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What Will You Be, Sara Mee? by Kate Aver Avraham, illustrated by Anne Sibley O’Brien

Sara Mee is about to celebrate her first birthday.  For Korean Americans, that means that she will participate in a special game called toljabee which will predict what she will be when she grows up.  Her older brother Chong can’t wait to see what items she will pick from the table.  But first there is plenty of preparation for the big day, including special clothes for Sara Mee, great food, and music.  When the time for the game comes, Chong is allowed to help set the items before Sara Mee.  What will she pick?

Part of the specialness of this book is the depiction of the extended Korean family, some who still live in Korea and others who live in the United States.  There are grandparents, aunts, uncles, and more who bring the event and the book to life, filling it with faces and noise.  Avraham’s text is sprinkled with Korean words and written in a light tone that invites the reader into this family get-together.  O’Brien’s art is done in ink and watercolor.  The smiles on all of the faces as well as the use of bright colors really create a book filled with joy.

A welcome book about Korean Americans and traditions, this book should find a place on library shelves across the country.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

In honor of the day of love, I’m celebrating Dizzy in Your Eyes; Poems About Love, Pat Mora’s new collection of poetry (Knopf, 2010). Don’t miss this innovative anthology of nearly 50 poems about all kinds of love, a chocolate box of many flavors and forms of poems (clerihew, tercet, list, dialogue, blank verse, tanka, letter poem, pantoum, sestina, villanelle, sonnet, cinquain, anaphora, haiku, acrostic, triolet, blues, couplet, lyric, ode, and song) with brief notes on each form in the “wrapper.”

There is clearly a youthful point of view and voice, but the poems reference love of parents, friends, family, pets—acknowledging the depth of feeling in many relationships and at many stages of life. (“Old Love” about an uncle’s mourning his wife’s passing is especially beautiful and poignant.) Besides the variety of forms and voices, many poems also incorporate Spanish words, always in a clear and musical context that adds another layer of sweetness. “Ode to Teachers” is particularly special to me and appears twice, once in English, once in Spanish.

I predict these poems will really resonate with young readers in middle school through high school, although older elementary school age readers will enjoy and understand the poems, too. There is great sensitivity and heart, without being explicit or scintillating (read: safe for school libraries), yet the emotions are often intense and authentic. And the look of the book is so accessible and inviting. The “psychedelic” cover in black/white/red circles and swirls is crazy-fun and a parallel grayscale geometric design of patterned circles and stripes decorates the book throughout giving it a strong, graphic impact. In fact, there is no poetry on the pages on the left side throughout the book—every poem begins only on the pages on the right-hand side—which I think kids will love. Plus they’re placed perfectly on the page, in an inviting font in this small trim size (5x7) volume. Congrats to the book designer for these judicious and effective choices!

Finally, I think the kids will also enjoy performing many of these poems, particularly since the voices and points of view are so strong and varied—that would come alive when read aloud. “Doubts,” for example, is constructed with a series of questions, which would be so powerful read aloud with a different person reading/reciting each question, beginning:

Doubts, p. 11
By Pat Mora

What if guys think I can’t kiss because I can think?

What if I ask her out and she laughs?

Believe it or not, that poem reminds me a bit of Shel Silverstein’s poem “Whatif” that I’ve used with many, many groups of kids for reading aloud and it always gives me gooesbumps (and the kids respond strongly too) when hearing the different “worry” lines voiced by the kids who FEEL those worries. Powerful stuff!

Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore, illustrated by Kristi Valiant

Cora always got stuck with the kid jobs when her mother cooks like licking the spoon and drawing in the flour.  So when her older siblings head out of the house, Cora asks her mother to make pancit.  Cora’s mother gives her the red apron that belonged to her grandfather who was a cook.  After washing her hands, Cora gets to help with grownup jobs like shredding chicken, checking the soaking noodles, and stirring the hot pan.  When the family sits down to dinner, Cora is nervous.  Will her pancit taste good?

This is a very warm book with a bustling, busy family.  It really speaks to the relationship of a mother and daughter, the way that traditions and foods are handed down to the next generation, and the pleasure children get from being part of creating and learning.  Gilmore’s text is joyful as it explains Filipino foods and heritage, giving us glimpses of the family history along the way.  Valiant’s art with its warm, deep colors show us a family that is familiar but has its own particular culture. 

