MODULE 1/INTRODUCING POETRY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Koertge, Ron. The Brimstone Journals.  Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press. 2001.  ISBN 0763613029

SUMMARY:   This free verse novel describes the lives of Branston High School Class of 2001.  The school is nicknamed Brimstone. The poetry gives each student a voice and describes how broken homes, violence, sex, drugs, and alcohol have influenced their lives.  The violence includes a Columbine type attack, which is derailed, and then describes the realizations that each student acquires afterward.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS:  This book is an easy read for high school students only, because of sex, drugs, and violence. This free verse novel by a single author gives voices to several stereotypical high school teenagers.  The poems are concrete and the reader experiences the sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch of these teenagers and their emotions.  The writer focuses on lack of confidence and moods that typical teenager’s experience.  The language is unique and presents descriptions that all relate to all teenagers.  Teenagers that are self-centered will possibly be moved to find more empathy within their own school’s student body.  The writer is able to bring you into a typical school with it stereotypical students and hopefully realize that the stereotypes are not always what they seem.  Do we all fit into the mold of the Smart One, the Fat Kid, Bad Girl, Good Girl, Jock, Anorexic, Lesbian, Rich Kid, Stud, Social Conscience, and Angry Young Man?

I liked that each poem started with the student’s signature and then the body of the poem was type-written.  There was also a page at the beginning that showed all the characters with their signature labeled “Branston High School, Member of the Class of 2001.”  There is no index or table of contents. There are no illustrations, but the book cover displays the mood of the book, with class pictures where all but one face has been marked through.  The colors of the cover are black, beige, and red, to signify the violence that is to come.

POEM EXCERPT:  This excerpt from “Tran,” the stereotypical brainy Asian, portrays the stereotypes with which these students have been labeled. (Koertge p. 37)

“American ghosts are attractive

 but still insatiable:  Damon longs

 for greater strength, Rob for more

 conquests, Neesha for revenge,

 Kelli for autonomy.  Even Joesph,

 who seems so virtuous, craves

 recognition.

 And me?  Haunted by my father’s

 memories, I am an anthology

 of ghosts.”

EXTENTION ACTIVITY: 

I think it would be a great extension activity to have the students read the book and discuss some of the stereotypes that the students were labeled with.  Did the book leave some stereotypes out?  Students could discuss in small groups how they would label the students in their groups and students could talk about how that stereotype is or is not like them.  Students could then do a writing activity where they describe themselves and how they do and don’t fit within this stereotype creating a free verse poem.

Another book that would be great to read and compare with this book would be “Bronx Masquerade,” by Nikki Grimes.  This free verse novel is more upbeat, but its poetry is written from the point of view of high school students and also deals with stereotypes.

REFERENCES:

Koertge, Ron. The Brimstone Journals.  Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press. 2001.

Image by Google Images.

HOME TO ME, POEMS ACROSS AMERICA BY LEE BENNETT HOPKINS

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ill. By Stephen Alcorn.  Home to Me, Poems Across America. New York:  Orchard Books. 2002.  ISBN  0439340969

SUMMARY:  This book of poems is written by contemporary poets who reside in diverse geographical areas. The book is a wonderful collection about different types of homes.  From a home on the sea to a glimpse into life on a reservation, there is a poem in this anthology for everyone.  The selections cover all different landscapes native to America. 

CRITICAL ANALYSIS:  This anthology of poems about a variety of authors’ unique homes, depicts the vast North American landscape in a beautiful way .  Lee Bennett Hopkins’s book contains a Table of Contents, a short note from the editor, and at the end of the book, a brief biography of each of the authors.  The book is illustrated with wonderful paintings by Stephen Alcorn.  The pictures are not of the homes themselves, but of the landscape which each author describes. 

The poem I have chosen from the book contains a series of couplets that end in rhymes. The highlighted Poem is “On My Island,” by Patricia Hubbell. The author uses repetition in a few verses. She writes so that we use our senses to experience her home.  Sight, sound, smell, and touch come alive in her descriptions.  The descriptive language and imagery, make the reader feel that they are standing on the beach, feeling the wind and waves.  I think that elementary school students will love this beautiful book of poetry.

