poetry

African Acrostics

| Tasha

African Acrostics: A Word in Edgeways by Avis Harley, photographs by Deborah Noyes

Acrostic poems are very popular, especially for children to write on their own.  But you haven’t seen anything like the acrostics in this book.  Harley creates acrostics that have words not only in their first letters but both the first and last letters.  She has one poem with five hidden words and others that use letters in patterns rather than the first letter.  But her real achievement is in making acrostics that are such good poetry that one forgets they are reading acrostics at all and just enjoys the flow and
rhythm of the poems. 

So many acrostics are stodgy and dull due to the constraints of the form.  Harley seemed to take that as a challenge to overcome.  She certainly did just that.  The book is very welcoming and children will relate immediately to the form of the poems.  Noyes photographs are clear and crisp, working well with the poems.  She took them primarily in Namibia and offers her perspective in a note at the end of the book.  The book also has information on acrostics, showing readers the more complicated forms that were used in the book.  There are also nature notes with more information on the animals in the book.

Pair children, animals and good poetry and you have a real winning book.  This book elevates a poetic form to new heights.  Appropriate for ages 5-8.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by The Miss Rumphius Effect and Becky’s Book Reviews.

Poetry Friday: Pumpkin Butterfly

| Tasha

Pumpkin Butterfly: Poems from the Other Side of Nature by Heidi Mordhorst, illustrated by Jenny Reynish

Celebrate the seasons with this collection of poems that capture the small moments of each time of year.  Applaud squirrels, feed a maple tree from your old lunchbox, create snow angels, sleep in a bed heaped with snowy blankets, listen for the whisper of falling petals, and groove to the jazz of a flower. 

Mordhorst captures the essence of each season and within each season she finds small details to linger over and enjoy.  Her poetry is clean and crisp, simple and friendly.  Reynish’s illustrations serve as a frame around the verses, setting them off to great effect.  They enhance and support the poems nicely with their simple lines.

A wonderful collection to read straight or to select poems to use in classrooms or with story times.  Appropriate for ages 5-9.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

All the World

| Tasha

All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Marla Frazee

Scanlon’s evocative but simple poetry draws the world together, creating a universal place for us all to celebrate, live and enjoy.  The poem takes us to the beach, up into the branches of a tree, to dinner, to the silence of evening, and then to the bosom of our families.  Frazee’s illustrations are large spanning views of the ocean, expanses of silent evening, and the grandeur of a large tree on a hill.  But they are also small, detailed, glimpses of real life.  They show drooping swimsuits, spilled buckets, sandcastles, and red tomatoes. 

This play between the minutiae of life and the larger connections of us all makes this book work so well.  Both author and illustrator gracefully create a web of the world this book.  The text reads aloud, dancing on the tongue, with subtle rhymes and gentle rhythm.  The tone is gentle, simple and expansive.  It is nicely echoed in the illustrations which work so well with the words that one cannot imagine it being done with different art.

A wonderful collaboration between author and illustrator, this book is a triumph.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by GregLSBlog, Jama Rattigan, Through the Looking Glass, The Picnic Basket, Reading Rumpus, and Jumping the Candle.

The Longest Night

| Tasha

The Longest Night by Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by Ted Lewin

The longest night of the year is very cold, very still.  One of the creatures must bring back the sun.  The wind knows which creature that is.  Crow offers to fly up and bring back the sun.  Moose offers his strength to bring it back. Fox offers to sniff and search it out.  Chickadee though is the one who must bring back the sun.  But what in the world can Chickadee do?  She cannot fly high enough.  She is not strong.  She is not cunning.  But she can do what she does best.

A poem woven into a picture book, this book is exquisite.  Bauer’s poetry has a rhythm that is almost primal.  She plays with sounds, repeats refrains, and celebrates imagery.  Her poem is deep, thrumming with the energy of the forest.  It is quiet and powerful.  But most of all it is for children but without any pretense.

Lewin’s illustrations match Bauer’s poem so well.  His illustrations explore the dark, the deep, the mysterious.  They linger in blues, blacks and moonlight.  Somehow he has captured that majestic blue of a moonlit night that is so deep and so unlike day.  When the sun returns at the end of the book, one almost shields their eyes from the brightness.  His illustrations are just as evocative as the poem, just as shining, just as powerful.

Highly recommended, this book belongs in every library.  It will work for many units from poetry to winter to moon or sun.  Share this.  It is a pleasure to read aloud such wonderful writing.  Appropriate for ages 4-8.

Reviewed from library copy.

Swamps of Sleethe

| Tasha

The Swamps of Sleethe by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Jimmy Pickering.

Climb into your spaceship and travel from one strange world to another, each with some strange twist and surprise.  It’s a trip that only Prelutsky could take you on with his signature mix of poetic humor and chills.  Each world is captured with a single poem that is paired with illustrations by Pickering which are equally funny and dark.  Part of the fun of the book is unscrambling the planets names into words that describe them.  Pure word fun from beginning to end!

