My People (favorite)

Hughes, Langston. My People. photos Charles R. Smith, Jr. Simon and Schuster, 2009. ISBN 978-1-4169-3540-7.

My People is a beautiful poem picture book. The pictures by Charles R. Smith, Jr. compliment this simple and eloquent poem of Langston Hughes wonderfully and truly seem to represent the poem itself. The mood of this whole book/poem is praiseful and respectful of the black person. While the poem was written long ago, the pictures are modern and feel as though they have movement.

This is definitely one of my favorites! I could look at the pictures in this book for hours. They accompany the text so well, it's almost as though you can reach out and touch the poem by looking at the pictures. It is such a wonderful representation of black people through the words and pictures of two black people. I would use this book as a follow up to a history lesson about the segregation, Jim Crow, etc. This book would further illustrate that there is beauty in all forms and human rights are just that: for every human, regardless of race.

Since this book is a picture poem book and the whole book is a poem itself, I do not feel it would appropriate to write it here (copyright law). I highly suggest looking this book up at your local library and letting your eyes wander the pages.

You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Short Stories

Hoberman, Mary Ann. You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Stories to Read Together. ill. Michael Emberley. Little Brown and Co., 2001.

A great way to share poetry as a pair of children, or as an adult and child, You Read to Me is a full of fun! Each person has a side to read and when the words are in the middle, you read them together. The overall mood in this book is fun and fanciful and cover topics that kids are familiar with like friends, family, animals, clothing, and more. The words are simple and colorful and the illustrations are acurate and portray children of all races and colors.

As a librarian, I would use this book to help English teachers teach rhyme, rythym, and repetition. It's a fun way to introduce these things to students without boring them with "adult" poetry. In addition to the more formal setting, I would like to use this book as a simple, fun, poetry break to have with students of all ages. This would be a great way to introduce the library at the beginning of the year. Use choral reading as a way to get kids excited about the library and reading to me, as I will read to them. My favorite poem is actually the last one in the book.

The End (the blue words are ones to be read together)

We're at the end

The very end

The very

Very

Very

End.

No more words

Or pictures. Look!

No more stories

In this book.

But there are other

Books to read.

Hundreds

Thousands

All we need.

Any time

In any weather

We can sit

Right down together.

In the shade

Or in the sun

Choose a book

That looks like fun.

One that's old

Or one that's new.

Make-believe

Or really true.

I'll read one line

I'll read two.

You'll read to me.

I'll read to you.

Moon Over Tennessee

Crist-Evans, Craig. Moon Over Tennessee: A Boy's Civil War Journal. ill. Bonnie Christensen. Houghten Mifflin, 1999. ISBN 0-395-91208-3

Written as a journal of a thirteen-year old boy, Moon Over Tennessee details this boy's journey with his father into a war-torn countryside. While never drawing arms, this young boy finds himself and others his age in the middle of an ugly war. Brought along to care for the horses, tend to camp duties, and care for his father, the narrator sees and hears war as no one should have to, much less someone that young. A journey into war, caring for horses, and ultimately an untimely ride home, seen from a thirteen-year-old's point of view, demonstrates the Civil War and it's effects on this family. The wood engraving illustrations that accompany this work are amazing and detailed. They will make the reader feel as though they are looking at the nighttime landscape of Tennessee themselves.

At the beginning of this module, I was hesitant to read this book. It did not look like something I would enjoy. However, the more I read, the more I enjoyed. In fact, there were several points in this book that brought tears to my eyes. I could feel the heart-break of so many families torn by a war many of them did not understand but in which felt compelled to fight. I would use this book as follow-up to a Civil War unit. I would read it to the students in small incriments, then have the students write (and possibly illustrate) a journal of their own as if they were this young man.

Excerpts from Moon Over Tennessee I would use to demonstrate the emotion of the young boy.

Just past the fencerow, we turn the horses back
and wave at Ma, Little Sister, and John. The moon
is still a ghost above the hills of Tennessee. (p 10)

Morning comes in shades of gray.
As if I dream it, there are gunshots,
bugle calls, and screaming. I sit up fast,
but Pa is up already, busy
pulling on his boots, his rifle
cocked and loaded on his cot. (p 27)

"Pa," I ask him just before we sleep,
"do you think it's right, what we are doing?" (p 36)

"Even when the cannons quit," he says,
"I can hear them pounding in my ears." (p 43)

"Some say it's for the salves,
but I don't think that's true. (p 45)

I say, "I rode from Gettysburg to Tennessee
and I saw the country weeping." (p 59)

Frida: ¡Viva la vida! Long Live Life

Bernier-Grand, Carmen T. Frida: ¡Viva la vida! Long Live Life. Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2007. (Paintings done by Friday Kahlo)

Students can explore the life of Friday Kahlo from birth to death through these biographical poems by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand. Telling the story of her life through short lines, simple language, and with Mexican words peppered throughout, Bernier-Grand explores Frida's happiness and tragedies. Accompanied by paintings done by and photos taken of Frida Kahlo, the words themselves seem to paint the images of Frida's joys and sufferings. After all, words are the poets' paintbrush, right? Throughout her life, whether confined to bed or enjoying life with her friends and family, Kahlo's motto was ¡Viva la Vida! or Long Live Life! Through the poems and paintings in this powerful book, children and adults can view the zest for life she had even to the time of her death.

