swelter’d venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the cauldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble." 

~~William Shakespeare

Sharing - This would be perfect for performance poetry.

Activity - Shakespeare for Kids

Poetry Friday!

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Karen at Karen Edmisten

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A Year of Reading

"The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library."

~~ Albert Einstein

Poetry Review # 42

Emma's Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty

Author: Linda Glaser
Illustrator: Claire A. Nivola
Publisher: HMH Books for 

                    Young Readers, 2013

ISBN:978-0544105089
Reading Ages: 4 - 7 years
Genre: Children's Poetry, Immigration, Children's Sociology, Picture Book

I Gave This Book 5 Roars! 🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁

Why 5 Roars? This is a beautifully written book that should be in every library and classroom. It is hard to find anything negative to say about a wealthy woman that gave her voice to the poor and brought immigration into the light.       

Poetic Elements: This is a free-verse biography written for children. It is about Emma Lazarus, the poet that wrote "The New Colossus." This poem became one of the most recognized and honored poems in America. Both the free verse biography about Emma and Emma's poem are found in this work.

The biography does not rhyme but does have a rhythmic feel that brings Emma to life in a way that I think Emma would appreciate.   

Appeal: Children whose families are immigrants can relate to the experience of being in a new country or culture.  

“ The pictures, with their slight folk-art feel, capture both the time and action of the story, while the text illuminates the woman. An author’s note and the full text of the poem complete the book. A worthwhile addition for most collections." 

~~School Library Journal

Overall Quality: The art work is lovely and fits with the biography's time period. It does not distract from the story but adds a distinct charm and a certain fascination to New York and its diversity.

"Nivola’s watercolor-and-gouache paintings are rich in color and detail, showing the elegant streets and homes of 19th-century New York City as well as its settlement houses. Line, pattern and a sense of place give young readers a rich vision of the "golden door" by which "your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" came to this country. Nicely done, enabling even young children to see how the poem and the statue came together."

~~Kirkus

Layout: The author's note and poem "The New Colossus" are located in the back of the book. It is such a large part of the importance of this work.

Connections:
Spotlight Poem -

"Even when Emma was all grown up,

and by then a well-known writer

she still only knew people

who had plenty of everything."

~~Emma's Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty

"Give me your tired, your poor

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free . . . "

~~ The New Colossus

Sharing - This would be a great book to read before taking children to New York, or a visit to the Statue of Liberty. 

Activity - The Statue of Liberty 

Poetry Review #41

Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials

Author: Stephanie Hemphill
Publisher: Balzer + Bray; Reprint, 2010
ASIN: B003MVZ5SQ
Format: eBook
Reading Ages: Teen & Young Adult - 9th grade & up

Genre: Period Historical Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Poetry, Free Verse Novel 

I Gave This Book 4 Roars! 🦁🦁🦁🦁

Why 4 Roars? I had mixed feelings about this book. I loved the writing, the flow and the feeling.  However, I think it became a little too modern for a historical piece written about this time period. 

I can see that the author was trying to establish a connection between contemporary young ladies of the present and those of the past. The slant of the book takes on the plight of young women that have very little control in their own lives. It is almost as if the author took young women from this time period and placed them in the 1600's.  

It might be difficult for many teen readers to get past the thees, thous, and other word choices that they could stumble over in this book. 

Poetic Elements: The poetry works well for the book; it is beautifully written, pushes the reader to consider how young women were treated during the 16oo's, and treats the wild hysteria as an eerie disruptive experience. The poetry is natural, graceful, and fits into this type of experience. 

“Hemphill follows her Printz Honor Book Your Own, Sylvia (2007) with another bold verse novel based on historical figures. Here, her voices belong to the ‘afflicted’ girls of Salem, whose accusations of witchcraft led to the hangings of 19 townspeople in 1692. Once again, Hemphill's raw, intimate poetry probes behind the abstract facts and creates characters that pulse with complex emotion. According to an appended author's note, unresolved theories about the causes of the girls' behavior range from bread-mold-induced hallucinations to bird flu. In Hemphill's story, the girls fake their afflictions, and the book's great strength lies in its masterful unveiling of the girls' wholly believable motivations: romantic jealousy; boredom; a yearning for friendship, affection, and attention; and most of all, empowerment in a highly constricting and stratified society that left few opportunities for women. Layering the girls' voices in interspersed, lyrical poems that slowly build the psychological drama, Hemphill requires patience from her readers. What emerge are richly developed portraits of Puritanical mean girls, and teens will easily recognize the contemporary parallels in the authentic clique dynamics. An excellent supplementary choice for curricular studies of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, this will also find readers outside the classroom, who will savor the accessible, unsettling, piercing lines that connect past and present with timeless conflicts and truths.” ~~Gillian Engberg

Appeal: The appeal is the effortless poetry and the unnerving qualities of the Salem Witch Trials that bleed into the story. 

“In subtle, spare first-person free-verse poems, the author skillfully demonstrates how ordinary people may come to commit monstrous acts. Haunting and still frighteningly relevant.”

~~ Kirkus Reviews

Overall Quality: The author is more than capable of creating emotions with her poetry and this is not her first book written in novel free verse.    

“The expressive writing, masterful tension, and parallels to modern group dynamics create a powerful and relevant page-turner."  ~~ Publishers Weekly

Layout: The layout is in novel arrangement.  

Connections:
Spotlight Poem - 

"Life is not for joy and jolly,

but for toil and test,

an order ordained." 

Sharing - A readers theater performance might work for sharing parts of this work.

Activity - This book would be good for a history project that centered on the topic of religious persecutions in early America.  

Salem Witch Trials