From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 14:37:08 -0600

Although we didn't schedule a CCBC-Net discussion about poetry during April this year, we're acutely aware that April is National Poetry Month. Poetry is definitely more visible and even increasingly popular with the general adult public during these years. We're told that poetry is more popular than ever with teenagers. We know that books of original poetry and freshly developed poetry anthologies published for children and young adults are more numerous and often much more appealing than ever. As our way of observing National Poetry Month in the CCBC-Net community, Katy Horning, Megan Schliesman and I decided to offer you our poetry recommendations as published in "CCBC Choices 1998." You will find them following the next paragraph.

It is possible to secure a copy of "CCBC Choices 1998," a 159-page indexed paperback book with 298 annotated book recommendations, extensive cross-references, and a 10-page essay on observations about book publishing in 1998. Individuals living outside of Wisconsin are invited to send a check in the amount of $6.00 U.S. dollars payable to Friends of the CCBC, Inc. to: Friends of the CCBC, P.O. Box 5288, Madison, WI 5370588, USA. For quantity rates: contact Don Crary
(dcrary at madison.k12.wi.us). All 1999 members of the Friends of the CCBC were mailed a complimentary copy as a membership benefit. A complimentary copy was been shipped to all Wisconsin public libraries. WEMA members attending the 1999 spring conference may get a copy at that time, as may anyone coming to the CCBC in person, or attending any class, workshop or professional development opportunity conducted by CCBC staff on?mpus or off?mpus. Anyone at the UW-Madison campus or at one of the UW System campuses is invited to request a complimentary copy. Other Wisconsinites may send a check for
$3.00 to secure a copy of "CCBC Choices 1998."

Poetry from "CCBC Choices 1998," pages 78?:

Alarcon, Francisco. "From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems = Del Ombligo de la Luna y Otros Poemas de Verano." Illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez. Children's Book Press (246 First Street, Suite 101, San Francisco, CA 94105), 1998. 32 pages. (0?2393-7) $15.95
        Francisco Alarcon's second bilingual picture book collection of poems for children is brimming with summer sights, summer sounds, and summer memories. The shorter poems in the collection are startling for their clarity and sense of perfection as they describe a summer-related feeling, aspect of nature, or memory in as few as eight words. The slightly longer poems sing with the cadence of personal story as they chronicle experiences specific to a child of Mexican heritage, but they are no less accessible than the shorter poems to any child who has ever loved language, or who has attached meaning to specific people and places. This Spanish/English collection, like Alarcon's earlier
"Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems" (Children's Book Press, 1997), is illustrated with Maya Christina Gonzalez's celebratory paintings that reflect a child's joy in nature and family. (Ages 7)

Bayley, Nicola. "The Necessary Cat." U.S. edition: Candlewick Press, 1998. 77 pages. (0v3671-9) $17.99
        "All my work is done in the company of cats," Nicola Bayley writes in her brief, explanatory introduction to this collection of poems interspersed with tidbits of factual information, sayings and lore about cats that she has collected over years. Here Bayley has compiled her "cat ephemera" and illustrated it so that each piece of artwork is stylistically suited to the poem or scrap of information with which it is paired. The book's overall appearance is reminiscent of Victoriana, but the illustrations are witty, charming and varied in style. Along with the poems, facts and lore, they will delight any child who, like the author, believes cats to be a "beautiful and necessary" part of her or his life. (Age 8 and older)

Carlson, Lari Mari, selector. "Sol a Sol: Bilingual Poems." Illustrated by Emily Lisker. Henry Holt, 1998. 32 pages. (0?50C73-X) $15.95
        There are 14 poems in this sparkling, lighthearted bilingual
(Spanish/English) collection--eight by compiler Lori Carlson and one each by six Latino writers. Some of the poems were written originally in Spanish and others in English. Their presentation in both languages is arranged so that the version of the language of origin appears first on the two-page spread devoted to each poem. Almost all of the poems have specific Latino cultural content while their subjects and renderings infuse them with broad child appeal that is evident from the titles alone: "I Like to Ride My Bike," "The Wind Bragging," "Peeling Potatoes with Papi," "The Smell of Night." Playful, flavorful language and imaginative ideas further enrich a collection unified by the whimsical, vibrant acrylic paintings of Emily Lisker. (Ages 4-8)

