poetry

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.

My Uncle Emily

| Tasha

My Uncle Emily by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter

Emily Dickinson has a special connection with her young nephew Gilbert.  They spend a lot of time together laughing.  One day Uncle Emily gives him a dead bee and a poem to share with his class.  Gilbert is hesitant to take it to his class, afraid the other boys will laugh and mock him.  But his mother insists so he takes it and shares it with his teacher and class.  One boy mocks his Uncle Emily on the playground, so Gilbert stands up to him and bops him on the nose.  The two boys have to spend the rest of class in the corner wearing dunce caps.  Back at home, Gilbert doesn’t quite tell the truth about the incident and Uncle Emily notices.  After sharing a poem about truth, Gilbert finds a way to tell the truth but do it gently too.

Yolen is at the top of her game here.  Her verse is free, flowing and perfectly suited to the subject.  She manages to offer a glimpse of a famous poet through the eyes of a child, making Emily accessible, humorous and caring.  It is a lovely portrait of a poet too often seen only as a recluse. Carpenter’s illustrations evoke the time period with real grace.  Her use of lines is deft and really works to create a sense of period illustrations. 

Highly recommended, this picture book on Dickinson is a real winner.  The poetry of hers in the book are nice choices that will have children of today reacting as the children in the book do.  What a great chance to talk about poetry with children and pull out that volume of Dickinson to read a few.  Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Because I Am Furniture

| Tasha

Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas

Anke lives in fear of her father and his wrath. He abuses her brother and sister in a variety of ways, but Anke is invisible to him. He pays her no attention at all. She begins to wonder what is worse, abuse or being completely ignored as if she is nothing. Then Anke joins the volleyball team at school and finds her voice. Her growing strength of body and spirit means that she can no longer be the silent witness at home. Told in poems, this novel explores the damage of abuse in a family and what happens when one person changes her role.

Chaltas’ poems capture small scenes in Anke’s life, adding up together into a full picture of a teen girl and the strange world she survives in. There are poems that hurt to read, changing the way breath moves out of your body. The poems are built to ebb and flow, not all have that crippling pain in them, allowing readers to breathe once more. But all carry the knowledge of a tortuous existence. Beautifully written, wonderfully paced and vividly done.

Recommended for readers of A Child Called It, this book uses poetry to bring emotions and pain directly to the reader. Not for the faint of heart, this book is powerful and bleak, but will leave readers with hope in the end. Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Flying Eagle

| Tasha

Flying Eagle by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, illustrated by Deborah Kogan Ray

In rhyming couplets, the story of an eagle hunting in the Serengeti National Park is told.  He has been hunting all day for food to feed his chick back in the nest but has had no luck.  Now it is sunset and different animals come out in the emerging darkness.  Readers will see hippos, rhinos, gnu, crocodiles, and even a human with a gun!  How can the exhausted eagle father find food with all of the dangers he faces?

The poetry is grippingly brief, making this a great book to share with young children looking for an African adventure filled with animals and danger.  Ray’s illustrations are deeply colored, evocative of the African world, and depict the tension of the book perfectly.

Recommended for both African and poetry units, this book is a tense tale told with vibrancy and depth.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.