Customer Reviews

Hip Hop Speaks to Children with CD: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat (A Poetry Speaks Experience)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hip Hop Speaks to Children is a delightful and enlightening collection of poetry from various Poets, several performed by the authors themselves, on the included audio CD. With beautiful pictures depicting the poems and the contagious beat that the words pound out, this is a collection sure to capture the interest of all ages. Geared toward the 9 - 12 age group, this easily goes beyond that. As an adult, I greatly enjoyed each poem and as I read them out loud to my 6 year old daughter, she bopped around to the rhythm of my voice just reading the words. She was delighted with the rhyming, which easily draws the reader into the words.

While some of the poems within Hip Hop Speaks to Children are fun and playful, others speak of deep emotion. One that I found especially fun is as follows:

Funky Snowman
by: Calef Brown

Funky Snowman loves to dance.
You'd think he wouldn't
have much chance
without two legs
or even pants
Does that stop
Funky Snowman?
No!!

Turn up the music
with the disco beat,
when you're in the groove,
you don't need feet.
Crowds come out
and fill the street.

Kick it.
Funky Snowman!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another favorite that is more on the serious side and geared toward helping a child's self esteem, I feel, is as follows:

The Rose that Grew from the Concrete
by: Tupac Shakur

Did u hear about the rose that grew from a crack
in the concrete
Proving nature's laws wrong it learned 2 walk
without having feet
Funny it seems but by keeping its dreams
it learned 2 breathe fresh air
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else even cared!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Loneliness, anger and sadness are feelings that every child knows. More often than not, however, a child is not given or taught an appropriate way to express these strong emotions. The written word is a powerful tool ,that perhaps if given to children, would allow them to positively cleanse themselves and possibly even spark that creative fire that smolders within each soul. Hop Hop Speaks to Children is a positive collection of such emotional expressions. It does not matter what color your skin is, what nationality, race, economic position, size or shape a person is, the written word transcends each and every boundary. With Hip Hop Speaks to Children, you can introduce and excite children to celebrate within the written expression and beat and rhythm of words. I greatly enjoyed this collection and highly recommend it to everyone.

This book was a cool book because you could read along with the CD that came with it. The book has many cool poems in it from Ham 'N' Eggs to Funky Snowman to Real Life Stuff like accepting who you are and understanding others.
I would suggest this book to people who like poetry with A Beat. One thing that I didn't like about it was some of the poetry didn't go with the beat so you thought it was going to the next line and it dosen't. The poem that I liked most was "From Principal's Office". The illustrations in this book were cool.
Joseph the 11 year old critic.

Credit Sourcebooks Jabberwocky with knowing a good thing when they see it. When Poetry Speaks to Children came out it was a brilliant collection of poems for kids with an accompanying CD of poets, both alive and deceased, reading their poetry straight out. And in this day and age if you put out a book of poems for kids then it shouldn't be that much more difficult to put out a book of hip hop and rap as well. Or, as the new collection Hip Hop Speaks to Children calls it, "poetry with a beat." Collected by the eminently skilled and knowledgeable Nikki Giovanni (activist, poet, multi-award winner, etc.) the book establishes a rock solid connection for kids between the rhythms they hear on their radios and MP3 players and the poetry they encounter in books. Drawing upon both history and contemporary stars (and with an accompanying CD to boot), Giovanni's collection is the best book of its kind for a younger readership/listenership at this time.

In the introduction to this book "Stories in Rhythm", Nikki Giovanni writes, "Thirty years ago, kids invented a new sound. They took old music, added their own new poetry, and found a way to have their creative voices heard. The Hip Hop Nation was born, sharing a courageous story of their hopes and promise with the world. And is the world evermore glad." Right from the start Nikki Giovanni is looking parents, librarians, teachers, and other skeptical adults in the eye and saying that this is important. This matters. This is art. The introduction sweeps through the African and African-American history that led to contemporary Hip Hop. Everything from caps to the Harlem Renaissance to hamboning. Contemporary rap videos with their gold chains and loose ladies? Forget `em. That's not the real stuff. The raps found in this book have history, humor, and a delicious awareness of the feel of a word. 51 poems/speeches/raps find their way into this collection with an accompanying CD of some of the hip hop, and an in-depth series of small biographies of all the performers.

Watch someone page through the book and make note of their little reactions. How they offer a little "Hmft!" of surprise when they hit the Kanye West selection (a pity THAT's not on the CD). If they're a librarian they might coo to finally get to hear Calef Brown (an author/illustrator of whom I'm particularly fond) laying down a track to "Funky Snowman". And certainly kids of my generation will do a double take when they get to the selection from "Rapper's Delight". Plucking out "selections" is how the book gets around a lot of the lines in some songs that might be seen as not entirely kid-friendly. But I don't think there's anyone out there who's gonna object to "i dont mean to brag i dont mean to boast / but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast." The beauty of the selection is how it works in contemporary names with historical ones. You might turn the page and find yourself getting down to a little Mos Def right before dwelling on some Langston Hughes. It's not just hip hop artists or poets of the past either. There are people like contemporary poet and children's author Charles R. Smith whole tackles his own poem "Allow Me to Introduce Myself" on the CD. And I was relieved to find that Ms. Giovanni includes a couple of her own near the end as well.

