Major Poets and Awards: NCTE Award Winning Poet- Nikki Grimes

Planet Middle School by Nikki Grimes

Bibliography 

Grimes, Nikki. 2011. Planet Middle School. New York: Bloomsbury Childrens.

ISBN: 978-1-59990-284-5

Review

Planet Middle School opens with a poem that doesn't tie together until the reader reaches the last few poems of the verse novel. Throughout the novel the reader is anticipating the meaning of that first poem. Nikki Grimes, well-known for her authenticity of voice, creates the character Joylin. Joy is a middle school age African-American girl who spends the novel trying to navigate the often confusing time of a middle school girl. Grimes touches on the topics of family dynamics, body acceptance, and friendships. Throughout the novel, Grimes uses different poetic forms ranging from free verse to haiku. The poetic variety gives the novel a natural rhythm that keeps the reader flipping pages. Planet Middle School is perfect for a young girl who is on the brink of understanding the complications life has too offer. Grimes takes these classic young adult themes and gives them a voice all girls can relate too.

Grimes transforms these heavy-hitting themes into authentic poems about what a young girl struggles with early on in life. Grimes uses a figurative language, word choice, and emotional impact to create these concise yet spirited poems. For example, in the poem titled "Beginnings" Grimes introduces Joylin's best friend by describing how they met and their common interest basketball; furthermore, Grimes writes the line  "Jake doesn't talk much,/but the silences between us/are filled with friendship," the reader can immediately identify the feeling of true friendship between the characters. All readers have that friend that silence can be felt and enjoyed without feeling the pressures to talk, and Grimes strings together those words to perfect describe everyone's best friend.

In addition, she uses language like "'That's nice,' Dad whispers/ and turns away,/ letting all the air/ out of Caden's balloon/ and mine," to personify the feelings of disappointment children can feel from their parents. Another example of Grimes honing in on that relevant, authentic voice. Planet Middle School is a collection of poems that help guide the feelings of a young girl to a path of reflection and understanding of lives different milestones. 

Spotlight

One of the most unique poems titled Tom Boy questions this idea of what it means to be a girl when the girl doesn't identify with heteronormativities. The poem is filled with question marks that immediately speak to this idea of girls questioning what is forced upon them, a message often preached but not supported in the classroom.


Tom Boy

What does that

even mean?

And where did it come from?

And if there's a Tom Boy,

how come there's no Jane Girl?

I'm just sayin'.

Follow-up Activity

I would save this poem for my club of all girls. I would have the students corral read this poem to give it a sense of unity and understanding of the differences that exist within a group of girls. I would have the girls identify qualities that they consider to be unacceptable about a girl. I would have them identify a time they judged a girl they didn't know and why they made these judgments. After sharing these stories, I would have the girls think of a negative name they have been called and question its meaning to them and its impact on others when they use this name. Then I would have them create a poem that reflects their feels and emotions about the negative name, mimicking its punctuation and line length techniques. 

Major Poets and Awards: Florian: Poetrees by Douglas Florian

Poetrees by Douglas Florian   

Bibliography

Florian, Douglas. 2010. Poetrees. New York: Beach Lane Books.
ISBN:978-1-4169-8672-0

Review

Poetrees is a clever, informative, artistic book of poems about the diverse beauty of the life of a tree. Douglas Florian is an artist with both the brush and the tongue. Florian's book opens vertically creating an elongated treelike effect on the reader. Each page has a painting that is a visual representation of the poems meaning or topic. For example, on page one the first poem is appropriately titled "The Seed." The poem is short and the words are arranged in the shape of an infinity symbol to represent the cyclic nature of a trees and growth; in addition, there is an enlarged painting beneath the poem of the inside of a seed. The painting says as much as the poem itself. 

As the book progresses Florian dapples in different rhyme schemes and eloquently tinkers with different forms of poetry. On page 19 Florian uses the entire page to create a majestic piece of poetry about a Giant Sequoias. The poem takes on the AABB rhyme scheme; the line lengths range from two words to three words to four words per line that adds to the overall rhythm of the poem; finally a piece of art accompanies the poem transforming the words into a visual for the reader. For this particular poem Florain uses a combination of paint and clip art to create a Giant Sequoia. 

The word play throughout the book keeps a new reader laughing, smiling, and asking for more. As I read this particular book to a four year old he found the onamonapias and double meaning words in the "Bark" poem to be hilarious and wanted me to reread the poem as many times as I was going to allow. It was in his reaction that it became clear that this book is the perfect book to introduce the silly side of poetry. 

Keeping with the informative nature of Florian poetry books, the book caps off with a glossary of terms and trees used in the book. Because of this feature, I would utilize this book in an elementary science class before introducing the unit on tree cycles. 

