LS5663 - Module 4 - Biographical Poetry - Book Review

Lewis, J. Patrick. 2006. Blackbeard, the pirate king. Washington, D.C: National Geographic. Illustrations by various artists. ISBN 9780792255857.

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I love vacationing in North and South Carolina, and they have lots of activities and places to visit related to pirates. I chose Blackbeard, The Pirate King for just this reason. I have heard his name lots, but I realized that I didn’t know that much about him. This book is full of information. There is a note from the author in the back that discusses that History does not really know much about this “larger than life” pirate. Much of the information we do have is based on hearsay and embellishment, along with the vivid imaginations of writers and illustrators. But, there is a good effort given to provide as much accurate information as possible. There is a time line of Blackbeard’s life in the back, along with maps of the Carolina coastline where his adventures took place.

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The artwork in the book is incredible! There are various artists’ interpretations of Blackbeard with each poem. Obviously, he lived long before photography, so artists had to rely on stories, myths, documents, and their own imaginations to depict Blackbeard’s likeness. The art is bold, colorful, and dramatic. It is a great accompaniment to the real treasure of this book, which is the poetry.

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J. Patrick Lewis has easily become one of my new favorite poets, and I was not disappointed by this book. As is the artwork, the poems are also, brave, audacious, and daring. Boys are going to be quickly drawn into this book, because of the “fighting” and “dueling,” and “weapons” and “roguish guy behavior.” It is just fun!

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Many of the poems rhyme with an alternating line style, and almost all of them are less than one page. They also have short lines, and stanzas, with lots of white space on the page. A reluctant reader should not feel intimidated by what they see and read in the book. There are a few French words in the poetry, along with some vocabulary words the students may not immediately understand, especially if they are reading this alone. But with the teacher or librarian doing an oral reading of the poetry, followed by a discussion of the artwork and history contained on the same pages, the students will start to quickly get the idea of pirates and their lingo.

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One of my favorites is:

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The Brethren of the Coast

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Down Caribbean shipping lanes,
Where buccaneers held court,
The pistol, blade,
And cannon made
Their treachery blood sport.

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“The Brethren of the Coast,” pirates
No country could contain,
Loved stealing gold
And seas patrolled –
To a man they hated Spain.
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But of all the thieves of the Seven Seas,
No one would ever reach
The height and might
Of the roguish knight
Of the Black Flag, Edward Teach.

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These poems lend themselves very well to choral readings and dramatic interpretations. Students will very much enjoy taking a poem from the book and organizing how the lines should be presented to an audience. That same poem could be acted out by other students, perhaps even using simple costumes and props. This would make for a great poetry break, to simply enjoy another fun poetry book. Or it could also be used to supplement a history unit about the early days of the U.S. colonies and the Caribbean islands.

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Kids will enjoy and remember this book, but I think boys most especially.

LS5663 - Module 4 - Social Studies Poetry - Book Review

Lewis, J. Patrick. 2007. The brothers' war: Civil war voices in verse. Washington, D.C: National Geographic. Photographs by Civil War Photographers. ISBN 9781426300370.

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This very impressive book has a lot to offer in the way of poetry, history, and photography. Each page includes a photo from the civil war showing various scenes, such as Union soldiers, dead soldiers in a battlefield, slaves picking cotton, a portrait of Frederick Douglass, a female nurse tending the wounded in a war hospital, the bare scarred back of a slave, General Sherman's soldiers destroying the railway lines in the deep south, an amputee soldier, etc. These photos are dramatic, powerful, and emotional.

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Add poetry to these photographs, and this is an incredible book. You really start to feel the history as you simply must read these poems aloud, and then study the pictures. Each page also includes some historical notes about the scene being depicted. This is an ideal book to read to and with social studies students, and to start getting them to understand history. It really happened! These are photographs, not drawings! These are real people, and real emotions! Kids need to have that taste of reality.

