Yum! Mmmm! Que Rico!: Americas' Sproutings by Pat Mora

Mora, Pat. Illustrated by Rafael Lopez. Yum! Mmmm! Que Rico!: America’s Sproutings. New York: Lee & Low Books Inc., 2007.

ISBN: 9781584302711

“Yum! Mmmm! Que Rico!: Americas' Sproutings” is a fun and colorful collection of haikus about various fruits, vegetables, and beans.  The chosen foods are popular American staples that have originated from Mexico and South America.  Mora expertly weaves in Spanish words and heritage into the fact blocks which accompany each haiku.  These fact blocks are a paragraph of information about the respective fruit, vegetable, or bean.  The information includes various facts such as where the food is mostly grown, where it comes from, what it looks like, what it’s used for, and how it’s typically eaten.

Fact Block:

Papayas also known as tree melons, are believed to have originates in southern Mexico and Central America.  Now they are grown throughout the tropical and subtropical areas of the world.  Papayas are hollow, with small, wrinkled black seeds in the center.  Papain, found in the milky fluid of unripe papayas, is used in several products, including meat tenderizers and some medicines.  When ripe, the fruit is juicy and sweet.  Shaped somewhat like a pear, a papaya can weigh as much as twenty pounds.

Poem:

Papaya

Chewing your perfume,

We taste your leafy jungle.

Yum! Juicy tropics.

Before introducing this book to a class or group I would make sure that there is an understanding of the haiku form of poetry.  The group would need to already have a firm understanding of syllables in place.  Haikus are 17 syllable poems.  They are short and don’t generally rhyme.  As an activity, I’d break the class into small groups of 3 or 4 students.  As a class we would pick a natural food which is not already covered in the book.  I’d ask each group to think of a couple facts about the food the class has picked.  As a class, we would composite together the small group facts to create our own fact block about the chosen food.  Next, each small group would set out to write their own haiku about the food.  Each group should share their poem!

Bing Bang Boing by Douglas Florian

Florian, Douglas. Bing Bang Boing. San Diego, California: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994.

ISBN: 9780152337704

“Bing Bang Boing” is a collection of poems written and illustrated by Douglas Florian.  The poems are of varying length, topic, and style.  Many of the poems are short and most of them are comical and lighthearted.  Each poem is simple and would be easily understood by the child reader.  Most of the poems are accompanied by simple illustrations which help the reader to understand and envision the poem.

The drawings and the poems work together to make poetry more accessible to young readers.  The illustrations are simple and unpolished.  A child may look at the drawings and think to himself “I could do that.”  This is exactly what we want as educators!

Students should understand from reading poems in this collection that the topic of poetry does not have to be elaborate or grandiose.  Sometimes poetry is just fun!  Sometimes poems are just silly!  “Bing Bang Boing” is an excellent introduction to teach children this truth.

Pencilly

The pencil is a splendid thing

For which there’s no replacer.

But better than the pencil is

The little pink eraser.

Hailstones

Hailstones big as marbles,

Hailstones two feet wide.

Hailstones big as boulders—

Better stay inside.

If I were to introduce these poems to a class, I’d first point out that each is only 4 lines long.  I’d ask the students to address any other similarities.  My hope, of course, would be that the students would notice and address the rhyming of lines 2 and 4.  In order to put poetry in the hands of my students, I’d ask them each to find an item in the room and write a short 4 line poem about the object.  I’d ask each student to do their best to add in a rhyme on line 2 and 4.

Meow Ruff: A Story in Concrete Poetry by Joyce Sidman

Sidman, Joyce. Illustrated by Michelle Berg. Meow Ruff: A Story in Concrete Poetry. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006.

