Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson (Module 3, Book 3)

Shout Review by Elaine Alexander

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Shout: a poetry memoir. New York: Viking, 2019. ISBN: 9780670012107

SUMMARY
This powerful novel in verse depicts the personal journey of teen author, Laurie Halse Anderson; recounting her formative years, the assault that silenced her, as well as her path back to finding her voice through therapy and writing one of the most influential novels in our time, Speak. Shout stemmed from Anderson's many school visits and encounters with victims of assault, the lack of proper education about consent, and her tireless passion to help give a voice to survivors.

ANALYSIS
This memoir from award-winning novelist and rape survivor, Laurie Halse Anderson, packs an emotional punch. The language is raw, visceral, and filled with moments that cut to heart of the painful journey survivors must make in order to heal. The book is divided into three sections. The first deals with Anderson's early life in a dysfunctional home and the assault that would impact her life so profoundly. The second touches on her life as an award-winning author and the numerous school visits that connected her with fellow survivors. The third wraps up her family history and provides encouragement for survivors to put themselves on a path to hope and healing.

This book stimulates emotional responses both for its content and direct candor. Anderson's words are direct, telling readers that "scars may look stronger than unwounded skin,/but they're not/ once broken, we're easily hurt again, or worse" (113). This book has strong appeal to fans of Speak, since the content covers the author's assault, her subsequent loss of her voice, and eventually how she came to write the character of Melinda. Speak borrows heavily from Anderson's own experiences, but Shout also covers the author's experiences in the twenty years she has spoken to teenagers on the subject of rape and consent. While each poem is Anderson's creation, her poems allow the reader to access the confessions from other victims and the ripple effect that her books have had to help victims begin to share their own stories. As the book progresses and more stories are shared, the concepts of confession, victim silence and shame, begin to emerge and shape themselves until the reader understands that a victim's silence is its own form of censorship. The shared experiences in the book allow that story to come forward and the victims to feel less silenced and alone. Anderson had never thought she would talk about her own rape, noting that she had learned as a child that "words/ had such power/some must never be spoken" (16). Yet, as the free verse poems share raw truths, Shout makes the point that censoring victim's stories means that we "failed and jailed/her happiness in a grave" (193), effectively preventing victims from recovering from the trauma they experience.

As the reader progresses through the book, the poems recounting assaults move from more matter-of-fact narration of events, to angry and biting in tone and word choice. The language is raw and unflinching, and the tone moves from speaking, to shouting. The anger and frustration that not much has changed in the twenty years since Speak was released is palpable. Poems that recount the censorship of Laurie Halse Anderson's books begin to equate that censorship with silencing victims and perpetuating the culture of violence that prevents or reduces assaults from occurring. Anderson had dedicated much of her time to speaking about sexual assault and educating teens, partnering with RAINN to try to bring awareness and change. No writer likes to be censored, but in Anderson's case where the content of her books are designed to give a voice to those who need one, banning her books mean that "the false innocence/you render for them/by censoring truth/protects only you" (193). In other words, censoring books to protect innocence not only means silencing victims, but it also means turning a blind eye from the uncomfortable reality -- that rapes and assaults don't stop by forbidding teens from reading about them.

Last, Anderson has several poems with the recurring images of trees. Trees are a central figure in Speak, as Melinda struggles to recreate one, over and over in art class. Trees denote a cycle of growth that recognize a dormant stage, and renewed life. Trees also have complicated root systems that support individual trees and connect to one another, effectively creating a network. In short, "trees take care of each other" (Anderson 285). The strength and hope at novel's end leave the reader with that image of connectedness, that survivors can share a network and reach out to each other for support and nurturing in order to survive and thrive.


