Bibliography Franco, Betsy. 2008. Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press. ISBN 9780763634377 Review & Critical Analysis This collection of one hundred poems, edited by Betsy Franco, expresses love in its varying emotions, forms, and actions through the eyes of teenage poets. These poets, from all over the world are listed only by name and age. Franco collected the poems mostly via e-mail from a diverse group of teenage writers with a contemporary and refreshing perspective. Each poem is unique and engaging in a different way. Some poems are written with rhyme, others in free verse, still others in a form all their own. The subjects range from new love to heartbreak and every nuance of love in between. LGBTQ+ love is represented, as well. The authors do a wonderful job of using words and meaning to paint vivid pictures of what it is to be a teenager in (or out) of love today. The poems are very appealing and the theme is familiar to readers young and old. Due to the content and language of this book, readership is suggested for high school age and above. Reading the poems truly creates a sense of what it is like to be a teenager today. The poems range from serious to comical, stimulating the reader’s senses and connecting to the personal events and emotions experienced through love. This book definitely gives the reader a better idea and a clearer picture of what love feels like, looks like, and sounds like from a teen perspective. This collection features the poetry of one hundred teenagers from across the world. These teens come from diverse backgrounds with diverse experiences. Some are aspiring writers while others have never written before! Each poem is incredibly personal giving the reader a sense of the person who wrote it. Even with the diversity of authorship and emotion, each poem is consistently good. The quality of the writing of these young people is incredible! This book highlights a very talented group of young writers in a way that allows the reader to connect to the emotions they experience and feel in a meaningful way. Franco includes a table of contents, as well as an introduction, guiding the reader through the poems. She also includes credits and acknowledgements for this title. The poems themselves are arranged in the format each author submitted and featured in no particular order, allowing the reader to experience love from different perspectives and in different ways throughout the course of the book. Overall, this is an incredible collection of poetry written by teenagers about a topic that is familiar to all readers. The poems are unique, creative, and thought-provoking. This title will bring back memories and pull at your heartstrings one hundred times over! Spotlight Poem Love is Like the sweetness of honey falling from a bee hive. You have to be careful not to get stung. HECTOR JASSO, age 16 This poem, found on page 78, is short and sweet, but is vivid in its imagery. Readers can hear and feel the multiple meanings and relate to its clear message of the duality of love. To introduce this poem, I would read it aloud to the class. I would then have students pair up and discuss the effect the simplistic, yet vivid imagery has on the reader. As a follow-up activity, I would have students find other poems that depict emotions simplistically, yet vividly, or create their own poem to describe an emotion, be it love or otherwise, to include in their poetry journals.
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Bibliography Powell, Patricia H. 2017. Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case. Ill. by Shadra Strickland. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 9781452125909 Review & Critical Analysis This beautiful verse novel documents the landmark civil rights case that legalized marriage between races. More importantly, it is the story of a couple who embarked on the arduous journey to have the right to be married and live where they chose as a couple, no matter the color of their skin. The poems in this verse novel are simple, yet incredibly emotional and deep. Each is written in free verse, varying in length. Some poems are pages long, while others are just a few lines. The perspective of each poem switches between Mildred (Millie) and Richard as their story evolves. The voices of each person are clear and consistent, creating different emotions. You can feel the love and desire between them, Richard’s anger at their situation, Millie’s fear while in jail, etc. Powell does an incredible job of creating a detailed scene for each poem in just a few short words. The reader is able to easily understand how each character feels, creating a lasting emotional connection to the Loving’s story. One of the most striking elements of the poetry in this verse novel is its historical connection. The experiences and topics covered have an incredible historical significance and can help readers develop a deeper understanding of this time in our nation’s history. Being that it is a verse novel, it is a much faster, and, in my opinion, easier read than a typical nonfiction title. The poems help the reader think and feel as if they were in the character’s shoes, creating an emotional connection that