Irene Gach Lá

BIBLIOGRAPHY Janeczko, Paul. 1998. THAT SWEET DIAMOND: BASEBALL POEMS. Ill. by Carole Katchen. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN 978-0689807350 . CRITICAL ANALYSIS That Sweet Diamond: Baseball Poems is a love story to the game of baseball. It perfectly captures the experience of attending a game, from the hot dog vendors to the plays on the field to the uber-fan. There are nineteen poems, each paired with a pastel illustration by Carole Kitchen on the facing page. The illustrations have an other-worldly quality in an impressionistic format which breathes life into the movement of the game. The poems are a combination of formats, including both rhyming and nonrhyme. The rhythmn is strong, with the beats of the poem appropriately matching the action Janeczko is trying to convery in each baseball scene. Kids will especially love the poem about spit, as well as the one about the old lady who sits in Section 7, Row 1, Seat 3. Peppered throughout the poems...

BIBLIOGRAPHY Franco, Betsy, ed. (2008) Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press. CRITICAL ANALYSIS Falling Hard is a poetry compilation written by teenagers and anthologized by Betsy Franco. The poems are free verse and the kids provide a mosaic of diversity. The poems are honest, sometimes graphic. Kids share their emotions across gender, sexual orientation and race. It’s a heartfelt glimpse into the deep emotional well of the teenage mind. Adult readers will walk away with an appreciation of the complexities of teenage emotion, and perhaps a bit of nostalgia for their own memories of the teen years. The poems were primarily from kids in the United States and were submitted via e-mail to Franco. The names and ages are given with the poems. SPOTLIGHT POEM AND LESSON These poems are for high schoolers. I would not share them with a middle school or elementary audience. They are mature in both nature and theme....

BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, Kwame. 2014. CROSSOVER. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780544107717. CRITICAL ANALYSIS I had the opportunity to listen to Kwame Alexander speak at the Texas Library Association conference in San Antonio in April 2014. He spoke on the impetus for Crossover: to write a verse novel for boys. And not just any boy, but the sports-loving, poetry-hating, I-don’t-go-to-the-library sort of boy. I was completely intrigued and knew I had to read this book, because he’s absolutely correct in noticing the gap in this genre’s niche: most verse novels are written to appeal to girls, and boys who do read verse novels are already vested in their own reading identity. But could he pull it off? I will freely admit, although I loved the cover, that I was a bit skeptical of the goal. I’m a middle school librarian, so I really wanted to meet the verse novel which could hook my sports-loving, poetry-hating, I-don’t-go-to-the-library boys into reading i...

BIBLIOGRAPHY Wong, Joyce. 2005. Seeing Emily. New York: Amulet. ISBN 0810957574 . CRITICAL ANALYSIS Seeing Emily is the best of free verse, as it captures the mind of 16-year old Chinese-American Emily. Told in a rich style reminiscent of Sonya Sones, Seeing Emily is the journey of an American teenager grappling with typical teenage angst, albeit compounded by the complexities of growing up in an immigrant family. Her parents squeeze the American dream for all its worth, working tirelessly in their family restaurant, the Golden Palace. They expect the same ambition from their daughter. Through her art, Emily views her world and its pressures. Wong invites her readers along to view Emily’s unique take on the world. In Seeing Emily, we experience her friendships with Nina and Liz, her blossoming romance with first boyfriend Nick, and her attempts to honor her Asian heritage while finding independence. Are the two mutually exclusive? These are the issues which all...

BIBLIOGRAPHY Sidman, Joyce. 2005. Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems. Ill. Beckie Prange. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 9780618135479. CRITICAL ANALYSIS In this poetry book about the life of a pond, Sidman composes eleven poems of varied poetic forms, including rhymed, free verse and haiku. The first poem, Listen for Me, kicks off the spring season by describing the emergence of spring peepers, commonly known as the tree frog. Fittingly, the final poem introduces the winter season through the burrowing of the painted turtle into the muddly bottom of the pond.  Each poem is paired with a nonfiction paragraph highlighting a specific aspect of pond life, like the pond’s food chain, or the life cycle of the microscopic water bear. There is also a Table of Contents, plus a glossary, to help guide the reader. This is also a Caldecott Honor book, which underscores the importance of Prange’s illustrations. They are woodcut watercolors and Pran...

