Birmingham, 1963

Weatherford, Carole Boston. 2007. Birmingham, 1963. Honesdale, Pa: Wordsong. ISBN 978-1-59078-440-2

In free verse poems accompanied by historic photos, Carole Boston Weatherford, through the voice of a fictional child speaker, recounts the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama that claimed the lives of four young girls.  The book ends with four in memoriam poems for the four victims of the bombing.  

The poet uses a refrain of sorts "the year I turned ten" for the early poems that set the background for the events, and "the day I turned ten" to introduce the poems that describe the day of the bombing.  Names or lines from various traditional spiritual songs are interspersed throughout the poems, referencing the songs that are synonymous with the African-American community and the Civil Rights movement.  Sense imagery is used to convey the sights, sounds, and emotions as they would have appeared, sounded or felt to a child rather than an adult.  The poems are emotional in a way that will resonate with both adults and children and convey a sense of the tragedy, but despite the serious subject content are not overwhelmingly sad or manipulative.  The memorial poems about the four girls honor lives that were too brief.

Although the book has no table of contents or index, a note from the poet as well as annotations about the photographs provide a historical context for the poems.  The poems are not named individually which also makes them flow together as one long work.

Featured poem:

The day I turned ten,

I saw blood spilled on holy ground

And my daddy cry for the very first time.

What had those girls done to deserve this?

At supper, no one had much appetite.

Afterwards, Mama washed and I dried dishes

While she hummed "Nobody Knows the Trouble I Seen."

Although the poems describe events that take place elsewhere, most students in Little Rock are well-versed in the history of segregation and the Civil Rights movement because of the desegregation of Central High School in 1957.  Sharing this poem could lead to a discussion of what the students already know about the history of their own city and an extension of that knowledge to the efforts and movements in other cities during that era.

I Am the Book

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 2011. I am the book: poems. Ill. by Yayo. New York: Holiday House. ISBN 978-0-8234-2119-0

This collection of poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins all center around the theme of books and reading. The thirteen poems, including one by Hopkins himself, demonstrate the broad gateway to learning and escapism that books provide readers.

The poems employ various devices to convey the richness of language and meaning.  Many employ rhythm or rhyme, and several use personification, making the book as active a participant in the action as the readers described in the poems.  In some cases, as with the titular poem the book is the speaker of the poem.  Though each poem in the book is distinct and meaningful standing alone, the selections blend together very effectively to create a cohesive collection.

Each of the short but meaningful poems contained in this collection are presented on a two-page spread and are accompanied by whimsical painted illustrations by Yayo that support and add meaning and interest to the poems.  Images of books are cleverly worked into the illustrations as boats, oceans, popsicles, and treasure chests among other things to signify the roles of the book in the lives of readers.  The table of contents, which lists each poems and author, provides access points into the text.

 At book's end, the reader is provided with short blurbs about each of the poets whose work is included in the collection.  Most of the poets are well-known contemporary poets, who have won awards and published works in various anthologies or in their own collections such as Karla Kuskin and Jane Yolen.  The book contains one poem by poet Jill Corcoran whose work had not previously appeared in a published anthology.  Most of the poems appear to have been written or copyrighted the same year as the book's publication, but some of the selections are older and have been previously published such as Karen B. Winnick's "Quiet Morning" and Beverly McLoughland's "When I Read."

Featured Poem:

Book

by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Buried in blankets
Book in my bed
Snuggled in story
By heart
In my head
I wallow in words
Chapter One
Til The End

Closing the cover
I sigh--

Good-bye, friend.

After sharing this poem with students, I would draw their attention to lines such as "snuggled in story" and "I wallow in words," which combine a concrete, physical action/verb with a object that cannot really receive that action.  I might also point out the last line that addresses the book as a person.  I would encourage the students to come up with other phrases or sentences to show an abstract concept like story could be paired with a physical action verb to create an image of strong interaction.

A Funeral in the Bathroom

Dakos, Kalli. 2011. A funeral in the bathroom: and other school bathroom poems. Ill. by March Beech. Chicago, Ill: Albert Whitman & Co. ISBN 978-0-8075-2675-0

This collection contains poems all centered around an often-unsung center of life and learning--the school bathroom.  From the expected bathroom humor to the secrets of student life that take place away from teacher's observing eyes, the poems paint a comprehensive picture of school life.

The first poem in the collection "Bathroom Poems" describes a teacher who hangs poems on the walls and stalls of the bathroom causing the students to unintentionally read, experience, and learn poems encompassing a wide range of emotions and forms.  These bathroom poems are referenced in a few poems throughout the collection and seem to serve as the inspiration for the student-narrated poetry that fills the book.

Many of the poems employ rhyme or a strong rhythm which make them enjoyable to read or recite aloud.  The bathroom setting also lends itself to onomatopoeic words that describe the water-filled world.  Thankfully the poet limits most of the sense imagery in the poems to the sights and sounds rather than the smells of the bathroom.

At first glance, a book about bathrooms would appear to have all the slightly taboo appeal needed to draw in young readers.  One might expect the entire book to consist of potty humor and silliness, and while there are such poems in the collection, they are tempered by more serious or imaginative poems that depict the school bathroom as a place that is so much more than its humble purpose:  a place to hide, to seek comfort or solitude, a place to daydream or escape the mundane, a place to for students to be themselves.  Young readers will respond to the images and experiences depicted in these poems.

For the most part, the collection is formatted with one poem per page.  A few poems are long enough to take up an entire two-page spread, and a number of the shortest poems share a page.  No matter the length, each poem is illustrated by Mark Beech.  The simple but colorful drawings give as much life to the toilets and mirrors as to the students who appear in the poems.  Many of the illustrations help to further the humor of the poems but they are not crude, which is a fine line to walk given the subject of some of the poems.  Of course, not all the poems are humorous, but the Beech's drawings support the poems no matter the topic or meaning.  The table of contents at the beginning of the book provides access points to the forty-one poems that make up the collection.

With her background as an educator, it's not surprising that  Kalli Dakos finds inspiration for her poetry in the school setting.  In addition to this anthology, she has published more school related poems in If You're Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand and The Bug in Teacher's Coffee and Other School Poems as well as contributing poems to other school poetry anthologies such as There's No Place Like School:  Classroom Poems.  

Featured Poem:

Stuck in His Shoe

He didn't have
a single clue
when the toilet paper
stuck to his shoe.

And followed him
in a looooooooooong line
down the hall
past the office sign,

and right into
our spelling class,
where everyone

laughed

and laughed

and laughed!

The poem could be introduced by sharing a personal story of an embarrassing moment or by asking students to share embarrassing anecdotes.