May B. review

May B.
by Caroline Starr Rose
Schwartz and Wade
January 2012

First line: "I won't go."

Twelve year old Mavis Elizabeth Betterly is sent by her parents to help out a new couple settling on the Kansas prairie in the 1870's. Spare narrative poetry immediately conveys the feel for the lives of hardship that May and her family lead. Descriptions of pioneer food are particularly striking: fresh meat, tinned fruit, plenty of coffee, maybe a biscuit. May struggles in school, but is fighting to be able to finish, because she really wants to become a teacher one day. The deck really seems stacked against her: few people in their community acquire more than an eighth-grade education, her parents need her to drop out to work for them, she's a girl and therefore seen as unworthy of much schooling anyway and worst of all, she's struggling with undiagnosed dyslexia. She's madly jealous of her older brother Hiram, who doesn't appreciate all the advantages he's been given.

Life on the Oblingers' settlement is no easier than at home. Their sod house is poorly made, dingier and dirtier than most. The new Mrs. Oblinger, only a few years older than May, suffers from crippling depression and May is quickly overwhelmed and lonely. 

Things come to a head when the Oblingers abandon May without warning, deciding that life on the prairie is too tough for them. May is forced to winter alone, until help will finally arrive. I found the ending a little over the top and unbelievable - May survives a fierce blizzard by the luckiest chance - but the target middle-grade audience probably won't mind.

Short chapters, and free verse make for a blazing fast read.

Compare to:
Hattie Big Sky - Kirby Larson
Out of the Dust - Karen Hesse
Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Imagine my surprise when I opened my e-mail and found this lovely artwork by Will Hillenbrand. I loved his Mother Goose Picture Riddles. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Mother Goose Picture Puzzles review

Mother Goose Picture Puzzles
by Will Hillenbrand
Marshall Cavendish Children's
March 2011

In a series of rebus picture rhymes, Hillenbrand shares several classic Mother Goose favorites such as Jack and Jill, Miss Muffet, Humpty Dumpty, Old King Cole, Wee Willie Winkie and more. These are short versions of the most popular rhymes in the Mother Goose oeuvre, perfect for one's first introduction to Mother Goose. Large, colorful illustrations make this a pleasant read-aloud for groups, and everything is labeled, Richard Scarry style. The slightly hearty 40 pages makes this a little longer than the typical picture book, but still not too much to read in one sitting. Hillenbrand cleverly interlinks the rhymes by showing tiny figures in the background, who then feature in the next rhyme. For instance, Hey Diddle, Diddle shows a well with a boy and girl running up a hill. Sure enough, the next page features Jack and Jill, tumbling down into a pumpkin patch, and the page after that features Peter, Pumpkin Eater, while the cow that jumped over the moon continues to hang out for several pages. This gives readers the pleasant sensation that they are strolling through Mother Goose Land, observing its inhabitants as they travel along.

Will Hillenbrand, pointing to the cat with the fiddle.

I was fortunate enough to meet Will Hillenbrand at the recent American Library Association convention, and he showed us his process for creating the art. Everything starts from a hand-drawn sketch, which is then scanned into a computer, colorized and tweaked. He showed us mock-ups, with just the background, and then showed us how foreground characters, fonts and rebus-drawings are dropped in.

Artwork layers being added in.

Fascinating stuff! This is a must-have for any library with a Mother Goose collection.

I borrowed this book from the library.

Hurricane Dancers review

Hurricane Dancers
by Margarita Engle
Holt, Henry & Co.
March 2011

It's no secret that I am a fan of narrative poetry. As a connoisseur of the genre, I love the way that novels in verse read like any other kind of novel, with the same amount of story arc, but in a condensed, fast-flowing form that cuts directly to the heart of the matter in a spare and beautiful way. I recently read Engle's wonderful picture book treatment of one of the earliest female scientists, Summer Birds, and when I saw she'd written a new book, I knew I had to get my hands on it. I was delighted and surprised to find it was a full-length novel in poetry format. Hurricane Dancers was completely different, but just as lovely. A variety of characters each takes turns telling the events of a famous shipwreck in the early days of European exploration of the American continent. Each poem is simply labeled with the name of the speaker, who naturally have very different takes on the turn of events.

