Laugh-eteria by Douglas Florian

Florian, Douglas. Laugh-eteria: Poems and Drawings. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Press, 1999. ISBN: 978-0-15-202084-2.

SUMMARY

Any topic is fair game for fun in Douglas Florian's Laugh-eteria. Think school is serious? Read a few poems about teachers, subjects, substitute teachers, or the student who always causes problems, and you will begin to see the funny side of school life! Afraid of monsters or ghosts? You won't be after reading poems that show how ridiculous they can be! Each and every poem is sure to be a grin-winner, a laugh-blaster, and a chuckle-snorter from anyone who appreciates poking a little fun into everything and anything!

ANALYSIS

Douglas Florian's flare for finding fun in everything reveals itself in Laugh-eteria. He shows young readers that poetry doesn't have to be a serious, deep-thinking  form of writing. Poetry can offer a welcomed comical relief from the serious side of life, and Florian's gifts of a wonderful sense of humor and his skill for writing poetry create the perfect balance for a book of hilarious poetry.

Florian's ability to play with words so they fit just right into his poetry can be found throughout the book. His poem, "Good Humor" shows this: "The poems in this book/Are meant to be humorous./If they are not,/Please laugh just to humor us." He writes quick, short, catchy lines with words that are simple enough to remember and to repeat aloud. "Car Rot" is another example of a simple poem that plays with words that can easily be remembered: "Here lies my car/Now deceased./May its poor soul/Rust in peace."  While the book is filled with similar short and rhythmic poems, to include limericks, every now and then Florian will toss in a longer poem for good measure, but his mastery of word play continues to bring out the humor:

                               Good Conduct

                                Matthew made his teacher mad.

                                Teacher called his conduct bad.

                                Bratty Matty was aloof -

                                Climbed from the classroom to the roof.

                                Where he threw his socks and shoes

                                Onto people to amuse,

                                Till a passing lightning bolt

                                Shot through Matthew with a jolt,

                                Which at least proved Teacher wrong:

                                Mathew's conduct WAS quite strong.

The arrangement of the poetry, length of the poems, and the simple black and white illustrations throughout the book will appease the shorter attention spans of young children. The poems are not arranged by topics, but instead the topics can skip about. One set of pages can have poems about weather, and the next two pages can feature poems about an "Open Mind" or a "Brain Drain." Poems about ogres and monsters are scattered throughout the book in the most unusual places. Florian thoughtfully includes an Index of First Lines to help readers easily find poems that they have read and would like to read again. Laugh-eteria is a classic book of poetry that's sure to entertain young readers for years to come.

AWARDS

Parent's Choice Award, 1999: Silver Story Books, United States

SUGGESTED ACTIVITY

A fun poem that is set up to be read aloud by two readers is "Ogre Argument." Divide your class into two groups. Have one group read the poetry lines from the first column, and the other group read the lines from the second column. Make sure they read using ogre voices!

We're meaner.

                                                We're greener.

Our skins have scales.

                                                We swallow nails.

We've lots of warts.

                                                We're very bad sports.

We drip with drool.

                                                We lose our cool.

We're more horrific.

                                                We're unscientific.

We're mostly malevolent.

                                                We're largely irrelevant.

We're bellicose.

                                                We're gross up close.

Our heads are revolting.

                                                Our backsides are molting.

We cling, we clutch.

                                                Let's keep in touch.

Laugh-eteria: Poems and Drawings. Cover illustration. Internet on-line.  April 26, 2013 from http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=4674a0f991fd609075eb2035c09db2d3.

Seeing the Blue Between: Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets - compiled by Paul B. Janeczko

Janeczko, Paul B. Seeing the Blue Between: Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2002. ISBN: 0-7636-0881-5

SUMMARY

Have you ever wanted to be a poet, but felt as if you would never be able to pull off writing a poem? Then, this is the book for you! After reading all of the helpful, positive, and upbeat advice from some of the most famous poets today, you will feel poems beginning to burst from your imagination - waiting for you to put them into writing! Douglas Florian, Georgia Heard, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Jack Prelutsky, and many other famous poets give upbeat advice and samples of their own poetry in this wonderful collection of poets' advice and poetry for young (and older) readers! As Douglas Florian says, "Remember, in poetry, the only rule is that Poetry Rules!"