Use & Highlight Poem
Since the negative effects of censorship and silencing victims are so prevalent in the book, I think selecting innocence for the spotlight poem would work really well with a discussion on both topics. Pair this with the author's YouTube talk on the novel and you could lead an important classroom discussion on both consent and censorship.

https://youtu.be/g6kthOSK-4c

innocence
censoring my books
in the name of "innocence"
will not build the fence you want,
it's to a defense
against danger or stranger,
the friend or foe
whose hands want to know
the feel of your child
your baby girl or maybe
your boy, a toy for their
yearning for violence, depravity
the gravity
of which will pull your child
into wild denial
her pain untamed
by your drugs prescribed,
or her drugs street-dirty...

nothing can offer relief
from the reality that you
failed and jailed
her happiness in a grave
too deep for forgiveness

the false innocence
you render for them
by censoring truth
protects only you

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds; (Module 3, Book 2)

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds Review done by Elaine Alexander

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Reynolds, Jason. Long Way Down. New York: Atheneum, 2017. ISBN: 9781481438261

SUMMARY
After his brother is killed, fifteen year old Will grabs his brother's gun, fully prepared to adhere to the code of conduct he's been taught and seek revenge for the slaying. As he rides the elevator down to commit the act, Will sees several ghosts he knows -- all victims of gun violence. These ghostly encounters lead him to question everything he thought to be true and to wonder if he has it in him to commit a violent, senseless act, as the rules dictate.


ANALYSIS
This is a gripping, fast-paced novel that will appeal to teens, packing a punch with its raw and gritty realism. The immediacy is visceral, escalated by the fact that the novel primarily takes place in the elevator ride to the lobby. The layout of the book is broken into chapters that begin on 7 and progress chronologically downward to mark the floors Will is descending in the elevator. The structure puts the reader on edge and increases the poignancy of Will's dilemma, whether or not to exercise revenge for the death of his brother. The ending is ambiguous with the final words directed to the narrator in the form of the question: "You coming?" (Reynolds 306) The reader is left to wonder and come to their own conclusions about Will's fate, hoping that the traumatic experience of seeing the ghosts of friends and loved ones will steer him away from the revenge slaying he had assumed he'd have to commit to honor the street code that perpetuates endless cycles of violence.

This collection of poems relies on brevity and straight talk. Words are not minced in the poems and the effect is to put the reader directly into the experiences of the main character, Will. The reader can sense exactly what life in this neighborhood is like. There is an emotional impact in the sentences that paint a picture of the moment where shots were fired and Will looks up "like we always do...to count the bodies. / This time there is only one./ Shawn." (Reynolds 11-12) Reynold's is similarly blunt when explaining the rules that Will and other young men in this community live by: no crying, no snitching, and be ready to get revenge. Even though the source of the rules can't be traced, the way that the poems highlight those rules in bold lettering suggest that it is inconceivable for anyone to consider breaking them. Readers will grasp the pressure these young men feel that compel to continue to honor those rules, even at their own detriment.

Reynolds employs spaces in his poems to emphasize the tough subject matter. For example, when equating Will's grief to an earthquake, the lines of poetry are arranged to show a fissure in the page. In addition, anagrams are scattered throughout the collection to highlight poignant words, such as "ALIVE = A VEIL" (Reynolds 88) which draw to the duality of the words and what they might mean in the context of the book. There is the surface reference, that one minute, Shawn was alive, the next he's covered with a shroud. But the anagram also draws a parallel to the rules that they live by, a thinly disguised veil that hides the true reality of the code they live and die by. The truth is revealed in Will's elevator ride, that sometimes revenge is taken on the wrong person and sometimes gun violence claims the lives of innocent bystanders. This duality forces the reader to see that living this life, isn't really living and that the path might ultimately claim their lives as well.

Even the title of the book, Long Way Down, is an oxymoron that is ripe for discussion, as is the choice of the main character's name -- Will. While the elevator ride is chronologically short, the appearance of multiple ghosts that force Will to deal with the realities of what he is about to do, make for a long, soul-searching journey. Will's name draws up comparison to free will, to choice and also to having the will of other's force upon you in the form of the rules. It also asks a big question, will Will follow his brother's course or will her chose a new path. It is brilliant word play that continues to invite us all into a worthwhile discussion on gun violence and the trauma on youth.


Use & Highlight Poem

Since the book ends on an ambiguous note, with the reader unsure what decision that Will has made -- to pursue revenge and adhere to the code or find a new path -- I think the final poem in the book would make a great classroom lesson for students. It's ripe with discussion as to what Will might choose and why young men in his neighborhood continue to fall victim to these cycles of violence. The author, Jason Reynolds has many Youtube discussions centered on the book, it's format and violence that youth face. Viewing one of those videos to talk context of the story and then moving on to discuss how students thought Will might choose to move forward would be a poignant and important discussion.