Quebrado, whose Spanish name means "broken" has badly used by his Spanish captors. Bernardino de Talavera is a conquistador transporting his erstwhile comrade-in-arms, now captive, Alonso de Ojeda, both very cruel figures in their own right. After the hurricane, the tables are turned when the Spaniards are thrown on the mercy of Quebrado, the one person who has most reason not to help either of them. The dramatic tension is smoothly handled, and Bernardino and Alonso are petulant, self-justifying and guilt-ridden by turns. In the meantime, Narido, a poor fisherman of the village and Caucubu, daughter of the chief, are in love, but forbidden to marry and Quebrado, who changes his name to Yacuyo, must decide if and how he will help them run away together.

Here is an except from the first poem in the book.

a mourning moan
as this old ship
remembers
her true self,
her tree self,
rooted
and growing
alive,
on shore.

I love that imagery, of the boat being a tree longing to return to shore! It really highlights the perilousness of those early ocean voyages.

The book is appended with an author's note, a historical note, and a list of references. I found the list of English words taken from the Taino language simply fascinating. I had no idea that we owe the Taino for words such as barbeque, barracuda, canoe, guava, hammock, hurricane, iguana, papaya, savannah and tobacco.

Much like Paul Fleishman's Bull Run or Laura Amy Schlitz's Newbery winning book, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, Engle's latest offering of poems would lend itself well to being read aloud in a reader's theatre format. Engle won a Newbery Honor for her 2008 novel, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom, and I could honestly see Hurricane Dancers as a serious contender for the Newbery this year. Highly recommended.


I borrowed this book from the library.

Lemonade review

Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word
by Bob Raczka, illustrated by Nancy Doniger
Roaring Brook Press
March 2011

What a fantastic and intriguing book! Raczka has accomplished something completely new to me, in these poems made up of letters from a single word. This may be as revolutionary and ground-breaking as Marilyn Singer's reverso poems, introduced in last year's poetry hit, Mirror, Mirror.

Raczka credits Andrew Russ for his introduction to this poetry form and explains how each letter appears beneath the letter of the original word. The overall effect is that of looking at a stuttering typewriter, or letters falling down like rain, forming words. There's a look to these poems almost like concrete poetry, with the careful typography proving that no additional letters have snuck in. It also means that each poem is a bit of a challenge - words and sentences aren't necessarily spaced in a traditional way. I think kids will love puzzling out what each poem says. Each poem is presented in its' original format, with a 2-color (red and black) line drawing on one page, followed by a page in red with white type, deciphering the poem in a more traditional way.

Here is one of my favorite poems in the book:

Moonlight

hot
night

thin
light

moth
in
motion

Simple, spare, effective and so true! I think this book would work well in classrooms, and I'd love to see the kind of one-word poems that this book will inspire. I highly recommend this amazing work.


I borrowed this book from the library.

An Owed to the Spelling Checker

This week I helped a kid on one of our library PC's, by showing her how to automatically spell check on a paper she was working on for school. She must have been in 3rd grade or so. Her eyes boggled, and she exclaimed, "It's like I'm cheating!" She was hesitant to check the rest of her document, but I assured her that her teacher, and most adults really, use spellcheck all the time. Of course, there are times when the spell checker is of little use... such as the following poem.

An Owed to the Spelling Checker
by Jerrold H. Zar

Eye have a spelling chequer.
It came with my Pea Sea.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

Eye strike the quays and type a whirred
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am write oar wrong
It tells me straight a weigh.

Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your shore real glad two no.
Its vary polished in its weigh.
My chequer tolled me sew.

A chequer is a bless thing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right all stiles of righting,
And aides me when eye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The chequer pours o'er every word
Two cheque sum spelling rule.