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This book would work very well in an upper elementary classroom, middle, or even high school. Many of the poems rhyme or have an 'easy to feel' rhythm. Others are in a free verse style, with short lines and lots of "white space" around the poem. This keeps the poetry from being intimidating to reluctant readers. The pictures draw the students in, and then the power of the poetry snags them quickly.

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Here is a dramatic poem that describes the raid on Harper's Ferry.

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The Raider

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Against a barbarous slave trade,

I swore with my last breath

Twenty-one worthies, black and white

And unafraid of death,

Would take the Armory that night,

We fought outmanned, outgunned,

And could not hold the prize though we

Had permanently stunned

Savage bigots everywhere.

We swung for it, but Lee,

That vile coward, must accept

Responsibility.

Let all the hired guns of hate

Punish this old John Brown.

The dam they opened up will flood

With blood until they drown.

In truth I am a white man

In sympathy a black.

but for this rope, I might have seen

Us win our freedom back.

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The photo with this poem shows Harper's Ferry after the destruction from the battle started by John Brown and his followers. There is a historical note about who John Brown was and why he planned this attack.

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This book is an excellent addition to a Civil War history unit. There are so many wonderful fiction and nonfiction books that could be used in conjunction with this. One of my favorites is Jim Murphy's The Boys' War. I am all about trying to get kids interested in history. I don't like dry textbooks, but there are so many wonderful books like these poetry and nonfiction ones that allow students to learn about and understand some of the reasons for this war.

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The students could use the Internet to search the Library of Congress webpage for other stories, photos, poetry, music, etc. that interested them about the Civil War. They could make notes of their findings, and share and discuss them in small groups. This would allow for all students to participate in the research and the presentation of their new knowledge. Kids hopefully will start to make a connection to this very interesting part of American history.

LS5663 - Module 4 - Science Poetry - Book Review

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Sierra, Judy. 1998. Antarctic antics: A book of penguin poems. San Diego: Gulliver Books. Illustrated by Jose Aruego & Ariane Dewey. ISBN 9780152010065.


This is a fun read! I learned so much about penguins without even realizing it. The illustrations are bright, colorful, and interesting. The poems are short, simple, and full of rhyme and rhythm. This book is full of movement and motion on the pages, and it really makes you want to get up and march around "like a penguin" as you read these poems aloud. Elementary kids will really enjoy this!

This book would work well with ESL learners. The colorful pictures and the strong rhyming patterns will be especially useful and enjoyable with these readers.

The science lesson incorporated into the poetry is excellent and easy to remember. It actually "sticks in your head." Reading this book as part of a related science unit is a great way to help children grasp and reinforce the science knowledge.

I read this book right before a trip down to Sea World last week. They had a penguin exhibit there that I just had to see. Sure enough, I could hear much of the poetry in my head as I watched the penguins jump off their ledges and dive and swim, chasing each other around the pool. The poet and illustrators have captured the "life of a penguin" perfectly! They are noisy, active, playful, a bit "stinky," and charismatic.

On of the poems I most enjoyed was:


My Father's Feet

To keep myself up off the ice,
I find my father's feet are nice,
I snuggle in his belly fluff,
And that's how I stay warm enough.
But when my father takes a walk,
My cozy world begins to rock.
He shuffles left, I hold on tight.
Oh no! He's wobbling to the right.
Not left again! Oops, here he goes.
Do you suppose my father knows
I'm hanging on to his warm toes?

The pictures are clever and fun on this poem, and kids start to "feel" a little of what it is like to be a penguin. This would be fun to try and have the children act out this poem, and others in the book.

As an extension to sharing this science poetry book, it would be great to have kids search the Internet for pictures of various kinds and ages of real penguins. They could each print one out and then either copy one of the poems from the book that matches it, find other penguin poems and match it to their picture, or write an original poem of their own, putting it with their picture, using their new science knowledge they have about this creature. These could be displayed on a bulletin board in the classroom or library.

I highly recommend this very fun and creative science poetry book.