Prelutsky takes readers from icy planets to dangerous forests.  You will visit planets with water you should not drink and planets with air you should not breathe.  Danger lurks around every corner, usually in surprising places with even more astonishing results.  This book is dark, showing one way after another to die on distant planets.  Middle-school and early elementary children will embrace it.  It’s not for preschoolers.

If you are asked to read for a 4th or 5th grade class, this book would be a perfect read aloud.  You will get gasps and giggles often at the same time.  Appropriate for ages 8-12.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Also reviewed by A Patchwork of Books.

Poetry Friday: Sky Magic

| Tasha

Sky Magic compilation by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrations by Mariusz Stawarski

The poems in this lovely compilations move from dawn to night, focusing on the sun, moon and stars.  You will find favorite poems mixed in with new delights.  The book is a lovely lullaby of poetry, filled with great images, wonderful verse, and inspiring language.  The poems are for children, but will speak to all readers.

The poems work well for children, but are not childish.  They are all elevated examples of children’s poetry, accessible and worth stretching for to reach.  Rather like the stars themselves.  Hopkins has paid attention to not only the length of poems, but the rhythm and flow between the poems too.   There are no jarring changes between poems, but instead it feels as if they grow from being next to one another.

Here is one of my favorites from the book.  The choice of which one to share was very difficult!

Moon Lullaby by Rebecca Kai Dotlich

Lull cats to sleep,

let children dream,

shine silver blue

on gentle stream.

Glaze the house

where sleepers sigh…

as hours

as nights

as years go by.

A truly lovely anthology of poems, this book deserves a place in every library.  It will also be a great book to read aloud when studying the sun, moon or stars.  A lovely poetic interlude in science, sounds lovely.  Appropriate for ages 4-8 and older.

Check out all of the Poetry Friday posts at Crossover.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Also reviewed at Wild Rose Reader and Poetry for Children.

All the Broken Pieces

| Tasha

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg

Matt Pin was airlifted from war torn Vietnam to the United States and has been adopted into a loving family.  Now at age 12, Matt is struggling with the internal scars of war, combined with his questions of identity.  He has haunting memories of his mother and brother whom he left behind in Vietnam.  Matt has trouble giving a voice to his internal struggles, while externally he is having difficulties at school and is being bullied by boys on his baseball team.  Can Matt manage to make peace with his past so he can embrace his future?  Or are the two so intertwined that they are one and the same?

A searing verse novel, this book offers powerful poetry that clearly conveys the emotional scars of Matt and of the community around him.  Vietnam is a multi-faceted subject and Burg does an admirable job in paying tribute to its many aspects.  Poetry is a wonderful medium for this sort of exploration, allowing things to be said clearly that would have to be danced around in prose.  Burg’s poems create a cohesive novel yet offer verses that will linger in the memory and mind, that speak to our humanity and our past.

Here is one verse from the early part of the novel that captures the power and talent of the writing:

He never saw my face.

But she was already swelled

with love for him when he left,

taking with him

his blue-eyed promise

that it would not end there,

with the smell of burnt flesh

and the sound of crying children.

Highly recommended for tween and teen readers, this book covers powerful subjects without turning away or flinching.  Readers who are not poetry readers and those who claim not to like verse novels should be encouraged to try this one.  Appropriate for ages 12-15.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by A Year of Reading.

Sopa de Frijoles / Bean Soup

| Tasha

Sopa de frijoles / Bean Soup by Jorge Argueta and Rafael Yockteng

A winner of a bilingual book, this picture book is a poem about making bean soup.  Lovingly filled with great ingredients and metaphors, the poem works well.  It follows a young boy through the steps of making sopa de frijoles, from sorting the beans to chopping onions to peeling garlic, and adding salt.  An adult in near in the illustrations, but the boy does the work himself, adding to the joy of the book.

Without any overly-sweet taste, this book offers a poem for children that is respectful and delightful.  It is distinctly a poem rather than prose chopped into stanzas.  The language alone puts it into that category:

The water boils and sings.

The beans dance

together.

The water has turned brown

the color of Mother Earth.

Your house

smells wonderful

like the earth

after the first

winter rains.

That is just one of many passages that capture a sensory experience with tangible images that children can understand but that also ask children to imagine.

Highly recommended, this book would be ideal for a bilingual story time.  But it is also wonderful in a single language program as well.  Appropriate for ages 4-8.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by La Bloga and Poetry for Children.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

| Tasha

The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes, illustrated by E. B. Lewis.

Hughes was a mere 18 years old when he wrote this powerful poem which evokes the strength and power of black people throughout the world.  It also is a powerful tie of their story with that of water.  Lewis nicely captures these two aspects of the poem in his watercolor illustrations.  Taking the poem line-by-line, this book pairs each line with a watercolor painting filled with water and people.  Lewis excels at creating different feeling rivers, allowing the water to be blue, but also green, brown, and even yellowy-orange.

The poem and the illustrations combined make this powerful poetry accessible to children.  It is always a thrill to see such great illustrations paired with such language.  Beautiful and strong, honoring the subject matter entirely.

Highly recommended, this book belongs in libraries across the country no matter the color of the community members.  It will prove useful in poetry units and history, but it is most wonderful when just enjoyed for its own sake.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by Poetry for Children and A Patchwork of Books.