Genre 3: Poetry Books

Book #1

Bibliography:
Hoberman, Mary Ann. The Llama Who Had No Pajama:100 Favorite Poems. Ill. by Betty Fraser. San Diego: Browndeer Press, 1998.
ISBN 0-15-200111-5

1. Rhythm and Rhyme:
This poetry book is an individual poet's compilation and includes many different children's topics. The topics range from birthday celebrations, to the significance of cockroaches and even what business a llama has wearing pajamas. Hoberman has written a large collection of tongue twisters that should be read aloud, multiple times, and many of them could be easily memorized. Because they are short and fun, teachers will be able to use these poems in many ways. The rhythm of each poem is  slightly different as is quickly revealed by title, subject, and the natural flow that evolves as the reader goes through each piece. One example, called Brother is meant to be read quickly and memorized, according to the author (and Children's Poet Laureate) in a YouTube video that she has made to go with the reading of this collection. Brother introduces family member words that rhyme and carry a natural rhythm. Here are the first two stanzas fom the poem:

I had a little brother

And I brought him to my mother

And I said I want another

Little brother for a change.  

But she said don't be a bother

So I took him to my father

And I said this little bother

Of a brother's very strange.

This poem is an excellent teacher tool for discussing relationships within the family and how love of family helps us to learn tolerance.  Teachers might use this poem to have a discussion about tolerance and acceptance of others.

3. Sounds and Language:
Since Hoberman combines words that pair so nicely with rhythm and rhyme, the read often naturally flows into song.  For me, this was especially true when reading the poem entitled Opposite. In this selection Hoberman uses examples of words that are opposites and also rhyme. Each stanza then concludes with a whimsical phrase that is funny, but almost seems out of place. The poem works so well,because of the whimsy, and I found myself singing it each time that I read it through. Here is the first stanza from the poem:

The opposite of dark is light

The opposite of black is white

The opposite of dull is bright

             And I eat chocolate cake at night.  

Each of the successive stanza's follow the same type of pattern of flow and song.  It is a great instructional tool for teaching opposite word meanings. The other similar poems on this page are Up and Down the Avenue, which identify movement words.  Neighbors, is one other poem on the page and is about a very neighborly connection.

5. Imagery:
Hoberman and her illustrator, Mary Fraser, have masterfully worked together to accompany each others work. They have produced work with great concentration on variance of scale and by considering topics for each selection. Hobeman has included a large selection of poems with a variety of bugs as the topic. The range of bugs is quite inclusive from fireflies to praying mantis, and even cockroaches! Fraser's illustrations have managed to capture the appeal of a firefly while making the roach and mosquito seem not so bad. By cleverly illustrating these bugs with attention to scale the cockroach, for example, does not come across as large or scary looking. Instead the Cockroach is illustrated in succession with a parade of roaches who have meaning and purpose. Hoberman in the poem tries to find the "good" that the cockroach provides by explaining, "And if you've got bedbugs, it  will add them to its diet." The imagery that naturally would accompany Hoberman's poetry (without illustrations) is made that much better by Fraser's illustrations.

6. Emotions:
Emotion is perhaps best exhibited in the poem that Hoberman decided to name the collection after, The Llama Who Had No Pajama. This selection is a longer and perhaps more interesting poem which the author describes as one which is best experienced if it is listened to for the first time. Hoberman gives this information in the YouTube video that I referenced earlier. Also in this video, Hoberman reads several of the selections in the book and adds much commentary. This one, about the silliness of a llama in search of pajamas, is her last read in the video.  In the poem, the llama and his mother decide that since they cannot find any solution to the pajama situation they must accept that young llama will have to go to bed without any. This excerpt shows their relief:

Why, I sleep so much better in nothing but fur!

It fits me so nicely; it's light as air;

It's the practical thing for a llama to wear.

7. Awards and Recognitions:
Mary Ann Hoberman is an honoree at the Children's Poet Laureate and is featured on their website along with several video's. The video selections include the poet reading her own work and discussions about her poetry.  The video that I have linked throughout this review is the featured video and was produced by the Children's Poet Laureate.  The honoree's page provides a detailed account of the author's other books and collections as well as links to other awarded Poet Laureate's and their work. 

This is the review that the Children's Poet Laureate gives to The Llama Who Had No Pajama:

From trickling trills to tongue twisters, Children's Poet Laureate Marry Ann Hoberman reads from The Llama Who Had No Pajama. Race through her quick thick rhymes about brothers and bothers, bits and beets. 

Book #2

Bibliography:
Lewis, J. Patrick. Freedom Like Sunlight: Praisesongs For Black Americans. Ill. By John Thompson. Mankato,MN: Creative Editions, 2000.
ISBN 978-1568461632

1. Rhythm: 
J. Patrick Lewis has written a collection that is a tribute to many of the key players in the African-American struggle for freedom and justice. The subjects of these poems are expressed with combined alliteration and phrases that the reader can tap their toes to.  This is especially true with those written for the great musicians such as, the wonderful Lady Day (Billie Holliday), Marian Anderson, and Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong.  
Lewis writes of Holliday:

Lady could sing it 

Like nobody ever has

At the Shim Sham Club, Hot Cha Cha,

Joints that swung on jazz.

2. Rhyme: 
The pattern of rhyme can be heard and is expressed on every other line. Once read through, for the first time, the reader will immediately want to go back and read it through without hiccuping. The poems written about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, through their rhyme, create a mental image of their work as well as their untimely death's. Lewis summarizes it very well in this stanza about Dr. King:

Though I am tired,

I've just begun.

But someone's fired

The fateful gun.