09:09:09 am

I WANT OUT.

The door opened slowly,
the clouds of smoke
rushing out of the elevator,
rushing out of me
like an angry wave.

I caught my breath as


Buck,
Dani,
Uncle Mark,
Pop,
Frick,
and
Shawn

chased behind it.

The L button
no longer lit.

I stood alone
in the empty box,
face tight from
dried tears,
jeans soggy,
a loaded gun
still tucked in my
waistband.

Shawn
turned back toward me,
eyes dull from death
but shining from tears,


finally spoke
to me.

Just two words,
like a joke he'd
been saving.



YOU COMING?

The Arrow Finds Its Mark: A Book of Found Poems by Georgia Heard (Module 3; Book 1)

The Arrow Finds Its Mark: A Book of Found Poems Edited by Georgia Heard Review by Elaine Alexander


BIBLIOGRAPHY
Heard, G., & Guilloppé Antoine. (2012). The Arrow Finds Its Mark: a Book of Found Poems. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

SUMMARY
This delightful collection of poems begins with an introduction to explain what a 'found' poem is, as well as the guidelines used by the poets to create their unique selections for this book. Found poems are pieces created from existing text and transformed into a poem through the poet's skill and imagination. Pieces for this anthology were collected from newspapers, dictionaries, calendars, and encyclopedias and given original titles to help shape a new work from language encountered in everyday life.


ANALYSIS
This poetry collection has high appeal for children because the unique idea of a "found" poem challenges youth to seek out something new and exciting in the mundane words we find all around us. The concept opens our eyes to the reality that art really is all around us and if we are willing to open our minds and play with words, we can craft a new poem out of just about anything.

The collection focuses on the concept of the 'found' poem and allows for a variety of styles and poetic forms to be utilized. Because of the nature of hunting for words, topics vary widely here, but familiar experiences like going to the zoo or the stress of school tests are balanced with poems crafted from less familiar texts, such as wild birds or exotic geographical references.

Whimsical pen and ink drawings on each page to support the poems and each selection has a line that tells the reader where the poem was 'found'. The overall format, mixed use of styles and locations where poets located the words for their poems, gives the anthology a scavenger hunt type of feel, which is intriguing and playful. The poems are light-hearted, some working in new twists to the words, such as the acrostic poem 'found' by Kristy Dempsey on the Publisher's Clearing House website that spells out the word "UNLIKELY" down the page. While the content of the poem has the familiar sweepstakes promises that every "Entry could / Become / The Big Winner." (Heard 14), the play on words, combined with the poem's title, Empty Promises successfully demonstrate the poet's intention to expose the long shot of winning such a contest. A clever twist that truly tests the strength of the poet's wordplay.



USE & HIGHLIGHT POEM
There is something so empowering in the idea that we can find poems and art in the mundane. This collection of poems would be great fun in a classroom or library setting to challenge the students to hunt for their own found poems, using text that is available to them. To make it even more challenging, you could set a time limit and allow students to share their 'found' poems with their peers. Or you could wage a friendly classroom contest and have small groups engage in the hunt for 'found' poems and share the results, perhaps voting for their favorite shared examples.


Found by Georgia Heard in The Oxford Thesaurus

FIND A POEM

Find v.
come across
chance upon
stumble on
discover
turn up
bring to light
unearth
locate
encounter
recover
retrieve
regain
get
realize
acquire
find:
find the cheese too strong
find out the truth
the arrow finds its mark

Poetrees by Douglas Florian (Module 2, Book 3)

Poetrees Review by Elaine Alexander

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Florian, Douglas. Poetrees. New York: Beach Lane Books, 2010. ISBN: 9781416986720

SUMMARY
Poetrees begins its ode to trees with the concrete poem entitled, The Seed. This poem is shaped in an infinity symbol, exhibiting the circular, unending journey a tree makes from its beginning of life, to its attempt at spreading new life through producing seeds. The book highlights known tree types and parts, as well as unusual trees in a way that is both informative and fun, supported by imaginative artwork that a sense of frivolity into the poems. In addition to the poems, the book provides informative information, including a "Glossatree" with interesting facts about each tree or tree-related term.