ANALYSIS

Paul B. Janeczko cleverly compiled a collection of suggestions and poems from contemporary poets in Seeing the Blue Between: Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets.  The poets' warm, inviting, and encouraging words of advice inspire their readers to find poetry in everything, no matter how small or large or seemingly uneventful.

Jack Prelutsky advises young poets to "exaggerate...make the ordinary special...and (finish with an) absurd conclusion..." Janet S.Wong encourages poetry writers to "Try to shout your poems out on a field, up in a tree. You may look completely stupid, but part of being a poet is being willing to put yourself out there, to open up." Wise advice comes from Naomi Shihabe Nye about  a common, critical component of poetry writing: revision. Revising is a dreaded task that students with great reluctance undertake, and she expresses her understanding of this when she writes, "I know revision is like an ugly word to you. I didn't love it when I was in school. If a teacher told me to revise, I thought that meant my writing was a broken-down car that needed to go to the repair shop. I felt insulted. I didn't realize the teacher was saying, 'Make it shine. Make it worth it.' "

Janeczko includes samples of a poet's poems that follow each poet's letter to the readers.  The format of the poetry varies: free verse, couplets, quatrains, and rhyming forms are found throughout the book. The selected poems appeal to younger audiences and include topics that range from school to holidays to animals. The selection fits the theme of the book: poems can be about anything and can be written in any way, but they all must be meaningful to the poet who creates them.

A brief biography for each poet, an Index of First Lines, and an Acknowledgement page conclude the book.  Seeing the Blue Between: Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets should be included in every classroom or school library.

BEST BOOKS

Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, Ninth Edition, 2005: H.W. Wilson, United States

Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts, 2003: NCTE Children's Literature Assembly, United States

SUGGESTED ACTIVITY

Make a Poet-Tree in your classroom. Throughout the year, students can hang poems (their own or favorite poems from books) from the tree's branches. Encourage the students to read their poems to the class prior to adding it to the Poet-Tree. Write the following poem by Michael Ducan on a poster board and place it on the trunk of the tree.

Letter to a Young Poet

Love words,

play with them,

find the meanings of those you don't know.

Learn to recognize

descriptive words,

reflective words --

all manner of words

for all manner of purposes.

Decide whether you like to write in rhyme

or in other forms.

Experiment,

invent words,

invent forms,

harness ideas,

fish for images

and metaphors.

Express your ideas

in words and forms

that suit you.

Find your own voice

even if it takes hard work

and many hours.

Traveling to a poem

is a journey to be enjoyed.

  

Seeing the Blue Between: Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets. Cover illustration. Internet on-line.  April 26, 2013 from http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=4674a0f991fd609075eb2035c09db2d3.

Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers - Edited by Betsy Franco

Franco, Betsy (Ed.). Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers. Cabridge, MA: Candlewick Press. 2008. ISBN: 978-0-7636-3437-7.

SUMMARY

Fall into the world of teenagers as they reveal their deepest feelings about love and sexuality through their poetry. Poems of joy, confusion, longing, and self-doubt fill this anthology of love poems that reveal the tender hearts of teenagers as they begin to experience the emotions that follow when love begins. The teens' poems are refreshingly honest and open - revealing to the world their innermost thoughts as they pass the stage of a child's crush on another child and enter the world of adulthood and deeper love. The poetry, sometimes humorous and other times serious, addresses sexual identity, love, and lust with a candor that reminds us that love can be both beautiful and painful to those who fall into it.

ANALYSIS

Betsy Franco's Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers opens the world of teenagers as they experience the adult emotions that come with falling in love. The poems' themes explore innocence, sexual identity, broken relationships, budding relationships, tired relationships, and many more tangled feelings that the teens pour out into their poetry as they begin to unravel and recognize the complexities of emotions born from love.

Free verse poetry fills the pages as the young poets use metaphor and vivid imagery to capture their feelings and release them into poetry.  Sixteen year-old Hector Jasso's  poem "Love is Like" uses simile to describe love: "Love is Like/the sweetness of honey/falling from a bee hive.//You have to be careful/not to get stung." In his poem, the image of the beehive and the tempting taste of sweet honey speak of the alluring call of love to a young man. However, his following lines that warn of the danger reveal that there can also be pain if a young heart is not cautious when approaching love.