LS5663 - Module 3 - Free Verse - Book Review

Rylant, Cynthia. 1994. Something permanent. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company. Photographs by Walker Evans. ISBN 9780152770907.

After reading this book and pondering the incredible photographs, I believe that this book of free verse poetry was written specifically to accompany these pictures. This photographer was hired by the Farm Security Administration to document the country during the Great Depression. They are fascinating, and now Ms. Rylant has created poetry that matches them very well, depicting the lives of rural tenant families in Alabama.

The poems are short, some very short, and they are all accompanied by a photo. The poetry provides a lot of emotional impact, some of it heart wrenching, some a little funny or quirky. This time in American history was quite devastating, financially and emotionally. Many had so few possessions, and what they had was very precious and valuable to them. The free verse poetry allows glimpses into that mindset, setting the tone and the mood that the reader feels when reading it aloud. I also feel that the emotion is stronger because of the photographs. The sensory image of "sight" is powerful here and allows the reader's mind to wander and connect to familiar items or experiences in our own lives.

This is an interesting book, not only for the poetry, but for the historical insight that it provides. It is a different way to deliver this information to the reader, rather than a textbook, movie, or documentary. This is something that I would refer a history teacher to, as well as a Language Arts instructor.

One of the free verse poems that most impressed me was:

Shoes

When he finally died, they kept

them around the house

the longest time,

tripping on them,

arranging them beneath the beds,

occasionally borrowing them

in bad weather.

Then the preacher told them

it was a sacrilege to the dead,

moving those shoes around

like a couple of mop buckets.

So they left them out at the cemetery one day,

and of course the shoes promptly disappeared.

It was impossible for them, after that,

to keep from looking down at the feet of every

person who crossed their path.

And this would have gone on probably forever

had not one of his hats

turned up

way in the back of the closet.

This poem will leave a lump in your throat if you dwell on it, and perhaps have just lost someone close to you. Those personal items become so precious, especially if you don't have many of them.

I think that I would read some of these poems out loud to high school students, showing them the photographs, along with a brief discussion of the Depression. I would especially point out how the impact of the poems are perhaps more powerful due to the acompanying pictures. It would an interesting extension project to have students pick out one of their favorite poems and then to either find a picture that matches it, or to take a photograph themselves of what they think describes the poem. They could then display this on a bulletin board, and discuss why they chose the picture for that particular piece of poetry. It would be a very interesting project!

LS5663 - Module 3 - Verse Novel - Book Review

Glenn, Mel. 1996. Who killed Mr. Chippendale? New York: Lodestar Books. ISBN 9780525675303.

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I read this book in one sitting and it is powerful! This is a book of free verse poems that describe the reactions of students, teachers, and others when a high school teacher is shot to death at the beginning of a school day. Each poem is from a different character in the story and they are all about one-page long. They are written in such a way as for the reader to receive some insight into the characters and to be able to start to make judgemenst, right or wrong. As in all schools, some of the kids liked the teacher and others did not. There is an accusation of wrong doing against the teacher, but is it real, or just in the imagination of a young girl? The police get involved and then the questions and answers really start as they dig for information to find the killer and what the motive could be.

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This is a real who-dun-it, and a page turner. It is an easy book to read and I believe that if a student picked it up and read a just a little, they would get hooked quickly.

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This is free verse poetry, and it is there to tell a story. You really do not find the poetic elements of rhythm, sound, and figurative language. It is just a very clever and creative way to tell a story in short sentences and from various points of view. The "mystery" part is a bonus. The book is a quality story with a natural appeal to find out who the killer is. It will command attention as the reader gets involved, and it is fairly simple to understand. The imagery is there as that the setting of the school is familiar, and many students will be able to visualize it in their mind's eye.

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One of the poems that is interesting is:

Cynthia Arroyo

I hate workin' here at the mall.

Is that all

At the mall?

Not according to Mr. Chippendale,

Who saw my job at Hot Dog Heaven

Not in terms of minimum wage,

but maximum opportunity.

"You want to be a writer?" he said.

