How Poetic

Title: Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reverso Poems

Author/Illustrator: Marilyn Singer/Josee Masse
Genre(s): Fiction, Children's Literature, Poetry
Age: 6-11

    This book has traditional fairy tales and when their words are flipped upside down, they create a second meaning to the beloved fairy tale. We read them first as familiar old-fashioned tales, then the words were read from the bottom up to give a twist on each story. The first one challenged to look at stories differently, and who says the only way to read something down is true, and that this was a poem that would challenge us to see it differently. Cinderella's Double Life presented the story in a traditional way, but when read in reverse we see that she spends the whole night dancing and will take off her shoes at midnight from them hurting her feet, unlike her getting a chance with the prince it's her sisters who are now waiting and stuck in a corner. In The Sleeping Beauty and the Wide-Awake Prince twist was that prince charming could never party or going out, he just had to be the prince looking for his love. With Rapunzel's Locks we see her cut her hair to defy her mother who was a witch and because she was tired of being told what to do. In the reverse it figures she would be snippy because her mother was a witch and she had a strange name, and was going crazy being trapped in the tower, and her hair took forever to manage, so she cut it off. In The Hood, told the story of Red Riding Hood, who had her grandma waiting so she should hurry, but a girl was simply going through the woods picking berries to eat, going through the wolf's neighborhood. 

    The Doubtful Duckling had to do with a swan wanting to be less noticeable and very plain. Mirror Mirror has to do with mother knowing best and listening to her, and how snow white fed the dwarfs apples, instead of being poisoned by the apple herself. Field of Beans reveals a beanstalk invading the giants space and that it had no idea what was coming to it. Bears in the News led to a big headline about how bears startled by a blonde girl who was sleeping in the cub's bed, instead of her being startled by the bears. She felt they left the house unlocked so she could come in and shouldn't have left. Have Another Chocolate has a young girl warning the boy about how the witch is trying to fat him up and to not eat anymore sweets from her. Do You Know My Name deals with a girl who is liked but not famous, however in this story in her head she is very famous. Disappointment tells of the princess and the frog and how she was disappointed that the frog wanted a second kiss after the first kiss didn't work and turn him into her charming prince. Longing for Beauty reflects on how longing for someone stirs a soft heart, and when looking beneath the fur we can hear a nightingale sing, and show that Beauty can love a Beast. The Road knowing where roads go can be very important, however in most fairytales we don't know where the road is going and this changes our perspective to let us know that it's important to know where we're headed.

My Thoughts on This Book...

    I loved how this was a reverso book and the author challenged its reader to create one of their own. We often reads book in a certain order from top to bottom, but when we flip them and change only punctuation, and capitalization, it brings new meanings to what we read. I liked looking at the different twist of each of the stories, because we most often only see them as one way when they can looked at differently it made it wonderful. I liked how Masse created images that were half and half representing the traditional view we have of this story, but also created the alternate reality based on Singer's words, that really helped put it all together.

    

Title: My Black Me: A Beginning Book of Black Poetry

Author: Various Authors (edited by Arnold Adoff)
Genre(s): Fiction, Poetry
Age: 8-12

     In this anthological book we hear from 26 African-American poets, about what it's like to be black, and the black experience. it is divided into six parts, and has a total of 50 poems. Some authors are more well-known than others, but all of these works fit together seamlessly. You could tell how some people write as they talked, and it gave it a personal feel, without it being "correct" English and grammar, or it was all they knew.  It's easier to break it down by author, than parts, since many authors are included in different parts, I will also talk about a few poems, as some authors, wrote multiple poems, so that's how I will explain it:

• Imamu Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) wrote SOS which served as an announcement of calling all the black people and urging them to come in from wherever they are.
• Lucille Clifton had a few poems For deLawd, Good Times, Listen Children, and To Bobby Seale. Her poems talked about real life situations and how black men shouldn't be jailed like dogs, for crimes, since so many black men go to jail. Talks of owning their house, and not having to pay someone else for their space, and celebrating the good times. 
• Lloyd Corbin, Jr. (Djangatolum) wrote Ali which he talked about Muhammed Ali the famous boxer. He was a class that could be filled, but never broken, a flower that didn't need rain to grow. He was a prince among the black community, as he paved the way for so many other African American boxers, and other sports.
• Sam Cornish had several poems, Cross over the River, Death of Dr. King (#1), Montgomery, My Brother Is Homemade, Sam's World, and Your Mother. His poems covered vast topics and are either dedicated or about people such as Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and our mothers. 
• Jackie Earley had a poem titled One Thousand Nine-Hundred & Sixty-Eight Winters... which is about a person who woke up one morning, in 1968, and experienced snow, since most black people have never seen snow in their life depending on where they lived, and they were surprised.
• James Emanuel wrote the pome Old Black Men Say, is about the things old black men say and do. They typically start with 'son' and from there go anywhere in conversation. They were telling him to listen, because the other they told didn't want to listen and now they were no longer there.
• Julia Fields wrote Aardvark and how Malcolm X brought attention and awareness to things people didn't talk or know a lot about. He brought attention to things we never thought about, and read up on them while he spent time in prison, and when Julia Fields wrote this poem, she's comparing the knowledge he brought up to that of an aardvark, because before he talked about it no one knew what it was.
• Carol Freeman wrote Do Not Think is about being confused when the mysterious they was going to touch the reader's mind and pull them into blackness, but it was only to bring them home. They want to pull black people out of their confusion and educate them. 
  