brings history to life. Even with the switching perspectives and length of time covered by this novel, the poems remain consistent and engaging. They stimulate a range of emotions that help the reader connect with the characters and more fully understand the social and emotional impact of living during this historical period. The voices of the characters are distinct and vulnerable, allowing the reader to walk in his/her shoes. Powell helps the reader to understand the legal and social context of the poems by providing inserts with pictures, quotes, and images of actual legal documents in the text. The poems are arranged in chronological order starting in the fall of 1952 and carrying through until June of 1967. The poems switch perspectives between Mildred and Richard, which is indicated in the title of each poem along with the date and sometimes the location in which that part of the story took place. Powell also includes an epilogue, a timeline, and a bibliography that includes all of the personal interviews she conducted, written material she used, and images included in the book. These images include snapshots of demonstrators, bus burnings, and even President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act. Powell also includes credits to the text excerpts and quotes she uses throughout the story. One of the most beautiful elements of this book are the illustrations created by Shadra Strickland. At the end of the book, Strickland explains the style of the illustrations and the background from which they came. She also gives some insight into how she went about creating them. These illustrations add a new, meaningful context to the story, and are placed intermittently throughout the book. This verse novel is an incredible work of history, culture, and art. It not only tells the personal story of the Lovings, but also includes important historical information that brings the story to life. Powell’s vivid imagery and well-developed characters create a deep emotional connection that engages the readers and keeps them reading, and hoping, for the outcome the Lovings deserve. Spotlight Poem MILDRED ONE MONTH LATER JUNE 1957 Mama says, “I guess you’re serious about that boy.” “Yeah, Mama, I am.” “Bring him round to dinner.” Richard comes for Sunday dinner – one o’clock sharp. Aunt Coree Johnson comes, most of my brothers are here. Mama boils chicken, collards, turnips. I slice bread we baked this morning. Garnet fries last year’s apples. And we have rice pudding for dessert. The cream is from our cow who I milked this morning, eggs laid by our chickens. Richard has sate here many times. But today we have on the checkered tablecloth because he is my special guest. The table is heaped with food, Sidney in a basket alongside me, family crowded around. Richard grabs my hand under the table, at the same time he slips the napkin off my lap, puts it on his. Still holding his one hand, I grab for my napkin. But he won’t let me have it. I can’t help but giggle – having our own conversation with no words under the table hidden by the cloth, while everyone else talks over the top of the table. This poem, found on pages 105-106, highlights the loving relationship between Millie and Richard. They belonged to a segment of society that did not see others differently based on the color of their skin, as shown by their touching story and this novel. It is hard to believe that the Civil Rights Act was signed only 53 years ago. Discrimination and prejudice still exist, but what the Lovings endured is almost unimaginable. I would introduce this poem to students by reading it aloud. After reading, I would introduce the story of the Lovings and the effect segregation and discrimination had on them and their relationship using other poems from the book. I would use these poems in context with a study of the Civil Rights Movement and Civil Rights Act. As a follow-up activity, I would have students find and collect poems from other people who were affected by discrimination and prejudice, or poems written about those peoples. As a class, we would create an anthology including a brief history of the time period and events surrounding each poem picked. This anthology could be included in the classroom or library collection for students, staff, and community to refer to and read in the future. Bibliography Janeczko, Paul B. 2011. Requiem: Poems of the Terezín Ghetto. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press. ISBN 9780763647278 Review & Critical Analysis In his moving, historical poetry collection, Requiem: Poems of the Terezín Ghetto, Paul B. Janeczko recreates the lives of the Jews living in Theresienstadt. Hailed by Hitler as an artistic haven for Jewish artists, it was actually little more than a Czech way station for its residents as they made their way to the concentration camps and gas chambers. Janeczko recreates the lives of the people who lived there with moving poetry, beautiful illustrations (by the residents themselves), and characters who bring this place and the times in which they lived to life. Each poem, told from the perspective of different residents of Terezín, leaves a lasting emotional impact in very few words. Janeczko is able to bring the