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.