Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman

This book is quite aptly named. What a wonderful use of onomatopoeia to create the sounds of the insects about which the poems are written! This book is written not just in two parts but for two people to read aloud. And read aloud I did. Fleischman does an excellent job of using rhyme schemes, imagery, metaphor, and spoken round (like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat...") to paint a beautiful scene for the reader. To be honest I've never really thought about bugs much, but I felt like I was back in the world of White’s Charlotte's Web where insects and animals can communicate and it was pretty great.

The use of metaphor and lyrical alliteration in the poems give the reader an appreciation and respect for the poet’s diction and the poems’ aesthetic appeal. For example in “Fireflies,” Fleischman writes, “Light/is the ink we use/Night/is our parchment…Insect calligraphers/practicing penmanship/six-legged scribblers” (11-13). Each of the poems is written from the perspective of a different insect or insects and it is a great exercise in switching perspectives. Fleischman's poems are not only aesthetically pleasing, but they also focus on common literary themes like growth, death and rebirth. And he is funny! One poem is a moth's serenade to a porch light and anyone who has enjoyed a sweltering summer night can relate to this and laugh: “Porch/light,/hear my plight!/I drink your light/like nectar/Dream of you/by day/Gaze in your eyes/all night/Porch light!” The moth’s language and feelings towards the light are comically reminiscent of the forbidden love of Romeo and Juliet: “ ‘Keep back,’ they say/I cant!/‘Don’t touch,’ they say/I must!” (19).

I also appreciated the poem about bees from the point of view of the worker and the queen at the same time-what an eye opener. (Part A is underlined, Part B is italicized, joint parts are left plain) For example: “Being a bee/is a joy/is a pain./ I’m a queen/I’m a worker…I’m bathed/then I take out/the hive’s morning trash/then I’m groomed” (30).

I would love to write a poem that describes a school day from my point of view and the point of view of my students and see what it looks like—or even my perspective as a student and a professor’s as a teacher. Book and insect lovers alike will appreciate "Book Lice," that follows a pair of wedded lice living and chewing their way through great works of literature by famous literary figures such as Conan Doyle, Keats, Horace, and Shakespeare.

I also really enjoyed Eric Beddows’ illustrations. They add a great deal to the text of the poems-he is an extremely talented artist. They really help to give Fleischman’s characters even more personality. As I was reading, I kept thinking that the poems sounded like song lyrics of some kind, and I actually discovered that some of them have been made into songs! This is a great interpretation of Moth's Serendade

--> set to music and performed by Shirley Hoffman Warren. What a great example of the many ways one can interpret poetry. After stumbling upon these songs, I looked into other work Fleischman has done, and I was really impressed! There are a number of his works that have been adapted for the stage and re-written as song lyrics. Visit Paul's Website for more information! I would recommend this book in pieces, these poems are meant to be savored one by one and definitely read it aloud! Happy reading!

19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East by Naomi Shihab Nye

What an incredibly powerful collection! I have never been one to read a book of poetry from cover to cover, but this book kept me engaged throughout each poem like a set of short stories. I was constantly in awe of how much Nye could include in so few words. I felt as if every single poem, practically every single line told a different story.
I think the most pivotal aspect of the poetry was its metacognitive nature: she writes about writing and the power that comes with language. The way she talks about language and communication is incredibly powerful and really made me think about the importance of being able to communicate in one’s native language. This book combines elements of immigration, family, loss, war, peace and the struggle of being torn between two worlds: being an adult vs. being a child, being an American vs. being Arab, speaking English vs. speaking Arabic, living in war vs. living in peace and on and on. She talks about language as a way to express the pain and suffering of living between these two worlds. “The bombs break everyone’s/sentences in half,” she writes, emphasizing the power and violence of cultural destruction (61).
One of the other elements of Nye’s writing that I so enjoyed was her use of personification to emphasize the effect violence has on not only people, but places, things, and relationships. In the poem, “For the 500th Dead Palestinian, Ibtisam Bozieh” she writes about a girl who was killed at an extremely young age: “Dead at 13, for staring through/the window into a gun barrel/which did not know you wanted to be/a doctor” (53). She is treating violence as its own separate entity, a powerful being that can have feelings and emotions, but just chooses not to emit them. In another poem she talks about books and personifies them, but this time gives them emotions: “in Iraq a book never had one owner—it had ten./lucky books, to be held often/and gently, by so many hands/later in American libraries she felt sad/for books no one ever checked out” (110). This is another time in which she emphasizes the power of language and the importance of gaining and sharing knowledge. Following war, she says “certain words, feel impossible in the mouth./Casualty: too casual, it must be changed.” (35)
I really appreciated her focus on children and schools because I feel as though so many adults have written about the Middle East and their experiences, but their writing is not tangible for younger audiences. Nye writes about the experiences in such a way that they become so much more accessible for younger people. She talks about things like school, family and friends with which younger people are more familiar than say, Israeli-Palestinian conflict or strategies of war. For example in one poem she says, “I mighta have been dead too,/for something simple like staring/or shouting what was true/and getting kicked out of school” (53). She really made me think about how much I take my own schooling for granted. I can—and am encouraged!—to say what I think and believe in my classes and I feel safe in my school. Whereas in Nye’s world, “when students gather quietly/inside their own classroom/to celebrate the last day of school,/the door to the building/gets blasted off” (60).
Overall, I felt Nye’s collection was extremely well-written and eye-opening. I don’t know if I would say “enjoyable,” because so many of the poems were so sad, but they were important and that is why I liked this book. In post 9/11 society I think these poems would be a great way to start discussions about the relationship between the U.S. and the Middle East as well as the experience of immigrants in the U.S. Read these poems, but savor them individually, not all at once. Happy reading!

