Poetry Reviews

1. Bibliography

George, Kristine O'Connell. 2002. Swimming Upstream, Middle School Poems. Illustrated by Debbie Tilley. New York:Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0618152504.

2. Plot Summary

This book, Swimming Uptream, is about a girl who is just beginning middle school. The reader is taken through the entire school year, from the first day to the last. The story of this middle school girl is told from her perspective about various occurrences such as, learning to play the flute, making friends, taking tests, and liking a boy.

3. Critical Analysis

George takes the reader through the life of an adolescent girl from the first day of middle school through the end. The author uses the perspective of the middle school girl to tell the story of her experiences. The effect this has is that the reader feels as though they are in the mind of the girl and are invited into her thoughts. The middle school girl makes observations about other students and describes what it feels like to go to a new school and feel insecure about herself. She states in the poem School I.D. Card, "Is my nose that big?" George really has a sense of what it is to be an adolescent in middle school and uses humor in the poems to create a light feeling about what these students are feeling as heavy. The author also makes use of different types of poetry, such as acrostic in "SNOB", and rhyme in "Is it Monday Again?".The only color to the illustrations by Debbie Tilley exist on the cover art. The rest of the book is illustrated with black white pictures of scenes of students in a school. They take up two pages at a time and the scenes depicted include kids opening lockers, eating in the cafeteria, playing in the band and gossiping in the classroom.

4. Review Excerpt

From Booklist Gr. 5-8. "These tiny poems--rhymed, free verse, haiku, even an acrostic--cover the first year of junior high--sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. The unnamed female narrator sees the first "jigsaw year" as refitting and recombining old friends and new, old ideas and new."

From School Library Journal Grade 4-7-"Middle school, with all its trials, tribulations, and triumphs, is portrayed humorously and poignantly through the eyes of one girl. Some of the more mundane topics include a locker that won't open, being late to homeroom, carrying around a large piece of wood as a hall pass, and deciding where to sit in the lunchroom. The book also delves into significant issues, from making new friends and a first crush to teasing, gossip, and a bully who may not be so tough after all."

5. Connections

-Teachers could use this book at the beginning of the school year, when students are feeling anxious about the new school year to lighten the mood.

-Students could create their own middle school experience poems after listening to Swimming Upstream.

1. Bibliography

Prelutsky, Jack. 1994. a PIZZA the size of the SUN. drawings by James Stevenson. New York: Greenwillow Books. ISBN 0688132359.

2. Plot Summary

In a Pizza the size of the sun, Jack Prelutsky has a collection of poems that span a wide range of topics. He writes about pizza, of course to begin but he also talks about animals and made up things like "doddies". Most of the poems are of a silly nature and geared toward a young audience. The purpose of the poems are strictly entertainment. The poems collected in the book are not linked to one another and they don't tell a complete story from beginning to end like some other poetry books.

3. Critical Analysis

Prelutsky's poems have many different styles, and they range from short to medium length to two pages long. Many of the poem's names are also included in the first line of the poem, like "I did a nutty somersault". When Prelutsky writes "I am your mirror image", he writes all it backwards so that when you hold it up to a mirror, you can read it the right way ( I tried it, it works). "A Triangular Tale" is written in the shape of a triangle with the words becoming increasingly larger at the bottom. "I'm All Mixed Up" is a poem written with mixed capital and lower case letters about not quite feeling like yourself.

On every page there is a corresponding illustration to the poem. The illustrations were drawn by James Stevenson, who draws the pictures to this book in black and white. The pictures are simplistic and humorous, they are very literal interpretations of the poems. The only poem without a picture is "I'm drifting through negative space", it is simply printed in white on two black pages, which is an artistic expression in itself. In the poem "The Improbable Emporium", Stevenson draws several of the animals mentioned in the lines, such as a centipede with sandals, a flossing hippo, and a frog working out with barbells. Aside from the lack of color, the pictures contribute much to the meanings of the poetry in Prelutsky's book.

