Lives: Poems About Famous Americans [Hardcover]

Lee Bennett Hopkins (Author), Leslie Staub (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 1999 | Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 2 and up

Poetry that makes us appreciate the magnitude of lives
filled with courage, enthusiasm, inspiration.

Lives: Poems About Famous Americans is the ideal introduction to sixteen American personalities who have changed the course of history. Favorite anthologist Lee Bennett Hopkins has brought together the work of a number of accomplished writers and poets, among them Jane Yolen, Nikki Grimes, and X. J. Kennedy, to portray such figures as Sacagawea, Babe Ruth, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Leslie Staubs portraits contain a poetry of their own, capturing a bit of history in the glint of smile or the reach of a hand. Lives is a book for all readers to savor.

Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2000, National Council for SS & Child. Book Council

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8Hopkins has added another engaging collection to his impressive list of anthologies. This one gathers poems about 16 significant Americans. The volume opens with Lawrence Schimels energetic This Bell Rings for Liberty about Paul Revere: I quench the heated metal shell/and fiery red begins to fade,/the way we drove Redcoats to sea/and quenched them from our homes and land. Alice Shertles Abe conveys in free verse the sorrow and power of the man, concluding with a breath-taking image: wrapping his strong hands/around a nation,/trying to hold the bleeding halves/together/until they healed. Selections by Nikki Grimes, X. J. Kennedy, and Jane Yolen bring other individuals to life through a range of poetic forms. There is a good balance of men and women represented as well as a variety of personalities from Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosa Parks to Neil Armstrong and Langston Hughes. Hopkinss eloquent introduction praises the power of poetry. Concluding Notes on the Lives give readers useful biographical information. Full-page portraits feature Staubs distinctive, flat, primitive style, and their backgrounds have details particular to the subject: laboratory bottles for Thomas Edison, people-filled stands for Babe Ruth, a Harlem scene for Langston Hughes. A winning combination of poems and illustrations.Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Noted poet Lee Bennett Hopkins has edited or authored numerous books for children, including the I Can Read Books Hamsters, Shells, and Spelling Bees; A Pet for Me: Poems; and the ALA Notable Children's Book Surprises. The recipient of a Christopher Award and the University of Southern Mississippi's Medallion for "lasting contributions to children's literature," Mr. Hopkins lives in Florida.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (April 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006027767X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060277673
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,254,878 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is Poetry!, December 27, 1999

By 

Tom Robert Shields (Chelsea, New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lives: Poems About Famous Americans (Hardcover)

Lee Bennett Hopkins asked me several years ago to write a poem about Helen Keller. The result is included in this volume of poems for children. I insisted that Anne Sullivan be included in the poem because if you read Keller's autobiography you will see the way she sees Sullivan is part of herself. It affected me very much and the result is "Till". The rest of this unusual volume (see review by a teacher in Customer Reviews) is unusual in two ways. First, there is real poetry here. Lines with emotion arranged in a beautiful way by the poet. Second, poems aboutfamous Americans are rare in children's literature. Hopkins is the authority on children's poetry after the late Myra Cohn Livingston.

Hopkins selected these poems, arranged them, and the result is a true book. Books these days tend to be thrown together and not very interesting. You'll love poems about Martin Luther King with the lines, "Now ten-ton bells together swing: Remember / Martin /Luther/ King. The simple beauty of the rhyme "swing" and "King" with its heaviness and that optimistic preacher's name.

Lee Bennett Hopkins, who loves Hughes' poetry became a scholar on Hughes (See his book of Hughes' poetry "The Dream Keeper" and "Don't You Turn Back" if you can find it). He wrote "Dreamer"--it begins, "He let us kiss the the April rain." Later this wonderful rhyme: "He syncopated beats/ of Harlem blues. / O! /The might/ of / Langston Hughes." There are poems on Whitman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sacagawea, Rosa Parks and more.

Many of these Americans have never had a poem written of them. I looked at this book critically. After all, we are critics. It's worthwhile. As I see it, Lee Bennett Hopkins is an American treasure.

The librarians of this nation are his greatest fans. What better recommendation for any author. America, let's value what we should value--you can begin at these "Lives Poems About Famous Americans."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of a kind, June 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lives: Poems About Famous Americans (Hardcover)

Never have I seen a poetry book like this one. This is a teacher's dream. Use this in the classroom to 'spark' an interest in Helen Keller, Buzz Aldrin, Langston Hughes, or Eleanor Roosevelt. Feed the fascination for John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Langston Hughes or Babe Ruth. Powerful and poetic 'moments in time' of some of our greatest Americans. This book is for everyone.