POETRY BY KIDS: Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky; Poetry and Prose by Lakota Youth at Red Cloud Indian School Compiled by Timothy Mclaughlin

Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky

Bibliography:

McLaughlin, Timothy P. Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky: Poetry and Prose by Lakota Youth at Red Cloud Indian School. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2012. 

Review:

Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky is artwork that is bound together to create a beautiful piece of art-erature (art+ literature). Each of the seven sections opens with a short excerpt about the subject title. These excerpts are a summary of sorts of the different themes that are present in the collection of poems. These excepts also guide the reader though the beauty of the Lakota Youth at Red Cloud Indian School.

The editor of the collection Timothy P. McLaughlin strings together many different formats of poems including free verse, haiku, extended metaphor, diamante, I am, and many more. The variety of the poems contribute to the versatility of the collection. In addition, to the different formats there is also many different perspectives that are present. From a hopeful child in I Still Dream to the solemn tone of Quiet. The feelings of the speaker and the mood they create for the reader are exemplary examples of how to create feelings within the reader. 

Furthermore the imagery that is used to explain their feelings is deep yet relatable. For example, in the poem Silence by Julia Martin she writes and repeats the line "Silence is the loudest noise I ever heard." The reader can connect to this moment maybe not in the same sad way, but every kid knows that feeling when silence seems deafening. I also like the line from Quiet by Tia Catches when she writes "Quiet is the ringing in the ear" while the line is so simple I think it shows children perfectly how irony is actually something that can be lived. 

Overall, the collection is one that should be shared to children throughout the year. I would use this as a reference when I wanted to teacher different literary concepts because the collection has a depth of different merits and should be spoken about as much as possible. 

Spotlight Poem:

The element of suspense is highly prevalent in the poem Ugly Life on Dirty Rez. The reader isn't sure of the poems mood or tone until the third line and even still there is a question of the connotation of dirty as you complete the final lines. 

Ugly Life on Dirty Rez

Life on
Life on reservation 
Life on reservation is dirty 
Life on reservation is dirty, filthy
Life on reservation is dirty, filthy dogs. 
-Dena Colhoff

Follow-up Activity:

As a poetry break, I would assign each word in each line to a different student to make a total of 23 assigned words, then I would have the students read this poem aloud a couple of times. The emphasis on life would become apparent and we could talk about the different symbols that life could mean in this poem. The poem has little variety of words, but that only makes the words that it does have more meaningful. Also, reading the poem aloud will help identify that emphasis. 

JANECZKO COLLECTION: Requiem Poems of the Terezin Ghetto

Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto

Bibliography:

Janeczko, Paul B. Requiem: Poems of the Terezín Ghetto. Somerville, Mass.: Candlewick Press, 2011.

Review:

Reading Paul Janeczko's Requiem allows the reader to inside the lives of the terrorized people at the Terezin Ghetto. Through different stories Janeczko speaks the stories of the saddened, scared, and angered inmates. The word choice and imagery that Janeczko ties together keeps the reader teared, yet continuously reading.

In the poem titled SS Captain Bruno Krueger the speaker recounts a time when two Jews tried to escape. Unfortunately, the Jews are recaptured and the poem describes through vivid word choice the "impracticality of defiance." Janeczko's voice in this poem is evil and articulates the true disdain of the Jewish people. The reader can feel the excruciating sounds of the life of a Jew in the Terezin Ghetto.

Furthermore, the imagery in poem titled Erich Rosenberg/43458 the reader can feel all five sense in a poem about the disgusting bedbugs. Appealing to the sense of sight Janeczko writes, "Filled with blood/they are the size of an apple seed." Simply picturing a bedbug, a typically unseen creature, the size of an apple seed makes my stomach turn. Similarly the line "in your mattress--/until it is time to crawl over you./Drawn by your warmth,/your breath,/they find a spot to suck your blood/injecting their saliva/leaving a blister, a rash/that must not be scratched." After reading this particular poem chills ran down my spine, knowing that nagging feeling of not being able to scratch or rid yourself of something so disgusting and as irritable as a bug bite.

In summary, Paul Janeczko strings together a feeling of authenticity and a sad yet beautiful piece of literature that is bound to stand the test of time. I am confident Requiem will be read by many new and old Holocaust Historians.

Spotlight Poem:

David epstein/ 12275

I wish I could kill one of them.
One.
A small number, no?
I would need no help.
Want none.
I would want my face
to be the last thing he saw before he died.
My face.
As the blade finds its way between his ribs--
at the instance I'd want him to see my face.
He would not know me.
I did nothing to you, he would think.
What he did, he did to all of us.
He would not understand
punishment for doing his duty.
I would like his last blood-choked moment
to be confused
before I heaved him
onto a pile of bodies on the hearse,
his legs, shoeless, hanging over the side.
I would like to feed him my Sarah's ashes
one spoonful after another
without pause
until he could no longer breathe.
Then I would force more ashes into his nose.
Whatever he choked down or spit out
I would replace with more
of my Sarah's ashes.
When he died I would cram
more ashes down his throat.
Dead or not
he must taste my Sarah's ashes.

