JANECZKO COLLECTION:

Janeczko, Paul B., and Christopher Raschka. A Kick in the Head. Cambridge, Mass.: Candlewick, 2005. Print. ISBN 0763606626.

Janeczko compiles a collection of poems to explore poetic forms in the “everyday guide to poetic forms” The guide is easy to follow. In the introduction Janeczko expains the rules and tells that sometimes the poets don’t follow the rules but follow “the spirit of a poetic form.” The Table of Content lists the poem by the poem’s form. The book is arranged with the more familiar forms-couplets, tercets, quatrain, haiku then proceeding to the less familiar and ending with pantoum followed by notes and acknowledgements. The notes give a definition for the poetic form in addition to some history and symbols to help comprehend the syllable count. There are twenty-nine poetic forms addressed accompanied with one or two examples. The form is identified at the upper corner of the page. Janeczko recommends, in the introduction, to read the poem then the explanation found at the bottom of the page, and then reread the poem trying to differentiate that form from others. He uses accessible examples such as Edward Lear’s limerick, Shakespeare’s sonnet and J. Patrick Lewis’ comic epitaph. The poems contain a variety of emotions, such as humor in Ogden Nash’s “The Mule” and grief in Rebecca Kai Dotlich’s “Whispers to the Wall.” The poetry appears in all forms-a news story, question, directive, joke, art, game, story, list, reflection, and memory. Contributing poets include Eleanor Farjeon, William, Shakespeare, X.J. Kennedy, Ogden Nash, William Blake, Liz Rosenberg, and Janeczko, himself. Some poems are familiar other have never been published previously.

Raschka, a Caldecott Honor illustrator, fills each page with mixed media collages that contain delightfully colorful designs that complimenting, accenting, or frame the poem. Through torn pieces of various textures, shapes, and colors of paper Raschka forcefully communicated the deaths of September 11 in Georgia Heard’s “The Paper Trail.”
The collage character and designs contain detailed patterns, solids, and ink and watercolor lines. The white spaces focus the attention on the color-filled page full of activity.

Janeczko and Raschko have complied an interesting collection of poetic forms that student understand and that motivate them to want to write their own poems. This collection makes learning how poetic form takes place FUN by using spirited poetry and dynamic and colorful illustrations!

Poem for Library Lesson:

“The Mule”
by Ogden Nash

In the world of mules
There are no rules.

Activity:

Read the poem twice and show the illustration. Talk about the words that rhyme and have students make a list of 10 pairs of rhyming words. Teach mini-lesson on couplet (two line poem or stanza that usually rhymes, contain a complete thought, can be serious or funny). Present an example of a prepared couplet, like:
The garden grows,
When I use the hose.
Ask students, What illustration would you use with this couplet?
Review what makes this a couplet. What are the rhyming words? What is the complete thought? Write the three components of a couplet on the board. While the students think of a topic they want to use in a couplet. The students write their own rhyming couplet. Teacher/librarian move around the room conferencing with students if necessary and paying particular attention to complete thoughts, two lines, and rhyming words. After the students are finished with their couplet they create an illustration to accompany it. Students volunteer to share their work with the class. The poems and illustrations are gathered to display.

SERIOUS POETRY:

Heard, Georgia. This Place I Know: Poems of Comfort. Cambridge, Mass.: Candlewick, 2002. Print. ISBN: 0763619248.

Heard compiled this picture book anthology of infamous poets and illustrators to create a collection of poems to comfort children. Heard’s focus for the collection was the children that were affected by the Twin Towers disaster on September 11 but is beneficial for anyone, child or adult, dealing with grief and despair. Heard chose effective uplifting poems dealing with emotions of fear and grief but show that there is hope, support, and comfort from others and good things will occur again. These secular poems provide an opportunity for deep thinking and critical discussions through “Porch Talks” for the many children suffering from perplexing emotions and grief. Comfort is conveyed through the theme of hope, happiness, and support from people. The assortment of poets brings various writing forms to this collection which is unified through the theme. Sensory imagery is present in lines such as “Fly like smoke from a chimney. /Fly like the whistle from a train.” Alliteration is found such as “run on ragged…/…rugged rocks.” Onomatopoeia is illustrated with the bee buzzing.

The poem selections provided a vast variation. Many were deeply emotional and touching, as “The Peace of Wild Things,” by Wendell Berry, “Dreams,” by Langston Hughes, "Strengthen the Things that Remain" by Nancy Wood, and Emily Dickinson's poem "Hope is the thing with feathers," while other were surprising, and some provided no reassurance at all.