feelings and emotions of each character to life in a realistic and impactful way. You feel their sorrows, their anger, their joy, and their hope. You also feel the bone-crushing despair and fear that grips them as they see their friends and loved ones die or leave, never to return. The simple poems create a vivid picture full of language, rhythm, and sound that stick with the reader. The poems included in this book take on the perspective of multiple characters, most of which are based upon Janeczko’s research and are mostly fictional. Even so, each character is incredibly realistic, and in just a few lines, connects the reader to new experiences and emotions. The experiences of the characters, though foreign to most readers, are powerful, moving, and create connections to the feelings of oppressed peoples all over the world. The historical connections to the Holocaust and World War II, along with the intense emotional imagery are insightful and appealing to readers of many different levels. The overall quality of the poems and the book are very high and consistent. Each poem introduces a new perspective or event from the Terezín Ghetto. The poems cross many moods and emotions, leaving the reader feeling sad, angry, scared, defiant, sick, restless, and even hopeful. These poems truly bring to life what it was like for the people who lived and died in this place. Janeczko does a wonderful job of keeping alignment in the purpose of the poems while moving through the emotions and experiences of the characters. Even with the deep and emotional subject matter, a glimmer of hope and resilience shines through, leaving a lasting emotional impact on the reader. Each poem is titled with the character’s name and their identification number. The character then tells their piece of the story in a short, free verse poem. Along with the poems, Janeczko includes black and white illustrations, many of which were drawn in the Terezín Ghetto by the artists that lived there. These illustrations, credited at the end of the book, depict life in the Ghetto and the emotions the residents felt during their time there. Janeczko also includes an afterword with further information about the Terezín Ghetto, an author’s note with information about his research and motivation, and a list of selected sources for further reading and research. Also included is a list of foreign words and phrases used throughout the book with their origin and meaning, as well as art credits for the illustrations. The table of contents at the beginning of the book guides the reader and provides a quick glance at the characters in the book. This collection of poetry was an incredibly moving and memorable read. I especially loved how Janeczko was able to include such an array of emotion in so few lines. I was also impressed in the amount of research he conducted, as well as his inclusion of events and characters with deep cultural meaning. Janeczko did not shy away from a subject that can be dark and heavy. In doing so, he created a piece of poetry that gives light to the plight of oppressed people through the voices of the Jewish men, women, and children who lived, died, and hoped in the Terezín Ghetto. Spotlight Poem Marie Jelinek / 17789 The doors of the cattle car rumbled, opened. We spilled onto the platform, eager even for snow and wind. We found floodlights barking dogs vile shouts from SS soldiers. Shoves and commands – “Line up! Hurry!” – were met with screams crying names called in darkness. Crammed through the Schleuse, where papers were issued and most of our belongings stolen, replaced with promises. Beasts of burden, we shouldered bundles of what pieces of the past we were allowed to keep as we joined the river of fear a current of shuffling feet, sobs, and whimpers that crept past dark mouths of archways and windows to Terezín. This poem, found on pages 7-8, depicts Marie Jelinek’s arrival at Terezín. The desire to feel fresh air is replaced by the fear and chaos of being herded toward the camp that would become her home, and very likely a gateway to the gas chambers. The emotion in this poem, from having belongings taken away, to possibly being separated from loved ones is palpable. This poem (and this collection of poetry) would be a wonderful complement to a social studies unit on World War II and the Holocaust. I would introduce this poem by first reading it aloud. After reading, I would ask students to share what emotions the poem depicted. What words did the author use to create an image in the reader’s mind? After reading and sharing, I would share other poems written about World War II and the Holocaust with the students, including poetry written by those who experienced it. As a follow-up activity, I would ask students to select a poem about this time period. Together, we would create an anthology of poems depicting the people, events, and emotions, as well as the effects each had to share with our school community. |
AuthoRMy name is Mrs. Scott and I'm a secondary Media Resource Specialist (librarian) in Texas. This blog was created as part of my graduate coursework at Texas Woman's University. All reviews and opinions are my own. Archives
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