ANALYSIS
This book would have great appeal with younger audiences between the ages of 5-10, both in celebrating nature and in the accessible and sensory language. Florian has a knack with fresh ways to use language in his poems, such as stretching out words like "branch" to emphasize their length or weaving in a fun pun on the word "bark", equating it with a dog. The twist on the words are sure to draw children in and make the poem collection accessible and lighthearted, without sacrificing the deeper meaning in the words.

The artwork includes images of children and humans, showing a connectedness between humans and trees, a coexistence that is necessary and vital to our lives. The book is meant to be turned on its side to read, which effectively elongates the page spread and makes the images of the trees taller and more prominent on the page. There is also a concerted effort to use art mediums that include paper collage, artful twists of watercolor or thick crayon-like lines throughout the pages. The mix of different styles and mediums throughout the book are successful in representing the different types of trees, but they are done in such unique ways, such as the poem Roots that weaves brown watercolor roots with the image of a tree that also looks like a child. This personification of a tree, or hidden child in picture provides a parallel image that draws the reader to the conclusion that humans and trees share a deep and meaningful connection.



Use & Highlight Poem
This book would be an excellent way to celebrate Earth Day. It's got a great message of celebrating trees and gives an overall message of human connectedness toward trees and the preservation of the natural world. I also think it could be used in a lesson plan for a family tree. As the highlighted poem, Roots demonstrates, Florian has a gift for playing with words to imply dual messages. We see the root as a vital part of the tree, but we can also read this poem as a more abstract message of how humans are connected to our own families by our roots and that those connections ground us, too.

Echo Echo by Marilyn Singer (Module 2, Book 1)

Echo Echo by Marilyn Singer. Review by Elaine Alexander

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Singer, Marilyn. Echo Echo. New York: Dial Books, 2016. ISBN 9780803739925

PLOT SUMMARY

This book of “reverso” poems begins with a celebratory poem that introduces the concept of mythology and past civilizations and ends with another poem that encourages the reader to be avid listeners and active storytellers. Sandwiched in between are famous Greek Myths told in 'reverso' format, engaging the reader to look at the words from a new view, reading first down the page, and then in reverse order. As the reader mulls through the poems, they come into contact with Greek Myths and the duality of their conflicting stories. One by one, the poems give competing views and offer each character a chance to challenge former assumptions, see the see the weaknesses and strengths, and understand more about the human experience through storytelling.

ANALYSIS
This book of poetry would have high appeal among students who enjoy Greek mythology, but it will also draw in readers who enjoy the duality of conflicting viewpoints. The artwork effectively supports these opposing sides of each story, reflecting the duality between each way of seeing the story. The poems truly make the reader question who is the hero and who is the antagonist!

explores familiar figures from Greek Myths and asks the reader to look at each story in a unique way. The 'reverso' poems are mirror images, with one character reading the poem in forward and the other character in reverse. The effect is as though the words were echoed back, showing that there are two sides to every story. The artwork features split frames as an effective means of showing each perspective, such as an angry Athena with a woven tapestry next to a woeful Arachne, struck with spider arms and a web, her punishment for winning a contest with a goddess. Singer’s “reverso” poems are first presented in one form, and then the lines are put in reverse order for a totally unique meaning. Reading the famous tale of King Midas, the forward reading of the poem reflects the daughter's longing for her father to touch her. Yet, the second reading in reverse, shows King Midas's grief that he did touch his daughter, and the result was turning her to gold.


Each ‘reverso’ poem challenges the accepted norms for these characters from Greek Mythology and offers a different perspective. Singer’s format shows that how we view a situation can be turned completely upside down, if viewed from a different angle. The language is simple, yet the construction of a poem that can be read forwards and backwards is anything but simplistic. It is that clever play with order that gives this book of poems a unique spin. This structure, combined with looking at each familiar story through two points of view, make this collection of poems a new experience in the genre.

This book has a broad appeal because the unique structure makes the poems fun to read. Because the format literally flips the words of one character upside down, it can challenge readers to shift their scope and realize that no one character is entirely good or entirely bad -- that those qualities reside in each of us, in equal measure.


