You Read to Me, I'll Read to You by Mary Ann Hoberman

Hoberman, Mary Ann. 2004. You read to me, I'll read to you: very short fairy tales to read together (in which wolves are tamed, trolls are transformed, and peas are triumphant). Ill. by Michael Emberley.  New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0316207447

Part of a series of books by Hoberman that feature poems written to be performed by two readers, this volume features poems based on familiar fairy tales.  Short lines, rhyme, and rhythm are an important to each poem.  The illustrations by Emberley add humor and support to the text.  

The volume contains a table of contents, with each poem titled with the name of the fairy tale.  An author's note discussing the purpose and origin of the concept provides guidance for the performance of the poetry.

Featured poem:

The Three Little Pigs

I'm Big Bad Wolf.

I'm Little Pig.

You're very small.

You're very big.
Bug now I've got you
In my pot.

The water's getting

Very hot.

I'll cook you up
And make a stew.

Why, that's an awful

Thing to do.

Now that's a silly
Thing to say.
You ate my brother
Yesterday.

Why, so I did!

I had forgot.

(This water's getting 

Really hot.)

And on the day before
It's you
Who ate my other
Brother, too.

Did I do that?

That wasn't nice.

(Could you put in 

A little ice?)

They built their houses
In the town.
You huffed and puffed
And blew them down.

Well, they were made

Of straw and sticks

While yours is made

Of good strong bricks.

First I built
My house of bricks,
And then I fooled you
With my tricks.

And now you've got me

In your pot.

This water's really

Really hot!

Say you're sorry
Loud and clear.

I'm sorry.  Let me

Out of here!

Louder!  Clearer!
Give a shout!

I'M SORRY, PIG!

NOW LET ME OUT!

Now do you promise
To be nice?

I promise Pig.

Then here's some ice.
Sit down and cool
Yourself a bit.
I'll read you something
While you sit.

What will you read?

A tale that's true.
A tale about
Both me and you.

Can I read, too?

If you know how.

Of course I do.

Then let's start now.

(Unison)

We'll read Three Little Pigs

Right through

You'll read to me.

I'll read to you.

Since the poem is meant to be performed by two people, I would enlist a second reader and rehearse the poem before presenting to students.  Because the animals are the speakers of the poem, I would use a pig and a wolf puppet to present the poem.

After modeling a performance of the style of poetry contained in the book, I would ask students to team up and present some of the  poems contained within.  Providing costumes, puppets, or props can allow students to create unique performance experiences.  

Button Up! by Alice Schertle

Schertle, Alice. 2009. Button up!: wrinkled rhymes. Ill. by Petra Mathers.  New York: Harcourt Children's Books/ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780152050504

Winner of the 2010 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and multiple starred reviews from journals, Button Up! is a collection of poems told from the perspective of articles of clothing that are surprisingly articulate and witty.  The illustrations by Mathers depict animal characters as the clothing owners and add detail and humor to Schertle's verses.

All of the poems use rhyme and a strong rhythm that make the poems interesting to read aloud.  Repetition and refrain are also frequently employed in the collection.  The language is appealing, full of enthusiasm and humor.  Even when the articles of clothing take their jobs seriously, the whimsy involved in the concept, illustrations, and poetic language make these poems uniformly entertaining and engaging.

Each poem is titled with the owner's name and the article of clothing and is listed in a table of contents to provide access points into the text.  Each poem gets a two-page spread for poem text and illustrations.

Featured poem:

Joshua's Jammies

We are the jammies that Joshua wears,

not jammies for penguins,

not jammies for bears,

not jammies for tigers with knots in their tails,

not jammies for chickens,

not jammies for whales,

not jammies for elephants going upstairs,

we are the jammies that Joshua wears.

We don't fit iguanas,

we're not for the gnu,

we won't suit the llamas

(they never wear blue).

Hippopotamus can't get us over his head.

We're JOSHUA's jammies.  We're going to bed.