She Would Draw Flowers: A Book of Poems by Kirsten Savitri Bergh

This book of poetry is so incredibly heart wrenching and powerful. The book is comprised of poetry and drawings from the journals of Kirsten Savitri Bergh published by her mother after she passed away in a car accident at the age of 17. She and her family were from Minneapolis and she attended the Minnesota Waldorf school. The writing is absolutely beautiful and her language is well beyond her years. Because the poems weren't written necessarily to be published, the poetry is just that much more raw and emotional. You can really tell what an amazing, articulate and artistic person she was. She writes about everything from something as mundane as lime jello to the passing of her father when she was 16. She was also a student abroad in France and some of her poetry includes elements of French. This is also a wonderful example of the ways free verse poetry can be just as affective as any rhyme scheme. She not only writes from her own perspective but from many others--a practice which I think all poets should exercise. She even includes an Ars Poetica (poem about the process of writing poetry) called "Beginning Barefoot." I would HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone who is interested in poetry or someone who wants to try poetry but is intimidated: this is a great entry to poetry and it is by a young person. So inspiring!

Kirsten's mom, Linda provides more information about Kirsten on this wonderful website. Happy reading (and surfing!)

Looking for Alaska by John Green

John Green's novel about 15 year-old Miles' experiences at an Alabama boarding school is an incredible read. The first person narrative takes the reader into a world that not many teenagers have the opportunity to experience: independent living where friends serve as family and school is life. Miles speaks so genuinely and his interactions with his friends are so realistic that you feel as though you are there. I have seen John Green speak and to be honest I was worried that he could only be funny in person, but I was pleasantly surprised by his hilarious writing. Who would have thought that rapping in a novel could actually be effective? (even more so if you are willing to read those parts aloud!)
One of my favorite elements of this book is that Miles has friends, teachers, and family members from all walks of life--the same as any reader likely would. And these characters are dealing with big important issues that other authors might shy away from, but Green attacks them head on and does it extremely well. As a writer he has a keen appreciation of what these kids can handle and doesn't sugarcoat issues like death, drugs, alcohol, sex, and relationships. He sees adolescence for what it truly is: a confusing, exhilarating, eye-opening, stressful, enjoyable, roller coaster of a ride. He gets it. And that is what makes this book so awesome.
The book's title character, Alaska Young, can really only be described as a charming whirlwind of a human. Feisty, feminist and flirty she draws in not only the protagonist but the reader as well. The title of the novel is quite accurate, as a large percent of Miles' time is spent trying to delve a little deeper into what makes this mysterious girl tick.
Not only are Green's characters intriguing, but they are not flat. Each of them has a background, a struggle and a multi-faceted personality. They are not just names on a page. Take for instance, the protagonist, Miles. Like all of his classmates, he is quirky, and his particular idiosyncrasy is that he studies and remembers "last words." This adds an element of darkness to the novel, but in a way that is seen as lighthearted and eccentric.
Miles, or 'Pudge' as he has been ironically dubbed (he more closely resembles a string bean than anything remotely 'pudgey') has a very tight relationship with his roommate Chip or the Colonel. This is also a bold move on Green's part that I applaud. It is not often that we as readers see the interworkings of male-male friendships and it is really refreshing to see them talk to each other, rely on each other and support each other in similar ways to female-female friendships or male-female friendships.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book to YOU. Whoever you are...for while you are "looking for Alaska" you will undoubtedly find out something more about yourself.
Happy reading!