This book would be a wonderful addition to any Spanish class while studying culture. In fact, I am using this book during our culture section on Mexico. The poem of her bus tragedy is an excellent way to introduce the poet herself before pictures are shown. Many times, students find it funny that she has a uni-brow and had more masculine features in many of her paintings. It would be nice to read them the poem and have them imagine what if would feel like if they were in a debilitating car wreck due to one misstep in their lives. Have them reflect on their feelings should such an awful thing would be a wonderful way to have them step in to someone else's shoes. After that, many of the other poems would be great accompaniment to studying her life as well.


Excerpt from The Accident

If only I hadn't lost my little toy parasol!

I jump off a running bus to find it.
No luck. I guy a balero, a cup-and-ball toy.
jump onto a brightly painted bus,
sit in back on a bench along the side
near a painter with a toolbox
that holds powdered gold paint.

In front of the San Juan market,
a trolley car plows into our bus!
I bounce forward.

The bus bends, bends, bends.
Hits a wall.
Bursts into pieces!

The balero is jolted from my hand.
Where does it go?
A handrail
P
I
E
R
C
E
S
my hipbone.

I, Too, Sing America

Clinton, Catherine (comp). I, Too, Sing America: Three Centuries of African American Poetry. ill. Stephen Alcorn. Houghton Mifflin, 1998.

This anthology of poems covers authors from the first known African-American, Lucy Terry, to the poets of today. There is such a diversity of authors, tones, and moods in this book! Authors vary from the obscure, lesser-known ones such as Angelina Weld Grimké to the utterly famous Langston Hughes. Each poet is first introduced by a biography and sometimes a brief note on the poem. Each poem is further accompanied by an illustration done by Stephen Alcorn. Alcorn's interpretations of the poems are moving, inspiring and appropriate for each poem. Overall, this book presents a wonderful and moving tribute to great African-American authors throughout the ages. The poems and information in this book will inform and inspire every reader.

I would use this book during February's Black History Month in a middle or high school. On a bulletin board outside of the library, I would post an enlarged copy of one of the authors' poems and the artwork that accompanies it. In addition, I would post interesting bits of information about each author. I would rotate the authors weekly. On top of this, I would read visiting classes brief poems by authors throughout the year. The following is one of the poems I would choose to post.

Tableau by Countee Cullen

Locked arm in arm they cross the way,

The black boy and the white,

The golden splendor of the day,

The sable pride of night.

From lowered blinds the dark folk stare,

And here the fair folk talk,

Indignant that these two should dare

In unison to walk.

Oblivious to look and word

They pass, and see no wonder

That lightning brilliant as a sword

Should blaze the path of thunder.

Earthshake: Poems from the Ground Up

Westberg Peters, Lisa. Earthshake: Poems from the Ground Up. ill. Cathie Felstead. HarperCollins Publishers, 2003.

Rocks? We're studying rocks?? How boring! These are not things you will hear if you introduce geology with poems from this book. Lisa Westberg Peters does a wonderful job of creating surprise from a rock, questions from a clam fossil, and wonder in the wind. All of the free-verse poems in this book answer questions that could otherwise be painfully dull to learn. Things like erosion, lava, fossils, meteorites, granite and quartz are all examined. In addition to the poetic words, the illustrations that accompany each poem are colorful, well-chosen, and accurately reflect each poem's mood and theme. Moreover, there is a geological glossary in the back that explains and details many of the concepts that are covered in this book. Overall this is a fun book that creates a real sense of interest in geology.

I would use this book in an Earth's science class to introduce a unit on geology, specifically fossils. The poem "Obituary for a Clam" is a great way to introduce fossils. After reading the poem, the students would look at either real or digital fossils found in their area. They could even create obituaries for those creatures, do additional research on the animals, and even think about how they lived and died.

"Obituary for a Clam"

Clam. Marine.
Age, 10 years.

Died 300 million years ago
in underwater landslide.
Native of the Tethys Sea.
Loving mother of 198 clams.
Lived a good life
in the shallow water
off the coast of Pangaea.
Survived by
daughter clams,
son clams,
uncle clams,
aunt clams,
clam, clams, clams...
She is missed dearly,
but is fossilized
in the limestone
of a backyard path
in Memphis, Tennessee.