Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems - Hardcover

George, Kristine O'Connell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0618152504 ISBN 13: 9780618152506

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2002

Synopsis

Short, accessible poems in the single voice of the new middle schooler capture the middle school experience, from making new friends and moving from class to class, to changing for PE, gossip, and school dances.

About this title

About the Author

Kristine O'Connell George is the author of several books of poetry for young people and the recipient of both the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and the IRA Promising Poet Award. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Debbie Tilley has illustrated several picture books including The Secrets of Ms. Snickle's Class by Laurie Miller Hornik. She lives in Escondido, California.

Reviews

Grade 4-7-Middle school, with all its trials, tribulations, and triumphs, is portrayed humorously and poignantly through the eyes of one girl. Some of the more mundane topics include a locker that won't open, being late to homeroom, carrying around a large piece of wood as a hall pass, and deciding where to sit in the lunchroom. The book also delves into significant issues, from making new friends and a first crush to teasing, gossip, and a bully who may not be so tough after all. The selections are short, mostly filling less than a page, and get to the heart of the matter quickly. The emotions range from confusion, loneliness, and fear to being nervous and tongue-tied. Amid all the angst and trauma are light moments of "chaperones/(someone else's parents!)/bobbing offbeat" at the school dance or a troublesome musical instrument, "after much practice/flute still suffers severe case/of laryngitis." Students will relate to this voice navigating "upstream," while they try to find their own place in the middle-school wilderness.
Kristen Oravec, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Strongsville, OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 5-8. These tiny poems--rhymed, free verse, haiku, even an acrostic--cover the first year of junior high--sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. The unnamed female narrator sees the first "jigsaw year" as refitting and recombining old friends and new, old ideas and new. In "Is It Monday Again?" she decries dividing the week into "seven square pieces / (five for school, two for me)" and in "Lunch Survey" the myriad variants on "peanut butter and" are trumped by Zach's sushi. The mysteries of lockers and uncontrolled giggling are plumbed; as is the rapture of the boy you like liking you back: "I am shining / from the inside out." There's a running thread about practicing the flute until at last she can make something like music. Sweet and on key. Illustrations unseen. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0618152504
• ISBN 13: 9780618152506
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Tilley Debbie
• Number of pages: 79