"Study people's faces, not french fries.

Hear how they order, not what,

And imagine a minibiography

For each of them.

Make a connection, no matter how brief,

A short take on them while they take out.

What do you think they feel?

What do you feel about them?

Even if it's about customers and condiments.

Learning about life is a painstaking task,

But it has to be done with

Relish."

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This poem gives you a bit of insight not necessarily into the character of Cynthia, but more into Mr. Chippendale, the murdered teacher. The poem is simple, but contains a strong message.

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In pondering how to use this book with students, I would love to have a book club meet and discuss this book. There are so many facets to this murder case, and it would be really interesting to see the various things that students pick up on, and how they understand the different points of view. The topic, about murdering a teacher, is a sensitive subject, but this book is well-written and shows a lot of reality into everyday school life and the multitude of personalities, emotions, situations, etc., that kids deal with daily. I think there are good talking points here and it is a worthy choice for high school students.

LS5663 - Module 3 - Poetic Form - Book Review

Grandits, John. 2007. Blue lipstick. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 9780618851324.

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What a creative book! I am trying to find poetry books that will quickly engage a high school reader, and I think that this is a very good choice. The concrete poems make up a sort of story about a teenage girl and all the the trials and tribulations that she has to face, including a problematic little brother, and a dad who hates they way she dresses. Each poem is clever and allows the reader to have a little insight into the girl, but also allows you to relate to the situation. Teenagers will see themselves in this book.

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While reading Mr. Grandit's concrete poetry, you have to turn the book in almost every direction imaginable, and it is so much fun! In the poem titled, "Suburb of Atlantis," I almost felt seasick, as I read the "waves" up and down, up and down. "Volleyball Practice" was back and forth across the pages. "The Secret" was a poem that managed to go in all directions at once. Even though the "appearance" of the concrete poetry is engaging, the poetry topics and words really grab you as well. I particularly loved the poems where she is fussing with her little brother. Every sibling with younger brothers and sisters has had these types of conversations and they are hilarious!

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In evaluating this book for quality, I have to agree that Mr. Grandits gives us pretty strong hints about the images he wants us to create in our minds, but it also allows the reader to relate the ideas to their own life. The poems are appealing to the reader, and they very much feel like they are fresh and imaginative. I believe that a high school kid picking up this book will stop and read more than one poem, just because they are fun and different. The topics are familiar and it will stimulate the reader's emotions and imagination.

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There is not a table of contents, index, or topical headings in this book, but it is short enough that it is not really necessary. Overall, I really liked these concrete poems, and I have already ordered a copy for my high school library.

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One of the poems that I really liked is:

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Zombie Jocks

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Trophy, trophy, trophy, trophy.

Zombie jocks, we want the trophy.

Trophy, trophy, give us trophy.

Give the zombie jocks the trophy.

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Football, baseball, we will win 'em.

When we wrestle, we must pin 'em.

Soccer, hockey, we will skin 'em.

On our bikes, you bet we'll Schwinn 'em.

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Don't like music, art, or science.

We prefer the Rams and Giants.

Don't like movies. Don't like dancing.

Don't like dating or romancing.

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Trophy, trophy, trophy, trophy.

Zombie jocks must have the trophy.

Shiny, shiny, pretty trophy

With our names engraved on trophy.

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This poem is written inside the drawing of a Zombie monster, all in black, and in the poem, all of the letter "e's" have been turned backwards. The poem has a very robotic rhyming feel to it, and it also reminds you of all of the athletes walking down the school hallway, wearing their letter jackets, or warm-up suits on game day! This poem brings up strong images!

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A fun way to use this with high school kids would be to show one of these poems up on a SMARTboard in the Language Arts classroom, allowing the students to read through it and then have a short group discussion on what thoughts or impressions that they have, or how they can relate to it. This type of bell-ringer activity could be done for a few consecutive days, also showing various concrete poetry books at the same type, in order to peak their interest. Surely, some students will seek them out for further enjoyment!