A glowingly friendly look at a loving Filipino family, this book will have you hungry for your own family recipes and offers a great venue to discuss everyone’s particular family heritage through food.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Interview with Kristi Valiant at Elizabeth Dulemba’s blog.

Also reviewed by Paper Tigers, The Picnic Basket, Jama Rattigan’s Alphabet Soup, and BookDragon.

Once again I find myself apologizing for being gone awhile. I think I hit the blog “wall” and ran out of steam for a bit, but I’m back with a slew (as we say in Texas) of poetry news!

One of my favorite teaching resources, Book Links magazine, has merged with it’s parent, Booklist, to become a regular supplement beginning this month. It’s still full of all kinds of wonderful items with a focus on social studies in this issue, including articles about war, heroes, persecution and intolerance. (Our October issue of Bookbird has a similar focus, interestingly enough!)

My “Everyday Poetry” column looks at works of fiction published this year that feature characters reading and writing poetry, including:

• Bella and Bean by Rebecca Kai Dotlich
• Stanza by Jill Esbaum
• Gooney Bird is So Absurd by Lois Lowry
• Also Known as Harper by Ann Haywood Leal
• Metamorphosis by Betsy Franco

In addition, the author of each of these books was kind enough to share a few great comments with me which are included in the piece. (Thank you, all!) The full text is available at BooklistOnline (but I can't seem to get the link to post here-- sorry!).

And look whose book is featured on the COVER of this issue of Book Links… drum roll… Laura Purdie Salas and Stampede! Go, Laura! I reviewed Stampede earlier this year and just loved it and she was kind enough to provide the unpublished poem that is featured in this October issue of Book Links. Her poem is “Fiesta,” inspired by fond memories of her Spanish teacher Señora Everson and captures the fun of a foreign language class taught by a teacher with pizzazz, full of the interlingual (25 cents please) use of Spanish. You’ll have to get the magazine to get your hands on that poem, but it comes with permission to reproduce it! Thank you again, Laura, for sharing this gem.

Join the rest of the Poetry Friday crew with Kelly Herold at Crossover this week.

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2009. All rights reserved.

Image credit:booklistonline

My Little Round House by Bolormaa Baasansuren.

Jilu was born into a round world.  His cradle was round and soft.  His home, a ger, was round with a round hole at the top.  And the nest he rode in when they moved was round.  Jilu lives in a nomadic Mongolian family, moving each season.  Each time they move, they rebuild their round home, living there until another season has passed.  When summer comes around again, Jilu is a year old, happily playing under the largest roundness of all, the sky.

This book is a vivid depiction of a culture we know far too little about.  Created by Baasansuren, a native Mongolian, the illustrations are filled with small details of daily life.  Resembling folk art, they are warm, familial and colorful.  The words of the book are simple and a pleasure to read, offering the same rhythm as the seasons.  There is a sense of time here that is unusual in our culture as well as a connection to the earth.  People in the U.S. are struggling to find this sort of easy relationship with time and our world.  Here is a picture book that exemplifies a culture where that is simply a part of daily life. 

Highly recommended as a great glimpse into another culture and way of living, this book is appropriate for ages 5-7. 

I’ve written about poet Janet Wong and her work many times in the past, but she alerted me to a wonderful tidbit recently. Another reader took her “poetry suitcase” idea and tried it out with her own children—who are only 2 and 3 years old. Their responses were AMAZING! She reports that they were able “to listen to me read poetry for 90 minutes!” [Note that they also asked to read the poem again… and again… and again. I don’t think we repeat and reread poetry nearly often enough, IMO.] Here's the link to Minerva Canto’s blog posting at Mama Without Borders.

