When I was a kid, I was in love with the works of Shel Silverstein. The rough sketches that illustrated his silly and wild poetry set in a wonderful graphic font on a pure white page was everything to me. My favorite poem of his is "Picture Puzzle Piece" from A Light In the Attic. The poem is about a lone puzzle piece laying on the sidewalk and it goes on to describe all of the things it could be: the apple from Snow White, a button, some old animal fur.... I think it was the first time I ever had a large abstract thought that we don't always see the whole picture when looking at something or someone. It's my earliest profound thought where I actively remember looking at the world in a different way.
So I was the kid who did like poetry and I'm now the librarian who loves when April comes around so we can dive into National Poetry Month! The books I'm reviewing this week are ones from the library that I teach out of and print off for students to read aloud, poetry slam style.
As a librarian, each of the books are ones that I would utilize in different ways. In the case of Bravo!, this one is very much about the people being featured, but the poetry style reads very simple and reads more like a Living Museum. The poetry is simple and concise enough that a student could memorize and repeat it as part of a biographical program in September for Hispanic Heritage Month. Dark Emperor is THE best collection here for reading aloud to students. This would be a great resource to use leading into the summer as a sort of camp-out themed program. With Out of Wonder, I would use this one to teach a compare and contrast lesson on. For example, I'd take the poem written in the style of Mary Oliver by Wentworth and have the students research maybe Oliver's "Wild Geese."
Bravo! Poems About Amazing Hispanics. By Margarita Engle. Illustrated by Rafael Lopez. Henry Holt and Company, 2017. 48 pages. $18.99. ISBN 9780805098761
Ages 8 - 12. In her introduction, Engle states that the poems in this anthology are written to celebrate the lives of famous, infamous, or forgotten-to-history Hispanics. Each poem features a person, their year of birth and death, and the modern name for their country of origin. The prose is written in first person and is a brief synopsis about what their person did during their lifetime. From a style perspective, this makes the collection as a whole rhythmic but also is lacking in a fervent spirit that would keep a reader engaged. Lopez's illustrations are a vibrant, digital style that includes portraiture of the person featured on each spread in a spirited color palette that outshines the written word. The back of the book features a brief a biography on each of the Hispanics listed in the poems.
Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night. By Joyce Sidman. Illustrated by Rick Allen. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010. 32 pages. $16.99. ISBN 9780547152288
Ages 6 - 9. This collection of a dozen poems are devoted to the natural world as evening sets in and into the dawn. Each poem is written with a rhythm designed to be read aloud to the intended audience or anyone else who enjoys poetry. The pages are laid out with a poem, an accompanying illustration, and a paragraph that delves more into the animal or plant being featured. Allen's illustrations are created with relief printing in black ink and then painted with gouache for the pops of natural color. Choosing this method allows the illustrations to lean into the idea of a world that exists in the night that's full of small details, creatures, and shadows. They lure the reader in to spend more time looking for what is hidden in the darkness, much like the poetry does.
Out of Wonder. By Kwame Alexander with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth. Illustrated by Ekua Holmes. Candlewick Press, 2017. 56 pages. $16.99. ISBN 9780763680947
Ages 7 - 12. Kwame Alexander has created a collection of poetry that celebrates this literature style and the diversity of poets who write it. The poetry within is written by Alexander, Colderley, and Wentworth in the styles of poets like Basho, e.e. cummings, Neruda, and Grimes. In his preface, Alexander states that his desire is for readers to delve deeper into poetry by using their works in this book as "stepping-stones of wonder." Ekua Holmes illustrates this book using collage and mixed media. Each page is illustrated with bright, bold colors that amplify the jubilant theme that runs throughout the text. The final pages include biographies on the poets they are highlighting along with the time periods in which they work and their country of origin.
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