The selections in here are great too. I've heard artist Ashley Bryan do Eloise Greenfield's "Things" and it's a poem that rings resoundingly in the ear. A great way to begin any collection, I can tell you. Then to follow it directly up with Jacqueline Woodson's "Hip Hop Rules the World", a poem that links the beat with the fact that it really IS poetry, that's keen. Really, the pairings here can be inspired. Who else would think to put Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool" alongside Claude McKay's "If We Must Die". Both discuss our mortality, one as a disregard for life and one as a full-throttle objection against death. No one has come up with a truly great Harlem Renaissance compendium for children yet, but if they did they might want to take a page out of Hip Hope Speaks to Children so as to determine which selections to choose.

The selected performers are ideal and really there was only one gap that I could see. I was a little surprised not to see any poems or raps by Sonia Sanchez in this book, truth be told. Hip Hop certainly owes as much to Ms. Sanchez's raw energy and eclectic beats as it does to any Young MC or Tribe Called Quest. Particularly when you take into account Ms. Giovanni's history with Sanchez, it seems a funny omission in an otherwise encompassing collection. Other missing raps are fine by me. I half-wondered when picking this book up for the first time whether or not Will Smith's "Parents Just Don't Understand" would make the cut. Then I remembered the line about the girl in his car moving her hand slowly up his thigh and... riiiiight.

One of the highpoints of any Sourcebooks' title is the accompanying CD. The audible element to the book is integral to the enjoyment. Literature can be an entirely visual experience but poetry, rhyme, and rhythm are best enjoyed when the ears get in on the action as well. The book will say what the track selection is for each poem featured on the disc, which is ideal for both teachers and kid readers alike.

I've discussed books by this company with other librarians in the past and we've all agreed that the only problem with Sourcebooks' titles are the illustrations. They're serviceable, no doubt. Get the job done, they do. But while the illustrators they got for this book are perfectly nice, they don't match the text. You may be reading the sharpest minds and pens of the 20th and 21st century, but they are paired with pictures that are merely nice, not extraordinary. I don't blame the artists necessarily because maybe this isn't indicative of their best work. The problem is that it should be. For future publications I do hope the Sourcebooks put as much effort into the art as the poetry/raps. The pictures here are more reminiscent of an illustrated elementary school Reading textbook than a groundbreaking book for kids.

As rap and hip hop slowly gains acceptance into the school and reading curriculum (I don't think it hurts matters any that the generations that grew up with it is now teaching our children) we need more books that kids can relate to. There are high school teachers sharing Tupac's poems with the students, which is certainly a nice enough start. But I think that it will be books like these that make the most impact in schools and at home. This is a great collection, woven together by an expert, and crafted with the best possible accompanying CD. Purchase of this book isn't optional. It's obligatory. And I, for one, am looking forward to more.

Hip hop is more than gangsta rap. Hip hop is rhythm. Hip hop has soul. Hip hop will be here forever. Giovanni captures the essence of hip hop in this collection of "poetry with a beat". The poems are skillfully illustrated. There are over 30 performances recited by the poet on the accompanying CD. The poets include: A Tribe Called Quest, Kanye West, Sugarhill Gang, James Berry, Queen Latifah, Nikki Grimes, Jill Scott, Mos Def, Common, Gwendolyn Brooks, and many more. Young and old alike will identify with the poems that flow like lyrics on top of beats that will make you groove. A few favorite poems are: Dat Dere, The Rosa Parks, and Hip Hop Rules the World. There are also a few excerpts from some of our favorite rappers.

This is definitely a book for everyone. There are more than 50 poems written by 42 different poets along with 30 performances on the CD. Share your past with your kids, by giving your children the opportunity to hear real lyrics and experience poetry at its finest. This promises to be the BEST Children's books of the YEAR!

Deltareviewer

I received this book as a gift this year and I am crazy about it! I am starting "Allow me to introduce myself" tomorrow with my kindergarteners and I can't wait to hear them! It makes hip-hop and slam-style poetry come alive in a way that can be appreciated by EVERYONE and is especially perfect for classroom use.

I think that Nikki Giovanni did a awesome job on creating and putting together that book.I think that Nikki is a very good Author for children.My favorite poem was Hey Mama by Kanye West.There is nothing like a mothers love toward her child.

I gave this book as a gift to my 12 year old sis (at the time) after seeing the book in a bookstore. It gives hip-hop a positive look as opposed to the negative explanations for why hip hop exists. It shows that hip hop is an evolution of poetry which shows that there are lessons to be learned. I would greatly recommend this book. This book is recommended for 9-12 yrs old. The book looks like it's for a much younger audience, but the poems and raps inside are age appropriate oftentimes even challenging the reader to push outside their understanding. And it comes with a cd which makes it all the more better. Buy this product, if you're thinking about it.

"Hip Hop Speaks To Children" is an outstanding poetry book that includes A CD where you can listen to spoken or sung versions of a poem either perfomed by the poet or artist. The CD was a great idea, it really brought the poems to life. It made it feel like the poets were talking right to us. I recommend this book to all children, especially ones between the ages of 9 and 12 years old because they can really relate to the stories that all the poems have. The following poem written and performed by Eloise Greenfield was more like a poem of a real life segment that gave the story of how most things don't last forever:

Things

Went to the corner
Walked in the store
Bought me some candy
Ain't got it no more
Ain't got it no more
Went to the beach
Played on the shore
Built me a sandhouse
Ain't got it no more
Ain't got it no more
Went to the kithcen
Lay down on the floor
Made me a poem
Still got it
Still got it

My opinion of this book is that it is done in a way to make poetry fun for kids. As I was flipping through the pages of the book I was drawn in by the creative and artful illustrations. What really brought the book to life for me was the CD. I enjoyed the hip-hop beat as the narrators read the poems as well as the funky music. I would recommend this book to poetry lovers of all ages.

This poetry book is wonderful way to bring in Multicultural education. Everyone should have this book.