Review: Poetry by Kids

Title: Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls

Editor: Betsy Franco

Photographer: Nina Nickles

ISBN: 0-7636-0905-6 Citation: Franco, Betsy. Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2001.

Review: In Things I Have to Tell You Betsy Franco compiles a collection of poems written by teenage girls aged fourteen to nineteen. Dealing with intensely heavy and serious subject matter including body image, sexuality, and drugs, the poems in this collection represent the real-life issues that face today's teenagers from their unique perspective. Readers will be amazed at the literary quality of the poems written by these young women; there is no shortage of figurative language, varying formats, and especially voice. The accompanying photographs by Nina Nickles show realistic images of teenagers, not the glamorous, touched-up Hollywood versions, which serves to enhance the poetry and reinforce the realistic perspective of the book. Though fraught with controversial topics and swear words, teenage girls will especially relate to these poems that validate their every day struggles.

Potential Use: Things I Have to Tell You would be a great way to encourage students, especially teenage girls, to try their hand at writing poetry or to begin a poetry journal. The emotions expressed through poetry can provide an escape for teenagers and serve as an outlet for expressing feelings in a proactive manner. By reading poetry written by girls their own age, this book will show teenagers that they are not alone in their circumstances. See the selection below for an example from the Things I Have to Tell You.

Finding Joy by Marissa Korbel, age 16

I found myself a place

to be, to play

a day went by or maybe two

no thoughts of you to crowd my empty mind

I find my body is to me

as lovely as

a budding tree

a cat with grace

and emerald eyes

so unconcerned with shapely thighs

just me

Invisibly

a girl

inside this shape

a woman's hips and breasts

so much wider, softer than the rest

I found myself a crystal blue

like nymphs or faeries do

I never thought of you

or what you'd think of me

I found my body was

a mass of ground

the earth inside of me

behind my vinyl walls of

picture perfection

I was the earth, the sky

it made me want to cry

to shout the softness

I have never dared let out

my curves, my hair

a part of who I was

a blonde in a clear glass pond

myself a flow of nature

alone

finding joy

Review: Janeczko Collection

Title: A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms

Author: Paul B. Janeczko

Illustrator: Chris Raschka

ISBN: 978-0-7636-4132-0

Citation: Janeczko, Paul B. A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2009.

Review: Both informative and entertaining, Paul B. Janeczo has compiled an interesting and versatile collection of poems that give examples of twenty-nine different poetic forms. A Kick in the Head provides brief, simple explanations of each poetic form and gives readers the opportunity to compare actual examples with the rules of the format. Spanning the realm of poetic forms from acrostics to limericks to elegies, the variety of formats provides something for all ages and ability levels. Chris Raschka's innovative watercolor, ink, and torn paper
illustrations perfectly pair with each selection. Students who believe poetry to be "hard" or "boring" will likely relate to the poetic forms like never before through Janeczko's intriguing selections and easy-to-understand explanations.
Whether read aloud or read independently, readers will enjoy the variety of selections and abstract illustrations.

Potential Use: A Kick in the Head is an excellent way to introduce the various poetic forms to students of all ages. The author note at the beginning, the silliness of some of the selections, and the explanation that poetry does not always have to follow the rules encourages students to try some of the forms on their own and inspires creativity. See the examples below for a simple couplet featured in the book, which could be used with even the youngest students, to a more complex elegy, which could be used with the more advanced.

The Mule by Ogden Nash

In the word of mules

There are no rules.

Little Elegy (for a child who skipped rope) by X.J. Kennedy

Here lies resting, out of breath,

Out of turns, Elizabeth

Whose quicksilver toes not quite

Cleared the whirring edge of night.

Earth, whose circles round us skim

Till they catch the lightest limb, Shelter now Elizabeth

And, for her sake, trip up death.

Review: Poetry & Fiction

Title: More Spice Than Sugar: Poems about Feisty Females

Compiled By: Lillian Morrison

Illustrator: Ann Boyajian

ISBN: 0-618-06892-9

Citation: Morrison, Lillian. More Spice Than Sugar: Poems about Feisty Females. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.

Review: Lillian Morrison celebrates the role of the feisty female in the aptly titled poetry collection More Spice Than Sugar. Real women, some widely known such as Georgia O'Keefe and some unknown are depicted through a variety of poetic formats. This carefully selected anthology contains works from many well-known poets including Emily Dickinson, Nikki Giovanni, and J. Patrick Lewis as well as many lesser-known. The different voices of the poets shine as they honor the independent women they admire with rhythmic verse and engaging vocabulary. Ann Boyajian's sketch-like illustrations accompany each poem and bring a face to each woman depicted. Readers, especially females, will be inspired by the strong women represented in More Spice Than Sugar.