Although the illustrations add such an interesting element to the poem, I would share this poem without showing the illustration to the students.  After reading the poem several times and possibly provided a copy of the text, I would ask students to illustrate this poem.  After students have envisioned their own drawings for the poem, I will share Mather's pictures and compare them to the student's works.  We will discuss how the illustrations affect the meaning of the poem.

This Is Just to Say by Joyce Sidman

Sidman, Joyce. 2007. This is just to say: poems of apology and forgiveness. Ill. by Pamela Zagarenski. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. ISBN 978-0-618-61680-0

"This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams served as inspiration for Joyce Sidman as she worked with students on poetry writing.  When the class encouraged her to send the apology poem she had written to her mother, Sidman was again inspired--this time to write a collection of apology poems from the perspective of a class of sixth grade students.  In this fictional scenario, the students also deliver their apology poems to the intended recipients and ask for poems in response.  The apologies and responses are collected in this volume and illustrated in the fictional setting by one of the students and in reality by Pamela Zagarenski.

The variety of the poems is intriguing and entertaining especially since all the poems have the same intention or purposes--to present an apology or express regret for an action.  The events that inspired the apologies range from the trivial (rubbing a statue's nose for luck) to the more serious (giving in to peer pressure and breaking all the garage windows), and the resulting poems present an emotional range of regret, sorrow, and fear in addition to a few poems showing a lack of serious contrition.  Young readers will find something here with which to identify as the misdeeds are so universal.  In addition to a variety of themes, the types and forms of the poems are also varied including a haiku and a pantoum, although most are free verse.

Most of the poets seem to find freedom or closure from their confessions and apologies, and many of the responses reveal the truth that the offense or inciting incident meant more to the apologist than the one who was wronged.  Most of the offenses have long been forgiven.  A few of the poems written to objects or animals or a couple of parents unwilling to participate are answered by other classmates who offer understanding and absolution as beset they can.

Although rhyme is not used much in this collection, strong rhythms and repetitions or refrains are frequently employed, which makes the poems especially good for oral reading or recitation.  Two poems incorporate Spanish words or phrases, and several of the poems and poets reveal various cultural backgrounds that add an appeal to readers with similar backgrounds.  The illustrations are simple but powerful.  Zagarenski (or the fictional Bao Vang) incorporates dictionary pages into the illustrations in a collage style that highlights significant words or themes (apology, apologize,etc.).  The use of lined paper and graph paper in the illustrations as well as the simple drawings and doodles reinforce the fact that they are supposedly created by a student.

The book is divided into two sections:  apologies and responses and is introduced with an editor's note from one of the students.  A table of contents provides access points for the readers with titles and individual student poets listed.  On each page or spread, the poem's intended recipient is noted above the title.

Featured poem:

Since the poem's are really written in pairs, I would share both the apology and its response.

Fashion Sense (to Mrs. Munz)

I am so sorry for my rude words.

The classroom was so dead.
No one had anything more to say about Old Yeller,
and we were all crazy to get outside.
The silence seemed like a hundred crushing elephants.
So I raised my hand and made that comment
about your dress,
and everyone burst out laughing.

You smiled,
but your smile looked like a frozen pond.

People were high-fiving me on the way
down to lunch, but I felt like a traitor.
You know how the words slip out and you can't believe it?
And they echo in your head forever and ever?
All through lunch, and through recess,
all the next day, I wished I could take those words back.
I kept thinking of what you always say to us:
words can help or hurt, the choice is ours.
I want to rewind to that moment and say instead,
"Mrs. Merz, that dress makes you look like a princess."

You are really a queen not a princess.
Our queen.  Reina de la clase.
I hope you will overlook the transgressions
of your loyal but loud-mouthed subject
and forgive me.