Perhaps I would do nothing to him.
Nothing but watch him descend
into the hell of typhus,
fevered, slow of pulse,
vomiting down the front of his shirt,
clutching his wrenching stomach,
surrounded by friends and family
who could do nothing to help
except listen to his rambles
except clean up diarrhea
hour after hour.

Yes,
I wish I could kill one of them.
One.
A small number, no?
I would need no help
to deliver justice.

Follow-up Activity:

After reading the poem, I would ask the students "What senses did you use while reading?" The poem appeals to all five sense, but it would be a point of discussion for the students to discuss which sense stood out the most for the student.

I tried this in class just recently 5-1-15 and the students all had different senses that the poem appealed to, and we were able to discuss which sense were the most strong, and why for that person. Again I was able to reiterate that poem appeals to readers in different ways and for different reasons. 

FREE CHOICE POETRY: A Moose Boosh: A Few Choice Words About Food by Eric Larkin

A Moose Boosh: A Few Choice Words About Food by Eric-Shabazz Larkin

Bibliography:

Larkin, Eric. A Moose Boosh: A Few Choice Words on Food. Bellevue, Washington: Readers to Eaters, 2014.

Review:

A Moose Boosh is a playful spin on the French term amuse-bouche. Eric-Shabazz Larkin creates over forty delightful poems that are accompanied with a "graffiti" style photography. Larkin shares the poems of different characters as they tell their impassioned thoughts of food. Ranging from silly, to historical all the way to comical spins on Dr. Seuss classics, Larkin creates a masterfully delicious collection of yummy poems.

To keep with true form the book opens with a menu style table of contents guiding the reader through a tasty selection of poems for them to digest. Of course the book opens with its name sake "A Moose Boosh" and is followed by other savory poems; including, My Father is a Painter, and Sushi. My Father is a Painter tells the heart-warming story of a fathers food art through the eyes of his toddler son. The abab rhyme scheme flows similar to how the father creates a masterpiece dish. Sushi is a silly free verse poem accompanied by the adorably graffiti sushi art that makes the reader laugh and giggle.

Overall, what makes A Moose Boosh such a fun book is that everyone has an experience with food. Everyone has tasted or tried something that affected their emotions. Because of the books topic the reader can connect to the topics both serious and silly.

Spotlight Poem:

A Desk is Not a Dinner Table

You can eat dinner
at a round table
or a square table.
An oblong table
or a pear-shaped table.

But a desk
is not a dinner table.

You can eat dinner at the beach
or eat it on a boat/
Eat it in a bikini
or eat it in a coat/
Eat it upstairs.
Eat it outside.
Eat it feeling fat
or feeling thinner.

But a desk? No.
A desk is not a place for dinner.

Call it "food in face."
Call it "stuffing belly."
Call it the Internet
with toast and jelly.

Dinner at a desk
needs a re-label.
Because a desk
will never be a dinner table.

Follow-up Activity:

A Desk is Not a Dinner Table offers an assortment of literary and poetic techniques. There is clear repetition, a little rhyme scheme, and the use of punctuation to create rhythm.  I would read this poem aloud and focus on how the punctuation creates a tone of displeasure and annoyance. Then as a follow up I would have students brainstorm the weirdest, most comfortable, or even the most common place they have dinner, then draw from a list of tone words and create a poem about that place. I want to give them the tone, because often times students "don't know" how they feel so giving them a little guidance in that department will make for better poems.

PERFORMANCE POETRY: The Friendly Four

The Friendly Four by Eloise Greenfield and Jan Spivey Gilchrist

Bibliography: 

Greenfield, Eloise, and Jan Spivey Gilchrist. The Friendly Four. New York: HarperCollins/Amistad, 2006. Print.

Review:

The Friendly Four is a precious story of four friends who find authentic friendship despite their individual struggles at home. The book opens with Drummond a young boy who sick of waiting around for his baby sibling to become alert, so he can live his life. Alas Drum finds friendship in Dorene a young girl who is new to the neighborhood. Next the duo meets Louis who has been adopted by a new family and is new to the neighborhood as well, finally they meet up with Rae who is Dorene's cousin who is just visiting until her mother gets well. The story of these young friends is told in six parts each one articulating how the friends meet, what they do to have fun during the summer, and finally the dreadful goodbyes at the end of summer. Greenfield tells the story of each friend through verse and a form of dialogue. The poems bounce between different speakers with each speaker represented by a different color, in addition their are also lines written as "all" to indicated that this is a line spoke by each of the Friendly Four. '

Eloise Greenfield writes a touching story that should be spoken by a young audience. The verse picture book tells the complicated stories of four young friends dealing with lives difficult situations, but the voice and the word choice keeps the story age appropriate.

