Verse Novel

Grimes, Nikki. 2013. Words with Wings. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong, an imprint of Highlights. ISBN: 978-1-59078-985-8.

Book Review: (Ages 8 and up)

Award winning children’s poet, Nikki Grimes, entrances us with her newest novel in verse, Words with Wings, about a young girl who is prone to daydreaming as a way to escape the stress of her parents’ divorce and her father leaving the family.  Gabriella, or Gabby, was named after the angel Gabriel because her father wanted “a strong name for his girl/to take out into the world.”  Gabby does not feel very strong, though, as she tries to deal with her broken family, a relocation and a new school. 

Her tendency to daydream began as she tried to drown out her fighting parents.  A word like “fly” would enter her mind, and soon her thoughts were flying away “high above the city/higher than the clouds.”  She realizes that a word had helped her escape from her sadness and wonders “are there other words/that can carry me away?”

In school, her daydreaming gets her in trouble with her teacher, and her mother doesn't understand why she can’t pay attention.  Gabby eventually tries to shut down her daydreams by iron will, but an observant teacher, Mr. Spicer, notices how unhappy she is. After reading one of Gabby’s daydream writings, he understands her need to express herself with words.  The teacher makes the decision to have the students stop working for 15 minutes a day, just to daydream, and then write those daydreams down.  We see Gabby “swallow these words like honey/smile at their sweetness,” as she hopes “to find /more words with wings/to dream and write about/tomorrow.”

Grimes gives Gabby a strong voice in her narrative prose, and breaks up the story with Gabby’s daydreams-turned-poems taken from simple words Gabby hears or thinks about during the day, such as: sled, waterfall, butterfly, carousel, roller coaster, stilts, dragon, and firefly, among others.  These poems are wonderfully imaginative, filled with emotion and figurative language; they make the reader want to daydream, too.

Access features in the book include a table of contents and an acknowledgement page wherein Ms. Grimes expresses her gratitude to the “real” Mr. Spicer, a teacher she met who actually uses daydream time in his classes to encourage creativity in writing.

Sharing the Poetry: 

Teacher use:

The break-out poems representing Gabby’s daydreams in the book could be included in a poetry unit for older students.  Take a word, any word.  Spend 15 minutes “daydreaming” about the word; then try to write a poem using the words revealed to you in the daydream, focusing on line breaks and spacing, and choosing the most precise, vivid words possible.

Librarian use:

One of the joys of being a librarian is getting to know your patrons with all their different personalities and interests.  When I volunteered for many years in school libraries I often had the chance to participate in reader’s advisory with wonderful young people.  I recommended adventure books for boisterous boys, humorous books for goofy guys, and sweet stories for shy girls.  For those students who may have attention issues, an observant librarian could recommend this book to possibly help a child see the positive benefit in daydreaming, and the power and imagination of words…with wings.

Selected Poem:

Nikki Grimes uses words as her brush and creates wonderful images in her poetry.  I especially noticed the alliteration she often uses in a number of Gabby’s daydream poems.  Here is one I particularly liked that uses the concrete poetic form, as well:

Stilts

Say “stilts,"

and I am

Gabby

The

Great,

a mystifying

master

juggler,

rising

high above

the circus

crowd,

marching

alongside

the elegant

elephants,

and anxious

as anyone

to watch

the trapeze

artists

sail

on air.

References

Books in Print. n.d. Words with Wings. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2125/DetailedView.aspx?hreciid=|40948880|40510197&mc=USA# (accessed February 28, 2014).

Children's Literature Comprehensive Database. n. d. Words with Wings. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:4529/index.php/jbookdetail/jqbookdetail?page=1&pos=1&isbn=9781590789858 (accessed February 28, 2014)

New Poetry Book

Lewis, J. Patrick. 2013. World Rat Day: Poems about Real Holidays You’ve Never Heard Of. Ill. by Anna Raff. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN: 978-0-7636-5402-3

Book Review:

J. Patrick Lewis, a past Children’s Poet Laureate and winner of the NCTE Excellence in Children's Poetry Award, offers up an entertaining and whimsical collection of poems commemorating obscure national day observances in this recently published children’s poetry book, with charming ink line and wash illustrations by Anna Raff.  Most of the poems have simple rhymes in every line or every other line, a pattern which seem to be very popular in children’s poetry books; but Lewis plays with other poetic forms as well, such as concrete poetry and limericks.

 

Bat Appreciation Day on April 17^th is honored by Lewis with this opening: “Upside-down sleepers/Awakening in waves/Are Sweepers of Twilight/And Keepers of Caves."  One concrete poem, cleverly shaped like a flamingo is included for Pink Flamingo Day on May 29th, and a group of limericks delight on the page for Limerick Day, celebrated on May 12^th. 

