Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word

by Bob Raczka and Illustrated by Nancy Doniger

This short collection features poems written from words made of letters from a single word. The poems are playful and imaginative and the illustrations match the text with their simplicity and pointedness. At first, I didn’t much enjoy reading the poems that were written in a kind of scatterplot format; I found it much easier to read the same poem written in a straightforward format on the back page. But after reading them again, I got the hang of the scatterplot format and had a kind of “Aha” moment.

This book would be an excellent resource for a poetry lesson for grades 4 – 9 because it presents a refreshing twist on a form of writing that students often find boring and incomprehensible.

           

Raczka, B. (2011). Lemonade and other poems squeezed from a single word. New York, NY: Roaring Book Press.

Chopsticks 

by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral  

Chopsticks is an unconventional novel told in photographs, chat conversations, newspaper articles, concert programs, news anchor screen shots, and letters that require close examination and give a feeling of having more there than meets the eye. It is the story of Gloria Fleming, a music prodigy whose mother dies when she is young. The novel begins with a newspaper article reporting Gloria’s disappearance from a hospital and explains Gloria’s mental breakdown and subsequent hospitalization when she reverted to playing the song “Chopsticks” over and over and was unable to play anything else. From there, the story is told in flashback, recalling different events in her life: Gloria’s birth, her mother’s death, her first recital, her rise to musical greatness. Enter Francisco Mendoza who moves into the house next door to hers and their love is reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet.

Unfortunately, I actually was not sure how the story ended and had to re-read several sections of the book several times. I’m still not positive what happened. It’s like the Chopsticks song. It ends where it begins.

Anthony, J. & Corral, R. (2012). Chopsticks. New York, NY: Penguin Group.

Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It 

by Gail Carson Levine

The title seems a little tricky and when I read the Contents page, it looked like some sort of puzzle because the only title listed is “This Is Just to Say” in different fonts with different page numbers, except for the Introduction, which is on page 18. But no. It is no mistake. All of the poems in this book have the same title. And yes, the Introduction is on page 18, after the fifth poem in the book. Hmmm. Something tells me Ms. Levine is playing with me. She explains that the poems in the book are false apology poems – poems that resemble an apology from a writer who is not remorseful at all - modeled after a false apology poem by William Carlos Williams in content and structure.

The poems in this collection are witty and entertaining and allude to other tales such as Snow White, Pinocchio, Jack and Jill, and Cinderella. [metafiction] The drawings complement the poems and help crystallize the characters’ emotions and circumstances for each. This book would be a good resource for teaching a poetry unit to students 10 – 14 because the structure is easy to follow and students can get creative with their false apologies. 

Levine, G. C. (2012). Forgive me, I meant to do it. New York, NY: Harper Collins Children.

It's Perfectly Normal

by Robie Harris

This illustrated book is about the human body, how we are all different, how our bodies change and grow, and how to take care of our bodies to keep us healthy.

At first, I was shocked by this book and I thought it was way too graphic for kids at the elementary and even the middle school level. The book is actually recommended for children 10 and up. Drawings of naked bodies and of naked people in bed and of the sex organs, etc. - I really thought it was too much, but once I got over the initial shock of all the nakedness, I found the book well-written and professional without being clinical. It covers a lot of information and addresses questions that a lot of kids have about body changes and where babies come from and all those things that kids wonder about.  I like that the book explains how a person should take care of himself or herself, like personal hygiene. It addresses the meaning of sexual abuse and lets kids know that “your body belongs to you” and not to keep sexual abuse a secret.

You Hear Me?

Poems and writing by teenage boys

Edited by Betsy Franco

This book is a collection of writings (poetry and prose) in the voice of the adolescent male. The topics of the writings include a wide range of topics: school, dads, children, drugs, love, and more.  The writings in this collection are true and honest and they, at times, typify the voice of the young adolescent male. At other times they are the voice of a much wiser, more mature and experienced person, as in the poem “Carabao Dreams” by Timoth Arevalo, “sadness is not the absence of happiness/but your incapacity to witness its presence”. Another example of adolescent wisdom from “I Refuse” by Steven Hill, “When I see the word ‘father’, the first person that comes to mind is myself…I refuse to be a deadbeat dad because no excuse is a good enough excuse to abandon your own creation.” I found most of the writings insightful and valuable.

Twilight The Graphic Novel Volume II

Volume II is the graphic novel for the second half of the Twilight novel. I liked the beautiful artwork in Volume I and the artwork in Volume II is equally beautiful.  I like the cover design of both books and the way that they join together to form one picture. The books are that way too. Both books joined together tell the whole Twilight story. The artwork develops the characterization and setting throughout the novel. The action scenes are especially interesting and the use of color gave scenes a very nice touch. 

Twilight The Graphic Novel Vol I

I was not a big fan of Twilight and only recently have have become a fan of graphic novels, but the combination of the two in Twilight The Graphic Novel really worked well. The drawings in this book are of high quality and the composition is beautiful and detailed. The drawings gave me plenty of information to help develop the setting and the characters throughout the story, with help from the dialogue bubbles of course. I think one of the reasons I liked the graphic novel is because the drawings add to the mystique of the characters and I did not have a particular image in my mind about the characters when I read the novel and I haven’t seen the movie so I the images were fresh for me.  The drawings featured lots of gorgeous, whispy hair, freakishly large, but perfect eyes, sepia coloring, and several extreme close ups. All of it worked for me.

I would recommend the book to students, especially reluctant readers who have not yet read the novel.  Volume I feels like the first half of a novel so the story feels incomplete and I think it would need to be quickly followed by Volume II.