Kwame Alexander won the Newbery Award the same week that Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman was announced for publication. Of course, Lee’s news totally trumped Alexander’s achievement, so to show some solidarity, I requested his novel from the library. And I was blown away. The Crossover is a verse novel (that is, a novel told in poems) about Josh Bell, a tween boy who is a star basketball player on his middle-school team. His twin brother Jordan, or JB, is on the team with […]
Almost as Good as that last Scene in North and South
Did everyone have a nice Galentines/Valentines/President’s Day/”oh dear godtopus the Fifty Shades the Movie has been unleashed on us” weekend? Mine involved my siblings all in the same state for the first time in 2 years and snowstorms. So, all things considered, not bad. But we aren’t here to talk about that, we’re here to talk about what I read over the weekend (because sadly for you, my Cannonball reviews have seemingly devolved into one long diary entry). I have DNF’ed The Line of Beauty […]
A poet for our times: Adrienne Rich
My first post of 2015 is also my first of a book of poetry, and I couldn’t have chosen a better one than “Tonight No Poetry Will Serve” by the renowned American poet, social activist and feminist Adrienne Rich. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never read any of Rich’s poetry before, and it took my youngest daughter Adrienne to introduce her to me. She is a revelation – her language is exquisite and painful, her anger fierce and authentic, her social conscience omnipresent. As […]
Aren’t we all a little monstrous?
This is an odd, original, remarkable book. I didn’t know anything about it when I picked it up–let’s be real, I was just looking for a short book so I can finish my Cannonball in time! And it was unlike anything I’ve read this year. This short (160 pages!) novel in verse is Anne Carson’s modern re-telling of a Greek myth that was originally told by Stesichoros, a Sicilian Greek of the early classical era. In the original, Heracles murders the red-winged monster Geryon and steals his […]
“Never let a kitten sharpen claws on your balloon.”
Continuing our forays into new poetry, next up is Kids Pick The Funniest Poems, which is a collection of about 100 or so poems, selected by 300 elementary school children and collected for this book by Bruce Lansky. Aside from a handful of familiar names – Jack Prelutsky, Ogden Nash, Shel Silverstein, Dr. Seuss, the previously mentioned Judith Viorst – most of the poems come from new-to-me sources, but they’re almost all American or Canadian poets. Some names include Jeff Moss, Maxine Jeffris, Phlil Bolsta, […]
“If I were in charge of the world, you wouldn’t have lonely.”
In order to pass on my love of poetry to my niblings (and expand our horizons a tad bit beyond Where The Sidewalk Ends), my niece and I have recently spent some time exploring the 810s at our local library. One of our very first finds – and one of the biggest hits – is Judith Viorst’s If I Were in Charge of The World (and other worries). For my niece and I, the best kind of poetry is nonsense poetry – we’ve spent a […]