Lewis also includes an abundance of word play in his poems, encouraging critical thinking in his audience. The poem for Ohio Sheep Day on July 14^th is simply one line: “No one will ever forget Ewe;” and National Skunk Day on June 14^th is commemorated by the words, “If the skunk did not exist/Then the skunk would not be mist.”  The Dragon Appreciation Day poem lists table manners for dragons and  begins with the words “At every meal, fold your wings and say “Graze.”

Raff’s anthropomorphic illustrations are full of eye-catching details to accompany the text, mostly animals with fun facial expressions and lots of active rats on most pages in honor of the World Rat Day book title.

Access feature include a table of contents listing the name of the holiday and the title of the poem to go along with it, but lacking the day of the year for reference, which is an unfortunate oversight.

Sharing the Poetry:

World Rat Day is a fun book on its own, parts of which could be read in a library story time with a national or world holiday theme.  Children could be encouraged to think up and illustrated their own quirky holiday.

In a school setting, a teacher might incorporate a daily list of nontraditional holidays on the white board from a website such as http://www.brownielocks.com/month2.html, which lists a plethora of obscure national holidays and observances, and read the accompanying poem from this book on its specific day.

Selected Poem:

My favorite poem in this collection is “A Thousand Baby Stars,” celebrating Firefly Day on April 10^th, for its imagery and the memories it evokes about catching fireflies:

A THOUSAND BABY STARS

When I was ten, I ran to catch

A baby star that leapt

Among the trees, a dime of light

I cupped and capped and kept.

How could I ever catch them all

As they were getting ready

To fire up a festival?

ELECTRIFIED CONFETTI.

(One unfortunate thing I noticed, however, is that there appears to be a typo in the book: the foregoing poem, “A Thousand Baby Stars” is listed correctly in the table of contents, but in the poem itself on page 12, the title is listed “A Thousand Baby Star."  I am sure this would be corrected in future editions).

References

Books in Print. n.d. World Rat Day. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2125/DetailedView.aspx?hreciid=|40756185|40312053&mc=USA# (accessed February 26, 2014).

Brownie Locks & The 3 Bears. n.d. 2014 National Days & Observances. http://www.brownielocks.com/month2.html (accessed February 26, 2014).

Poetic Form: Haiku

Janeczko, Paul B. and J. Patrick Lewis. 2006. Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku. Ill. by Tricia Tusa. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN: 0-316-60731-2.

Book Review:

In Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku, authors Janeczko and Lewis enthusiastically take on the poetic form called “Senyru,” which is similar to Haiku in its use of 17 syllables, but is very different in terms of tone.  Haiku generally focuses on things in nature or seasons as the theme; Senyru focuses on characteristics of human nature, usually in an ironic or satiric manner.

 In Wing Nuts, the authors generously use word play or puns to give a humorous zing to their Senyru, often requiring some critical thinking to figure them out.  “Noah Webster had/no choice except to put/the cart before the horse,” for example, would require the reader to know that Webster was related to a dictionary, the word cart comes before horse in a dictionary, and “don’t put the cart before the horse” is an idiom.  And “grandpa’s underwear/pulled up so high -/a chest of drawers” would probably need explaining, as underwear is no longer referred to as “drawers” in this generation.  Though written as a children’s book, Wing Nuts has wide appeal for children as well as adults.

Tusa’s pen and ink and water color illustrations are an integral part of the book and give the poems a consistent story line that otherwise would not be evident.  We follow a boy with a blue ball who descends a ladder into the book and observes and participates in the various scenes established by the poems, such as: hippos watching TV (“hippo-potato-mus"), crows using a “cawing card," an incomplete marching band needing a “substi-toot," and a ride on a Ferris wheel regretting a full stomach (“those below agree”). Finally, the boy ascends the ladder and follows as the “senyru goes/ bouncing along…/into a giant poet-tree.”  Young children will enjoy the detailed and whimsical illustrations, if not fully comprehending the text without help.

Sharing the Poetry:

Wing Nuts:Screwy Haiku could be used in a variety of ways.  First of all, it is just a fun book for a parent and child to read and enjoy together.  Puns require a higher level of thinking to understand, and a parent or caregiver would be encouraging visual and cultural literacy in examining the illustrations and the wordplay in the text.