The secret? She made poetry physical, touchable, kinesthetic. She had the actual objects that were named or described in the poems, tied with twine to a copy of the poem itself. Poem + object x tied together = I get it! This concrete approach is just what young children need since they learn so much by touching. What a great display this could also make for a desktop or library. And I think it would be wonderful to get kids involved in choosing their favorite poems and selecting or even creating the corresponding objects. I even like the idea of a physical suitcase to hold it all. Minerva writes about a beautiful container that she creates herself covered in her children's art work—which is terrific—but I am also a fan of scavenging for old suitcases at thrift stores and garage sales. In any case, this use of poetry props is something worth revisiting—even with older kids who might be intrigued by finding objects for more abstract “grown up” poems. For example, what object would you tie to “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”? A bell to jingle? A toy horse? A paper snowflake? And why?

For Poetry Friday, I’d like to mine a gem from Janet’s book, A Suitcase of Seaweed (Simon & Schuster, 1996). This is one of my favorite books, with poems organized in three categories reflecting the three cultural strands of her background: Korean, Chinese, and American. She manages to express her own cultural conflict/celebration while channeling emotions and experiences that anyone with dual or multiple heritage can relate to (like me with my German and American identity). Grab a fork and a pair of chopsticks and tie them together with this poem:

Albert J. Bell
by Janet Wong

Forty years of friendship
with my grandfather,
and still Uncle Al cannot eat
with chopsticks.

Forty years of friendship
with Uncle Al,
and still my grandfather forgets
to offer him a fork.

p. 17

[Link this poem with the picture book How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina Friedman and illustrated by Allen Say (Houghton Mifflin, 1984).]

For more physical, hands on poetry+object connections, look for these poetry books, in particular (although MANY books lend themselves to hands-on connections, of course!):

Adoff, Arnold. 2000. Touch the Poem. New York: Blue Sky Press.
Frank, John. 2008. Keepers: Treasure-Hunt Poems. New York: Roaring Brook.
George, Kristine O’Connell. 2005. Fold Me a Poem. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace.
Hopkins, Lee Bennett, comp. 1996. School Supplies: A Book of Poems. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Schertle, Alice. 1996. Keepers. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard.
Worth, Valerie. 1994. All the Small Poems and Fourteen More. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Join the rest of the Poetry Friday round up at Carol's Corner. See you there!

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2009. All rights reserved.
Image credit: www.weeklywriter.org

For those of us who live and breathe by the school year, June marks the end of the academic year—and the beginning of summer school—for me. It’s a time to clear the decks, perhaps slow down a bit, and reflect. One of my favorite people, poet April Halprin Wayland, has written a new (not-poetry) picture book that encourages just such reflection. It’s about the upcoming Jewish holy day of Rosh Hashanah, focused on the cleansing ritual of “Tashlich.” It has the wonderful title of New Year at the Pier, illustrated by Stéphane Jorisch and published just this month by Dial. [Note: Rosh Hashanah will start on Saturday, the 19th of September and will continue for 2 days until Sunday, the 20th of September.] In the most lyrical language, she shares the worries of young Izzy who is struggling with his “I’m sorry” list of things he needs to apologize for.

I was reminded of the difficulties my own son had owning up to his mistakes and apologizing for them when he was little—such a tough lesson for all of us (and some people never learn it!). The story moves quickly and directly through the process of the ritual in language and examples that are so real and relevant for readers of all ages.

I love books that reveal cultural and religious traditions to children in wonderful details that are relevant to their young lives. April’s New Year at the Pier reminds me of another gem (that is not-poetry by one of my favorite poets) by Janet Wong, This Next New Year, illustrated by Yangsook Choi (Frances Foster Books, 2000). Her book focuses on the lunar new year, but includes the same kinds of cleaning, cleansing, and preparatory activities—and gets kids involved.

I am also reminded of an old Girl Scout tradition at summer camp to write down something that is bothering or worrying you and then burn that slip of paper in the campfire and the end of camp, letting it go, and beginning again. Not a bad idea, any time of the year.

April’s Web site is also newly refurbished and full of wonderful links—including her new Teaching Authors collaboration with 5 other writers, which is such an excellent resource. You’ll also find some “extras” for New Year at the Pier here, including photos of April and friends celebrating Tashlich in California!

And for a poetry connection, I’d like to share one of April’s wonderful poems that is almost an ANTHEM for me and my blog—since I consider myself an evangelist for reading poetry OUT LOUD with kids. Enjoy!

HOW TO READ A POEM ALOUD
by April Halprin Wayland

To begin,
tell the poet’s name
and the title
to your friend.