Spotlight Poem:

The poem Punished is read by all of the four friends and is best when it is read aloud. The poem is accompanied by a picture of each child looking out the window with a hint of regret for their poor choice from earlier in the day. The use of punctuation, specifically commas, gives the poem a rhythm that mimics that of a stream of thought. Also, the use of line breaks puts the emphasis on what the children have done wrong or what they wish they were doing. This would be a great way to teach purposeful line breaks. 

Punished 
All: I'm looking out my window,
wishing I hadn't done it.
I could be with my friends, right now,
having fun.
It's not as if we didn't know. 
We went where we weren't 
supposed to go.
The grown-ups had told us not to travel
beyond the corner tree. 
When they looked, they couldn't find us
not to forget to remember 
where we're supposed to be. 

Follow-up Activity:

Of course this poem has to be assigned roles and read aloud. So, I would do just that I would assign each group a page or pages depending on the number of students; then I would have those students read and act out each of their assigned pages. I can also see this entire book being used as a grade wide play or musical almost. It is so engaging and so many different ways for students to interpret the roles. The thoughts and feelings of each of the Friendly Four are well-crafted through a thoughtful voice, it would be heart-warming to see it being read to an audience of adults. 

HOPKINS AWARD POETRY: UNDER THE MESQUITE Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Bibliography: 

McCall, Guadalupe Garcia. Under the Mesquite. New York: Lee & Low, 2011. Print.

Review: 

Under the Mesquite is a verse novel that tells the story of Lupita, the eldest of eight, over the course of around eight years. True to the nature of a young adult novel, Under the Mesquite is a combination of coming of age events, including the devastation of  cancer and disease on a family, and specifically the implications of cancer in a Mexican-American family. Garcia-McCall creates a free verse novel that reads with the strong voice of Lupita. The emotions and thoughts of Lupita are so accurately articulated that you feel as though the young girl herself is telling the story. However, the descriptions are not childish in literary merit. For example, the line "the lawns looked well behaved/and boring. The grass grew obediently/ beside the clean sidewalks/along the paved streets,/each green blade standing upright/ like a tiny solider. While this is an innocent description of the grass and land in which her family now lives, it is not a watered down version of a description. 

The novel is also divided into six parts mapping out the life of Lupita through their losses and triumphs, and Garcia-McCall includes a helpful glossary of Spanish words and cultural references. Under the Mesquite also won the Pura Belpre Award for its outstanding work of literature for children and youth. The award is much deserved and accurately portrays the struggles and intimacies of a Mexican- American family. 

Spotlight Poem:

Chismosa, a word that is so often spoken in Hispanic families, a word that takes on its own meaning depending on the family and its usage, a word that is both endearing and punitive. In my own experience the word can become playful and silly as well as insulting and rude, and this poem does a similar pattern. In the moment when the mother calls her daughter a chismosa it is because she is embarrassed, but in the end you can tell that it was because she was taken by surprise at her daughters gumption. I like this poem because it shows the interpersonal side of a culture and its language.  

Chismosa

I thought I was being clever
by sitting just outside the kitchen window, 
but I was wrong. 

!Chismosa! Mami chastises me
when she catches me eavesdropping 
on her and her comadres.
Then she orders me to go scrub
the bathrooms, toilets, and all.

After her friends leave, 
Mami calls me into her and Papi's room.
"You embarrassed me today,"
she says, sitting on the edge of the bed
with her arms folded. 
...
"It's okay," I whisper
against her cheek. "I know."
My heart aches
because I have heard the word 
that she keeps tucked away
behind closed doors.

"What do you know?" Mami asks.

We lock eyes,
and she knows I know.

"Don't tell the others," she begs,
and I hold her while she cries it out.

Follow-up Activity:

As a follow-up, I would have students brainstorm a list of words that he or she uses within their family that can be used as an insult or a term of endearment. I would point out that it is these words that create a small family culture that contributes to an overall culture. I would also ask the students to share their list of (school appropriate words) so that students can enrich their own knowledge of various cultures, within a broader culture. 

