poetry

Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys

| Tasha

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Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys by Bob Raczka, illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds

A brilliant combination of haiku poems, clever humor, and engaging illustrations, this book is sure to appeal to its target audience of guys and also to girls.  Celebrating the small things in life, each haiku takes a moment in time and then offers a grin to the reader.  The poems are arranged in seasons, fitting because so many of them are about nature and a boy’s relationship with it.  Whether it is flying a kite, skipping rocks, leaf piles or snowball fights, children will relate easily to these vignettes about the things that make life fun. 

Raczka’s haiku are light-hearted and enjoyable.  Thanks to the brief nature of the format, the poems are easily shared aloud.  Nicely, the poems stand on their own or work together as a larger piece of writing.  Reynolds’ art is equally engaging.  It too has a great humor about it but also a sense that a moment is being captured. 

A celebration of seasons, play and boyhood, this book is a treat.  If librarians are looking for something to take with them for summer reading program visits, the summer haiku here would make a great thing to share with boys of many ages.  Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from library copy.

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There’s No Place Like School: Classroom Poems

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There’s No Place Like School selected by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Jane Manning

Prelutsky has selected poems that focus on school in this funny and terrific collection of poetry.  The poems are written by thirteen poets and are filled with child appeal and an understanding of the mind of a child.  Turning from one to the next takes the reader through a school day, from heading out the door and the school bus ride to the show and tell and music class and eventually the ride back home.  The poems are well selected, offering a blend of different humor that makes moving from one poem to the next a delight. 

Manning’s illustrations offer a bright and colorful view of school.  She happily embraces the humor of each poem, from the strange foods at the school cafeteria to the delights of milk squirting out of a nose.  All are offered in a quirky and positive way.

An ideal book for the first days of school, this book will be appreciated by children of many ages.  Appropriate for ages 5-9.

Reviewed from library copy.

 

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Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave

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Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier

Dave the Potter was an outstanding artist, poet and potter whose influence is still evident in South Carolina pottery.  He lived in the 1800s and created his pottery with amazing skill, building enormous pots that could up to 40 gallons.  He was one of only two potters known to have the strength and skill to create such large pieces.  Dave was also a poet, inscribing his verse on his pottery, offering two lines of poetry and then a date.  His poems have the beauty and simplicity of Haiku and offer a unique perspective of a poet surviving in slavery.  This is a picture book that makes an important figure in history come alive, revealing his art and poetry for children. 

Hill has created a free verse of his own to tell the story of the life of Dave.  Hill’s verse is simple and striking, drawing together the connections between the simple ingredients of the clay and what it can become and the simple life of a slave and the wonder of what Dave created.  The poem leads children through the stages of making a pot from the gathering of the clay to the magic and work of creating pottery.  The book ends with more of Dave’s poetry as well as an author’s note and an illustrator’s note.  All of them speaking to the influence and importance of Dave the Potter.

Collier’s art work here is stunningly beautiful.  His watercolor and collage art speaks to the strength of Dave, the skill of his hands and the glory of his work.  The colors are rich and deep, filled with a warm earthiness that evokes pottery and clay. 

A radiant tribute to an artist, this picture book echoes the transcendent artist that Dave was.  Appropriate for ages 5-8.

Reviewed from library copy.

In the Wild

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In the Wild by David Elliott illlustrated by Holly Meade

This book of poems explores wild animals throughout the world.  Intriguing animals from the lion to the panda to the polar bear are examined through poems that get to the very heart of them.  The poems are brief and at the same time evocative.  Paired with the watercolor and woodcut illustrations, the book is an inviting collection of poems suitable for the young child. 

Elliott writes his poems with a great sense of play and curiosity.  Turn the page, and you will get a contrasting approach with seriousness and grace.  It is this interplay of tone that makes this book so very readable, one never knows just what will happen in the next poem or what the next featured animal will be.  Meade’s illustrations offer a unified look for these ever-changing poems.  She stylishly captures the animals in iconic poses and situations that are made stylized and beautiful through her woodcuts.  The illustrations will project well to a group and offer large two-page spreads that show the animals in their habitats. 

A great pairing of the appeal of animals and the poetic form, this book is a magnificent addition to library collections.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

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Where the Sunrise Begins

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Where the Sunrise Begins by Douglas Wood, illustrations by Wendy Popp

Wood’s poem asks the question “Where does the sunrise begin?”  He then offers ideas of where it might begin.  Perhaps the mountains?  Maybe the treetops?  Could it be the marsh, the lake or the sea?  Maybe different regions of the world?  The Middle East, Africa or the Far East.  In the end, readers will be warmed by his answer of where exactly the sunrise begins.  Written in beautiful language, this book truly celebrates our world and each one of us. 

Wood has written a lengthy poem that is ethereal and beautiful.  At the same time, he doesn’t rely on large words to convey his message.  His writing is simple yet compelling.  The use of the question as a refrain offers a necessary structure to the poem, giving young readers a place to return to and start again on another quest for the answer. 

Popp’s illustrations really make this book glow.  Each page is a powerful image, filled with light and softness.  The images are done in conte crayon and pastel that have a depth of color that is amazing.  The complex colors of daybreak are captured in the pages, with their pinks and blues that mix at no other time of day.  Popp has captured the special texture and weight of this light.

A beautiful book, this is a poem worth reading combined with illustrations that elevate.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Simon & Schuster.