Savor every word—
let
each
line
shine.

Then—
read it one more time.

Now, take a breath—
and sigh.

Then think about the poet,
at her desk,
late at night,
picking up her pen to write—

and why.

And if you’ve never read April’s graphic novel-in-verse, Girl Coming in For a Landing (Knopf, 2002), be sure to put it on your summer reading list. (It even has a poem about underwear—a theme from last week!)

Sara Lewis Holmes has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Read Write Believe.

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2009. All rights reserved.
Image credit: www.teachingauthors.com

Every Human Has Rights by National Geographic.

In classic National Geographic style, this book is filled with incredible photographs of people from around the world.  Each photo tells a story, which brings the text of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights to life.  Powerful and gripping, this book gives readers glimpses of the horrors around the world but also the strength and resilience of its peoples. Each line of the Declaration is accompanied by photographs with captions as well as a poem or statement by a young person that goes with that part of the Declaration.  Readers can modify it depending on their age.  Teens will enjoy the poems and statements while younger children may find them too intense.

Each line of the Declaration is simple and strong.  The accompanying photographs are fascinating and one lingers over them, looking into the eyes and faces and finding kinship there.  When I shared this book with my 7-year-old and 12-year-old we got to talk at length about tough issues like torture, the Holocaust and human rights in general.  Any book that offers me that opportunity is worth reading and sharing.

Appropriate for a wide range of ages depending on how it is used: 7-14.

I love that National Poetry Month ends on the celebration of El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day). Also known simply as Día, it’s all about advocating literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds, culminating every year on April 30.

Poet and writer Pat Mora has authored a brand new picture book commemorating Día: Fiesta!: Celebrate Children's Day/Book Day; Celebremos El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Rayo, 2009). Booklist reviewer Andrew Medlar wrote, “How very appropriate that the first trade book about Children’s Day/Book Day should be enthusiastically penned by the founder of this holiday, celebrated annually since 1996 on April 30, the same date as Mexico’s Day of the Child. This call to arms for connecting kids and books exhorts everyone to read and have fun in whatever language and locale they choose.”

Backmatter includes ideas and suggestions for celebrating Día in your community. Plus, you’ll find tips at Pat's Web site, at ALSC headquarters and at the Texas Library Association web site.

And if you’re looking for poetry to celebrate world cultures, I’d like to make a plug for a book I mentioned earlier this month (a 2009 White Ravens list book), and just got my hands on (thank you, Dani). Yes, it comes from New Zealand, but it makes a completely unique contribution and is worth the hunt. It’s My Village; Rhymes from Around the World collected by Danielle Wright (Wellington, NZ: Gecko Press, 2008).

Not only does Wright include simple folk rhymes from a variety of countries (New Zealand, China, Australia, Norway, Ireland, Tonga, Jamaica, Japan, Zimbabwe, Fiji, Indonesia, Denmark, Iran, Germany, Samoa, Switzerland, Russia, Brazil, France, Holland, Iceland, and India), but she includes the poem in three versions (when applicable): in the original language and the native alphabet, the transliterated version in the Roman alphabet of English, and also in English. That’s a grand slam!

Here’s one fun example from RUSSIA:

Hush You Mice
from Russia

Hush you mice! a cat is near us,
He can see us, he can hear us.
--What if he is on a diet?—
Even then you should be quiet!

Wright, Danielle (Ed). 2008. My Village; Rhymes from Around the World. Wellington, NZ: Gecko Press, p. 40-41.

Plus, the English versions are quite charming and musical, don’t you think? That’s not an easy feat when translating multiple languages, as well as in conveying the terse verse of nursery rhymes. Impressive! The illustrations by Mique Moriuchi add so much appeal (see a sample on the Web site) with colorful tissue paper collages.

GOOD NEWS: if you just cannot get your own copy of this book, Wright keeps a rich Web site with an extensive collection of “International Nursery Rhymes” organized in general by the continents: Europe, Asia, the Americas, the Pacific and Africa. Lots of good stuff here, too. Happy Día!


Image credits: www.harpercollinschildrens.com;http://www.itsasmallworld.co.nz/

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2009. All rights reserved.