(P.S. I notice you'tr not wearing that dress so much anymore.
Green is not good on you anyway.  I like the new one,
with blue in it, which makes you look thinner.)

by Carmen

Haiku for Carmen

Just these few warm words,
and spring sunlight fills the room;
my dress turns to sky.

by Mrs. Ruth Merz

I think these two poems together demonstrate something important about expression and emotion.  Carmen's poem, one of the longest in the book, has both narrative elements, describing the series of events as well as her thoughts and emotions throughout the whole experience.  Although the poem is related to one specific incident, it shows us several things about Carmen.  She sets the scene in a way that seems to make excuses for why she was rude, but the contrition she describes also seems very sincere.  Her post script also seems to indicate that Carmen can be blunt with her opinion.  Mrs. Merz's poem, whose length is mandated by the haiku form that she chose, is the opposite of Carmen's.  It's brief and spare compared to all the words of the apology poem, but it also tells us quite a bit about Mrs. Merz, that she enjoys her students and basks in warm relationships with them, that she is forgiving, and that no matter how grown up she is, it's still nice to receive compliments.

After sharing the poems, I would engage the students in a discussion of the differences and similarities in the poem.  I would also highlight the line from Carmen's poem about the advice that Mrs. Munz has given, "words can help or hurt, the choice is ours" and ask the students if Carmen's poem demonstrates whether or not she has learned that lesson.

I would also want students to write their own apology poem for some transgression, a misdeed or an unkind word.  Students who want to share their poems would be encouraged to do so.

Black Jack by Charles R. Smith Jr.

Smith, Charles R. 2010. Black Jack: the ballad of Jack Johnson. Ill. by Shane W. Evans.  New York: Roaring Brook Press. ISBN 9781596434738

This ballad depicts the life of heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson who became the first black heavyweight champion in 1910.  In addition to his boxing success, the poem paints a portrait of a proud man, the son of former slaves, who would not accept the racial discrimination that defined the era in which he lived.

The poet uses rhyme and rhythm to create the narrative poem, sometimes incorporating quotes or slang of the time period to lend a more realistic feel to the story.  In addition to relaying the events of Jack's life in poetic form, the ballad also evokes emotion through descriptions of Jack's family and upbringing, the hardships and discrimination that he faced, and the triumphs that he experienced as a boxer.

Featured poem:
an excerpt of the description of his childhood

But it was words from his mother,
whom Jack loved so dear,
that Jack took to heart
when they entered his ear:

"Jack, you are the BEST boy
in the world.  You can do
ANYTHING you want if
you want it badly enough."

Since the entire book is brief, I would be more inclined to share the entire ballad and show off the bold illustrations by Evans, but this poem would also work well on its own to demonstrate how Johnson developed the strong character necessary to cross the color line in boxing and demand equal treatment.

I would share Black Jack as a part of Black History Month in February and ask the students to use the ballad form demonstrated in the poem to write about another figure from history that we studied.

The Brothers' War by J. Patrick Lewis

Lewis, J. Patrick. 2007. The brothers' war: Civil War voices in verse. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic. ISBN 9781426300363

In this collection, J. Patrick Lewis gives a voice to slaves, soldiers, generals, and citizens who were a part of the Civil War.  Each poem is accompanied by photographs from that era as well as a note about the context, person, or situation that is depicted by the poem.  The end of the book features a map, timeline, bibliography for further reading, a note about the photography and Lewis's further notes and explanations of each of the poems.  The table of contents provides access points to the eleven poems.

Each poem is told from a distinct perspective, the speaker a real person or a realistic representative of the time period.  Some are well-known such as abolitionist John Brown or former slave Frederick Douglass or Union General William Sherman, and others are merely the anonymous voices of soldiers and slaves.  Each poem is distinct in perspective and tone, but each also flows together to present a view of the war and time period as a whole.

Most of the poems use rhyme, and many have a strong rhythm.  Word choice and dialect are important to conveying the difference in the speakers of the poem.  The imagery used in the poems is enhanced by the photographs which put faces onto nameless soldiers or depict some of the more gruesome aspects of war.

Featured poem:

Blood of Our Fathers, Blood of Our Sons
The First Battle of Bull Run July 21, 1861

Five thousand fell that day by Sudley Road,
Five thousand left their mothers in despair.
a world gone red--the Bull Run overflowed
With blood, raining in the violent air.
On Widow Henry's fallow fields, I saw
A boy about my age fall where he stood,
Face down, writing, clutching at mud and straw,
As if God's earth could do him any good.
By what outrageous powers of circumstance
Do men take arms against their very own?
The Yankee sergeant's bullet snapped the bone.
Roy Pugh, his Rebel son, had little chance.
Distraught, the sergeant rolled him on his side.
Roy whispered, "Father . . . Why?" before he died.