4. Review Exerpt

From Publisher's Weekly, "Once again Prelutsky demonstrates a robust appreciation of the absurd?and an uncanny knack for turning every possible subject on its head. Here his verse ranges from the short and sweet ("My mother makes me chicken,/ her chicken makes me cough./ I wish that when she made it,/ she took the feathers off") to poems of Jabberwockian silliness (the entry that begins " 'I'm ceiling fad!' a money boned./ 'Alas!' a carrot pride" is just one example). The pages are peppered with kinetic black-and-white drawings; like Thurber, Stevenson wrings a wealth of humor and emotion out of a few dashes of ink. If a laugh is what's needed, just hand over the keys and let these two drive. "

From School Library Journal, Kindergarten-Grade 6 "Yet another masterful collection of poems by the prolific Prelutsky, filled with zany people, improbable creatures, and rhythm and rhyme galore, all combining to celebrate the unusual, the mundane, and the slightly gruesome."

5. Connections

-This book of poems can be used on an ongoing basis in the classroom. Teachers can read a couple of poems out loud everyday just for fun.

-These poems can also be used as good examples of rhyming poems and be modeled by the students in their own poems.

1. Bibliography

Hesse, Karen. 2001. Witness. New York: Scholastic. ISBN 0439271991.

2. Plot Summary

Leonora Sutter is an adolescent girl in a Vermont town, she is the main character in the story. However, there are ten other characters represented to tell the story from their own perspective. The story begins with poems that introduce the place and the characters in this town. The Ku Klux Klan is a new addition to the Vermont town and is met with mixed feelings. Leonora Sutter is an African-American in this town, and Esther Hirsh is six years old and she and her family are Jewish. Leonora Sutter is being harassed at school by her white peers but her father tells her, "no low down white boy's gonna stop Leonora Sutter from getting and education." The story takes place in the 1920's during a time when this Vermont town is figuring itself out after the invasion of the Klan.

3. Critical Analysis

Karen Hesse writes the poems in Witness in free verse, they are broken into stanzas. The structure of the poetry allows the reader to move quickly through the text. Each poem begins with the name of the character whose perspective will be represented. There are eleven total characters, Leonora Sutter, Esther Hirsh, Sara Chickering, Percelle Johnson, Fitzgerald Fitt, Harvey Pettibone, Merlin Von Tornhout, Johnny Reeves, Viola Pettibone, Iris Weaver, and Reynard Alexander. The book is split into five acts that take the reader through different stages of the story. The setting is Vermont in 1924.

The story is emotionally charged because it deals with race and bigotry. The main reason that it is so sensitive is because children are involved. This tends to bring about a protective feeling in whoever is reading the material because no one wants to see people hurting, especially children. Hesse uses Leonora and Esther as the main characters to evoke that sense in the reader. The author uses strong language in the poems for emphasis, such as when Merlin Von Tornhout says, "put a colored girl in the paper, call her a hero, just cause she saved a kid from being hit by a train. A jew kid." The perspective of each character is truly represented by having each poem written in the first person of that citizen. The last poem from Leonora Sutter lets the reader infer that Merlin gets what he deserves and some justice is served.

4. Reviews

From Publisher's Weekly

"Hesse offers glimpses of the world at large through references to Prohibition, the Leopold and Loeb case and a letter Leanora pens to Helen Keller. The author distinguishes the characters (whose pictures appear in the front of the book) not only by their varying opinions but also by their tone of speech. The simpler, candid language of the two youngest cast members, Leanora and Esther, effectively crystallizes their gradual loss of innocence. Easily read in one sitting, this lyrical novel powerfully records waves of change and offers insightful glimpses into the hearts of victims, their friends and their enemies."

5. Connections
-This is an excellent book to use for character education lessons on tolerance.

-Would go well with a unit for Black History month in February.

-Also could be used in connection with lessons on the Holocaust.