Jerry Middlebrook, Mary Gutierrez, Robyn Rutland, Sandra Scherbenske, Jason Witherspoon, Austin Stoker, Spring Odiorne, Alison Sagebiel, Alfonso Vargas ... There are 100 poems in this book by 100 poets who wrote their poems when they were in grades one through twelve. These poets are not famous. You have not read their poems before. These poets live anywhere. They are now dentists and dancers and teachers and students and construction workers. They write with fire. They could be you.
| ||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
"How should we use poetry?" people sometimes ask poet Naomi Shihab Nye. She responds, "Read it! Share it with one another! Find poems that make you resonate. Different poems will do this for every person. We 'use poetry' to restore us to feeling, revitalize our own speech, awaken empathy."
Over the past 25 years Nye has "used poetry" in classroom workshops in schools all over the country. In this lush, amusing, and touching anthology she gathers 100 poems and divides them into four groupings: "My Shadow Is an Ant's Night" (poems about the self and the inner world), "Think How Many Stories Are in Your Shirt" (about where we live), "My Grandma Squashes Roaches with Her Hand" (about family), and "Silence Is Like a Tractor Moving the Whole World" (about the imagination). Students in grades 1 through 12 are represented in this anthology, brilliantly illustrated by the talented Coretta Scott King Honor recipient Ashley Bryan. These young poets have mostly grown up, now, to become dentists and actors and construction workers, but the purity of their work lives on, as in the poignant "One" by Butch McElroy:
"We had a
'Most commonly misspelled word'
Spelling test
Yesterday in English,
Fourth Period.
I commonly misspelled them all.
Except one.
Loneliness
Was the only one I got right."
(Ages 8 and older) --Emilie Coulter
From Publishers Weekly
Bryan's (Jump Back, Honey) vibrant, imaginative cover art and section openers raise high expectations, but this volume offers rather less than meets the eye. Representing Nye's (What Have You Lost?) favorite student poems from her 25 years of teaching poetry workshops to schoolchildren, it seems more suitable for forming lesson plans than for the enjoyment of children themselves. The poems suggest familiar workshop techniques (e.g., a number of poems rely on the opening words "I sing" or "I feel like" or "I remember") and, perhaps because they reflect a single teacher's methods and tastes, the collection as a whole seems repetitive, ingratiating or sometimes coy ("We had a/ 'Most commonly misspelled word'/ Spelling test ./ Loneliness/ was the only one I got right"). It seems unfair, no matter how well-intentioned, to present these youthful outpourings as accomplished poems, worthy of critical reading. It also raises the question of audience: Nye's self-congratulatory forewords (there are three) and vignettes ("Where is one true word? Where are three?") will better serve teachers than kids, for whom reading this volume may be like plowing through a stack of somebody else's homework. Ages 8-up. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Salting the Ocean - Poetry,
By
This review is from: Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets (Hardcover)
This book is a good compilation of children's poetry about self, environment, family, and imagination. As a teacher, I found it to be a good resource to get my students thinking creatively/"outside the box" when delving into the poetic realm.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun for Kids and Fun for family,
By A Customer
This review is from: Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets (Hardcover)
My kids (Age:7&10) and I all enjoyed this book very muchsince we received in the mail from Amazon. Every night, we take turnreading to each other -- usually I go first and then the kids. Thekids enjoy all the funny ones and the wonderful drawings that Ashley had created. This is a really great book. My daughter even recognized a few of these poems as her teacher had shared with her class early this year.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
