Yes, it is Valentine's Day--possibly my favorite holiday--and therefore I will not disappoint by plunging into my last reviews of NCTE 2020 Poetry Notables without any hint at hearts.
Here is the song I wrote in 2001 for a class of 4-year-olds,
slightly creased and glue-bedecked from all our monster-building activities. I'm having a bit of trouble remembering the tune, though!
Now that you are well and truly monstered by love, here are
the reviews. What riches!
THE BELL RANG
James E. Ransome
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2019
Our national history of the enslavement of Africans and their American-born descendants is difficult to place in context for young children. In The Bell Rang, James Ransome brilliantly builds his narrative of plantation life on a familiar days-of-the-week pattern. This gives readers 4-11 something on which to hang a shocking understanding: the humanity of ordinary family life in deep conflict with the inhumanity of slavery.
Our national history of the enslavement of Africans and their American-born descendants is difficult to place in context for young children. In The Bell Rang, James Ransome brilliantly builds his narrative of plantation life on a familiar days-of-the-week pattern. This gives readers 4-11 something on which to hang a shocking understanding: the humanity of ordinary family life in deep conflict with the inhumanity of slavery.
Each morning the overseer’s bell rings
and a young girl and her big brother Ben go about their routine, until one day,
of Mama and Daddy
searching, looking.
No sun in the sky.
Mama crying.
No Ben.
Daddy crying.
Daddy crying.
Ben ran.
VOICES: THE FINAL HOURS OF JOAN OF ARC
Spare, repetitive language and richly
detailed paintings are painfully educational; older readers will be able to
interpret this narrative for themselves while primary aged children will
need--and be enabled--to talk and talk about it.
VOICES: THE FINAL HOURS OF JOAN OF ARC
David Elliot
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2019
A tour de force of poetic craft, this reconstruction of the extraordinary life of an ordinary French peasant girl offers challenge and surprise on every page. Elliot weaves witness testimony from Joan’s trials with the distinctive voices of herself, the saints who guided her outrageously courageous actions, and the objects that play roles in her story--a needle, a dress, a road, a sword, the very fire upon which she was burned. Each poem has its form: metered verse set in concrete shapes that work against their formal regularity, just as Joan strained against all expectations of her gender and era.
A tour de force of poetic craft, this reconstruction of the extraordinary life of an ordinary French peasant girl offers challenge and surprise on every page. Elliot weaves witness testimony from Joan’s trials with the distinctive voices of herself, the saints who guided her outrageously courageous actions, and the objects that play roles in her story--a needle, a dress, a road, a sword, the very fire upon which she was burned. Each poem has its form: metered verse set in concrete shapes that work against their formal regularity, just as Joan strained against all expectations of her gender and era.
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| please forgive this unprofessional photo of an extremely professional poem |
Elliot skillfully mingles the facts of Joan’s mission to save France with the
superstitious flavor of pre-Enlightenment religious belief that permitted a
teenaged girl to lead an army in God’s name. Her charismatic leadership
coincides fascinatingly with the current phenomenon of Greta Thunberg’s, and
while only the most mature 11-13-year-olds will find this book accessible, they
will be richly rewarded for their efforts.
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Our Poetry Friday hostess-with-the-mostest
is Linda at TeacherDance. March on over and take the Love
Monsters with you!