Inside Out and Back Again review

Inside Out and Back Again

by Thanhha Lai

HarperCollins

February 2011

I love narrative poetry, and this book was no exception. At the height of the Vietnam War, 10 year-old Kim Ha is forced to leave Saigon with her mother and older brothers. Her father has been missing for several years, and the family continually hopes for his return. The decision to leave is heartwrenching, knowing that if they go, there will be no real way for their father to find them again, if indeed, he is still alive. Ha's mother gives her children the option of saving one thing... everything else must be destroyed, so as not to leave any evidence behind for the invading soldiers.

Once aboard the ship, the family suffers from extremely close quarters and lack of food. The boat captain's unlucky snap judgement on the best escape route means that their journey is drawn out much longer than they had anticipated, necessitating rationing. People grow ruthless and hoard what little food they have. The ship is rescued by Americans, and the families make their way to the States. Salvation? Hardly. Ha and her family end up in Alabama in the early-70's, with racial tensions at an all time high. After everything she's been through, Ha must endure appallingly racist bullies at school, as well as condescending teachers, who don't understand that just because she hasn't learned English perfectly yet, that doesn't mean that she isn't a bright and extremely observant girl. Ha is desperately homesick and finds heavily-processed American food disgusting compared to the fresh papayas and traditional Vietnamese fare that she is used to.

At this point, I really began to wish for some sort of break from the unrelenting sadness of the story - whether by comic relief, or a sympathetic character to lighten the tension. I had hoped that Ha's neighbor, Miss Washington would fill the bill, but even though she's kindly and means well, ultimately she comes across as a dotty old lady who doesn't quite get it.

A semi-autobiographical story, this book is simultaneously difficult to read, and very accessible. The four "chapters" it's broken into: Saigon, At Sea, Alabama, and From Now On, neatly break up the action. The emotional turmoil that Ha goes through makes this book quite challenging indeed, but the words flow so smoothly it's hard not to get drawn in to the tale. The writing was wonderfully crafted and made reading about the immigrant experience completely compelling. As powerful, arresting and in some ways just as sad as The Bridge to Terabithia, Inside Out and Back Again could definitely be a Newbery contender.


I borrowed this book from the library.

Won Ton review

Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku

by Lee Wardlaw, illustrated by Eugene Yelchin

Henry Holt & Co.

February 2011

This sassy collection of narrative poems tell the story of Won Ton, a shelter cat taken in by a young boy. Technically, the poems are not haiku, but, as Wardlaw explains in the author's note, senryu, identical to the haiku form, with a three line 5-7-5 syllable format, but instead "the foibles of human nature -or in this case, cat nature- are the focus, expressed by a narrator in a humorous, playful or ironic way."

The difference between haiku and senryu is immediately apparent. Rather than conjuring a soothing, reflective, meditative mood common to haiku, these poems are irreverent, funny and witty. Wardlaw perfectly captures the essence of Won Ton's catlike nature. I had initially assumed that Yelchin's illustrations (with clean lines that punctuate the text nicely) were digitally-enhanced, but they were created old-school, with graphite and gouche on watercolor paper. Won Ton is depicted as a lean, black cat with wide blue eyes and an expressive range of emotions.

Each poem is such a short little gem, it's hard not to quote the whole book, but I have a few that I must mention. On being in the shelter, Won Ton says, "Gypsy on my left/Pumpkin, my right. Together/we are all alone." Woefully bored cats stare out of cages, while Won Ton sits with his back turned, paws tucked in. Just after being chosen, Won Ton says, "Latch squeaks. Door swings wide./Free! Free at last! Yet, one claw/snags, clings to what's known." Oh my gosh. Who hasn't felt like that at least once in their lifetime? Here's another of my favorites, after Won Ton has finally started to settle in to his new home. "Your tummy, soft as/warm dough. I knead and knead, then/bake it with a nap." What great imagery!

Yes, this original and enjoyable book will receive plenty of attention in April, National Poetry Month, but it's too good to enjoy only one month of the year. I'll recommend this book for cat-lovers everywhere, year-round.


I borrowed this book from the library.
Poetry Friday is hosted by Random Noodling this week.