BIBLIOGRAPHY Fleischman, Paul. 1988. JOYFUL NOISE: POEMS FOR TWO VOICES. Ill. by Eric Beddows. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 9780060218522. CRITICAL ANALYSIS Joyful Noise is the perfect book for performance poetry. In fact, Fleischmann designed it for performance, including an author’s note at the front with directions for the readers: The following poems were written to be read aloud by two readers at once, one taking the left-hand part, the other taking the right-hand part. The poems should be read from top to bottom, the two parts meshing as in a musical duet. When both readers have lines at the same horizontal level, those lines are to be spoken simultaneously. The poems are connected through the theme of nature and written with the voices of its various insect players, like the honeybee and the mayfly. The information presented is scientifically valuable, yet playful in presentation.  As poetry of two voices, the reader is challenged to imagine ...

Nelson, Marilyn, 2001.  Carver: A Life in Poems .  Asheville , NC: Front Street. ISBN 1886910537 CRITICAL ANALYSIS CARVER: A LIFE IN POEMS narrates the life story of George Washington Carver. Marilyn Nelson's 59 poem collection cycles through the entirety of his life, ranging from 1871 to 1943. The poetic voice in this  collection  is spectacular. Nelson's use of free verse creates the distinct persona of George Washington Carver. Although the poems are written from multiple perspectives, the summation is complete. I feel like I really know him now. I get who he is--at his core.  This book is for older students. Nelson does not mince on language, to her credit. Carver's life deserves splendid language. He was an intellect and, now that I know him so well, I think he would appreciate these poems. Because she told his story chronologically, there is a poetic value in comparing the beginning versus  the end of his life. Could there be more humble begi...

BIBLIOGRAPHY Hemphill, Stephanie. 2010. WICKED GIRLS: A NOVEL OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS. NewYork: HarperCollins Children’s Books. ISBN 978-0-06-185328-9  I first reviewed this title as an audio book for my Literature in Children and Young Adults class at Texas Woman's University. You can read the review here . I fell in love with it and have recommended the print version to many of my middle schoolers. But something strange happened--most readers, usually girls, returned it within a day or two. It was getting abandoned, and quickly. Why? I decided to review this title again, but this time in the print version. I need to experience the difference between the two, so that I can understand why this book, which I love, is getting abandoned. CRITICAL ANALYSIS WICKED GIRLS is an historical fiction verse novel by Stephanie Hemphill. The novel takes the reader through the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, albeit from the perspective of the original mean girls who launched the ...

Vanderwater, Amy FOREST HAS A SONG. Ill. by Robbin Gourley. ISBN 9780618843497. CRITICAL ANALYSIS Amy Vanderwater brings us a hearty collection of 26 poems. They weave together the story of one girl’s experience in the forest over the course of a year. The poems begin with spring and then merge into summer, with poems like APRIL WAKING and PUFF. Fall and winter poems wrap up this collection, including MAPLES IN OCTOBER and COLORFUL ACTOR. Each poem brings the reader into the forest, so we enjoy the romp through each season with the girl. VanDerwater’s use of language leads the reader to experience the sounds and rhythms of the forest. By employing italics, she brings the forest’s perspective in some poems, which serves as a wonderful point-of-view experience for the young reader. The collection is superbly  illustrated by Robbin Gourley. At its best, illustrations tell a visual story which parallels and enhances the textual message. Gourley does this brilli...

Graham, Joan. 2014. THE POEM THAT WILL NOT END. Ill. Kyrsten rBooker. Las Vegas: Amazon Publishing. ISBN 9781477847152.  The POEM THAT WILL NOT END is the story of a boy who cannot stop writing poems. Throughout his day and everywhere he goes, he write poems across topics and formats. From Going Bananas at breakfast to Couplet for French Fries during lunch, he writes and writes and writes. When he is finally required to write a poem in class, his mind goes blank. His teacher accepts the poems he wrote throughout the day instead. CRITICAL ANALYSIS The concept is excellent, but some of the poems are a bit forced. Since poetry is designed to be heard by the reader, it’s evident that some of the poems are adjusted to force a rhythmn. For instance, on page seven: I tried to eat my breakfast But didn’t hesitate To scribble on the napkins And doodle cross my plate. If you examine the last line, the word “cross” is written, but it should be “across....

Hopkins, Ellen. 2009. TRICKS. New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division. ISBN 9781416950073.  TRICKS takes us on the journey of five teens descending into the seedy world of teen prostitution. Eden is the daughter of a preacher. Her mother sees demons in Eden’s first brush with love and sends her off to prevent whorish behavior, which Eden ironically learns at the ranch where she’s sent. Cody deals with the devastating loss of his stepfather to cancer by spiraling downward into the world of gambling. He soon will sell anything to pay his increasing debts. Seth is looking for love and acceptance of his homosexual identity, only to be accused by his father of being a deviant; then, he becomes one. Whitney desperately seeks love from her socialite mother and successful father. She wants to be seen and noticed by them, but will accept the love of a stranger to replace her familial invisibility. And finally Ginger, who is tricked for the fi...