This is another fantastic poem-in-a-picture-book by Walter Dean Myers in the tradition of Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam (which I loved), a gritty, story-poem suitable for tween and teen readers. In this case, however, Myers has created a love story rooted in the “Swan Lake” ballet story. Cool, huh?

Myers provides a fascinating introductory “HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS POEM” that considers the cultural roots of the folk story, the grace and drama of the ballet, and the violence and power of Tchaikovsky’s musical score. He sets the story in the red brick Swan Lake Projects in the city “teeming with life, alive with the everpresent promise of youth.”

The story unfolds in four “Acts” beginning with the Prince’s mother cautioning her son about the city’s violence and pleading with him to settle down. In a Romeo-Juliet “meet-sweet,” Amiri is in his element, playing basketball, when he spies the dancing Odette, and it’s love at first sight. She warns him of the spell she’s under, “I’m forever bound in shadow/ A prisoner to my pain.” If he proclaims his love to her and her alone, she’ll be saved. He eagerly does so and invites her to his party…

“Odette!” HE CALLS.

“Amiri!” SHE RESPONDS.

She pulls him with a stunning glance
Across the crowded floor.
Until kiss-close they begin the dance
That will flame his heart once more.
They dance like mist on water,
As light as summer breeze.
He touches her waist—she kisses his cheek.
Her eyes begin to tease.
They dance like salsa angels.
They cling like summer vines.
He begs for more—
she moves away.

“ODETTE, WILL
YOU BE MINE?”

Myers, Walter Dean. 2009. Amiri & Odette: A Love Story. Ill. by Javaka Steptoe. New York: Scholastic.

Unfortunately, it’s Odette’s evil twin and “O muffle the drum and mute the horn/ From love’s demise, despair is born!” In a positively Shakespearean conclusion, Amiri fights and defeats the evil Big Red (a drug dealer) and the lovers are reunited “Where joy lives in spite of sorrow/ And gladness now denies tomorrow.”

The book flap calls Amiri & Odette “part rap and rhapsody”—Amen! This lyrical telling is fast-paced and musical, with beautiful phrasing:

“A pane-shattering scream.
A scream-scattering pain”

And Javaka Steptoe’s art is the perfect complement, dark and textured, suggestive of a cityscape mural, with its painted-on-cinder-blocks illustrations. In an ARTIST’S NOTE at the end he shares that the “images are rendered with acrylic paint on slabs of asphalt” and he has “embellished the collages with candy wrappers, gold plated and 14k jewelry, newspaper, plastic bags and other items to give them a three-dimensional quality.” Add to this the use of white text on the dark backgrounds, with occasional juxtaposition of colored text, ALL CAPS, and syncopated spacing and indenting, and the words splay graffiti-like across the gravelly art. The overall effect is graphic and compelling and may inspire teen artists to create their own found art using available resources.

In the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, Walter Dean Myers notes the many dancers who have “demonstrated that the classical arts could be brought into the urban arena to great effect” and I believe his new interpretation of Swan Lake (in Amiri & Odette) is a significant contribution to this tradition. I can definitely envision teen groups or troupes performing this as a choral reading, rap, pantomime, or dance—complete with mural backdrops created by peers. It’s an inspiring homage to the classic poetic and balletic story tradition—made fresh and new for young audiences.

Image credit: bookreviewsandmore.ca

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2009. All rights reserved.

I have another Latino poetry collection to share-- this one has the added advantage of being bilingual in English and Spanish: Jorge Argueta’s Sopa de frijoles/ Bean Soup, illustrated by Rafael Yockteng.

This book really snuck up on me and I just have to share it with everyone. It’s a long segmented poem spread out across 14 pages of text (always on the left) accompanied by rectangular paintings framed in white (always on the right hand side). This pleasing, predictable format makes it easy to read either or both the Spanish and English poems (with the Spanish poem placed immediately above the English poem—a subtle thing I really appreciated). The paper is thick and creamy and the little boy pictured in every scene is an engaging “everyboy.”

Add to this the fact that this is truly a recipe with instructions for cooking. All contained in a poem full of metaphors and similes. Here’s just a “taste.” (I’ll post both the Spanish and the English version for this page of the poem.)

