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From: Megan Schliesman <mjschlie>
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 10:39:26 -0600
I thought I'd jump in with a couple of my favorite books of poetry for young adults from 1996. I Feel A Little Jumpy Around You (Simon & Schuster), edited by Naomi Shihab Nye and Paul B. Janeczko, is a collection of "Her Poems and His Poems Collected in Pairs" to quote the subtitle. The cover of this book features a whimsical picture of a bride and groom toppling off a wedding cake, but don't let it fool you. These are not poems about romance. The editors have juxtaposed poems by women and men
(from throughout the United States, as well as from other countries) to explore a wide range of experiences and perceptions from the perspective of gender. That alone makes it highly political, I think. The resulting perspectives are sometimes disparate, sometimes harmonious, but always rich and eye-opening.
Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking at the Harlem Renaissance through Poems (Henry Holt) by Nikki Giovanni is both history and poetry. One of the things I appreciate most about this collection is its very premise: the Harlem Renaissance, though it occurred during a specific period of time, was not an isolated event. There was Black creativity prior to the Renaiassance, and it has continued since then. Nikki Giovanni looks at the works of 23 writers/poets who wrote before, during and after the Harlem Renaissance. She shares some of their poems and then her own response to the writers and their words. Her energizing reader-response is one of the best things I've come across to show young readers that poetry is about a connection between the poem and the reader. "How does this poem make you feel?" "What does it make you think?" "What do YOU think the poet was saying?" Reading a poem is about finding your own truth in its words. I think she demystifies the concept of poetry by showing what she thinks and how feels about the poems in the book, at the same time I think she shows the power of poetry and generates excitement for it by showing how words can incite such an array of responses.
Megan Schliesman Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison schliesman at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu
Received on Tue 11 Feb 1997 10:39:26 AM CST
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 10:39:26 -0600
I thought I'd jump in with a couple of my favorite books of poetry for young adults from 1996. I Feel A Little Jumpy Around You (Simon & Schuster), edited by Naomi Shihab Nye and Paul B. Janeczko, is a collection of "Her Poems and His Poems Collected in Pairs" to quote the subtitle. The cover of this book features a whimsical picture of a bride and groom toppling off a wedding cake, but don't let it fool you. These are not poems about romance. The editors have juxtaposed poems by women and men
(from throughout the United States, as well as from other countries) to explore a wide range of experiences and perceptions from the perspective of gender. That alone makes it highly political, I think. The resulting perspectives are sometimes disparate, sometimes harmonious, but always rich and eye-opening.
Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking at the Harlem Renaissance through Poems (Henry Holt) by Nikki Giovanni is both history and poetry. One of the things I appreciate most about this collection is its very premise: the Harlem Renaissance, though it occurred during a specific period of time, was not an isolated event. There was Black creativity prior to the Renaiassance, and it has continued since then. Nikki Giovanni looks at the works of 23 writers/poets who wrote before, during and after the Harlem Renaissance. She shares some of their poems and then her own response to the writers and their words. Her energizing reader-response is one of the best things I've come across to show young readers that poetry is about a connection between the poem and the reader. "How does this poem make you feel?" "What does it make you think?" "What do YOU think the poet was saying?" Reading a poem is about finding your own truth in its words. I think she demystifies the concept of poetry by showing what she thinks and how feels about the poems in the book, at the same time I think she shows the power of poetry and generates excitement for it by showing how words can incite such an array of responses.
Megan Schliesman Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison schliesman at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu
Received on Tue 11 Feb 1997 10:39:26 AM CST
