Mixing such chestnuts as “There Is No Frigate Like a Book” and “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” with less common expostulations (“Will there really be a ‘Morning’? / Is there such a thing as ‘Day’?), Winter (My Baby, 2001, etc.) presents a quick but complex taste of a quick but complex poet. To the 22 carefully selected poems, the artist pairs simply drawn folk-art scenes of a white-gowned figure ruminatively observing outdoor settings, and sandwiches it all with an invented narrative from Emily’s sister, Lavinia, that fills in a bit of background about the poet’s cloistered life. Though the verses are not only printed in a “handwritten” italic, but also placed so that it’s sometimes hard to tell where one poem leaves off and the next begins, this small tribute effectively captures a sense of Dickinson’s precise language and wide-open imagination. Great potential as a keepsake and a lovely introduction for younger readers. (Poetry. 6-12)
Pub Date: March 19, 2002
ISBN: 0-374-32147-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share.
A multiaward–winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer.
Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is “a country caught / / between Black and White.” But while evoking names such as Malcolm, Martin, James, Rosa and Ruby, her story is also one of family: her father’s people in Ohio and her mother’s people in South Carolina. Moving south to live with her maternal grandmother, she is in a world of sweet peas and collards, getting her hair straightened and avoiding segregated stores with her grandmother. As the writer inside slowly grows, she listens to family stories and fills her days and evenings as a Jehovah’s Witness, activities that continue after a move to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother. The gift of a composition notebook, the experience of reading John Steptoe’s Stevieand Langston Hughes’ poetry, and seeing letters turn into words and words into thoughts all reinforce her conviction that “[W]ords are my brilliance.” Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-25251-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
Broad and subtle in turn—verse to stay with readers for years to come.
A tasty mix of visionary and nonsense verses, lavishly illustrated by a recent Caldecott Medalist.
Systematically gathered into seven loosely thematic groups, the poems, likewise tidy of rhyme and scansion, range from meditations on “Zero” and the many colors of the sky to silly wordplay (“What kind of pizza / do you like to eatsa?”) and a droll paean to pasta that rhymes spaghetti with yeti. The notion of flying away almost serves as a running theme; in various entries, a piñata, a child on “Jetpack Sneakers,” a breaching whale, and, for a moment, a boy waking to a sparrow’s song take off into the sky. Salati depicts a menagerie of creatures both real and imaginary that share space with a rich and racially diverse assortment of small figures who often resemble Maurice Sendak’s Nutshell Library outtakes for their large-headed, stubby-limbed looks and balletic poses. The entries are lighthearted overall; several read like nursery rhymes. Burgess displays a keen intuition for what will get kids laughing—and what will make them think. One poem, perhaps a reference to current politics, invites them to “leave the shouters with their schemes / while we continue with our dreams,” while another urges them to “live your dream / Reign supreme / King or queen / or something / delightfully / in between.”
Broad and subtle in turn—verse to stay with readers for years to come. (index) (Poetry. 7-11)Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781774880289
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
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