Poetrees review

Poetrees

by Douglas Florian

Beach Lane Books

March 2010

This charming collection of 19 poems celebrates trees in all their variety. With a playful, kid-friendly sense of rhythm, respected poet Florian turns the book on its side, presenting the poems and illustrations vertically, to emphasize the height of each tree. Loose, easy watercolor and oil pastel paintings on brown bag and recycled papers lend a relaxed feel. Beginning with the concrete poem Seed, in the shape of the eternity symbol, ∞, implying the infinite possibility that each seed harbors, the book goes on to celebrate Giant Sequoias, Scribbly Gum, Banyan, Paper Birch trees and more. I loved the poem about the coconut palm which reads in part, "I'm nuts about the coconut./I'm cuckoo for the coco./ I'm crazed for this amazing nut./For coco I am loco." accompanied by a picture of a man with a coconut tree growing out of his head. Whimsical, short and full of puns, these poems will appeal to second through fifth graders with a sense of humor.

The book is appended with a "glossatree" presenting additional scientific facts about each of the trees mentioned in the book. Great for poetry units, or as an addition to a science curriculum, this is a book sure to please, don't miss it.


I borrowed this book from the library.

Yes, I'm hosting Poetry Friday this week!

Looking for more poetry? Check out these posts:

Mary Lee's Poem #8
Tabatha's Poetry by Linda Pastan
A Flower Festival from Random Noodling
Kurious Kitty is sharing Amy Lowell's "Monadnock in Early Spring"
Kurious K's Kwotes also has a quote from Amy Lowell
Heidi is sharing a poem by Alice Oswald
Andromeda Jazmon hosts an online bookclub as well as a haibun poem
B.C. has a poem by Adrienne Rich
Laurie from Book, Blog, Fun is sharing a poem of her own!
JoAnn at Teaching Authors has posted a poem about writing
Amy features poetry from fourth-graders and circular poems
Carol has a review of Pearl vs. The World
Sarah from Read, Write, Believe asks, "Are poetry slams a nuisance?"
Laura Salas has 2 posts for Poetry Friday: a review of The Year of Goodbyes and a 15 Words of Less Poetry Challenge
Jama shares an acrostic poem about lasagna
David Elzey has rounded up a bunch of haikus
Rasco from RIF posts about poetry in Afghanistan
Irene Latham shares poetry craft tips!
Ruth shares a David Young poem and explains how to get on a poetry e-mail list
Blythe Woolston posts a William Carlos Williams poem
Brimful Curiousities has an entry for the Kids' Poetry Challenge
The Write Sisters talk about memorizing Eletelephony by Laura Elizabeth Richards for school
Author Amok has a serious poem, "Liam Sits Folded"
Jeannine Atkins shares some thoughts about an article on poetry by Jane Hirshfield
Emily Jiang posts some haiku about her recent travels
Sylvia Vardell features a book trailer for a poetry collection
Dorian Bennett posts "Heavenly Playground" by Adrian Bass
Wild Rose Reader has a review of Twosomes by Marilyn Singer
A Teaching Life has posted some poems to heal wounds
Judy at Learning to Let Go has posted a poem by Stephen Mitchell
Father Goose shares an original poem, "Art Show in the Park"
Blue Rose Girls shares 3 clerihew poems on famous historical figures
Check out 7 Imp's gorgeous artwork paired with poetry for Kirkus
Gregory K. from Gotta Book has some more clerihews!
Books Dogs and Frogs has another original poem
Tanita Davis has some poems from schoolkids
Liz Scanlon shares some original haiku at her blog
Kelly R. Fineman blogs a review of Roots and Blues by Arnold Adoff
Jen Rothschild has a review of The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle
Check out this reverso poem by Martha Calderaro
The Miss Rumphius Effect weighs in with "In Praise of My Bed" by Meredith Holmes
Janet Squires reviews "A Child's Calendar" by John Updike
Pentimento shares an Inuit poem
Library Chicken reviews Mirror, Mirror by Marilyn Singer

Poetry Magnets

I'm rather fond of poetry magnets, and have collected several sets over the years. Here's a grouping from my Jack Prelutsky Awful Ogre's Awful Day set. Somewhere I have a "ransom letter" set from Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, as well.