El aguita hierve y canta.*
Los frijolitos bailan unos
con otros.
El aguita se ha vuelto
morena como el color
de la Madra Tierra.

Tu casa
está olorosa
como la tierra
en las primeras
lluvias de invierno.

+ + +

The water boils and sings.*
The beans dance
together.
The water has turned brown
the color of Mother Earth.

Your house
smells wonderful
like the earth
after the first
winter rains.

Argueta, Jorge. 2009. Sopa de frijoles/ Bean Soup. Ill. by Rafael Yockteng. Toronto, ON: Groundwood.

*A note at the beginning of the book alerts us to the fact that “all stages of the recipe that are marked * require the participation or supervision of an adult.” Smart move! Very essential for safety when cooking with kids and completely unobtrusive to the poem.

I love that Argueta has written BOTH the Spanish (first) and the English versions of the poetry. It is SUCH a challenge to capture the music and magic of poetry in ANY language, much less in TWO languages, but he clearly has a gift for it and knows his own intentions better than anyone in providing the translation.

I was familiar with Salvadoran poet Jorge Argueta’s previous poetry book, A Movie in My Pillow/Una película en mi almohada (Children’s Book Press, 2001) which I really enjoyed. But I didn’t realize that he has also authored another collection in the interim that I have missed:

Talking with Mother Earth/Hablando con Madre Tierra (Groundwood, 2006)
[Have you noticed how many smart and wonderful poetry books Groundwood publishes? Particularly from many countries around the world?]

And for more Latino poetry about food and foods, look for:
Ada, Alma Flor. 1997. Gathering the Sun. New York: Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard.
Alarcón, Francisco X. 1997. Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems/Jitomates Risuenos y Otros Poemas de Primavera. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.
Mora, Pat. 1998. Delicious Hullabaloo/Pachanga Deliciosa. Houston, TX: Pinata Books.
Mora, Pat. 2007. Yum! Mmmm! Que Rico!: America's Sproutings. New York: Lee & Low.

And of course, you absolutely, positively HAVE to make bean soup after reading this book. You can almost smell and taste it as you read the poetry and the directions are amazingly clear and easy to follow. The book flap calls bean soup “comfort food for many”—a good reminder and a worthwhile discussion to have with kids as they experience it firsthand.

Image credit: search.barnesandnoble.com

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2009. All rights reserved.

If you’re spending time with family this weekend, Eloise Greenfield’s new poetry collection, Brothers and Sisters: Family Poems (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2009) is a lovely gem to share. This picture book anthology includes 25 poems arranged in three categories: “Brothers,” “Sisters,” and “Brothers and Sisters” with 7-9 poems in each section and this fun opening poem:
Brothers and Sisters
by Eloise Greenfield

Brothers and sisters
can be dear,
can be company,
can bring cheer,
can start arguments,
can make noise,
can cause tears,
can break toys,
can be few
or can be many,
make me wish
I didn’t have any.
Helpful, funny, and good one day,
next day, they get in my way.
Still, I think no matter what,
I’d rather have them
than not.

Greenfield, Eloise. 2009. Brothers and Sisters: Family Poems. Ill. by Jan Spivey Gilchrist. New York: Amistad/HarperCollins, p.5.

The poem topics run the gamut of authentic kid experiences from wrestling, playing, and laughing, to dealing with new siblings and rivalries, looking up and down to older and younger family members, growing up with teens, being mad and making up, relating to grandparents and aunts and uncles, older members looking back, and family fun, and making plans for the future. The first person child’s voice rings true through every poem, with half of them rhyming and half in free verse.

Greenfield’s frequent collaborator, Jan Spivey Gilchrist illustrates each page with watercolor paintings of kids and families in everyday situations. As I looked back over the images, I realized that they represent a range of African American faces and families—lovely and grounded—and the poems add details of names and moments—and still it all reflects and transcends race and culture to speak to all kinds of kids and families.

Pair this with Eloise Greenfield’s family-centered and classic FIRST poem collection Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems (HarperCollins 1978) or Nikki Grimes’ celebratory Hopscotch Love: A Family Treasury of Love Poems (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard 1999). Greenfield also teamed with her mother to create Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir, an autobiographical work that describes the childhood memories of Greenfield, her mother, and her maternal grandmother. Plan a poetry picnic for sharing these and other family poems outside spread out on a tablecloth.