Florian, Douglas. "Insectlopedia: Poems and Paintings." Harcourt Brace, 1998. 47 pages. (0 1306-7) $16.00
        After "Beast Feast" (Harcourt, 1994), "On the Wing" (Harcourt, 1996), and "In the Swim" (Harcourt, 1997), could a book by Douglas Florian about insects be far behind? Like his three earlier volumes of original poems and paintings about the natural world, "Insectlopedia" is a fanciful, imaginative compilation in which the author/artist creates synergistic pairings of poems and works of art. Each of the 21 humorous poems blend observations about an individual insect's appearance or behavior with whimsical leaps of logic. Sometimes the textual humor comes from form as well, as in several concrete poems in which the words create a visual image on the page. The poems can stand on their own, but the watercolor paintings Florian created to illustrate them are both graceful and teasing expansions of the humor of the text, so that words and visual images together are a fuller experience than either on its own. (Ages 8)

Gollub, Matthew. "Cool Melons--Turn to Frogs! The Life and Poems of Issa." Illustrated by Kazuko G. Stone. Lee & Low, 1998. 40 pages.
(1?0000q-7) $16.95
        Like the haiku form of poetry itself, here is a book that is all grace and wonder. Writer/compiler Matthew Gollub has balanced biographical information about the Japanese haiku master Issa, who lived in the late 18th and early 19th century, with beautiful translations of Issa's haiku. Through the narrative story, readers meet Issa as a child and follow him through adulthood and old age. Gollub skillfully chose specific haiku poems by Issa to extend the reader's understanding of this sensitive, observant writer beyond the facts of his life to knowledge of his heart and mind as revealed in his poetry. This exquisite picture book is illustrated with Kazuko Stone's delicate watercolor and colored pencil paintings, and each two-page spread is bordered with the Japanese language characters for the haiku appearing on those pages. An author's note provides additional factual information on Issa, the decisions that went into haiku chosen for inclusion in the text, and the research that Stone conducted for the artwork. Background notes for several of the haiku poems along with information on the translations and the haiku art form is also provided. (Ages 8)

Johnson, Angela. "The Other Side: Shorter Poems." Orchard, 1998. 44 pages. (0S10114-1) $15.95
        Shorter, Alabama, is the community of childhood and family for writer Angela Johnson. The place where she grew up, it is filled with memories that will soon be all that she has left of Shorter. Her Grandmama writes her, "They're pullin' Shorter down." And so the subtitle of this collection is a play on words that echoes with poignancy as readers move through a series of poems that are quiet reflections of childhood feelings and events seen through the eyes of an adult returning to the place of her past with appreciation for what was and sadness for what never will be again. Written without sentimentality or nostalgia but rippling with emotions rooted in childhood that continue to resonate, these poems also provide detailed, sensual observations of life and people in a small, southern African American community during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The book is illustrated with black-and-white photographs from the author's personal collection.
(Ages 11)

Kuskin, Karla. "The Sky Is Always in the Sky." Illustrated by Isabelle Dervaux. HarperCollins, 1998. 48 pages. (07083-7) $14.95
        A small, vibrant treasury of original poetry by Karla Kuskin offers 35 delightful poems from eight of the author's earlier collections. One new poem rounds out this lively gathering that is playful, quirky, and thoughtful all at once. Kuskin combines a keen understanding of humor that will appeal to children and a masterful skill with words to create poems that are both funny and richly satisfying, full of inventive ideas and language ("If I were a fish, / I would swim like a fish / silently finning / with nary a swish, ...) and distinctive, changing rhythms. Her poems exemplify how carefully chosen words create their own energy and set their own pace. Start reading a poem by Karla Kuskin and the beat becomes intuitive. But be careful! A Kuskin poem is as likely to change its pulse as it is to continue its steady heartbeat, and the rhyme schemes can be just as unpredictable. It is these surprises, along with fresh ideas and images and humor that affirms children as insiders to the joke, that distinguishes these poems. This collection, in which each poem is set against a brightly colored page featuring clean-lined, whimsical illustrations by Isabelle Dervaux, provides children new to Kuskin's poetry with an engaging introduction to her work. For Kuskin fans, it is an appealing invitation to revisit favorites. (Ages 5)

Lewis, J. Patrick. "Boshblobberbosh: Runcible Poems for Edward Lear." Illustrated by Gary Kelley. Creative Editions/Harcourt Brace, 1998. 40 pages. (0 1949-9) $18.00
        What better way to pay tribute to Edward Lear than with a collection of original nonsense poems about his life? The16 poems in this 13 1/4 x 9 1/4" volume, written in the spirit of Lear's own nonsense, are arranged in chronological order, beginning with "Born in a Crowd," a poem about his birth as the 20th child in a family of 21 children and ending with "Old Foss (The Cat) Recalls His Life with Mr. Lear," written in the voice of the beloved 16-year-old cat who died three months before Lear did. In between are poems about Lear's eccentricities, travels, and strange-but-true incidents in his life, each one further illuminated in notes at the end of the book. Gary Kelley's lush surreal paintings brilliantly capture the essence of Lear's bizarre internal and external worlds. (Age 12 and older)

Lindbergh, Reeve. "The Circle of Days." Illustrated by Cathie Felstead. Candlewick Press, 1998. 24 pages. (0v3657-0) $15.99
        According to a note in this 11 + x 10" illustrated version of
"Canticle of the Sun," that 13th century assemblage of writings by the founder of the Franciscan order of monks has been adapted in poetry and song throughout the centuries. Lindbergh's reworking of the original ideas has pleasing appeal for today's young readers and families as a poem or a prayer of praise. She writes, "For all her children, fierce or mild, / For sister, brother, parent, child. / For creatures wild, and creatures tame, / For hunter, hunted, both the same. / For brother sleep, and sister death, / who tends the borders of our breath...For all your gifts, of every kind, / We offer praise with quiet mind..." Wonderfully designed double-page spreads usually contain one large illustration and several smaller images suggesting a global scope. The author and artist each discovered effective ways to interest children while honoring the wide diversity within earlier written presentations of this famous poem. Felstead's captivating images were done in watercolor, gouache, and collage. (Ages 3-7)

Myers, Walter Dean. "Angel to Angel: A Mother's Gift of Love." HarperCollins, 1998. 32 pages. (07721-1) $15.95
        A beautifully designed volume of poetry pairs selections from Myers's personal collection of antique photographs of children especially African American children - with his original poetry, here a celebrationg of the bond between mother and child. Like the earlier
"Brown Angels" (HarperCollins, 1993) and "Glorious Angels"
(HarperCollins, 1995), "Angel to Angel" is an elegant book to behold. That's what some children, even very young ones, will do as they turn the pages to enjoy the photographs. Silver border designs frame elements on every page, and the shining faces on those pages look out from photographs that are also edged in silver. Not every photograph necessarily pictures a mother and child. Some, Myers notes, may be of other adult women in the children's lives. Others are of children only.
"It's the feelings of love that define a relationship," the author notes in the introduction. Certainly that feeling of love, of someone loving and treasuring the child that is pictured, can be filled in by the reader. Myers's poetry evokes a wide range of moods, from contemplative to deeply loving, sassy to silly, in another yet another slender volume to be treasured by families. (All ages)

Nye, Naomi Shihab, selector. "The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East." Simon & Schuster, 1998. 144 pages. (0h9?233-7) $19.95
        "It is quite possible that the Middle East is one of the most negatively stereotyped places on earth," Nye begins in her introduction this unparalled anthology. "I can't stop believing that human beings everywhere hunger for deeper-than-headline news about one another. Poetry and art are some of the best ways this heartfelt 'news' may be exchanged." The work of 20th century poets and artists, women and men, from 19 Middle Eastern countries is compiled in a book that resonates with words and images at once both recognizable and wholly distinct, as is the heart of every human being. Many of the poems are rich with details of places and customs unfamiliar to most U.S. readers, or familiar, as the introduction states, only through the news, which reports on guns and bombs but not hearts and souls. All of the poems hold the promise of discovery inherent in fine writing. The beautifully reproduced paintings are also points of entry into this too-often
"foreign" part of the globe, and the visual images provide readers with the opportunity to make further connections between the paintings and the images expressed in poems placed nearby. Source notes, biographical information about the poets and translators, and indexes to the works are provided in this exquisite, important volume that brings diverse perspectives on life in the Middle East into focus through the human heart rather than the framework of political boundaries. (Age 12 and older)

Philip, Neil, editor. "War and the Pity of War." Illustrated by Michael McCurdy. U.S. edition: Clarion, 1998. 96 pages. (095?982-9) $20.00
        "For most modern poets, war is about horror, not heroism," Philip notes in the introduction to this striking collection of poems that explores war's tragedy and human costs. The 72 poems included in the collection focus primarily on conflicts of the 20th century. The majority are European and American poems about World War I and World War II, such as Carl Sandburg's "Wars," William Butler Yeat's "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death," and Karen Gershon's "The Children's Exodus." But other nations and other times are also represented. There is Iraqi poet Sa'di Yusuf's "Guns," Zulu writer Mazisi Kunene's "For a Friend Who Was Killed in the War," and Ken Smith's "Essential Serbo-Croat." Martin Espada's "Manuel Is Quiet Sometimes" and "Hell No! I Ain't Gonna Go!" by Matthew Jones and Elaine Lavon are two of the selections about the Vietnam War, while early centuries are represented in poems about the American Civil War, the Napoleonic Wars; voices from China and ancient Greece; even a traditional Ojibwa war song. "I hope there is enough
[here] from earlier days to set our century's story in the wider context of human history and human suffering." This singular collection is set in bold type and illustrated with stark black-and-white images that underscore the intensity of the experience of war. An index of poets that includes their dates and nation of origin, and an index of titles and first lines completes the volume. (Age 12 and older)