Several years ago, I had a set of poetry magnets at the library, and the teens loved them. Maybe it's something I should try again. They're not too expensive, either. The original website, Magnetic Poetry, still offers lots of different word collections. 

Burned review

Burned
by Ellen Hopkins
Margaret K. McElderry
April 2006

I think of myself as someone who blogs about poetry every now and then, so I was shocked, and a little mortified to discover that in the last several years, I have reviewed exactly two books of poetry. I'm not really sure why this is. I certainly read a lot of poetry... and I mean to review most of it. One of the things that I promised myself this year was to review more poetry.

I love narrative poetry. With that in mind, I dug into a book that I've been meaning to read for quite a while... Ellen Hopkins' Burned. I haven't actually read any Ellen Hopkins up 'til now - because most of the time they are always checked out of the library! All of her books are so popular.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book very much. I'm not going to worry about posting spoilers, since it's been out for a couple of years now, so if you haven't read it yet, consider yourself warned.

First of all, one thing I really enjoy about Ellen Hopkins' books is that they all have fairly uniform looking covers, and they are all about the same size like weighty doorstops. Burned weighs in at 532 pages, for example. The free verse really flows though, and each poem is short, so you can polish off one of these huge books in one sitting.

Pattyn von Stratten comes from an uber-conservative abusive Mormon family. She is the eldest of seven girls, and kind of a "mini-mom" to her sisters. Her drunken father beats his wife, and demands frightened silence out of his children. All of the girls are named after World War II generals - a byproduct of their father's obsession with all things military and his desire to have a son. As Pattyn starts to rebel a bit, and begins secretly dating behind her parent's back, her mother finally becomes pregnant with the long wished-for son. Pattyn's father ships her off to stay with her aunt Jeanette. It's supposed to be a punishment, but it turns into a wonderful experience, as Pattyn experiences love and friendship in a sane environment for the first time in her life. Of course, her feelings for her new boyfriend Ethan are intense, but she feels equally pulled to return home to protect her defenseless sisters from her raging father.

Hopkins breaks up the book by utilizing a few different poetry styles. There are a few concrete poems - when Pattyn is talking about a strained family dinner, the poem takes the shape of long strands of spaghetti, reinforcing the isolation in the text. Another poem takes the shape of what could be teardrops, or raindrops. A few of the concrete poems didn't seem to make as much sense to me, though. Why were there poems shaped like an hourglass, an egg, birds in flight or a checkerboard?

Many of the poems have the last line of each stanza staggered, inviting the reader to read the poem in it's entirety, or to simply get the essence of the poem by reading down the right hand column. Another thing that worked very well was the use of italics to represent other characters speaking, or Pattyn's own thoughts.

Pattyn and her sisters are actually her father's second family. Earlier in life, he raised two boys - one who joined the military and died overseas, another who came out as gay and was disowned. His first wife, overcome with grief, commits suicide. The fact that Pattyn has a much older gay half-brother whom she's never met seemed like a huge red herring to me. I honestly expected her to be reunited with him at some point, but that never happened. The ending of the book leaves Pattyn in a very dark place indeed, having lost everything in the world that's important to her, armed with a gun, and ready to unleash her frustration at her school, Columbine-style. What a cliffhanger! I got excited, hearing that there is in fact, a sequel, Smoke, coming out. But, it's not slated to be released until 2013! Well, we've waited this long for a sequel, what's a few more years, I guess.

I'm no expert on Mormonism, but I did find a couple of the things in the book a little hard to credit. It seemed unbelievable to me that the father would have a drinking problem, since mainstream Mormons eschew alcohol. This is a highly melodramatic story that touches on a lot of themes: abuse, right-wing religion, alcoholism, gay family members, government nuclear testing, true love, teen sex, teen pregnancy and school shootings. I'll recommend it to mature teens who are reluctant readers and need plenty of action to keep them interested.