In a curriculum unit about literary devices, a teacher could read the short book Punished, by David Lubar, about a boy cursed by a magical librarian to speak only in puns, and use Wing Nuts to provide additional examples of puns and wordplay. Another book titled Rhyme & Punishment: Adventures in Wordplay, by J.P. Sandy, could be included as well.  Children could be tasked with writing their own Senyru with a wordplay twist.

Selected Poem:

There are so many delightful Senyru in Wing Nuts that it is hard to choose just one.  They are so short, that I decided to share several.

(Use of Homophone and idiom)

Tabby and Fido

do whatever they want –

reigning cat and dog.

(Use of Pun)

Solitary crow

Calls its cousin in distant pine

With its cawing card

(My personal favorite – poor squirrel!)

Sluggish squirrel lurches

Across the busy highway

To the other si-

(My tentative attempt at Senyru:)

Chewing gum makes you

Chew off more than you can bite –

Sticky idiom

References

Australian Curriculum Assessment. 2013. “Wordplay in Poetry.” https://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/p_10/ac_sa_eng_yr4_wordplay_poetry.pdf (accessed February 24, 2014).

Books in Print. n.d. Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2125/DetailedView.aspx?hreciid=|16801062|7426756&mc=USA# (accessed February 24, 2014).

Encyclopedia Britannica Online, s.v. “Senyru.” http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/534670/senryu (accessed February 24, 2014).

NCTE Award Poetry

Sidman, Joyce. 2010. Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature’s Survivors. Ill. by Beckie Prange. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. ISBN: 978-0-544-10616-1.

Book Review:

Joyce Sidman is the 2013 winner of the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, established by the National Council of Teachers of English.  In Ubiquitous she joins forces again with illustrator Beckie Prange (after the 2005 Caldecott Honor Book Songs of the Water Boatman) to tell the tale of some of the earth’s hardiest survivors in a book about evolution and the organisms which have thrived in our world.  Sidman combines a variety of poetic forms to describe traits of the organism along with a narrative paragraph on a facing page providing scientific facts about each one.  Prange’s watercolor and linoleum cut illustrations add as much to this outstanding book as the text and are worth poring over leisurely. Ubiquitous was on many Best Book lists, including Outstanding Science Trade Book from the National Science Teachers Association, and was a Cybil Award Finalist in 2010.

The book begins and concludes with end papers showing a graphic visual, in a maze-like format, of the time span from the earth’s creation to the arrival of life along the way, beginning with bacteria and ending with humans.  In between, we learn through Sidman’s poems, and her short informative narratives, about mollusks, lichens, sharks, beetles, diatoms, geckos, ants, grasses, and animals such as squirrels, crows and coyotes.  For each organism Sidman describes characteristics that make it a survivor and the ways in which it benefits our world.

The author’s poems are very diverse, some with text in concrete format such as those describing the bacteria, scarab, shark and squirrel. Others have words spread across the pages representing movement, as in the descriptions of diatoms as they “crash, roar, millions more” across an ocean wave and the dandelions, as their “fairy-hair flees” up the page. A few poems are sly and witty like “Gecko on the Wall,” whose “tail comes off: a wriggling prize/[as]she sprints and leaps and slinks and spies.” Others are quite beautiful and use figurative language such as the alliteration reflected in “The Mollusk That Made You” - “shell of sunrise/sunrise shell/yours is the pink lip/of a pearled world.”

Access features include a glossary of terms used in the book and a detailed author’s note describing the extensive research she undertook in order to write this book, including consulting with biologists, reading scientific articles and many, many books. She lists, as a bibliography, a number of the most informative and eye-opening texts she read.

Sharing the Poetry:

On her website, Joyce Sidman has provided curriculum support for Ubiquitous and ways to incorporate it into the classroom, including discussion questions, writing activities, and science and math lessons. This link provides easy access: (http://www.joycesidman.com/books/ubiquitous-celebrating/ubiquitous-rg.pdf).  There is also a digital trailer available for the book at this link: http://www.joycesidman.com/books/ubiquitous-celebrating/book-trailer-for-ubiquitous.html.

In a poetry unit, a lesson could include the introduction of the poetic form Diamante, which is simple in form (1,2,3,5,3,2,1), but begs for critical thinking in finding eloquent and vivid word choices to make an impact.  Sidman’s poem about bacteria in “First Life” is a great example to show students and get them started. 

Selected Poem:

First Life

(a diamante)

Bacteria

ancient, tiny

teaming, mixing, melding

strands curled like ghostly hands

winking, waving, waking

first, miraculous

Life

References:

Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database. n.d. Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature’s Survivors.” http://ezproxy.twu.edu:4529/index.php/jbookdetail/jqbookdetail?page=1&pos=2&isbn=9780618717194 (accessed February 14, 2014).