In her poetry, Eloise Greenfield tries to involve children in their own worlds. In Night on Neighborhood Street (Dial 1991), Greenfield brings her young readers into the happenings around them examining the life of an urban community. The volume's seventeen poems show children in typical situations, including attending church and playing games with their families. Link this book with Carole Boston Weatherford’s collection, Sidewalk Chalk; Poems of the City (Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press 2001) with poems about the laundromat, local diner, city market, barbershop or Lilian Moore’s Mural on Second Avenue and Other City Poems (Candlewick 2005) which features poems about the city park, shop windows, skylines and bridges, and construction sites. Invite the children to list places they enjoy in their communities. What poems might they write to celebrate their favorite spots?

Remember Eloise again on May 17, coming soon, on her birthday.

Also note: National Library Week is April 12-18

Image credit: cdn.harpercollins.com

Close your eyes and imagine yourself in a darkened theater. All is quiet as the audience waits for the current to rise. As it does, a spotlight falls first on one face, then another. A voice rises from afar, slowly intoning the words of Langston Hughes’s classic poem, “My People” as a beautiful variety of people pause, then move across the stage. That’s how Charles R. Smith Jr.’s picture book interpretation of this beloved poem (published by Simon & Schuster, 2009) looks and feels.

An inky black backdrop sets the stage for each page, as sepia-toned close-up photographs of hands, faces, smiles, eyes, and bodies people each page. Blocked images of faces on the endpapers and in filmstrip-like stripes along the edges of the pages here and there add to the cinematic feel of the book. In his note at the end of the book, Smith writes that he wanted to show differing ages and shades of Black people; to show skin color “as bright as the sun and as dark as the night”… “the newness of a newborn smile and the wisdom of wrinkled skin.”

Each double-page spread features one or two or three words of the 33-word poem, in a super-big font. It helps s l o w the poem down for greater visual impact. I’ve heard author and artist Ashley Bryan recite this poem from memory many times, and I can imagine his booming voice saying these words as I turn the pages.

You can find the complete text of the poem in several places, including here and an audio recording read by Langston Hughes himself produced by Caedmon Audio and in the Random House “Voice of the Poet” audio series.

When my children were very young they LOVED close up photographs of babies and big images of faces. I even created simple photo-illustrated “board” books of faces for them (including their own faces) before these kinds of books were readily available. The illustrator, Charles R. Smith, Jr. has an excellent page of kid-friendly activities for experimenting with photography on his information-rich Web site, too. As a side note, check out his photo-interpretation of the classic Kipling poem, If, also in picture book form (and also a Ginee Seo Book; Atheneum/Simon & Schuster, 2007).

I can see kids using the book as a kind of script for performing the poem, focusing on faces and simple movements. I can see kids creating a mural of faces and words combined to reinterpret the poem. I can see kids choosing other Langston Hughes poems, such as “I, Too” or any of the “Dream” poems to interpret visually through photographs or collages creating their own original picture books. What an inspiring and elegant model Smith has created for this poetic “study in simplicity” reminding us that Black people—indeed ALL people—come in “all shapes, sizes, shades, and ages.”

Join our Poetry Friday host, Carol Wilcox at Carol's Corner.

Image credit: http://www.charlesrsmithjr.com/

When the big ALA book awards are announced, I like to check them for the inclusion of poetry. Last year, there was a jackpot of poetry. This year—not so much. However, there were some notable standouts. First, the Coretta Scott King award choices were especially exciting this year. Did you notice that nearly all these books were POETRY? I was so tickled about that!

Coretta Scott King Author HONORS (outstanding writing by an African
American author) went to THREE books of poetry:
*Keeping the Night Watch by Hope Anita Smith. Illustrated by E.B. Lewis. Henry Holt, 2008.
*The Blacker the Berry by Joyce Carol Thomas. Illustrated by Floyd Cooper. Amistad/HarperCollins, 2008.
*Becoming Billie Holiday by Carole Boston Weatherford. Illustrated by Floyd Cooper. Wordsong, 2008.