3. Sound:
The sound of each poem collaborates with the life accomplishments of each respective honoree. One of the best examples of this sound comes in Lewis' poem about Sojourner Truth "Ain't I a Woman?", which is meant to be sung. The poem has a repetitive chorus after each stanza and should be sung to the hymnal of "Go Down Moses."  The poem makes even more sense when the biography is read before reading or singing the poem.  The biography explains that Sojourner was born with the name Isabella Baumfree, but took on her slave name because she felt it had new meaning.  This is the opening stanza  and chorus:

I was Isabella born,

Children, hear my cry,

And I was a child to scalding scorn.

Children, hear my cry.

Chorus:

Hold on Jesus, ain't I a woman born?

Tell the Children, let them hear my cry.

4. Language:
The use of language that Lewis uses in the poem I Decided... To Stay Up in the Air Forever about Jesse Owens speaks to the feelings of the time period. This courageous American Olympian made it his quest to show German dictator Adolf Hitler at the Olympic games that his fictitious Aryan race was not a superior one. Owens won the gold, in four events, in Hitler's own capitol of Berlin and his intent was to show that all people have value. In this excerpt from the poem Hitler reacts:

The Fuhrer looked away without seeing 

the man jump over Germany,

jump beyond hope and gravity,

beyond the dreams of ordinary people,

farther than any other human would jump

for the next twenty-four years.

5. Imagery:
John Thompson's illustrations, which accompany each of Lewis' poem in great harmony, are detailed portraits and scenes from the lives of the collection's celebrated American heroes. The perfect images were chosen and illustrated next to each poem in a full page.Thompson's illustrations align splendidly with their respectively written poems. For example, the poem about the famous writer, Langston Hughes, is accompanied by a Harlem Renaissance typewriter (about 1950's) with a partially completed document in it. To either side of this focal point are a stack of completed pages, a partially consumed cup of coffee, and a partially smoked, lit cigarette in an ash tray.  There is some sunlight cast across one section of the illustration which gives rise to the notion that Hughes was probably writing all night long and into the morning.    


6. Emotions:
Together the collection of poems gives a sense of pride to the struggle that each of the subjects took in their quest for freedom and justice.  Add to that, the timeline of the people who are honored stretches nearly 200 years (from 1797 to 1994) with only minimal gains.  Each person has a different struggle because the era in which they survived meant different issues to battle. Though not written chronologically, the collection could be read in such a way.  The book is an outstanding tool for middle and high school history teachers of American history. The collection would enhance a lesson on civil rights and injustices experienced by the African American. The teacher could use each poem as a an end read or supplement to it's corresponding phase in American history.  As the course progresses students could use the poems to measure the rate at which change occurred. Students could work in groups to analyze the poems or could analyze it individually. With some minor alterations an ELA teacher could use this collection in the same way. 

7. Awards and Recognitions:
J. Patrick Lewis is an honored Children's Poet Laureate who has a very detailed website to navigate his many published works.  His website has embedded video and links to his works and awards. 

 The ALA has awarded Freedom Like Sunlight: Praisesongs for Black Americans the award of Notable Children's Books. 
The following is a review of Freedom Like Sunlight: Praisesongs for Black Americans:

Stunning illustrations by John Thompson take center stage in this attractively designed poetry collection that pays homage to the legendary...  -Booklist Reviews

Book #3

1. Bibliography:
McCall, Guadalupe García. Under the Mesquite. New York: Lee & Low Books Inc., 2011.
ISBN 978-1-60060-429-4

2. Plot:
This verse novel is the story of a very young Mexican-American teenage girl's struggle. In it she witnesses her mother live through a long fought battle with cancer. This collection of poems, grouped in six thematic parts, guides us through each level of struggle as well as some triumphs. Readers will quickly warm up to the young lady and her large Mexican-American family in this battle of wills. Garcia-McCall writes to bring herself closure as well as to introduce her two sons to their grandmother.    

3. Critical Analysis:
This type of poetry does not present rhythm or rhyme as do many other types of poetry. Instead, it is a collection of verses that is cataloged in a focused way and chronicles a heart warming story of the human experience.  Garcia-McCall has taken the issue of a mother struggling with cancer and combined it with how a family deals with the triumphs and tribulations of such an ordeal. The writer and main character of the collection frequently gives praise to the fact that through her writing she finds the strength to live through the horrible experience. In watching a parent struggle for life very little must provide such comfort. The book is also the author's attempt to describe to her children who their grandmother was. They will never meet her, but Garcia-McCall hopes to bring the memory of her mother alive to her children through this collection. The book also incorporates a significant amount of culture. The use of code switching of English and Spanish provides for a cultural understanding of the Mexican-American. Phrases are placed in syntax, though Garcia-McCall has provided a glossary of words and phrases for clarification.  

4. Review Excerpts:
Under the Mesquite is a winner of the Pura Belpre Award for Narrative (2012) as well as
The Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) Award. This book is also the recipient of The Best Teen Books by Kirkus Reviews.

"How lucky teens are today to read such a book and to meet Lupita, who finds solace in language, family, and the Mexican culture she cherishes." -Pat Mora

"Life on both sides of the United States-Mexican border is portrayed with  total authenticity..." -Alma Flor Ada

5. Connections:
This book would be wonderful to use in an ELA course for free discussion and/or verse poetry writing. Verse poetry novels are especially effective with reluctant readers. This novel would best serve in upper level elementary, middle, and high schools. Teachers might ask their students to discuss then write a verse poem on any conflict that they have experienced in their family or home life. One central question for the activity would be: How did they resolve it? Perhaps, the teacher might allow the students to write more than one verse poem or to work in groups of students to write a brief anthology of verse poems on the subject.  Students who are more private could be given the option of writing about another person's account of a family event.

Other books that are similar reads are:
Addie On the Inside:The Misfits #3 by James Howe
Camo Girl by Kekla Magoon
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse