Synopsis
A collection of poetry, written by children ages eight through eighteen, captures the feelings and emotions that are experienced while going through the ever-changing challenges of life and the process of growing up.
Reviews
Grade 4 Up-This volume is a sheer delight with its brief, potent glimpses of life seen through the eyes of 130 children, ages 8 to 18. The poems are written in free verse, so the restrictions of rhyme are missing, resulting in realistic verses that are clever, evocative, and honest. The lines and words are simple, but the total effect is strong. The selections are arranged in chapters about childhood, home and family, challenges, nature and beauty, friendship and love, and solitude and spirit. The verses celebrate what the compiler calls the "...young poets' sudden and complete surrender to inspired awareness, insight, and expression." Whether the experiences they describe are difficult or playful, there is much to be savored here. A topic as basic as playing in a schoolyard becomes a masterpiece through the insightful words of a sixth grader: "...when we get outside onto/the soft earth we run and yell/and fight and scream./We are no longer angels./We are masters at childhood." This lean volume is boldly and brightly illustrated with color plates at the beginning of each section. The poems are brief, but their impact is long-"Rainshowers/last forever, seconds/at a time, and/almost like a poem/which is long/at heart."-Sharon Korbeck, Waupaca Area Public Library, WI
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Lyne, who claims to have taught poetry-writing to more than 27,000 youths in his work as a visiting poet, presents poems by 130 students, grades three through 12. Introducing each of seven sections are a pair of vivid oil paintings that illustrate the theme; e.g., preceding "Black and Blue: Poems About Challenges" is a painting of a child holding a yellow ball of light generated by fireflies while a second painting features a blue-faced child encased in casket-like snow and falling leaves, his thin hands clutching a broken paper heart. Of the poems, much is prosaic and cliche-driven ("That cute boy is driving me crazy/ he is so cute" or "Children are like/ Precious flowers/ That break if you/ Don't treat them right"). Some poems include an occasional image (a teacher "yells like a red dragon," another "looks like a book"); others are obscure ("Every day I think about/ the god and the weeds/ outside and sometimes/ I hold my doll"). While some of the young poets express themselves distinctively, most have not yet learned how to use the tools of the craft. As proud of their work as the students and their parents might be, the book is little more than a grandly produced version of the classroom "publications" of teachers across the country. Ages 8-up.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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