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

-->“Some of the things that made the biggest impression were the things that were almost normal but not quite” (Rosoff 72).

I chose this quote from Meg Rosoff's novel, How I Live Now as an entry point into my review of this text because it gives insight to the themes of the text. Rosoff writes in a way that I have never experienced before and it is fascinating. She does not use quotation marks in her text at all so the thoughts of one character become the words of the next in a very Woolfian stream-of-consciousness style of writing. The story is written from a first person perspective, but because of the style it feels as though you are in the minds of more than one character at a time. Throughout the novel we follow Daisy, a hip 15 year old New Yorker who is visiting her family on the English countryside to escape from her new evil stepmother, whom she so kindly refers to as Davina the Diabolical. However when she arrives in England she discovers a war has broken out and soon she finds herself alone with her four cousins and no adult supervision. A kid's dream come true right? Well, yes for a while, but after a time Daisy finds herself on the run and the story becomes an adventure tale with only her wit to keep her and her cousins alive. Throughout the story she questions why survival wasn't taught in school in place of literature and asks her reader to do the same. This is the first story we've read from a female perspective and it was great. Her sarcastic tone and hilarious titles for places, events and people made the book enjoyable to read and I kept finding myself reading bits aloud to get the full effect. I would love to read this book with other people out loud to see how different people interpret her language. It is incredible insight into the mind of someone who has been forced to grow up too quickly and becomes the caretaker for others at the ripe old age of 15. There were parts in the novel where I had no idea what I would have done and I admired our protagonist—or heroine, for her determination and strength of spirit. We also get a taste of the experience of being in a foreign land, although Daisy speaks the same language as her cousins, she still finds herself in an unknown land with none of the comforts of home. This book is all about disequilibrium and finding a way through the changes. Just as the characters are getting to know their way of life, it drastically changes and they have no choice but to change with it. I appreciate Rosoff's willingness to go beyond an innocent adolescent experience and show us what some young adults actually go through on a daily basis: struggling for survival and taking care of each other when there is no one else. Happy reading!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

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I absolutely, truly enjoyed this book. Alexie's partly autobiographical novel that relays the experiences of a teenage boy is so genuine and honest it is impossible to dislike.

The first-person style of the book makes it easy to dive into the reading. You really do feel as though you are reading someone’s journal and it makes you feel that much closer to the main character, Arnold or “Junior” Spirit. You know a book has been written well when you feel as though you know the characters well enough to care about what happens to them. And Arnold is hilarious. You will laugh out loud at least once.

Additionally, I will always enjoy a book that includes cartoons because sometimes words cannot express every feeling we are trying to evoke. Arnold’s drawings make this book much more real because I can relate to it. We all doodle and draw and make diagrams in order to express things more fully. It was wonderful to see an author do the same. Arnold explains his reason for drawing pictures: “when you draw a picture, everybody can understand it. If I draw a cartoon of a flower, then every man, woman, and child in the world can look at it and say, ‘That’s a flower’” (5).

Not only is the book genuine, candid, funny, and artistic, but it is also open minded. The book brings up issues of race, sexuality, culture, group association, family structures, alcohol use and abuse, legacy and self-fulfilling prophecies, and relationships. By deciding to leave the rez for school, Arnold has made the decision to grow up extremely fast and is not afraid to talk about how scary and overwhelming this can be. Arnold understands the challenge he is facing and knows what kind of ridicule he will face, but HE DOES IT ANYWAY. This is so courageous. I found myself asking, “Would I have the guts to do this? How would I react if my family and friends were harassing me for following my heart? Would I be able to stand the (metaphorical and literal) ‘boos’?” He is conscious of the weightiness of his decision. One of the questions he asks that I might pose to my students (and colleagues!) is: “Should a teenager be worried about his fricking legacy anyway?”

The race issues addressed in this book include very specific references to White teachers teaching at the all Indian school on the reservation. This is extremely powerful because it is the first time that Arnold is exposed to the racist nature of the reservation and is (rightfully) outraged by it. This conversation ultimately leads to his decision to leave the rez and attend school elsewhere. Difficult topics like this are what makes this book so important and memorable.

This is an important, enjoyable, honest read that I would recommend for any reader. The insight Alexie gives the reader is incredible and eye-opening. This book poses though-provoking, discussion-creating questions that I think everyone should be exposed to. This book allows its reader to begin to formulate an understanding of the meaning of belonging…something to which we can all easily relate. Happy reading!