POEM EXCERPT: 

On My Island

by Patricia Hubbell

“I watch sleek seals on wave-wet rocks,

Rowboats bobbing at weathered docks,

I hear the buoy lonely bell,

I touch the chalky oyster shell,

All about me, pines grow tall,

All about me, seagulls call,

I dream of sunken ships, dim caves,

Mermaids floating on sunlit waves,

Then wake to silver everywhere—

Fog drifting through my island air.

I long, sometimes, to go away,

And other times, just want to stay

On my island far at sea,

This island—home to me.”(Hopkins p.16)

EXTENTION ACTIVITY: 

I think a great extension activity, would be to read this book, and discuss how it does not describe homes, but the landscape.  Then I would have students brainstorm to come up with adjectives and nouns to describe where we live in North Texas, the landscape, the wildlife, and the fauna.  After we have come up with all the words necessary, I would put students in groups and ask each group to pick a word.  Then, each group will write a couplet that rhymes at the end, and which describes our area.  Then, we will put the couplets together to create a poem about our area.  We will then brainstorm to come up with a title.  This would be great for a 4^th grade Texas History Class, because those students are studying the various landscapes which make up Texas.

REFERENCES:

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ill. by Stephen Alcorn.  Home To Me, Poems Across America. New York:  Orchard Books. 2002.

Image by Google Images.

KEEPING THE NIGHT WATCH BY ANITA HOPE SMITH

Smith, Hope Anita.  Ill. By E.B. Lewis.  Keeping the Night Watch. New York:  Henry Holt and Company.  2008.  ISBN  9780805072020

SUMMARY:  This touching collection of poems, describes a family dealing with the return of their father, who abandoned them. Everyone welcomes him with open arms, except the oldest son, C.J.  For C.J., the oldest of three children, his father’s return is a conflict of emotions.  He must deal with the lack of trust his father’s abandonment has created.  C.J. also feels resentment because during his father’s absence, he became the man of the house.  To complicate this issue, C.J. is also falling in love for the first time.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS:  The book contains a Table of Contents, and the book is divided by seasons, beginning with the fall.  The poetry is mainly free verse, but there is also a 26-line poem, each line begins with a different letter of the alphabet, arranged in successive order.  These poems are powerful, and show the emotional toll that a father leaving, even if he does return, can cause the other  members of the family. The color paintings by E.B., Lewis adequately portray the emotions the family goes through.  They are powerful.

I chose the poem “Sticks and Stones,” because it conveys the realm of emotions that C.J. goes through in the book. The author uses such descriptive language that you literally feel the anguish that this teenager goes through.  How can you trust someone that leaves you, and doesn’t explain himself?  The picture on the page with this poem shows a boy holding up a wheelbarrow full of questions. I think most teenagers can relate to either this situation, or at least one where an adult has let them down. 

POEM EXCERPT: 

Sticks and Stones

“Everything was changing,

My voice, my friends.

I needed Daddy.

Momma’s love and Grandmomma’s song

Were warm and sweet, but it wasn’t enough.

Now Daddy’s home and my jaw is set.

My teeth are clenched.

My words are burrowing

Deep down in my throat.

“You’ve never been scared

To ask anything,”  Momma says.

“Talk to your daddy.”

But my questions are brick heavy.

I want to know:

Who are you?

What were you thinking?

Where did you go?

Why did you leave?

How could you do this to us?

These questions could bury him.

His answers could bury me.”(Smith p.8)

EXTENTION ACTIVITY: 

After finishing the book, I would have students think about a time when an adult let them down.  It could be breaking a promise, leaving, not calling on a birthday, etc.  Students would write a page about the incident, how it made them feel, and how it was resolved.  Then, they could turn that writing into a free verse poem.  Students could also write about what makes a good parent or what makes their parent, parents, or grandparents, a good parent.  Students could also duplicate the A-Z poem, and make an acrostic poem about what makes a good parent.

REFERENCES:

Smith, Hope Anita.  Ill. By E.B. Lewis.  Keeping the Night Watch. New York:  Henry Holt and Company.  2008.

Image by Google Images.