The desire to be truly loved rings out from Ben Cuevas' (age 18) poem, "Fat Kid." His words create the rhythm and rhyme that carry the reader through the current of his poem as he expresses his need for human warmth: "...A stranger's touch can/become a crutch/used to/limp from bed to bed/to get some/drug-like fix of lust instead of/looking inside to/realize that/I may actually be worthy of love..." His poem continues, crying out for someone to see he is "bruised and broken by/thoughts unspoken of a /fat little boy who/lives inside the/shell I am today..."

Franco's choice of poems to include in her anthology cannot help but touch the hearts of those who read and appreciate the sensitive, and at times brutal, honesty of the young poets featured in Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers.

BEST BOOKS

Bulletin Blue Ribbons, 2008: The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, United States

Pure Poetry, 2008: Voice of Youth Advocates, United States

YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2009: ALA, United States

SUGGESTED ACTIVITY

Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers would be a valuable resource for professionals who work with teenagers (psychologists, counselors, etc.). If a teenager is in a  troubled relationship and/or finds it difficult to express feelings, then perhaps there is a poem related to the teen's conflict that can "break the ice" and help the teen to open up to a counselor.

Because of some of the mature subject matter included in this book, I strongly urge librarians and teachers to read this book prior to placing it in a library collection. I do recommend this book for high school libraries. High school students' maturity levels are better suited for understanding the powerful messages and emotions expressed in the poems.

In a classroom: After reading "Love is Like" by Hector Jasso to your students, have them create their own similes that describe how they feel about love.

Love is Like

the sweetness of honey

falling from a bee hive.

You have to be careful

not to get stung.

Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers. Cover illustration. Internet on-line.  April 26, 2013 from

http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=4674a0f991fd609075eb2035c09db2d3.

Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman

Sidman, Joyce. Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night. Ill. by Rick Allen. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2010. ISBN:978-0-547-15228-8

SUMMARY

Come and discover the secrets of the night through Joyce Sidman’s lyrical poetry and the exquisite art of Rick Allen in Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night. Night will capture and lead you through the secret events that unfold as daytime sleepers awaken in the forest. You will hear a spider’s wisdom, listen to crickets’ songs build to a crescendo, and witness the silent mushrooms rising from the forest floor. Each poem will reveal the beauty of nature found in the forest under the gentle protection of night. All poems will call you to return and enjoy the mystical world that wakens while the rest of the world sleeps.

ANALYSIS

Joyce Sidman skillfully weaves words into poetry that reveal the nightlife in a forest. Her poetry ranges from free verse, to couplets, to quatrains. Rhyming, rhythmic, and repeating lines or phrases are scattered throughout the book. Each poem is unique in both format and subject, but all poems together create an impressive image of the forest when darkness falls.

Her first poem "Welcome to the Night" sends a warm welcome to the stirring forest animals: "To all of you who crawl and creep,/who buzz and chirp and hoot and peep,/who wake at dusk and throw off sleep:/ Welcome to the night."  The poem continues, using descriptions that create the movement of animals as they rise from their daytime slumber, and the line, "Welcome to the night," ends each quatrain. In the following poems, her words continue to flow from the page. A snail is a "Shell-maker/Moon-maker/gleaming silver-bright." A tiny mouse honors the great horned owl in a shape poem. The shape takes on the form of an owl, and outside the reach of his talons we see "the tiny hiccup of my heart as I flee" when the mouse, filled with hope, quickly departs the owl's presence.

A great tree finds itself in a poem made of rhyming couplets that give magnificence to the mighty tree. A suggestion of Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" subtly concludes the poem when the tree reflects, "I do not rest, I do not sleep,/and all my promises I keep:/ /to stand while all the seasons fly,/to anchor earth,/to touch the sky."

Rick Allen's art debuts in this book. Beautiful relief print illustrations grace the beauty of each poem, the pictures as carefully and intricately created as the poems they complement. Along with his artwork, each poem includes a brief, wonderfully written informative passage to provide facts about each poem's subject.  At the book's end, readers will find a small glossary of terms found in the book. Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night is a classic to include in a poetry lover's collection of fine poetry.

AWARDS

John Newbery Medal, 2010: Finalist, United States

Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, 2011: Honor Book

Cybil Award, 2010: Finalist, United States

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, 2011: Honor Book Picture Book, United States

SUGGESTED ACTIVITY

The poems in this book call out to be shared in a science lesson or unit on adaptations. A fun poem to read with the students is "The Mushrooms Come."

From moss and loam

the mushrooms come.

From bark on trees,

from crumbling logs,

from musty leaves,

the mushrooms come...