THE Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award (outstanding illustrations by an African American artist) went to:
*The Blacker the Berry illustrated by Floyd Cooper. Written by Joyce Carol Thomas. Amistad/HarperCollins, 2008.

And one CSK Illustrator Honor distinction went to a book by poet Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Sean Qualls, Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane. Henry Holt, 2008.

The Coretta Scott King John Steptoe/New Talent Award went to:
*Shadra Strickland (illustrator) for Bird by Zetta Elliott. Lee & Low, 2008.

In addition, the Pura Belpré Author Award (cosponsored by REFORMA) (outstanding writing by a Latino author) went to The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle. Henry Holt, 2008, which was also a NEWBERY HONOR BOOK! Did you catch that? Newbery!

ALL of these books (listed above) are also on the list of 2009 Notables selected by ALSC and/or the YALSA list of Best Books for Young Adults (BBYA).

The YALSA list of Quick Picks included these works of poetry:
*High, Linda Oatman. Planet Pregnancy. 2008. Boyds Mills Press.
*Hopkins, Ellen. Identical. 2008. McElderry.
*Neri, G. Chess Rumble. 2007. Lee and Low Books.

What do you notice about this? MULTICULTURAL POETRY is really getting some attention. In fact, some of the best of the best books of any genre, and of poetry in particular, are by poets of color! Very exciting!

Image credit: blogs.theage.com.au

My “Everyday Poetry” column in the January issue of Book Links looked at last year’s major multicultural awards and paired each winner with a book of poetry, including the Coretta Scott King award, Pura Belpre award, American Indian Youth Literature award and Asian/Pacific American award. There wasn’t room for everything I wanted to include, so I’ll share the rest with you here.

Batchelder Award (for a book first published outside the U.S.)
Brave Story, a big, fat fantasy novel for older kids written by Miyuki Miyabe and translated from the Japanese by Alexander O. Smith, blends dark realism with a fantastical quest as the protagonist strives to mend family relationships. Match with the deceptively simple, Today and Today, in which illustrator Brian Karas arranges 22 haiku by the Japanese poet Issa to form a family story across a year’s span. [This year's winner is also a work of fantasy from Japan!]

John Steptoe New Talent Award (for a new African American author or illustrator)
Brendan is grappling with many things in first-time author Sundee T. Frazier’s smart, contemporary novel, Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It. As we look for poetry connections, we can focus on Brendan’s struggle to understand the perception of others toward his biracial identity with the poetry of Black is Brown is Tan by Arnold Adoff. [This year's "New Talent" winner is illustrator, Shonda Strickland, for her illustrations for the poetry book, Bird, by Zetta Elliott.]

The Américas Award (for books that portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the U.S.)
Young Adult Literature
Laura Resau’s Red Glass, weaves a shy girl’s inward journey for self-understanding through her trip from Tucson to Guatemala and back. References to specific poems by Pablo Neruda and e e cummings are woven throughout the narrative, offering a perfect opportunity to seek out the full text of each poem and read it out loud as Sophie does. Or look for more works by Neruda and cummings in A Family of Poems; My Favorite Poetry for Children collected by Caroline Kennedy.

Children’s Literature
Pat Mora’s picture book, Yum! ¡Mmmm! ¡Que Rico!: America’s Sproutings, is full of pungent haiku (along with fun facts) introducing the origins of foods from across the Americas. Match this with Alma Flor Ada’s alphabet book, Gathering the Sun, a bilingual collection of poems about migrant farm life with selections like "Arboles/Trees" and "Betabel/Beet."

I love the rich writing coming from parallel cultures—don’t you?


Image credit: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/hqops/publishing/booklinks/index.cfm

Poet Carole Boston Weatherford has created a beautiful video-poem tribute, "American Baptism," in honor of this amazing Inaugural day. Pause and enjoy. I'm looking forward to Elizabeth Alexander's poem at the ceremony today, too. Wonderful how we turn to poetry as we take in the moment. And what a moment!

Check back on Friday for the second half of my "White House Puppy" poems: Rebecca Kai Dotlich's poem to bookend J. Patrick Lewis's "A Puppy for the White House."

Image credit: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-01-20-voa16.cfm