Use and Highlight Poem

The spotlight poem in this anthology is Icarus and Daedalus, the familiar story of a father and son that escape imprisonment. The poem is filled with the promise of flight, but the caution of letting impulse take over and sway common sense. When Icarus fails to listen to Daedalus's wise warning, his moment of glory ends in a disastrous descent into the sea. In the reverso poem, we see that Daedalus is mournful, lamenting his son's decision to fly too high, along with the inevitable death and "bright heaven" (Singer 23) that is to come. For Daedalus, the "dark sea below" (Singer 23) is sadness. For his son, the same line means something he is leaving behind as he ascends into flight. The flip sides of this tragic tale are an excellent example of why the book is so powerful. This would be a fun exercise for students to read the poems in class, enacting the different perspectives for their peers.

Another idea for studying the reverso poem structure is to gather Marilyn Singer’s other reverso poetry books:

• Singer, Marilyn. Mirror Mirror.
• Singer, Marilyn. Follow, Follow.

Use Singer’s Reverso poem structure for a lesson plan for elementary school children on poetry and role reversal. I also think that the reverso poem structure might be adapted to a children's theater or even a classroom exercise to practice reading aloud poetry. Characters could recite the poems and solidify the examples of how different and powerful the perspectives can really be.

Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Que´ Rico! Americas' Sproutings Haiku by Pat Mora (Module 2, Book 2)

Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Que´ Rico! Americas' Sproutings Haiku by Pat Mora; Review by Elaine Alexander

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Mora, Pat and Rafael Løpez. Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Que´ Rico! Americas' Sproutings. New York: Lee & Low, 2007. ISBN:978160060892650995

SUMMARY
This book of poetry focuses on the visual and sensory appeal of different foods from the Americas. Each page includes a factual paragraph that describes the origin of the highlighted fruit or vegetable, and a haiku that captures the color, taste, emotional and sensory connections to the food. The artwork is vivid and full of whimsy. For example, in the pages dedicated to chocolate, there is a mix of celebration and dream-like qualities that encapsulate the way a bite of chocolate feels to a child.

ANALYSIS
This book has appeal on two fronts -- it gives factual and cultural information about fourteen different types of food from the Americas and it offers clever haikus to support the way these foods draw upon sensory and emotional memories connected to sharing these treats. The bold colors used in the artwork compliment the celebration of South American and Southwest culture, with sunset color schemes, peppered with bright blues and greens. The use of haiku make the poems more accessible for children because they bring a sense of fun and frivolity. Haiku poetry follows a simple pattern of five syllables, followed by seven, and finished with five. This short poetry form can be a great way to introduce children to try out their own haiku and poetry skills.

In addition to the informational text and the haiku format, the poems stimulate emotions that range from silly to joyful, as well as evacuating a sense of family or even magical connotations. Food has a transformative power in these poems. The items selected are both familiar and common, with some insertions of less common items, such as prickly pears. The collection has an overall ability to highlight our similarities through showing children the foods in which we share with our neighboring countries. By showing that the Americas are connected through these delicious foods, readers gain a sense of commonality and shared experiences that bring us all closer together.

The author ends the book with a letter to the reader, inviting children to join the foods introduced in the book with either a clapping or jumping rope rhyme. In addition, her letter goes on to discuss the variety we have in the world and how that variety is part of what makes the world an amazing place. It is a sweet way to end the collection and an important reminder to children to embrace the diversity in the the world around them.

Use & Highlight Poem

The collection on the whole could be used as a fantastic way to delve into a multicultural unit for a classroom or library. Any of the chosen poems could be used to introduce the haiku format and encourage the reader to try their own hand at this poetry form. In addition, students could be encouraged to share a food they love and find out the origins of that food to share with the group.

For a spotlight poem, I chose Chocolate because many people can easily connect to the joy of eating chocolate. In addition, I thought the artwork, depicting cakes and pies in the clouds, as well as a castle made of chocolate with a child gleefully running toward it, was such as fantastic example of how food can truly connect us to sensory experiences.

Chocolate

Fudge, cake, pie, cookies.
Brown magic melts on your tongue.
Happy, your eyes dance.