As the poem continues, have the students read in chorus "the mushrooms come," while other students take turns reading individual lines. Feel the beat to the poem and have a student sound it out with a soft drumming. Reading this poem aloud with many students will certainly give the feeling of mushrooms slowly and steadily populating the forest floor.

Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night

Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night. Cover illustration. Internet on-line.  Retrieved on April 14, 2013 from http:// http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=cb05aae0609482338b0720ef2912133c

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman

Fleischman, Paul. Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices. Ill. by Eric Beddows. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1998. ISBN: 0-329-09677

SUMMARY

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices highlights the world of insects by using poems written to be read aloud by two people. It is by speaking the poems' words that the insects become active: a moth flirts with light in a frenzied courting dance, mayflies frantically live life in one day, a chrysalis marks the passage of time until it can become a butterfly. While each poem creatively describes the habits of insects, the format of the poems insists that the book be read aloud by two people. Paul Fleischman offers poems that are funny, thoughtful, and insightful for readers who love to hear poetry read aloud, and who love to read aloud with others.

ANALYSIS

Writing poetry requires an artist who can paint with words, and poet Paul Fleischman has taken his art to a new dimension in his book Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices. Using alliteration, rhythm, and rhyme, choosing words that create images of the insect world, and then merging them to blend - sometimes in unison, and other times as a solo - Fleischman's skill takes poetry to new heights.

Each poem is written in two columns that require a reader of their own. At times the words in each column are identical to each other, and other times the words may be different, but still spoken in unison. Parts of the poems may have the readers bouncing words back and forth, almost as they were insects flying in zig-zagging paths.  Fleischman captures the flight of a moth as it courts a porch light in "The Moth's Serenade" using this format:

                                                "...                                          Bright paradise!

                                                I am                                       I am

                                                your seeking

                                                circling                                  seeking

                                                sighing                                  circling

                                                lovesick                                sighing

                                                knight..."

When two people read this poem aloud, the frenzied flight of the lovesick moth becomes vivid. Fleischman maintains this feeling of movement in the insect world throughout the book.

The themes from the poems range from a moth in love to a harried worker bee to the maternal love of a digger wasp. Adding to the poetry are Eric Beddow's black and white pencil drawings of the insects. He embellishes them slightly by adding expressions. For example, the poor moth who is love sick over the porch light is shown holding his hands over his heart. Fleischman's poems and Beddow's drawings blend perfectly together in their clean, yet somehow complex, lines. Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices is a work of poetic art that must be heard to be fully appreciated.

AWARDS

John Newbery Medal, 1989: Winner, United States

Best Books for Young Adults, 1988: American Library Association YALSA, United States

SUGGESTED ACTIVITY

Provide your students with copies of "The Moth's Serenade," Water Boatmen," and "The Digger Wasp." Choose one of the poems and read it aloud by yourself. Discuss with the students how the poem sounded. Was it confusing? Could it be read correctly with just one person? After discussing this, play the following recording of "The Moth's Serenade," "Water Boatmen," and "The Digger Wasp" for your class.  Discuss how the two voices brought the poems to completion. Then, have students volunteer to choose a poem to read with a partner. How is reading a poem written for two different than reading a poem written for one?

Audio Link:

http://www.recordedbooks.com/audio/Joyful-Noise-3.mp3

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices. cover illustration. Internet on-line.  Retrieved on April 14, 2013 from http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=cb05aae0609482338b0720ef2912133c

The Great Frog Race and Other Poems by Kristine O'Connell George

George, Kristine O'Connell. The Great Frog Race and Other Poems. Ill. by Kate Kiesler. New York, NY: Clarion Books, 1997. ISBN:978-0-395-77607-0

SUMMARY

Join  a child as she explores the mysteries of nature found in the countryside. Beginning with spring, each season in the country reveals new discoveries told in delightful poems that capture each moment using vivid descriptions that awaken all senses. Watch the tiny tadpoles "snuggled in mud," feel the cool night breeze that stirs the ghost children, or find frogs to race in a summer night. Through this book of poetry, the beauty found in the country and the simple pleasures enjoyed by children will enchant readers of all ages.

ANALYSIS

Kristine O'Connell George's The Great Frog Race and Other Poems brings to life the joys found in the countryside. The poems, simple in format but deep in description, reveal the pleasures found when one takes the time to just hear sounds, observe sights, or inhale scents that surround us. In her poem, "Meadows," she uses a simple haiku to describe insects in the meadow:

                                                A cloud of white gnats

                                                hatching in the grass, swirling

                                                a summer snowstorm.

