NCTE Award Poetry:

Greenfield, Eloise. Brothers & sisters family poems. Illus. Jan Spivey Gilchrist. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. Print. ISBN 9780060562847.

Greenfield's theme in this particular collection is the importance of family relationships which are at various ages and in different aspects of the familial relationships. The poems reflect how an African American family supports each other in good and bad times. Experiences include misunderstanding family, jealousy of a baby sibling, and experiences children realize growing up in a family. Greenfield’s characters are learning how to find happiness as they deal with difficult feelings and have a positive outlook in tough situations. Each poem expresses a mood, some quite or somber, while others are loud and fun.

The timeless poems are written in various styles. Some rhyme but all are concrete poems that convey a special family bond through love, fun, frustration, or experiences in family interactions. Greenfield uses alliteration, the repetition of other sounds, words, and phrases in the poetry. Hearing and seeing are some of the sensory imagery present in the poems. The poems are appealing to the children because they can relate to the relationships they have in their families. The poems are filled with emotion and connect to the readers’ feelings and experiences.

The index lists the poem titles such as, “Mad at Dad,” “Who is this Girl?” “At the Home Place,” and “The Two of Us,” The titles all reinforce the family theme and ensure the theme is carried through out the book. The title page and the last page have the same illustration of a brother and sister lovingly looking at each other.

Gilchrist, the illustrator, uses colorful pen and ink to bring the poem to life with colorful action and emotion filled detailed pictures framing the poem as they convey love, fun, and hurt feelings found in the poetry. The white space assists the reader in focusing on the poem and its complimentary illustration.

Poem for Library Lesson:

“The Two of Us”
When we grow up
We’re going to have
Our own big company,
Side by side we’ll sit
At the head of the meeting table,
Say yes to this and
No to that. Maybe we’ll make
Movies or cars or cities.
We don’t know yet,
But whatever we do,
We know we’re going to do it together.

Activity:
First, I would introduce the poem as my favorite in the book because it invokes memories of when my brother and I would make plans of what we would do when we were finally grown up. Then, I would read the poem aloud and discuss the emotion, mood, and theme of the poem. Next, I would ask the students to reflect on a family member that they would like to do an activity with. Finally, I would ask the students to then write a personal poem describing their plans with that relative. Students may voluntarily share their work with the class and then we would make the collection into book for the school.

Multicultural Poetry:

Mora, Pat. The Night the Moon Fell A Maya Myth. Illus. Domi. New York: Groundwood, 2000. Print. ISBN. 0888993986.

Pat Mora, an America Latina, authors this abstract poetry book which retells a Mayan myth. In the abstract poem, Luna, the moon, loses her balance when her grandfather's blowgun creates a loud noise and startled her in the sky. She falls to the earth and rolls into the ocean. With help from her fish friends, she directs them to find her broken pieces and glue them to her. Luna rescues herself and floats to the sky with her fish friends. The tiny fish weave a net around Luna so they can go home with Luna. Luna is glad to be home and she invites the fish to stay and swim in her skies as they create the Milky Way.

Luna is personified with descriptive words: being knowledgeable, losing her balance, rolling, breaking apart, sleeping, gasping, knowing, and floating.

Mora uses language in unique, impressive ways to present emotions to children. Potential sensory images are evident by the use of these words: hearing, sighting beauty, tickling, smiling, looking up, hearing, and glowing. Children feel peaceful with the soft, sweet, happy mood setting. Throughout the poem, Luna hums and she and her fish friends sway to music. Sadness is inserted to let children know that Luna misses her home and her fish friends feel sorry for her. Mora's use of personification leads the reader to better identify with the story; and examples are when she writes about the wind, flowers, fish and stars having human qualities.

The abstract poem uses a few Spanish words and abstract pictures to make The Night the Moon Fell distinctive with fresh, imaginative ideas, and feelings.

The theme of this poetry book is Luna’s god-like mythical journey - falling to earth, an unfamiliar place then saving herself and returning home. The poem appeals to an audience of children because of the fascinating use of words and creative story line. The eleven sets of rhyming couplets are compatible throughout the book in reinforcing the story line. These poems follow the happenings and are necessary to help the children’s knowledge of the poem and to carry the theme. The book does not include a table of contents, index, or topic headings.

The first poem is a plea for Luna to return home with her white light. Emotions of sadness, laughter, and smiling are communicated. The fish call Luna and then she ask questions, expresses physical needs, and sings joyful invitations. Examples of the poem's rhyme scheme are shown in the following examples:

“All you need is part to you
Ask yourself what you should do.”
and
“Pizzicatos, little fish
Smooth me whole. Please grant my wish.”