ISBN: 9780618448944

“Meow Ruff: a Story in Concrete Poetry” is a poetry book unlike any that I’ve ever seen.  Concrete poetry is a poetic form in which the words of the poem are positioned into shapes which are used to convey the meaning of the poem itself.  Throughout the pages of “Meow Ruff” the trees, grass, and clouds are all formed by words.  All of the animals in the book are solid illustrations which interact with the concrete poetry setting.  This book is carefully produced for young children.  A child who could not read the print on the pages would still be able to comprehend what is happening in the story.  A dog gets loose from a house and someone has abandoned a cat.  The story follows the common belief that cats and dogs are enemies.  Upon meeting, the cat and dog appear to dislike one another but eventually are brought together by the rain.  The cat and dog escape the rain together under a table and fall asleep.  After the rain stops, the pair seems to realize that they could be friends!

The words on the pages blend seamlessly into the illustrations.  Each cloud has an individual size, shape, and poem; this is an illustration that each cloud shown is different.  Sidman has managed to create motion on the pages of her book this way.  The tree in the poem has the same poem until it begins to rain.  As the rain falls from the cloud onto the tree, the words of the poem illustrate the wind changes that a storm would naturally bring.

Before the rain, the tree poem reads:

E  a  c  h

L    e    a    f

A    m  a  p    o  f

B    r    a    n    c    h    e    s

E   a   c   h             t   w   i   g

A            b     r     a     n     c     h

O       f           l      e       a       v       e       s

E     a     c     h          b     r     a     n     c     h

A      t    r    e    e      o    f      t    w    i    g    s

E    a    c    h        t    r    e    e

A       g    r    e    e    n

H   a   i   r   e   d

S   l  i   m

C h e s t e d

G  r  e  a  t

                            H e a r t e d  g n a r l-a r m e d

S  t  r  o  n  g

L e g g e d

Deep-rooted

O   n   e

Once the clouds begin to rain, the poem reads:

E  a  c  h

l    e    a    f

D i p p i n g   and   d a n c i n g

E   a   c   h      t   w   i   g

T     h     r     a     s     h     i     n     g

A    n    d           p    l    u    n    g    i    n    g

E    a    c    h         b    r    a    n    c    h

B   e   n   d   i   n   g      t   o      s   h   o   w

S    i    l    v    e    r    y

U    n    d    e    r    s    i    d    e

A   n   d

T   h   e

S   l   i   m

C h e s t e d

G  r  e  a  t

H e a r t e d 

                              S  t  r  o  n  g   g n a r l-a r m e d

L  e  g  g  e  d

Deep-rooted

O     n      e

S  w  a  y  s

S l i g h t l y

I’ve attempted to recreate the concrete shape of a tree here, however, Sidman’s version is much more effective in the pages of “Meow Ruff.”  If I were to introduce this book to the class; I would first introduce the form of concrete poetry.  After reading/looking through the book, I’d ask the students how the concrete poetry added to understanding the story.  As an activity, I’d have each student think of a simple object.  If the students have trouble thinking of objects, I’d ask them to think about the objects in the story (a table, a cloud, a tree, etc.).  Once the students choose the object, I’d ask them to write it at the top of the page.  Next, I’d ask them to begin describing the object in various ways: what the object looks like, what purpose the object serves, what the object does, how the object is used, etc.  Once the activity is complete the students will have written their very own concrete poem!

Hip Hop Speaks to Children by Nikki Giovanni

Giovanni, Nikki. Hip Hop Speaks to Children. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, Inc, 2008.

ISBN: 9781402210488

Hip Hop Speaks to Children is a compilation of poems that are written in a rap or hip hop style.  This means that the poems are intended to be lyrics.  They are written and performed with a unique rhythm and beat which is accomplished through phrasing and rhyme.  For this reason, the intended rhythm is often easily deciphered by reading the poem alone.  Nikki Giovanni introduces the collection by giving a background to the cultural underpinnings of rap and hip hop.  Giovanni explains that during the time of American slavery, slaves were not allowed to learn reading and writing, as a result, sermons were taught by a method named “call and response”.  The cadence and rhythm were integral to committing the bible stories to memory.  Rap songs imitate this form of “call and response” by harnessing a unique beat and rhythm in order to tell a story that can be easily shared and remembered.