Normally one thinks of gnats as annoying little insects that buzz near ears and tangle in hair, but after reading her poem, they become artistic beauties that can remind one of winter, even when experiencing the heat of summer.

When describing the wind in "Spring Wind," she uses personification in her free verse poem. The spring wind becomes a graceful lady, "smelling of lavender"  with "long elegant fingers" who gently enters a home "for tea and scones" and then "After tea/she whispered her thanks,/lifted her silk skirts,/and rustled away." The words are soft and light, capturing the essence of the wind.

Kate Kiesler's oil paintings use soft colors and hues to accompany each poem. The illustrations match the tone of the book - gentle, fun, and wholesome. George and Kieler successfully capture the spirit of life in the country in The Great Frog Race and Other Poems.

AWARDS

Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, 1998: Winner, United States

Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award, 1998: Winner, United States

Best Children's Book of the Year, 1998: Bank Street College of Education, United States

SUGGESTED ACTIVITY

"Metal Bucket"

No one remembers when

(or even if)

they ever bought one.

One day, it's just there,

sharp and shiny

in the sun. Proud.

A thin strong handle,

lip rolled just so for pouring

smooth flat bottom for sitting.

Later, grayed and dented,

it is even friendlier,

loyal and steadfast.

A metal bucket

stays with its family

for life.

Share this poem with your students, reading it aloud. First read the title, the poet's name, and then read through it once. Pause...and read it one more time. Open a discussion by asking the students why this bucket is so important to the family. Imagine the ways it was used by the suggestions in the poem. Then, have a basket of common household items we use every day. Let students look through the basket and choose an object, and invite them to write about its value to a family.

Activity credited to: Kristine O'Connell George - http://www.kristinegeorge.com/teachers_guide_great_frog_race.html

and to Dr. Sylvia Vardell in her book Poetry Aloud Here!

Vardell, Sylvia. Poetry Aloud Here! Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 2006.

The Great Frog Race and Other Poems. cover illustration. Internet on-line.  Retrieved on April 14, 2013 from http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=cb05aae0609482338b0720ef2912133c

Science Verse by Jon Scieszka

Scieszka, Jon. Science Verse. Ill. by Lane Smith. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2004. ISBN: 978-0-670-91057-1.

SUMMARY

Told by his science teacher, Mr. Newton, that he will begin to "hear the poetry of science in everything," a young boy is cursed with Science Verse. Familiar tunes and poems no longer carry familiar words. Instead, science terms and facts replace the old familiar words. Classical poems take a new twist as Science Verse takes over and changes their meanings entirely. Will the young student forever be under the curse of Science Verse, or will he be able to once again recover his normal student self and be bored during Mr. Newton's science class? Read Science Verse to find out!

ANALYSIS

Jon Scieszka takes science to new realms in his book Science Verse. Using his quirky sense of humor, Scieszka turns tunes and poems into funny science-themed verses that are sure to make even the most serious scientist laugh.

Using rhythm and rhyming patterns true to the original poems' formats, Scieszka intertwines science themes and facts into the poems that put a whole new meaning to the verse. For example, in his poem "Water Cycle" Scieszka uses the rhyme "It's Raining, It's Pouring" and, using repetitive words, makes the water cycle seem like, well, a cycle! "It's raining, it's pouring./For H2O, it's boring:/ Precipitation,/ Evaporation,/ Precipitation,/ Evaporation,/ Precipitation,/ Evaporation.../Evening, night, and morning."

For Scieszka, nothing is sacred, and he turns to the classical, thought provoking poetry of Longfellow, Poe, and Frost to make the point that "the poetry of science is in everything!"  He takes Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," and turns it into a solar system experience in his poem, "Astronaut Stopping by a Planet on a Snowy Evening."  It begins "Which world is this I do not know./ It's in our solar system though./ I'm thinking that it might be Mars,/ Because it has that reddish glow." The remaining three stanzas continue to carry the reader through the astronaut's journey through our solar system and remain true to the original poem's format of rhyme and meter, yet the ending couplet (which will not be revealed in this review) is sure to get a chuckle from the reader, instead of the thoughtful musings Mr. Frost's original poem awakens. 