Although this poem is a depiction of a specific battle, the impact of it truly comes in its depiction of father and son forced into battle against each other by the opposing viewpoints that defined the war.  The poet's note at the end of the book directs readers to a firsthand narrative of a similar event at http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/malvern.htm.

I would share first the poem and then the website account with students when discussing the ideological divisions that affected so many families.   Students will write two poems depicting a battle or the overall war from two opposing viewpoints, North and South, slave and slave-owner, etc.

The Tree that Time Built selected by Mary Ann Hoberman and Linda Winston

Hoberman, Mary Ann, Linda Winston, and Barbara Fortin. 2009. The tree that time built: a celebration of nature, science, and imagination. Napperville, IL: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky. ISBN 9781402225178

Mary Ann Hoberman, the U.S. Children's Poet Laureate from 2008-2010, and Linda Winston, an anthropologist and teacher have selected quite a collection of science and nature poems in this anthology from a wide variety classic and contemporary poets. The volume is divided in nine loosely themed sections and includes section introductions, footnotes, notes on the poets, an index, and a glossary to help guide readers.  The book is accompanied by a cd containing recordings of forty-four of the poems, many read by the poets themselves.  References to track numbers on the cd are included in the table of contents as well as on the pages containing the recorded poems.

With so many poems, there is naturally a wide range of styles, forms, and tones to the poems in this collection.  From brief but richly constructed haiku to fanciful, lighthearted treatments of animals and plants to solemn and sparse depictions of the world, there is sure to be a poem to appeal to all types of readers.  The rhythm, sound, and word choice used in the poems are especially easy to note when listening to the accompanying cd as are the various emotions evoked by the poems.

One of the most appealing aspects of the volume is the inclusion of centuries-old poems alongside poems by the poets of today.  As the anthology's selectors make connections and reference to Darwin's work in evolution, the poems themselves represent an evolution of poetic expression over time.  Simple, playful poems appear alongside more intricate, though-provoking ones, and the whole, while perhaps too extensive to be consumed in a single sitting, provides a variety of avenues to explore and discover making scientists out of poets and poets out of scientists.

Featured poem:

Procyonidae by Mary Ann Hoberman

If you give a little whistle,

You might meet a cacomistle,

A coati or olingo

Or a raccoon with a ring-o;

I can name them by the dozens

And all of them are cousins

                       And they're all related to the giant panda!

The kinkajou's another

That is practically a brother

To coatis and olingos

And to raccoons with their ring-os;

And every single one of them

Is different, that's the fun of them

                       Yet every one's related to the panda!

Now they all have different faces

And they live in different places

And they all have different sizes,

Different noses, different eyeses;

But the family name for all of them

Is just the same for all of them

                       And each one is related to the panda!

The note accompanying this poem explains that when it was written, the panda was classified in the same animal family (Procyonidae) as the raccoon, and the poem connects the panda to its relatives in that family.  In the 1980s, the panda was reclassified based on DNA study into the bear (Ursidae) family.  So although the poem is no longer accurate, it represents how what we know and understand about our world can change as science allows us to discover more and more.

Sharing this poem and the story behind its inclusion in the book would be a wonderful introduction to the scientific method, reminding students that our hypotheses and theories about how or why something is the way it is must stand up to evidence.

Another idea would be to share the recording of the poem (and Hoberman's insight into its background) when studying animal families.  Ask the students to identify traits or aspects of the giant panda that connect it to the raccoon or bear families.  Then ask the students to write an updated version of the poem called Ursidae that connects the giant panda to various relatives in the bear family.  Keeping the same rhythm or rhyme scheme as Hoberman uses in the original poem would be a fun idea to help the poems match each other.

"Restless" by Joyce Sidman

Our midterm project was to create a "poem movie."  Here's my movie for "Restless" by Joyce Sidman, published in The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.