SIDMAN POETRY: Meow Ruff by Joyce Sidman

Meow Ruff by Joyce Sidman 

Bibliography:

Sidman, Joyce, and Michelle Berg. Meow Ruff. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Review:

Meow Ruff is the epitome of well-written concrete poems. Every picture, every character and every piece of the book is a concrete poem. The illustrations aren't just delightful pieces of art, but rather each picture is a poem. While this is a children's book, the reader can stay on the same page for several minutes reading and discovering new poems within the illustrations. For example on page
four there are about eight different poems that don't just tell you what is happening, but show you through word position and concrete poems.

Furthermore, the illustration created by Michelle Berg are simple in design but detailed with words. For example, in the spotlight poem the words "black bottomed storm brewing" take on the beauty of the clouds and the storm, but still create an ominous mood.   Some of the poems pictures are accompanied by graphics that indicate a wag of a tail or a flutter of a crows wing. It is this attention to detail that makes Meow Ruff a unique, engaging, and versatile piece of literature.

Spotlight Poem:

This artistic display of poetry perfectly captures what is great about Joyce Sidman. There is so much to teach just on one page; for example, you can teach characterization and inferencing with the animals thought poems, you can teach figurative language with the onomatopoeia's that are present throughout the poem; you can teach tone and mood through the cloud formation poem. The versatility of this poem also stretches through age groups. It is simplistic enough for early readers to comprehend the different components, but it is thoughtful enough for advanced readers to investigate the intricacies of a concrete poem.

Follow-up Activity:

As a follow-up I would group students into pods of four and have them start a project that includes choosing a piece of figurative language and developing it into a children's concrete poem book. Having the students mimic the model of Joyce Sidman will help them deepen their understanding of grade level TEKS such as analyzing word position, punctuation, capital letters, and figurative meaning. (7.4A)

Social Studies Poetry: Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials

Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials 

Bibliography:

Hemphill, Stephanie. Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Balzer Bray, 2010.

Review:

Wicked Girls is a historical fiction-ish verse novel. The amount of research Stephanie Hemphill completed prior to writing this novel contributes to the perfectly formatted verse novel. Hemphill strings together the story of the Salem Witch Trials through the eyes of three young. The novel reads almost like a collection of poetic diary entries from the points of Mercy Lewis, Margaret Walcott, and Ann Putnam. These characters are based off of the real villagers who were at the center of the witch trials. It is through the format, perspective, and diction that Hemphill takes us back into the village of Salem to create a new insight into this historic event.

Hemphill's format ranges poems that are a few pages in length to poems that are short three stanzas. The poems are mostly descriptions of the young girls feelings and they thoughts about the world around them. The poems include conversations they have with others and their reactions to the other girls. Within the format is the change in perspective that Hemphill so eloquently transitions to and from. The reader gets to be inside the minds of these young girls as they transform from typical village girls of the time period to radical condemning pillars of history.

Other the other hand, the perspective shifts would be nothing without the captivating diction Hemphill uses to speak the thoughts of the afflicted young girls. Lines such as "I twist in the night/like a wrung-out rag,/ wet and worn,"create a beguiled imagined in the readers mind. As a reader you can't help but feel the anxiety building in each of the girls as they become more and more engulfed in their afflictions or lies. Stephanie Hemphill skillfully recreates the world of Salem through the eyes of the some of history's most mysterious girls.

Spotlight Poem:

The mystery of why and how the girls of Salem became afflicted is what students are always so stuck on when this piece of history comes up in the classroom. Hemphill's novel gives another view point on why/how the girls became afflicted, and helps students make their own conclusions. The poem young Ann writes about her mother is a glimpse of insight into the motivations these girls might have had to accuse fellow villagers.

Ann Putnam Sr.
Ann Putnam Jr. 12

Mother never questions where
I have been. She notices not my entrance
into the house. But I note each patter of her foot.

She treadles the spinning wheel
as though she weaves a song
of high tempo. I am mesmerized.

I set to work at her feet.
My hands sting just from drafting her wool.

"There are too many loose fibers."
Her voice is a whip.

I rub harder the flax between my hands
till the strands be perfect for the wheel.
Mother thanks me not.

"Will you teach me your way
to treadle?" I ask.
But Mother hears me not.

She hears only her own tapping
of the wheel.

She admires her yarn, refastens her bun
and motions me away.
"Go back to your study."

Follow-up Activity:

While it is obvious that this is a historical event, this poem lends itself to the societal politics that drives historic events. I would use this poem at the start of a research project on "what drives political change, historical events, and what really causes change in the world." I would ask the students to choose one event in history that caused long term change and research the roots of these changes narrowing it down to its smallest possible event. Just like Hemphill illustrates in her book, what could have happened if Ann Sr. chose to notice her child or teacher her treadle that day instead of sending her away? Would Ann feel the desire to be noticed to the point of acting out through afflictions? While the assignment would start out as a research assignment as it continued it would mold into a historical fiction assignment.