Lane Smith's illustrations add to the humor of the poetry. The characters' expressions, the colors, the visual display of detail mixed with large images make each page worthy of a good pause to carefully see Smith's depiction of Scieszka's poems. Science Verse is not for the serious minded who are looking for science facts. It is for those who enjoy a playful break and good laugh from the sometimes too serious side of science.

AWARDS

Parents' Choice Award 2004: Gold Non-Fiction

Golden Duck Award for Excellence in Children's Science Fiction Literature, 2005: Winner Picture Book, United States

Best Children's Books of the Year, 2004: Banks Street College of Education, United States

Notable Children's Books, 2005: American Library Association, United States

SUGGESTED ACTIVITY

Using the song "I've Been Working on the Railroad," Scieszka changes the words to fit the theme of a food chain in his poem, "Food Chain." Play the song, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" for students to refresh their memory of the original tune, or to introduce it to those who have never heard it. Then, after the students have the tune mastered, replace the original words with Scieszka's and enjoy a fun-filled song that will help the students remember a few key science words!

Food Chain

I've been working in the food chain,

All the livelong day.

In the middle of the food chain,

I've got no time to play.

Can't you see the green plants growing?

That's energy, okay?

Consumer eats up the producer,

Predators eat prey.

Who's for lunch today?

Who's for lunch today?

Don't you just wonder, who's for lunch today?

Predator or prey?

Predator or prey?

Eat or be eaten, that's the only way.

Science Verse. Cover illustration. Internet on-line.  April 6, 2013 from http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=fc7201583581dc8de0ec27730f351ec3

Science Verse

Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials by Stephanie Hemphill

Hemphill, Stephanie. Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials. New York, NY: Balzer + Bray, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-06-185328-9.

SUMMARY

Ann, Mercy, and Margaret find themselves caught in a web of deceit that begins when Ann discovers she can manipulate the elders in Salem Village to believe she has visions that reveal the identity of witches in their small community. As she becomes the center of reverable attention, Mercy and Margaret join with her to deceive the community, and soon they become valued for their ability to find and reveal the witches in Salem Village. While innocent people are hung based on the girls' testimonies, the girls enjoy privileges and respect otherwise denied to women and children in their town. Told in verse, each girl's thoughts and motivations are revealed as the lies grow bigger, and as they begin to worry about their own lives should the truth be revealed.

ANALYSIS

The Salem Witch Trials of the late 1600s continue to intrigue people who wonder about the gullibility of the superstitious elders and the motivation of the young girls that brought about the horrific hangings of innocent people.  In The Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials, Stephanie Hemphill explores this mystery in her fictional verse novel. The novel, told in first person from each girl's perspective, creates a believable and credible personality and character for each of the girls. Ann longs for love and attention, both denied by mother and father. The beautiful Mercy, an orphan of the French and Indian Wars, finds herself in the low social status of a servant to Ann's parents, with no hope for a future because of her status. Margaret, Ann's cousin, lives with her stepmother, who demeans her, and her father, who ignores her. However, once the girls begin to achieve a social status based on their visions, the elders begin to use them for their own purposes of "weeding out" villagers in subtle, but pointed ways.

Hemphill's use of free verse poetry allows for a fluid reading, almost as if the reader is reading a novel. The name of the girl whose point of view the poem expresses is written below each title's poem. Some poems do not include a girl's name below the title. These poems transition the reader into the next event of the plot. The dialogue and descriptions flow neatly, yet the words send out strong images of character's hidden emotions and Salem Village's desolate environment. 

The power of Hemphill's verse show as Ann Putnam Jr.'s character develops from an overlooked child to the mastermind behind the plan of the girls' selection of who will be the next witch. Early in the book, the poem "Ann Putnam Sr.," reveals Ann Putnam Jr.'s loneliness: "Mother never questions where/I have been. She notices not my entrance/into the house. But I note each patter of her foot.../'Will you teach me your way/to treadle?' I ask./But Mother hears me not."  As the story develops and Ann gains power, she uses the power to manipulate her mother. The poem, "My Mother," shows Ann's strength when her mother warns her, " ' Defy me never,' Mother says.//And I decide/'tis time Mother/learns to speak kinder/to Mercy and me." The lonely girl, who at one point was a sympathetic character, has become a powerful figure to fear.

Hemphill's poetry is strong and clear. Each poem can evoke feelings of loneliness, fear, dread, or horror as the events of the infamous Salem Witch Trials come alive in Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials.