I borrowed this book from the library.
Poetry Friday is hosted by Rasco from RIF this week.

Ubiquitous review

Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature's Survivors
by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beckie Prange
Houghton Mifflin
2010

What a glorious, glorious book this is!  I am thoroughly enchanted, on so many levels.  Ubiquitous is a perfect marriage of poetry and art and science.  It's a collection of poems about various species that exist in huge numbers on the planet.  Beginning with the incredible endpapers, showing a tightly drawn, swirling doodle representing a timeline, this book successfully conveys a sense of the vastness of geologic history.  Bacteria show up relatively early, about 4 billion years after the Earth is formed, followed by a number of other organisms, including sharks (375 million years old), ants (140 million years old), dandelions (5 million years old) and finally humans, a mere 100,000 years old, showing us as a tiny blip at the end of the timeline.

Several different poetry forms are used, everything from a diamante (diamond-shaped poem) to concrete poetry to free verse.  The concrete shark poem echoes it's subject precisely with the line "snout bristling teeth" forming the mouth of the shark, the fin created by the warning, "Shark! Shark! Shark!" ending in a tail made up of the words, "Power-pumping bursts/Long lazy strokes."  The concrete poem devoted to squirrels is rather hilariously made in the shape of the squirrel as a long, continuous, hyper-frenetic run-on sentence.  I rather enjoyed the metaphor used in The Mollusk That Made You where the mollusk is described as a "shy gray wizard" walking on one foot, wearing "a magic mantle,/trailing stars."

The bold-lined, brightly colored linocut illustrations nearly have the look of leaded stained glass, adding a reverence and majesty to the subject matter.  I never could have imagined that bacteria, lichen and diatoms (single-celled, ocean-dwelling life forms) could look so beautiful.  Any of the illustrations in the book would make a lovely piece of wall art.

Finally, each poem is paired with a paragraph of information about the subject of each poem, including the scientific name, average size, and additional info on the life cycle of each organism.  The book is appended with a glossary of science terms.  This is a book that belongs in every science classroom.  I borrowed my copy from the library, but you can be sure I will be purchasing a copy of my own to keep.

I borrowed this book from the library.


Poetry Friday is hosted this week by A Year of Reading.

Narrative Poetry

42 Miles 

by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, illus. Elaine Clayton

Clarion Books

2008

April is National Poetry Month, so I thought I’d review one of my favorite  genres: narrative poetry.  I love how each poem can stand on it’s own, or strung together tell a larger story.

Told in free-verse poems, this short novel explores the feelings of a girl whose parents have been long divorced, hence the “42 miles” that JoEllen must commute between them both.  JoEllen finds her father's move to the countryside tough to navigate, as she is forced to re-arrange her schedule around her divorced parents needs.  "Joey" spends countryside weekends with her father cooking, exploring the outdoors and visiting her cousin.  During the week, "Ellen" hangs with her friends, orders take-out and lives a totally hip, urban lifestyle.  She feels split and conflicted over this.  She misses seeing her pals on the weekends, she's tired of having to put on a brave face, and mostly, she's exhausted by the constant effort of censoring herself in front of her parents who each wish to see her as their own little girl, without the influence of the other parent.  

Lacking a King Solomon figure to protect her, JoEllen decides to take a stand for herself.  She insists that her parents call her by her own full name.  She demands that her father respect her own social calendar by not claiming every weekend with her and that he create a more welcoming space for her in his farmhouse.  She lets her mother know that she isn't willing to continue pretending to be someone else, or pretend that her father never existed.  JoEllen explains her feelings this way, “Mom doesn’t see Joey./Dad rarely meets Ellen./And no one ever asked/if that’s fine, just fine/with me.”

The book is illustrated with various “found” objects and realia.  Ephemera such as movie tickets, photographs, advertisements, recipes and ribbons make up a collage that symbolize JoEllen's pieced together life.  I cheered for JoEllen when she finally felt empowered enough to stand up to her parents and the school bully, give herself a make-over, and invite both her city and countryside friends to her 13th birthday party.