Vecchione follows her very successful anthology Truth and Lies (2000) with a smart collection of poetry for slightly younger readers. In her introduction, she explains that knowing a poem can fill all sorts of needs, just shortening a trip or remembering a special time. She suggests that there are poems to keep to oneself and poems to recite to one’s friends, loud poems and quiet ones, funny or sad, each with its own virtues. Then she gives some tips on how to memorize—whether the piece has a rhyme or not—and what to listen for as you read. There’s something for everyone here, whether from Wordplay or from the Poems about Life, the Natural World, or those that are just plain funny. There’s hardly a poet who isn’t represented somewhere along the way: Langston Hughes to Shel Silverstein, e.e. cummings to Emily Dickinson. Others include Carl Sandburg, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Theodore Roethke, May Swenson, Paul Fleischman, and, yes, William Shakespeare. There are traditional rhymes like “I love you little, I love you lots”; familiar anonymous ones like “I saw Esau” or “Whether the weather be fine . . .”; and riddles, limericks, and a Cherokee prayer. Some poets who might have been fun are missing: Karla Kuskin, for instance, and not enough newer poets are represented—Naomi Shihab Nye, Marilyn Singer, or Janet S. Wong. But still, this is a great start and at 50 or so selections, not so overwhelming that a reader couldn’t find something—or several somethings—right off. Biographical resources include choices for further reading of each poet. A keeper. (Poetry. 9-12)
Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8126-2656-7
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Cricket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Poet Alexander deftly reveals the power of the format to pack an emotional punch.
Basketball-playing twins find challenges to their relationship on and off the court as they cope with changes in their lives.
Josh Bell and his twin, Jordan, aka JB, are stars of their school basketball team. They are also successful students, since their educator mother will stand for nothing else. As the two middle schoolers move to a successful season, readers can see their differences despite the sibling connection. After all, Josh has dreadlocks and is quiet on court, and JB is bald and a trash talker. Their love of the sport comes from their father, who had also excelled in the game, though his championship was achieved overseas. Now, however, he does not have a job and seems to have health problems the parents do not fully divulge to the boys. The twins experience their first major rift when JB is attracted to a new girl in their school, and Josh finds himself without his brother. This novel in verse is rich in character and relationships. Most interesting is the family dynamic that informs so much of the narrative, which always reveals, never tells. While Josh relates the story, readers get a full picture of major and minor players. The basketball action provides energy and rhythm for a moving story.
Poet Alexander deftly reveals the power of the format to pack an emotional punch. (Verse fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-10771-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A powerfully candid and soulful account of an immigrant experience.
A Taiwanese family tries their luck in America.
In this verse novel, it’s 1980, and nearly 11-year-old Ai Shi and her mother prepare to leave Taipei to join her father in California, where he is pursuing a business opportunity with a friend. The extended family send them off, telling Ai Shi she’s so lucky to go to the “beautiful country”—the literal translation of the Chinese name for the U.S. Once they are reunited with Ba, he reveals that they have instead poured their savings into a restaurant in the remote Los Angeles County town of Duarte. Ma and Ba need to learn to cook American food, but at least, despite a betrayal by Ba’s friend, they have their own business. However, the American dream loses its shine as language barriers, isolation, financial stress, and racism take their toll. Ai Shi internalizes her parents’ disappointment in their new country by staying silent about bullying at school and her own unmet needs. Her letters home to her favorite cousin, Mei, maintain that all is well. After a year of enduring unrelenting challenges, including vandalism by local teens, the family reaches its breaking point. Hope belatedly arrives in the form of community allies and a change of luck. Kuo deftly touches on complex issues, such as the human cost of the history between China and Taiwan as well as the socio-economic prejudices and identity issues within Asian American communities.
A powerfully candid and soulful account of an immigrant experience. (Verse historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: June 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-311898-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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