AWARDS

Best Children's Books of the Year, 2011: Bank Street College of Education, United States

School Library Journal Best Books, 2010: United States

Lost Angeles Time Book Prize, 2010: Finalist Young Adult Literature

SUGGESTED ACTIVITY

While reading the book with your class, have the students volunteer to be characters from the book, and then read that character's lines in the poems during the dialogues and/or read that character's poem. Have students take turns reading different roles. 

Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials. Internet on-line.  Retrieved April 6, 2013 from  http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=fc7201583581dc8de0ec27730f351ec3

Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson

Nelson, Marilyn. Carver: A Life in Poems. Asheville, NC: Front Street, 2001. ISBN: 1-886910-53-7.

SUMMARY

Marilyn Nelson thoughtfully and carefully portrays the life story of one of America's most influential agricultural scientists, George W. Carver. The biography, told in poetic verse, begins when Carver, an orphaned slave, is raised with his brother as their own sons by a childless white couple, the Carvers, to whom the boys' mother had been a slave. Carver, always inquisitive and eager to advance his education, faces and overcomes the challenges of prejudice and discrimination in order to fulfill the destiny he feels is God's will for him. As the poems carry the reader forward through significant periods in his life, the reader grows to understand the gentle and artistic man behind the great agricultural scientist known to the world.

ANALYSIS

Through her poetry, Marilyn Nelson captures the essence and spirituality of George W. Carver in Carver: A Life in Poems. While other biographies of this incredible man may speak of his great accomplishments in agriculture, Nelson focuses on the man behind the science. Through her poetry, the reader comes to know him as a gentle person whose spirituality and belief in the goodness of mankind leads him to serve others through his gift of inquisitive intelligence. Supported by his foster parents, he leaves home at the young age of thirteen to embark on his quest for learning and serving others through the knowledge he gains.

Nelson's writes her poetry in a sophisticated style. She constructs her poems to reveal the speakers behind them by adapting the words to fit their voices, yet retains the poetic form of rhythm and meter. In her poem, "From an Alabama Farmer," the reader can picture the simple farmer who writes to Carver: "Dear Mr. Carver, I bin folloring/ the things I herd you say last planting time./I give my cow more corn, less cottonseed/and my creme chirns mo better butter. ../"  When reading this poem, the reader understands the simple education of the farmer, but also senses that Carver must not be an intimidating man who - because of his education- sets off airs, but instead he is a man who sees the souls of the farmers and they respond to his kindness.  Each poem has a different speaker, sometimes Nelson, and other times a person in Carver's life. The style and word choices make clear that she changes characters as the poems continue throughout the book.

The beauty of this book is that although the order of the poems leads us through Carver's life, as a biography should, each poem by itself carries its own message and image. In the poem, "Four a.m. in the Woods," the power of revelation emits from its words. "Darkness softens, a thin/tissue of mist between the trees./One by one the day's/unaccountable voices come out/like twilight fireflies, like stars./" As the poem continues, the dawning of revelation appears...at first slowly, but then suddenly in all its light: A moment of awareness.

Carver: A Life in Poems is a perfect memoir to a man who inspired so many in his lifetime and afterwards. The poetry calls the reader to slow down, to envision and contemplate the life of a simple man who not only influenced science, but whose life continues to inspire people to remain steadfast in the pursuit of their dreams. Included in the novel are photographs of Carver, his personal belongings, and people who he knew in his lifetime. Through the poetry and the photographs, the reader realizes the greatness of this simple and humble man who made great contributions to agriculture.

AWARDS

Coretta Scott King Book Award, 2002: Honor Book Author, United States

John Newberry Medal, 2002: Honor Book, United States

Flora Stieglitz Straus Award, 2002: Winner, United States

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, 2001: Winner Fiction and Poetry, United States

National Book Award, 2001: Finalist Young People's Literature, United States

  

SUGGESTED ACTIVITY

I recommend  Carver: A Life in Poems to be read in a higher grade level literature or history class, perhaps grades 8 -12.  Below is a link to several discussions derived from the poems. Marilyn Nelson wrote the discussion questions, which help provide insight into the poems for those who may be unfamiliar with Carver's personal life.

http://www.boydsmillspress.com/extras/front-street/guides/discussion-guide-carver-life-poems-marilyn-nelson

A sample discussion question using "From an Alabama Farmer"

Dere Mr. Carver, I bin folloring

the things I heard you say last planting time. 