Sharing the Seasons

| Tasha

Sharing the Seasons selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by David Diaz

I consider Lee Bennett Hopkins one of the greatest anthologists of children’s poetry in our time.  His latest collection offers poetry that celebrates the seasons.  Once again his skill at placement of poems next to one another is apparent.  He manages to form an order to the poems that reads fluidly and never groups them together lumpily by smaller themes.  This collection features poems that are child friendly, but never didactic.  They are poems that sing and thanks to the conducting skills of Hopkins, they are a symphony.

Hopkins contributed poems himself to the anthology, often using them to frame the theme.  There are poems here that are quite short but stunningly deep.  The one I adore most ends the anthology:

December by Sanderson Vanderbilt

A little boy stood on the corner

And shoveled bits of dirty, soggy snow

Into the sewer–

With a jagged piece of tin.

He was helping spring to come.

Diaz’s art is glowing.  Rich and warm, it encircles the poems and illuminates them.  He captures the light and holds it to the page in vibrant color.  Beautiful and poetic.

Highly recommended, this poetry anthology is a jewel.  Perfection for seasonal poems, it sings of the seasons.  Appropriate for ages 4-9.

Reviewed from copy received from McElderry Books.

Also reviewed by A Patchwork of Books.

Volcano Wakes Up!

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Volcano Wakes Up! by Lisa Westberg Peters, illustrated by Steve Jenkins

This book of poems follows a day on a an imaginary Hawaiian volcano.  All of the creatures on the volcano know that something is about to happen, from the lava flow crickets to the ferns.  Even the sun and the volcano itself have poems from their perspective.  Young readers will enjoy the tension as it mounts towards the eruption and then the drama and intensity of the eruption itself. 

This is Peter’s second book of poetry about geology. Peter’s poetry ranges through a variety of different styles in the book.  Each different voice has its own poetic form.  The volcano’s verse is shaped like a mountain.  The have a curling but upright form.  There are poems told in road signs and then the crickets speak in texts.  It is a very clever device that will have children eager to  move to the next poem because of the interesting and changing nature of the verse itself.

Jenkins’ illustrations are as gorgeous as always.  Done in cut-paper collage, they perfectly capture the changing nature of the day.  Some illustrations are crisp and clear, with detailed crickets and ferns.  Others are landscapes with mists and mountains that are soft and evocative.  Simply lovely.

A perfect marriage of science, poetry and art, this book will be adored by volcano fans and poetry fans alike.  Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Henry Holt.

Three Rivers Rising

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Three Rivers Rising: A Novel of The Johnstown Flood by Jame Richards

Celestia has always been the daughter who obeys her father, preferring books over boys.  But when she meets Peter, a boy who works at the hotel she is staying at with her family, she falls in love.  The two of them spend secret hours together swimming in Lake Conemaugh, talking and stealing kisses.  Distracted by her budding relationship, Celestia is not aware that her sister is also in love, but Estrella has gone much farther and ends up pregnant.  Celestia must now give up her love and attend to her family.  When she returns a year later, Peter no longer works at the hotel, and Celestia must make a fateful choice – to be disowned by her wealthy family and follow her heart or to obey and marry a man she doesn’t care for.  Her choice, made in 1889, comes just before the historical disaster of the Johnstown Flood.  Far more is about to be at stake than being disowned.

Tautly written in verse, this book immerses the reader into the culture of the day.  It is a world where class is protected, where wealth is new or old, where hotel boys do not mingle with guests, where children are disowned, where love flourishes despite it all.  Richards has cleverly taken different voices and told their stories here.  The reader knows that disaster is about to happen, keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout the story.  As each voice speaks, there is another character to care about, another perspective to view the flood and the society from. 

Though this is the story of the flood, it is also the story of love that transcends barriers.  It is at heart a romance set in a terrible time.  Richards’ poetry is by turns sweet and bitter.  As the flood occurs, readers will find themselves amazed, saddened and devastated.  We are in Richards’ hands here and what great hands they are.  It is hard to believe this is a debut novel given the confidence and ability that she demonstrates.

Highly recommended, this book is historical fiction at its best combined with the best of a verse novel.  Prepare to be mesmerized.  Appropriate for ages 12-15.

Reviewed from library copy.

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Amazing Faces

| Tasha

Amazing Faces, poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Chris Soentpiet

This book is a great collection of poems that really reflect diversity and America.  Diversity in race as well as the range of emotions in human experience, both are on display in this collection.  The collection moves gracefully from one poem to the next, each fitting next to the other to make a cohesive whole.  This is helped by Soentpiet’s art which celebrates emotions, humanity and community in the faces he depicts.

Hopkins has created a collection that really meshes well.  Each poem and poet has a distinct voice and point of view.  The differences are celebrated here, the poems just as diverse as the world they share.  The first poem, Amazing Face by Rebecca Kai Dotlich, welcomes readers with open arms into the collection.  It is closed just as effectively with a Langston Hughes poem, My People. 

Soentpiet’s art captures moments in the world that we all want to grasp and hold onto a bit longer before they pass.  There is the smile of a baby, the power of a storyteller, the evening sky, and that moment that loneliness disappears.  All are illustrated with great detail, making those moments ever so real.

Highly recommended, this collection of poetry will help you celebrate what America is all about: the diversity of its people.  Appropriate for ages 5-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Lee & Low Books.