Children are interested in the smiling moon because they can usually see it every night and parents often point out the moon smile and the features—full moon, half-moon or quarter moon. The poem’s language is to be understood by children and the illustrations stimulate their imagination. The progressive action involves emotions from sadness and despair, when Luna fell from the sky, intensity, when she problem solves how to return to the sky, then joy and happiness, when she is able to return to the sky with her new friends.

Domi’s abstract illustrations reinforces the theme throughout the book. The consistent, compatible poetry is always presented on the left side of the book and illustrations are on the right side to support the poetry. Illustrations are colorful in bright hues. The moon is presented in multicolor with various expressions. Elements of nature--leaves, stars, sea horses, coral birds, fish, fish, and more fish are equally colorful and not in the usual expected colors. The illustrations are recognizable and bold colors that attract children’s eyes.


Poem for Library Lesson:

My favorite part of The Night the Moon Fell is the conclusion. Luna floated to the sky with her fish friends. Her white light opened the stars’ eyes, the flowers lifted their heads, the birds flew high and the wind purred. The moon was home! Luna, the moon, hummed and sang,

“Please, dear friends stay here with me
Swim my skies, my star bright sea.”

The poem ended with the emotions of happiness and a feel-good feeling. I even wished I was a fish.


Activity:
Draw a picture that reminds you of this poetry story. Write a couplet, two lines of poetry, with ending words that rhyme to complement your drawing. Students voluntarily share their work; and which will then be compiled into a book for the school library.

Florian Poetry:

Florian, Douglas. bow wow meow meow. New York: Harcourt, 2003. Print. ISBN 9780152163952.

bow wow meow meow’s theme is domestic animals–cats and dogs in particular. The Table of Contents reflects the titles of the poems which opens with “Dog Love” as the introductory poem of the first of eleven dog poems then ten cat poems follow, opened by “Cat Chat.” After the introductory poems the collection of rhyming and free form poems are descriptive of a dog or a cat breed, and named for that breed such as “The Chihuahua” and “The Persian.” Some of the poems are brief like the afore mention poems and others are concrete poems like “The Dalmatian.” “The Poodle” is a concrete poem written using a poodle's curls as the word shapes. Florian succinctly captures the animals’ presence through the use of onomatopoeias and fun word play, like “purrsian” and “fur-ocious.” Humor and imagination are in each poem as observations of the animals are shared through facts, colors, sounds, and events.

Florian serves as the poet as well as the illustrator for the book. Each poem earns a two page billing allowing for plenty of white space which draws attention to the poem and the accompanying illustration. The poems are on one page and across from it is the watercolor child-like colorful illustration reflecting the animal and the actions found in the poem.

This collection of poetry is a creative combination of sounds, imagery, and a fun-filled view of cats and dogs which has emotional impact on dog and cat fans.

Poem for Library Lesson:

One of my favorite poems is the introductory dog poem, "Dog Log." Listen as the sensory imagery allows the you to experience the poem as the dog wags, chases, chews, listens, and digs. As I read the poem what do you think of? I think of my endless love for animals. The rhyming, rhythm, and sounds of the observations of a dog’s daily activities in connection with the illustration of the dog’s brain is mapped with all the things she does (play dead, fetch) and interacts with (bones, cats) on a daily bases creates a humorous connection because this is also MY DOG’S daily log!!

“Dog Log”
Rolled out of bed.
Scratched my head.
Brought the mail.
Wagged my tail.
Fetched a stick.
Learned a trick.
Chased a hare.
Sat in a chair.
Chewed a shoe-
Table, too.
Got in a spat
With a cat.
Buried a bone.
Answered the phone.
Heard a thief.
Gave him grief.
Time to creep.
Off to sleep.

Activity:

Discuss the title of the poem and the definition of a “log.” List synonyms for the word log as used in the title context. Students work in groups to list a general routine of their daily activities they do on a school day. Using the list students compose a poem that reflects a their daily log that occurs each day. GT students can do the activity individually. Have thesauruses and dictionaries available for students to use. Students voluntarily share their work and work is collected for a book for everyone to see.

"simply semantics too..." debuts!

This blog is the continuation of “simply semantics …” http://simplysemantics.blogspot.com/ Unfortunately the path no longer allows me to share reviews which created its demise. I am posting these reviews for a TWU class.