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.