Spotlight

The poem "Leaves" is a simple fun poem that ends with another perfect example of multiple meaning words. The poems simple descriptions of leaves makes the content reachable for new readers, but the word choice is still strong and rich.

Leaves

Lobed Leaves.
Oval Leaves.
Smooth leaves or jagged.
Heart-shaped.
Odd-Shaped.
Leaves eaten ragged.
Fan-like.
Light leaves.
Dark.
Leathery.
Feathery.
Leaves in a park.
Two points.
Ten points.
Points like a saw.
Lovely leaves.
Leave me in awe.

Follow-Up Lesson 

As I previously mentioned, I would use this book to introduce a science unit on the tree cycle and genetic variety because it generalizes the life of a tree and hints at the idea of genetic variety. I would model this poem after an investigation on leaves. I would have the young students collect and observe different leaves making sure they listed their different characteristics. Then I would read them "Leaves" and have them recreate the list form poem using the different descriptions they came up with in their observations. Having the students realize that science and reading can overlap in a meaningful way is a lesson that can make abstract poetry into something as concrete as science.






                                                        

Major Poets and Awards: Multicultural Poetry- Dizzy in Your Eyes by Pat Mora

Dizzy in Your Eyes by Pat Mora

Bibliography 

Mora, Pat. 2010. Dizzy In Your Eyes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

ISBN: 978-0-375-94565-6

Review

Dizzy in Your Eyes opens with an informative yet sincere letter to the reader. The letter explains that the book begins with free verse style and then progresses to stylistic forms such as haiku, sonnets, and clerihew. The letter continues with an example of a clerihew titled Pat Mora. To keep with the nature of the poems form, Mora's clerihew pokes gentle fun at herself as a poet. Following the delightfully explanatory letter, comes a book of poems that reach every emotion love has to offer.

As promised, Mora begins the book with a free verse poem titled "Weird" the poem, like other poems in the collection, Weird captures this minute feeling a person has as they attempt to reach out to another person of interest for the first time. Continuing, Mora writes poems that find these indiscernible feelings a person has as they are exploring the different angles of love in life, and she flawlessly strings words together to personify those emotions.

The poems are published on only the odd numbered pages with abstract graphic art on the even number pages. The upshot from publishing the poems on odd number pages is the flow that is created for the reader. As the reader finishes one poem the flow to the next is seamless and effortless. There is a sense of desire to see what emotion Mora is going to explore next. Another repercussion of printing the poems on odd pages is the helpful definition of the poetic form that is sporadically printed on the even numbered pages. Just as Mora mentioned in the letter to the reader she explores different poetic forms throughout the novel, and on the even numbered pages she defines the poetic form and indicates its usage in other poems throughout the book.

One of the most unique qualities to Mora's poems is the fact that the speakers of each poem changes from poem to poem. The reader is never really sure if the speaker is a boy, a girl, an older speakers, or a younger speaker. The poems are also just as wide as they are deep. They expand from the idea of "boyfriend" "girlfriend" love to sisterly love, to blended family, and split family love. However, the poems are open to personal interpretation. For example, the poem titled "Back Then" captivates the feeling someone has as they are remembering the feeling of excitement. The line "...and I'd feel like I'd swallowed a slice of sun" is written in past tense and allows the reader to interpret that as either a loss of the feeling or as a simple remembrance of person and the feeling they evoked for the speaker. Mora recreates this idea of personal interpretation throughout the collection which makes Dizzy in Your Eyes a collection that can be read over and over again.

As a side note: I got this book from the Euless Public Library and as I was reading I found that three poems were torn out of the novel. I think this fact alone proves that the poems speak to its readers and even motivates them to keep the poem for themselves. 

Spotlight 

The poem titled "Broken Home?" is a tanka poem that Mora notes is purposefully divided into two sections to show the passage of time. The first half of the poem highlights the traumatic experience children often experience as their parents make a decision to be co-parents and to not remain husband and wife. The word choice in part one reflects the voice of a young child trying to navigate the idea of what it means to be from a broken home. In part two the word choice reflects a young adult who understands that labels are for onlookers not for participants.  

Broken Home?

I

Long, sad, first weekend, 

my strange room: a cold, white box.

My brother pouts, cries.

Another first: Dad cooking. 

Is our home really broken?

II

Two houses, one home. 

Birthdays pull us together.

Singing heals our hurts.

Us four, always family, 

a home we make for ourselves. 

Follow-up lesson 

For this poem a follow-up lesson would be a more serious lesson for students and children that revolves around the theme just because an aspect of your life isn't considered "ideal" doesn't mean your life does have value or purpose. I would have the students identify something about themselves that they would consider atypical including: divorced parents, a blended family, an LGBT family unit, also including personal irregularity such as: attention deficient disorder, dyslexia, dysgraphia, too tall, or too short, anything the student feels makes them different, Then I would have them plot out a tanka poem of their own that captures their feelings about their difference.