Potential Use: More Spice Than Sugar would pair well with the 2011 Pura Belpré Award Honor Book The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba by Margarita Engle. This novel details the lives of three feisty females: Frederika, a Swedish traveler; Cecilia, a young slave; and Elena, daughter of the Cuban gentry. These three young women are brought together in a fight against society's expectations, similar to many of the women portrayed in Morrison's collection. Because Cecilia and Frederika are based on real women, More Spice Than Sugar would serve as an excellent extension for readers to peek into the lives of other real-life independent women who went against the norm to follow their dreams. See the poem below for an excerpt from More Spice Than Sugar.

[The Poet Emily] by Emily Dickinson
They shut me up in Prose –
As when a little Girl
They put me in the Closet –
Because they liked me "still" –

Still! Could themselves have peeped –
And seen my Brain – go round –
They might as wise have lodged a Bird
For Treason – in the Pound –

Review: Sidman Poetry

Title: Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors

Author: Joyce Sidman

Illustrator: Pamela Zagarenski

ISBN: 978-0-547-01494-4

Citation: Sidman, Joyce. Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2009.

Awards: 2010 Caldecott Honor Award, A Junior Library Guild Selection, Claudia Lewis Poetry Award

Review: In Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors, Joyce Sidman expertly manipulates language to explore the unique colors of each of the four seasons. The figurative language in each poem is engaging and begs to be read aloud. Using imagery, metaphor, and a variety of other techniques, Sidman effectively captures the spirit of each season. Pamela Zagarenski's Caldecott-honored illustrations are captivating and perfectly paired with each poem. The vocabulary throughout the book is complex enough to maintain the interest of older readers, but not so complicated as to alienate the younger. Readers of all ages will fall in love with the rhythmic poems and beautiful illustrations in Red Sings from Treetops.

Potential Use: Red Sings from Treetops offers the opportunity to integrate poetry in the art curriculum at a variety of age and ability levels. For younger students, the poems and paintings in the book could be used to inspire their own artwork featuring a specific color. Older students can use the illustrations and poems in the book to inspire more advanced artwork, and then they could write their own poems to pair with their paintings. See below for examples of the colorful poems in Sidman's story, which would be ideal for integrating the language arts and art curriculums.

SPRING (p. 2)

In SPRING,

Red sings

from treetops:

cheer-cheer-cheer,

each note dropping

like a cherry

into my ear.

Red turns

the maples feathery,

sprouts in rhubarb spears;

Red squirms on the road

after rain.

FALL (p. 20)

Orange ripens in

full, heavy moons,

thick with pulp and seed.

Orange flickers,

all smoke and candles.

Orange eyes.

Orange cheeks.

Orange teeth.

Review: Hopkins Award Poetry

Title: Diamond Willow

Author: Helen Frost

ISBN: 978-0-374-31776-8

Citation: Frost, Helen. Diamond Willow. New York: Francis Foster Books, 2008.

Awards: 2009 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry: 2009 Honor Book

Review: Set in an isolated Alaskan town where residents are transported by dogsleds and snowmachines, Diamond Willow is the story of a twelve-year-old girl trying to show her parents that she is growing up. Willow, a deep-thinking loner, tries to blend in with her classmates and peers, but desperately wants to make friends. Her deepest connections are with the family dogs used for mushing, especially Roxy. Helen Frost brilliantly tells the tale of Willow's attempts to break out of her childhood shell through this novel written in verse. Most of the story is told in diamond-shaped poems (a nod to the character's name, Diamond Willow), and each poem has a hidden message printed in darker ink. The poems are steadily rhythmic and full of figurative language and underlying meaning. Interspersed between the poems are prose sections devoted to the various animals Willow encounters on her journey, all of whom have had previous lives as humans and are connected to the characters in story in some way. A unique take on the reincarnation beliefs of the Athabascan people with a modern twist, Diamond Willow is a coming of age tale full of heartfelt emotion that will appeal to readers of all ages.

Potential Use: Middle school students will relate to the same-aged protagonist in Diamond Willow. This book would be of excellent use with middle-school aged students to introduce novels in verse in a relevant manner. Along with the coming of age tale at the heart of the story are glimpses into the unique beliefs of reincarnation, as told through the eyes of those who have been reincarnated as animals. See the following excerpt for an example of the poetry in Diamond Willow.

I

want

to mush

the dogs out

to Grandma and

Grandpa's. By myself.

I know the way. I've been

There about a hundred times

with Dad and Mom, and once

with Marty when he lived at home.

Their cabin is close to the main trail.

I know I'm not going to get lost, and I

won't see a baby moose or any bears this

time of year. Even if I did, I'd know enough

to get out of the way, fast. But Mom and

Dad don't seem to see it this way. What

do they think will happen? Dad at least

thinks about it: She's twelve years old;

it's twelve miles. Maybe we could

let her try. Mom doesn't

even pause for half a

second before

she says,

No

!