George,
Kristine O’Connell. 2002. Swimming
Upstream: Middle School Poems. Ill. by Debbie Tilley. New York: Clarion
Books. ISBN: 0-618-15250-4
Book Review:
Kristine O’Connell George's delightful collection of school poems about the trials and tribulations of a
young girl’s first year of middle school reflects all the myriad emotions
experienced by adolescents as they “swim upstream” that first year. The author
takes the reader on a journey from the first day of school to the last, and the
range of experiences in between those days.
The poems are short, and reflect a variety of styles: rhyming, verse,
haiku and even an acrostic which keep the reader’s interest. Topics include
first day anxiety, locker combination confusion, old and new friends, locker
room lack of privacy, homework, gossip, first crush, test stress and the fear
of finding a place to sit in the lunchroom: “Where do I sit?/All my friends/from last
year/have changed;/my world is/fractured/lopsided/rearranged.” The narrator expresses the common anxiety of
middle school students: “Where do I fit?/Nothing is clear./Can already
tell/this will be/a jigsaw year.”
As the poems
unfold, the student progresses from making no noise at all on her flute to
participating in a concert; from feeling friendless to renewing an old
friendship; from worrying about grades to receiving an”A” on a project without
parental help; and we watch our narrator as she becomes less anxious, more
self-confident and finishes her year feeling as though she is “shining/from the
inside out.” At the awards assembly, she awards herself “First Place/&/Most
Improved/in/Everything/That Matters to Me.”
The
illustrations by Debbie Tilley are black and white, cartoonish and somewhat
young for the age group, but are filled with small details that a discerning
eye will enjoy and appreciate. The poems
are placed on the pages in a variety of ways, providing textural interest.
There are
no access features, such as a table of contents or index, making the collection
appear more like a verse novel, and the author has done a good
job of creating poems that flow one into another in describing the events of a
student’s first year of middle school. The
poems caused me to reflect on the emotions of those adolescent days so long
ago, and the ones my 7th grade son has been experiencing during his own
middle school journey.
Sharing the Poetry:
Middle
school can be filled with more bad days than good at times in terms of all the
issues children this age are experiencing.
The poem “So Much Better Than I Expected,” about a “perfect” day could
be used in conjunction with the picture book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Day, by Judith
Viorst to prompt a discussion about dealing with stressful days. The students could share their own “perfect”
and “very bad” days, and try writing a poem reflecting those topics.
Selected Poem:
So Much Better Than I Expected by Kristine O’Connell George
Today
enough hot water for a shower
a better grade than I expected
a certain someone noticed me
peanut butter and pickles for lunch
social studies report postponed
(whew!)
I finally won a tennis match
6-0
6-4
macaroni and cheese for dinner
no homework
six phone calls
five e-mails
one snail mail
a great library book for later
a perfect,
straight-set, levitate-off-the-planet day.
References
Books in Print. n.d. Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems, by Katherine O’Connell
George. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2125/DetailedView.aspx?hreciid=|10931417|7597567&mc=USA#
Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database. n.d. Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems,
by Katherine O’Connell George. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:4529/index.php/jbookdetail/jqbookdetail?page=1&pos=0&isbn=9780618152506
No comments:
Post a Comment