The layout was consistent throughout the book. A poem and illustration share a double page with the poem found on the left page while the right page contains the accompanying illustration. Most of the illustrators compliment the poems and provides depth to the messages of hope and comfort through varied median and colors. Brian Karas' illustration of a little girl in a red coat with a white bird on her arm sweetly captures the innocence and sweetness of Emily Dickinson’s “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers-.” Peter Sis’ illustration compliments Walt Whitman’s from “Song of the Broad-Axe,” which focuses on endurance, but is very unusual and catchy as it represents Manhattan and the skyline. William Steig’s illustration of a scary, sinister looking boy and an expressionless dog don’t convey the message of I can do anything if you are with me, from Karla Kuskin’s “To You.” The arrangement of the poems takes a child through the grief process and focuses the child on total horribleness, progresses to hope, then ending with new beginnings. The Table of Contents lists the poems with their poets and illustrators. At the end of the book acknowledgement, information about the illustrators, then the dedication is found.

This anthology provides encouragement to “strengthen the things that remain” and to continue on the journey with hope and joy. This is an exceptional collection of poems that remind us that everyone has worth.

Poem for Library Lesson:

“Life is mostly froth and bubble”
by A.L. Gordon

Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone;
Kindness in another’s trouble,
Courage in your own.

Activity:

After reading the poem once and showing the illustration ask the students, what did you like about the poem? Give them time to think. Allow students to answer questions. Read the poem a second time. Allow more students to answer the questions. Facilitate a “Porch Talk” use the following questions:
“What were you thinking as I read the poem? Do you have a favorite part?
Do you like the ending?
The way it begins?”
Did the poem make your heart beat faster? Why or why not? (Heard, 49)”
Divide the students in predetermined groups of three or four. The groups determine what is (are) important in their lives and write a poem to share with the class. The poem should tell the audience something about the important item(s) in their lives.

Heard, Georgia. 1989. FOR THE GOOD OF THE EARTH AND SUN; TEACHING POETRY. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. ISBN 043508495X.

POETRY BY KIDS:

Stepanek, Mattie J. T. Journey through Heartsongs. Alexandria, BA: VSP, 2001. Print. ISBN 9780786869428.

Mattie J.T. Stepanek, an award winning eleven year old, wrote and illustrated this collection of poetry which is his legacy. It comforts and inspires those left behind. He suffered a rare form of muscular dystrophy his entire life and wrote poetry, as an outlet, since he was three. Throughout the book his themes of life and death, love and loss, innocence and joy, and faith and hope are consistent. He used his insight and wisdom to create deeply moving and courageous messages in his poems while showing his spirit and eloquence. With grace, gratitude, and a gentle spirit, Mattie challenges the reader to embrace life while focusing on the important things life offers. His message to live each day to the fullest since any day can be the last creates a bothersome cloud of emotional sorrow which affects the mood of the reader possibly resulting in sympathy for Mattie. His mature and positive attitude throughout his journey is reflected in the work. He saw death up close and talked about it honestly, which is a nerve racking and scary experience for the most mature of people. Mattie states "Attitudes are contagious." He was a boy who was changed by misfortune. “Faces of Faith” shares his belief of “Heartsongs”. “Everyone is born with a “Heartsong” /…Sometimes we forget about it people forget to, /…Their “Heartsongs” really need to live/…They are what rise up, /….You have to sit in ThinkTime/ When you lose you ‘Heartsong’.”

Some poetic elements were present in the writing, such as sensory imagery, “the sky is such/ A perfect blue,” or “don’t have any hair because they/ Have to take medicines that makes it fall out,” but it was difficult to experience the action because of lack of description. Other times, it is obvious that Mattie connected with his subject as in “Pirate-Candy.” He allows the reader to taste the black candy as you feel and hear the crunch and smell the nasty sweetness and feel the gooey inside.

The Table of Contents lists the five chapters of the book – Beginning the Journey, Considering the Journey, Coping with the Journey, Celebrating the Journey, and Growing Beyond the Journey. The arrangement of the chapters allows the poems to flow smoothly as the journey proceeds. At the front of the book the dedication, acknowledgements, forward, and publisher’s letter, gives insight to the infamous heroic status Mattie has acquired through his books. In the forward President Jimmy Carter calls Mattie a “close personal friend” whose “thoughts and images brings both tears and expanded hearts.”

Mattie illustrates the five chapter division pages and the last poem, “Eternal Echoes,” with green, blues, and brown colors creating a pointillist path, using fingers, reflecting a journey through the “Heartsongs.” The poems are organized by chapter with respect to the part of the journey the poem addresses. There is at least one red heart with a musical note in each of the illustrations representing the “Heartsongs.” “A Handful of Mattie” has an illustration of Mattie’s hand to illustrate the poem’s message. The other pages contain one illustration, a red heart which contains the page number written in childlike script. The simplistic illustrations and colors allow the focus to be on the poems. At the end of the book an index is located with the poems listed in alphabetical order with the first line of the poem and page number. The cover has pink, coral, and red heart with musical notes in a few.

