This Place I Know

Bibliography

Heard, Georgia. This Place I Know: Poems of Comfot. Illus. by Eighteen Various Artists. Cambridge: Candlewick Press, 2006. 978-0763628758

Review

This book is a collection of poems meant to comfort those who have felt loss, tragedy, or loneliness. Even though this collection was first intended for those dealing with the events of September 11, we know that many children face their own tragedies or grievances that they must work through.

The poetry selected have various meanings, some which have concrete meanings such as “Commitment in a City” (Tsuda, p. 22) or abstract meanings like “Ring Around the World” (Wynne, p. 36). Gordon’s poem on page 28 has a predictable and steady pattern with four lines: the first and third carrying four beats and the third having three. It also displays rhyme between the last words of the second and fourth lines with “stone” and “own” (Gordon, p. 28).

Sound has a great influence on poetry. The poem “Trouble, Fly” for instance uses alliteration with “fly like the whistle from a train. Fly far, far away from my family” which makes that “f” sound from “fly” and “far” resonate throughout the poem (Swanson, p. 18). Rhyme in Heard’s “Lullaby” with “tight…light” and “song…long” brings a familiarity and calmness to the poem which is the purpose of a lullaby (Heard, p. 14).

A serious and at times heartbreaking mood lingers throughout the collection of poems as with comfort we are reminded of these hard things that have happened in our lives. I believe this is an important book for every library to own, as children today need comfort with the things that are happening to their lives and around them. I felt very touched by these poems and can’t wait to pass this on to someone who is in need of comforting.

Poem & Connection

Ring Around the World

By Annette Wynne

Ring around the world

Taking hands together

All across the temperature

And the torrid weather

Past the royal palm-trees

By the ocean sand

Make a ring around the world

Taking each other’s hand;

In the valleys, on the hill,

Over the prairie spaces,

There’s a ring around the world

Made of children’s friendly faces.

(Wynne, p. 36)

Read this poem as a class with the words posted up in front of the students. Make sure to have copies of the poem and divide the lines of the poem so that each student as one line to read. After the first student reads their line they will take the person’s hand next to them, and then this student will read their line and take the hand of the person next to them until the entire poem has been recited and the whole class is united in one ring.

Salting the Ocean

Bibliography

Nye, Naomi Shihab. Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets. Illus. by Ashley Bryan. Hong Kong: Greenwillow Books, 2000. 978-0688161934

Review

This is a collection of poems selected by Naomi Shihab Nye from young poets who she has had the opportunity to work with as she traveled and taught students about the art of writing. The poems vary in length, meaning, and purpose but they all represent the thoughts of a young poet.

“The Storm in Me” by Theresa Ann Garcia has a repetitive rhythm except in between two of the stanzas is a line: “Sadness in my body” in which the whole poem seems to stop (Garcia, p. 27). This poem in particular slows the reader down as if pausing to reflect with a whisper about how she feels.

Similes can bring so much to a poem without using an abundance of words. Vargas describes “a story which gets into my heart and stays there like a diamond in a ring” that shows this boys devotion to his grandfather at keeping his stories locked up in his heart (Vargas, p. 61). The entire poem on page 60 by Ernest Beache is personifying inanimate objects and animals as the people in her family such as her dad like a “volcano”, her sister like “King Kong” and herself like “an and stuck in a coffin” (Beache, p. 60).

To evoke imagery through the senses in poetry is like breathing fresh air into a poem: it truly is living. Sound is imminently heard by the reader in the poem, “Winter” when “the coolness crackles and burns in the fireplace” (Cassidy, p. 43). Caballero describes a character in his poem as having “a voice like talking in a cave” (Caballero, p. 36) which paints a perfect picture of a large, booming, echo-like voice.

The students who wrote the poems come together to show issues that children today face and help readers to see things in different ways. Many of these poems had a true impact on me such as “Grandmother” by Sandra Scherbenske on page 75 which has a granddaughter asking when her grandmother could go out on her own and her grandmother answers that she was never ready to go into the world alone. I am truly impressed by the poetry I have read by these talented children who were expressing themselves through poetry.

Poem & Connection

My mother is a shell

And you can always hear

The ocean.

By Brenda Garcia

(Garcia, p. 69)

Read this poem aloud with students and then present them with a large conch sea shell. Have students read the poem in unison and then call on volunteers to read the poem. Let each student take a turn at listening to the inside of the shell.

Seeing the Blue Between

Bibliography

Janeczko, Paul B. Seeing the Blue Between: Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets. Cambidge: Candlewick Press, 2002. 978-0763629090

Review

Seeing the Blue Between is a collection of poems and advice from thirty two seasoned poets. Just as their advice differs, so does their poetry and their poems’ characteristics especially meaning. “Don’t Tell Me” by Michael Dugan has a consistent rhythm of 3 beats per line and the final word in lines 2 and 4 of the stanza rhyming (Dugan, p. 16). Hoberman’s rhythm in “May Fly” contrasts this consistency by having 4 beats in a line followed by several lines with only 2 beats but varying in their pattern (Hoberman, p. 50).

Alliteration is used within Lillian Moore’s “Waterfall” with a recurring “w” sound in “warm winds” and “we waited” but other words beginning with the letter “w” are scattered throughout the poem, as well (Moore, pgs. 79-80). Moore also uses the sound effects of rhyme to complete her poem, “Poets Go Wishing” by using “fishing” and “wishing” or “match” and “catch” (Moore, p. 81) Even in the poem she talks about a poet choosing whether or not to use rhyme!

A wonderful metaphor is put forth in Jane Yolen’s “Gingerbread Boy” as she compares a person to being a Gingerbread Boy because the world is constantly trying to eat you that you are constantly running (Yolen, p. 117) “Dragonfly” by Georgie Heard on page 41 creates a beautiful metaphor by describing a dragonfly’s wings as “stained-glass windows with sun shining through”.

The mood in this collection changes depending on the author’s choice of poems and their type of advice. Some chose to be more serious while others stay light-hearted, but all give of a welcoming tone that invites young readers into their “club” of writing poetry. I feel that this is an inspiring book to children across the board about the topic of writing, from excited writers to apprehensive ones. I plan on using this in my classroom next year as I introduce writing. Hearing the encouragement of others to write who come from all walks of life is something one teacher alone cannot give a student.

Poem & Connection

Fog

By Marilyn Singer (only a portion of the poem is shown)

The fog is

A river with no direction

A dream with no doors

When it lifts without a whisper

You forget that it was ever there

Except for a tiny tickle in your mind

A trace of goosebumps

On your skin.

(Singer, 109)

Use a piece of dry ice to create a small amount of fog in the classroom or library. Pass out the poem, several flashlights, and turn out the overhead lights. Read the poem to the class and then have the students alternate reading two to three lines as you make sure that a bit of the fog as illuminated with a flashlight.