People Equal by James Berry

Some people shoot up tall.

Some hardly leave the ground at all.

Yet—people equal. Equal.

One voice is a sweet mango.

Another is a nonsugar tomato.

Yet—people equal. Equal.

Some people rush to the front.

Others hang back, feeling they can’t.

Yet—people equal.  Equal.

Hammer some people, you meet a wall.

Blow on some people, they fall.

Yet—people equal.  Equal.

One person will aim at a star.

For another, a hilltop is too far.

Yet—people equal.  Equal.

Some people get on with their show.

Others never get on the go.

Yet—people equal.  Equal.

The rhythm in this poem is unmistakable.  After reading the first grouping, the form that the poem is intended to take is obvious and the reader will continue with the cadence throughout.  The meaning of the poem is expounded through each grouping: people retain equality while being different.  The poem does not use complete sentences or proper grammar.  However, the writing does not detract from the meaning and reader understanding of the poem. 

If I were introducing this poem to a classroom, I would first let the students read it alone.  As the rhythm is the most important part of the poem and its brand, I would want to see if the students could hear it on their own.  Then I’d read the poem to the class aloud, with the wrong rhythm.  “How’d that sound?  Why?”  With these questions, I’d encourage the students to tell me how the poem gives clues to its cadence.

American at War by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Illustrated by Stephen Alcorn. America at War. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2008.

ISBN: 9781416918325

America at War is an anthology of poems from each of American war beginning with the American Revolution and working through the Iraq War.  There are a total of eight sections, each devoted to a specific war.  The sections are comprised of poems about the specific time of war.  The anthology is not meant to be a historical book filled with facts, dates, and numbers.  Rather, the book is intended to be a piece of art which uses poetry to illustrate the emotions of those affected by the war (men, women, and children alike).  Each poem is accompanied by an exquisite illustration which gives life to each poem and can help the reader understand the meaning and intention of the poem. Many of the poems handle delicate subject matters such as death, loss, and grieving.   It can be a tricky task to cover these subjects with children and teenagers.  It is difficult, even for adults, to comprehend war.  I daresay, it is impossible for anyone at any age to completely understand the meaning, the repercussions, and the grievances of war.  The key of working children through topics of this magnitude is to meet them where they are cognitively and draw connections.  These poems collected in this anthology manage to do this, by drawing connections through close family relationships, cherished items, and culturally shared memories and past times.

Charms by Georgia Heard

Soldiers stuck the ace of spades into helmet bands,

Lugged Bibles through jungles in backpacks,

Cradled Mezuzahs, locks of hair, crumpled photos

Of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, the Pope,

The Beatles, in camouflage pockets.  Crosses,

St. Christophers dangled from strong necks,

Resting against fearful hearts.

They slept with creased snapshots of families,

Wives, kids, dogs, clutched tightly in their fists.

One soldier even carried a homemade oatmeal cookie

His entire tour of Vietnam, swaddled in tin foil.

When he was homesick,

He unwrapped it,

Held it up to his nose,

To smell

What home

Was like.

This poem is one of the many illustrations of the effect personal items can have on a person tried by war.  Each of these items is a representation of something that is most meaningful to a person.  Of course, the items are merely things, but in a time of stress, longing, or fear it can be beneficial to make these items tangible.  For example, a person’s religion can be made tangible by a cross, a Bible, or a picture of the Pope.  One’s love for family can be represented with a picture or a cookie.

I’d introduce this poem to a classroom with a reflection of what makes each student unique.  What is important to each student?  If the student were in a foreign land and stripped of the comforts of home, what would the student want to keep with them?  I’d ask each student to try and select a small tangible item to be representative of what is most important to them.  As an activity, I’d ask the students to fashion a short poem about the item and share.