This collection of inspiring, thought provoking, and heart-wrenching poems are from a courageous boy who wants his readers to understand his “Heartsong” as he fights a courageous battle and shares feelings about life, death, love, loss, faith, hope, innocence and joy while staring death in the face.

Poem for Library Lesson:

“A Handful of Mattie”

My fingers stand for Reader,
Writer,
Black Belt,
Collector,
And friend...
My palm stands for Heartsongs,
Ebullient, spiritual,
Honest, trustworthy,
Brother, uniparental,
Optimistic, inspiring,
Diligent, savant,
Peacemaker, and
"Gift of God" –
My hands raise in prayer for
Giving thanks for my being
Which stands for life.

January 2000

Activity:

Read the poem aloud twice. Share Mattie’s illustration. Ask the students to think about what the poet is telling them through the poem. Give the students think time then listen to students thoughts. Ask if the students need help with the meaning of any words. Talk about those words. Have an overarching discussion of what Mattie was saying in the poem. Does the illustration help understand the message? How? Why do you think the fingers represent some items and the palm represents other items? Students write a poem titled “Handful of (your name).” The poem needs to tell what their fingers and palm represents or who you are, what do you do and what makes you the person you are. Create an illustration that compliments the poem. Display the students’ work on the wall.

Performance Poetry:

Franco, Betsy. Messing around on the Monkey Bars: and Other School Poems for Two Voices. Illus. Jessie Hartland. Somerville, Mass.: Candlewick, 2009. Print. ISBN 9780763631741.

Franco’s picture book collection of performance poetry is entertaining for students because they can relate to it. On the playground, kids are skipping rope and making trades. In the library, they’re whispering, fidgeting, and giggling. In the classroom, they’re learning their lessons, spinning tales, getting through the afternoon, listening to sounds instead of paying attention, and other fun-filled events. These activities are brimming with sensory imagery – sounds, images, movement, along with rhyme and rhythm, onomatopoetics, free verse, and repetition. The engaging collection of nineteen poems is ideal for reading aloud singularly or in groups of pairs, alternating lines, sharing line, or doing the lines in groups of boys/girl front/back, etc. The board listeners are gone! Everyone can participate. It is important for the children to be at the appropriate reading level allowing the other students to be able to comprehend the content as they listen to the performance. Words, pictures, and voices explode with all the non-stop fun activities around the school in poetry form in which the students can participate.

The Table of Contents reflects the poems are arranged as a student would progress through their day, beginning with “Wild Bus Ride” as the day starts with an adventure. Next the author has a note guiding the reading through her use of the poems’ font; they vary to indicate the particular voice that reads it in paired or group readings. The variation is difficult to detect without in-depth font comparing which is a distraction as students read. At the end of the collection the author makes suggestions of varied ways to read particular selections. Acknowledgements conclude the book. The use of an Elmo would benefit the students so they can all see the poems in addition to using the colored high lighting tape to assist the student to differentiate reader’s line, allowing them to focus on the content.

Harland, the illustrator, compliments the fun and action filled poetry with whimsical, colorful, action-filled illustrations which emulate children’s drawing. The subject of the poem contains details and the characters have expression-filled faces. The bright and vivacious illustrations frame and compliment the poetry as it helps the readers better relate to the poem.


Poem for Library Lesson:

“New Kid at School”

Where did you come from?


Far away.


Miss your friends?


Every day...


How old are you?


Just turned eight.


You like hoops?


Yeah, great.


Got any friends?


Nope, not yet.


Wanna play?


You bet!


Activity:

After reading the poem aloud twice to the class in different voices, again read it two more times using another adult (class teacher) as the second voice. Allow the students to think about the readings then discuss the poem. Did using two people make the poem appear more like a conversation? Does this poem sound like a conversation you have with a friend? Why or why not? Let the students explain. Ask the students to think of at least three times they were the new person in a situation. Ask the students to think about each of the three times they were the new student. Ask, “What kind of conversations did you have with another student?” As a whole group the class writes a performance poem for two voices, with the guidance of the librarian, about being the new student. After writing the poem, reflect on it, quietly and orally. Divide the class into groups of three, if possible. Two of the students perform the poem as the third is the audience, then the roles change. The poem is performed three times allow everyone to be the audience. The whole class gathers and discusses experiences they had in their groups.