Rosenberg, Liz, editor. "Earth Shattering Poems." Henry Holt, 1998. 126 pages. (0?50H21-9) $15.95
        Rosenberg's dynamic compilation is prefaced with an outstanding introduction in which she describes collecting poems that "speak most powerfully to our most intense experiences and emotions." They are poems that she found "earth-shatteringly beautiful," or romantic, or scathing, or that "shattered [her] sense of time and place." The wide range of poetry in this collection includes a fragment by the Greek poet Sappho (620U0 C.E.), a poem from 17th century Japanese haiku master Basho, and numerous selections from poets of the 19th and 20th century, including Emily Dickinson, William Blake, Langston Hughes, Pablo Neruda, Audre Lorde and many others. Rosenberg's introduction validates readers' own responses to these and other poems at the same time it acknowledges "it is all right to be partly confused by a poem; it's all right if you can only grab hold of a corner of it, because eventually that corner may be enough to pull you all the way through." Excellent biographical notes provide information on each poet's life and often suggest additional resources. A selected bibliography of other suggested reading rounds out this fine collection. (Age 12 and older)
                                                                         Sandburg, Carl. "Grassroots." Illustrated by Wendell Minor. Browndeer Press/Harcourt Brace, 1998. 40 pages. (0 0082-8) $18.00
        An elegant picture book pairs evocative images of Midwest and country life written by Carl Sandburg with handsome watercolor paintings by Wendell Minor. The Sandburg poems, chosen from a number of his collections, are arranged to follow a course of the seasons, starting with spring and moving through summer and autumn to end with winter. They are brief, exquisite interludes and stolen moments suspended in time, preserving forever a rural sunrise ("Daybreak"), the sound of prairie grass in a gentle breeze ("Summer Grass"), or the impossible sight of a red rose against winter snow ("Red and White"). Each two-page spread features a single poem paired with or laid on top of Minor's corresponding image. The watercolors are richly hued and serve to extend the feelings that spring from the text of this exquisitely designed collection. (Ages 8)

Stevenson, Robert Louis. "Where Go the Boats? Play Poems." Illustrated by Max Grover. Browndeer Press/Harcourt Brace, 1998. 32 pages.
(0 1711-9) $16.00
        Four of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic poems for children are given dazzling visual color treatment in this anything-but-quiet picture book. Max Grover's acrylic paintings illustrating Stevenson's "A Good Play," "Block City," "The Land of Counterpane," and "Where Go the Boats?" surround the poems with color that pulses to the rhythm of the verses. No somber 19th century hues here, this is the palate of the late 20th century, in which diverse children play in a rooms with walls of vivid green, sunny yellow, or deep deep blue. Floors are a checkerboard of red and white; furniture and books and toys are dazzling in their purple, red, and seagreen hues. Four poems that already have great appeal in the listening are turned into a visual delight for today's young readers and listeners. (Ages 4-8)

Thomas, Joyce Carol. "Cherish Me." Illustrated by Nneka Bennett. Joanna Cotler Books/HarperFestival, 1998. 20 pages. (0i4
097-9) $9.95
        A poem taken from Thomas's singular, inspiring collection "Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea" (HarperCollins, 1993) is presented on its own as the text of this uplifting, joyous picture book about a brown-skinned child. Thomas celebrates the ways in which blackness is beautiful and unique: "clothed" in the colors of mother earth, skin "glazed" by father sun, "the pattern of night in my hair." "I am beautiful by design," the text affirms. And most certainly the joyful, dark-skinned little girl pictured in Nneka Bennett's warm illustrations is, as is every child with whom this book is shared. (Ages 2-5)

Cooperative Children's Book Center, c1999
************************************************** Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Education (www.soemadison.wisc.edu/ccbc/) University of Wisconsin - Madison Public service hours: weeks of March 29 through May 7: Monday-Thursday 9-7; Friday-Saturday 9-7
Received on Thu 01 Apr 1999 02:37:08 PM CST