I give my cow more corn, less cottonseed

and my creme chirns mo better butter. I'm

riting to you today, Sir, jes to tell

you at I furtulize: 800 pounds

to the acur las March. Come harves, well

it were a bompercrop. How did you found

out you could use swamp mock? I presheate

your answer Dr. Carver by mail soon.

What maid my cotton grow? It do fele grate

to see the swet off your row com to bloom.

I want to now what maid my miracle.

Your humbel servint, (name illegible)

“From an Alabama Farmer” (p. 39) is a Shakespearean sonnet. Discuss the sonnet form and its tradition. Look at a sonnet by Shakespeare. How does the language and subject matter of this poem break away from the tradition? Discuss the last two lines (the couplet). Are there other sonnets in this book?

Carver: A Life in Poems. Cover illustration. Internet on-line.  April 6, 2013 from http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=fc7201583581dc8de0ec27730f351ec3

Carver: A Life in Poems

Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape by J. Patrick Lewis

Lewis, J. Patrick. Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape. Ill. by Lisa Desimini. New York, NY: Scholatic Inc., 1998. ISBN: 0-439-08723-6.

SUMMARY
J. Patrick Lewis creates a fun-filled book of concrete poems in Doodle Dandies: Poems that Take Shape. Eye-pleasing poetry fills each page and entertains the reader with poems about animals, weather, sports, and nature. Lewis' cleverly shaped poems and Lisa Desimini's artwork will surely entertain even the most reluctant poetry reader, and perhaps inspire a reader or two to try writing their own shape poetry!

ANALYSIS

Doodle Dandies: Poems that Take Shape features poems in a visually pleasing and rhythmically delightful collection of J. Patrick Lewis's shape poetry. The poems' shapes reveal the images of their topics, yet retain their poetic devices so when read aloud, the poetry stands true to a poetic format. An example of this clever interplay between vision and sound is shown in his poem "Dachsund":  "Here comes the lady with the diamond ring/Walking a dog like a sausage on a string/There goes the dog with his nose in the air!/Walking the lady with the purple hair." The combined rhythm and rhyme of the poem almost sound like a song for jumping rope! Yet when viewed, the words in the poem take on the shape of a dachshund. To add to the image of the dog walking with a lady, Lisa Desimini uses photographs of a lady's hand with a huge diamond ring holding a leash. She also includes a photograph of a sidewalk and the shadow of a dachshund on grass as background for the shape poem.

Other poems use the sounds of words to create a mood that is fulfilled by the poem's shape. "Weeping Willow" uses soft-sounding words to create the sound and sight of wind passing by a Weeping Willow tree: "Her wind-woven hair softly sweeping". The phrase repeats for each of the tree's branches, gently falling from the top of the tree. The theme of the poem creates the tree's trunk:

In

a far

field

of

sad

ness

stands

the

wee

wid

ow

wee

ping

Lewis' ability to create moods in his poems continues throughout the collection. In his poem "Big Cat" the reader senses the power of the tiger at night, and in "The Oyster Family" the reader recognizes immediately the value of a mother in a home.

Doodle Dandies: Poems that Take Shape may appear, at first glance, to be a rather simple book of poetry, but once the reader becomes lost in the images and sounds, the beauty of each poem takes on a shape of its own.

AWARDS

Best Books -

Children's Catalog, Eighteenth Edition, 2001 - H.W. Wilson, United States

Children's Catalog, Nineteenth Edition, 2006 - H.W. Wilson, United States

Publishers Weekly Book Review Stars, June 1998, Cahners, United States

School Library Journal Book Review Stars, August,1998, Cahners, United States

SUGGESTED ACTIVITY

Doodle Dandies: Poems that Take Shape is a wonderful book to use when introducing concrete, or shape, poetry. Before showing the poems to your students, read "Creep and Slither" from the book and ask the students to draw pictures that illustrate the poem. When the artists are finished, show the poem to the students (using a document viewer if possible). Discuss with them how concrete poems are illustration and poem all in one! Share more poems from the book with them, and then have the students create their own shape poetry. Be sure to show off their original drawings of "Creep and Slither" in the classroom, perhaps surrounding Lewis' poem, and remember to exhibit their shape poems for all to see and read!

Doodle Dandies: Poems that Take Shape. cover illustration. Internet on-line.  March 2, 2013 from http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=016f03c47f80af1ef8a86d5eb6874f90