Hopkins Award Poetry:

Myers, Walter Dean. Jazz. Illus. Christopher Myers. New York: Holiday House, 2006. Print. ISBN 9780823421732.


In a picture book format, Walter Myers and Christopher Myers, a father son collaboration team provides an explosion of movement and color, generating the reader’s movement. The father, Walter, the poet, composed fifteen poems that celebrate jazz music as the son, Christopher, the illustrator, produced expressive painting that focuses on the energy of the poems. The jazz sound is heard as you read through the collection, such as the drumming of African rhythms leading into a celebration of Louis Armstrong, an evocation of stride piano, a recreation of a New Orleans jazz funeral and a three-part improvisation. All of these activities are focusing on the subject in the poem they accompany. The feeling of celebration surrounds the reader through rhyme, while sensory imagery such as “ocean rhyme,” “feeling,” “preaching,” “fire,” “heat,” and “thumming” makes a connection with the reader.

Christopher Myers uses bold colors to create the strong jazz sound in the illustrations. The action-filled and colorful cover invites anyone who sees the book to open it. The use of lines, angles, and facial expressions add a visual complement to the jazz sounds and helps the reader hear the sound and keep the beat just like the impressionistic type illustrations. Many of the illustrations are distorted creating a focus on playfulness, intensity, and energy. The essential elements of the illustrations are enlarged and are detailed such as fingers on a piano, playing a flute, strumming strings, and held out. Occasionally cursive script emulating jazz movement focuses the readers to the jazz in the poem’s rhyme.

There is no Table of Content. The poems are arranged as a “jam session” celebrating all types of jazz including swing, ragtime, and be-bop. A detailed introduction, and a jazz glossary and timeline provide background knowledge of jazz. Jazz has acquired the following honors and awards: Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, ALA Notable Children’s Book, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, Publishers Weekly’s 100 Best Books of the Year, Kirkus Reviews Editor’s Choice Booklist Editors’ Choice, Booklist Top Ten in Black History, A Book Links Best New Book for the Classroom, Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text, IRA Notable Book for a Global Society 2007, Hans Christian Andersen Award, Illustrator Honor, New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work—Poetry, and Parenting Mom-Tested Book of the Year.

The enjoyable and engaging collection provides a fun and entertaining mood and upbeat emotions as it enriches the reader’s knowledge of jazz through the interesting topics and natural appeal. The Myers duo captures the spirit of jazz in this collection by making the reader want to move as they combine history, music, art, and poetry.

Poem for Library Lesson:

“Jazz”

Start with rhythm
Start with the heart
Drumming in tongues
Along the Nile
A black man’s drum
Speaks
Love
Start with
Rhythm
Start with
the Heart
Work songs
Gospel
Triumph
Despair
Voices
Lifted
From the soul

Activity:

Read the poem and discuss the meaning of the poem with respect to it being the first poem in the collection. Review point of view, 1st and 3rd person using the point of view box (outline of a square using tape on the floor, inside the box – 1st person [I, me, my] outside the box 2nd person).

Discuss the point of view the poet uses in the poem. Ask students to support their point of view answer with specific examples in the poem. The illustrator uses which point of view? Ask students to support their point of view answer with specific examples shown in the illustrations.

After listening to jazz and with jazz music playing in the background, he students write a poem reflecting the message they hear in the music. Review how the students can communicate rhyme, pauses, emotion, and movement using white space, stanzas, word choices, font, and punctuation. Students volunteer to share their work upon completion.

Free Choice:

Wong, Janet S. Twist: Yoga Poems. Illus. Julie Paschkis. New York: Margaret K. McElderry, 2007. Print. ISBN 9780689873942.

Twist is a collection of poems about yoga positions. Through lyrics and child friendly writing Wong conveys the poetic essence and uses sensory images in sixteen yoga positions such as Tree, Warrior, and Crow. Most of the poses have animal names allowing the readers to make a connection to the prose through imagery. The damp soil can be felt beneath you as you read Cobra and you grab the star as Half-Moon. Wong’s use of sensory imagery allows the yoga to live through the poem. Each poem has several layers of meaning including explaining the meaning of the yoga position in addition to providing a story and an imagery of the position. The author’s note is found in the book. It states the collection was written as a gift for the illustrator of the book, Paschkis. Wong did each position then stopped reflected and wrote poetry about that position. She acknowledged that some positions were difficult but doing them as well as personally possible is beneficial. After doing the positions, it is apparent that the Table of Content lists the collection from easies to most difficult position. (Yes, I too, did each position). The collection received the Bank Street Best Books of the Year and was the Garden State Children’s Book Award Nominee.

Paschkis, the illustrator, uses vibrant watercolors to picture each exercise and to exercise the reader’s imagination in addition to the body as it compliments each poem. The book is appealing with its attractive and inviting designs, warm colors, format which lends added dimension, energy, and beauty to Wong’s collection. The format of the book compliments the poetry topic. She uses complimentary patterns to accentuate the subject, such as using triangle patterns “Triangle” and in “Cobra” the lines in the boarder and clothes snake around. Two pages are used for each poem and the accompanying illustration which illustrates the position featured in the poem. Both the poem and illustration are framed with the illustrations on the left pages and the poems on the right pages throughout the collection. The framed illustrations and poems are set inside a boarder illustration which explempfies details from the accompanying poem as well as extend the yoga theme throughout the collection. Paschkis’ work makes the collection visually appealing and adds a dimension to the poems while providing subjects for the reader to make connections.

The illustrations and poetry work in tandem allowing the reader to experience the pose as they have an emotionally moving, literary, and artistic interpretation of yoga.


Poem for Library Lesson:

“From Tree”

Trees watch.

This is why
They grow tall,
this is why they bend
and sway,
so they can see around
a house, over a hill,
beyond a fire…

At the tip of each branch
There is an eye.


Activity:

After reading the poem discuss how the poem reflects the how a tree would be able to see if it had eyes at each branch. Would the tree be able to stand in one place and see or would the tree need to move, stretch, and sway to see around a house, over a hill and beyond a hill? Students demonstrate how the tree would have to move to see everything. Do any two trees move the same way? Why or why not? The students focus on how they as a tree are moving to see things. They complete the activity by writing a poem that describes a position their tree makes in order to see. Students voluntarily share their poetry and demonstrate their tree position.

Social Studies Poetry:

Stockland, Patricia M. The Free and the Brave: a Collection of Poems about the United States. Illus. Sara Rojo Perez. Minneapolis: Compass Point, 2004. Print. ISBN 9780756505639.

Stockland creates an anthology of poems about the United States with "Toolbox tips," which helps the reader understand the poetry and how it is written. The selected poem, which illustrates the collection’s patriotic theme throughout the collection, is selected from diverse authors including Carl Sandburg, Jean Little, Langston Hughes, Ogden Nash, and Janet Wong.

The toolbox is a major focus in the book. Each poem explanation of a related poetic form or concept, found throughout the book on the bottom of the pages, such as acrostic, meter, voice, onomatopoeia, or limerick. Each poems concept is effectively and clearly illustrated. The poems use free verse, limericks, alliteration and metaphors, repetition, rhyme, sensory imagery, voice, and meter. The Table of Content focuses on the “Toolbox” features, listing the poetry as “Poems” which cover pages six to twenty-five. The index on the last page of the book lists the nineteen poems in alphabetical order with the author and page number. The poems are arranged in the book based on poetic elements. A glossary of poetic terms is found in the back of the book as well as web and library resources. “Collect Your Tools” is a continued analyzation of specific use of tools in the poems found in this collection and encouragement to post poetry on the web. The diversity of the poems is reflected in the varied topic addresses. Many emotions are found in the collections, fun and reflective, such as “City Blockades,” and depressing or even embarrassing for children, such as “Poor.”

Rojo Perez, the illustrator creates brightly colored cartoon like illustrations for each poem which peak the reader’s curiosity and encourages reading the poem. The facial features are simple and interesting. Her illustrations frame and separate the poetry while making some of the poems more child friendly by lightening the content’s severity, such as “Aunt Sue’s Story.”

This is a wonderful book for teaching the poetic concepts and encourages the use of specific elements in writing poetry. The focus is primarily on the concepts and not the poem collection. To direct the focus on the theme – patriotism of the United States the poems can be read without referencing the “Tool Tips.”

Poem for Library Lesson:

“When I Grow Up”
I want to be an artist, Grandpa-
Write and paint, dance and sing.

Be accountant,
Be lawyer,
Make good living,
Buy good food.
Back in China,
In the old days,
Everybody
So, so poor.
Eat one chicken,
Work all year.

Grandpa, things are different
here.

-Janet S. Wong

Activity:

Read the poem out loud. Define voice and tell more than one voice can be in a poem. Show examples using another poem. Ask how many voices are in Wong’s poem. Discuss the message(s) Wong conveys in the poem. Specifically discuss Wong’s desires and goals according to the poem and desires and goals others have for her. Have students list hopes and goals for themselves and hopes and goals other have for them. Using that list, the students write a poem titled, “When I Grow Up.” They may include more than one voice in their poem if desired. When the student is finished with the poem they create an illustration that features their desire when they grow up.