• Nikki Giovanni had multiple poems in this book, Knoxville, Tennessee, Poem for Flora, Ten Years Old, and Winter Poem. These poems were about people or places and experiences.  One of her poems was about a boy who went to the library but didn't have a library card, and the librarian gave him a hard time about not having a card. 
• Kali Grosvenor wrote a few pomes that were included, It's a New Kind of Day, Our Black People, Were Is My Head Going. These poems talked about hope and what our black people who can love and are worthy of being loved. Love makes a new day, and brings in each day.
• William J. Harris wrote A Grandfather Poem about how they must use words of great dignity, it needs to have meaningful words, and not simple words, that are graceful and wise.
• Vanessa Howard wrote Monument in Black which talked about a black man should've been put on money, and the mother on the dollar, since they've suffered enough for three lifetimes, which money could never repay. her grandfather should be put on a Monument and he should be in Washington, that they heroes of wars that hadn't begun. Holidays and monuments need to be named in honor of more black people, and not just white people, because so many of them are forgotten and go unnoticed without being given any respect. 
• Langston Hughes had many poems in this book Dream Deferred, Dream Variation, Final Curve, Good Morning, My People, and Sun Song. His poems covered a vast amounts of topics which gave black people hope an dhow we wished to live.
• Mae Jackson wrote I Remember... a poem about how she saw it was snowing in 1968 and she wanted to build a snowman.
• Ted Joans wrote Black People and it how we see black people in everyday, our parents, our sisters, brothers, aunts, and uncles, and cousins, Black people are they ever had, and they should know this and be glad.
• Norman Jordan wrote August 8 about the day and how there is no break between the days, but mother and son, air and earth are all a part of each other. They are all connected like the author is connected to their typewriter, the words, and the words to the paper, and the paper with the reader.
• Don L. Lee has three of his poems in this selection, From African Poems, Awareness, and From Blackwoman Poems. His poems, a couple were taken from other collections, but they fit into this story well. Black people need to be more aware and to think about one another. 
• Doughtry Long wrote #4 which about a childhood memory of someone visiting their grandmother's house and knowing there would always be sweet potato pie and green beans. They would also sing songs of how they survived it all. Being Black. The many hardships their people faced, and they were able to sing about it and the pecan trees whispered Ethiopia, as a tide to their homeland. 
• Barbara Mahone wrote What Color Is Black?  It talks about black being the color of many things, the thoughts of the author's little brother's mind, the grey streaks in their mother's hair, their cousin's smile, the scars on their neighbors face. Black is seen throughout everything. It is the color of feeling that we share, and we must express this for it our strength.
• Bob O'Meally had a couple of poems, I Was Jus, and It Ain't No., and they were about experiences of being black children in America. One student got in trouble for tapping his foot , and the teacher asked if he thought he was in the jungle. The other about a child who wanted to go to the library, but didn't have any in his neighborhood where he lived, so he had tp go to one in a different town.
• Ray Patterson had a few poems included, Glory, Glory..., I've Got a Home in That Rock..., From Riot Rimes U.S.A. (#78), and From Riot Rimes U.S.A. (#79). A few of his poems were from Riot Rimes where he wanted to feel appreciated in America, and that America is proud of them. In I've Got a Home in That Rock, was about a child's uncle who left his hometown, and took a rock with him, and kept it in his pocket with him at all times. He kept it to remind him of when times got hard, it made him homesick and reminded him of what home was really like.
• Rob Penny wrote The Real People Loves One Another about how real people love one another, and fake people don't just walking backwards under the sun. They shame others, but your real friends will lift you up and  be inspiring.
• Carolyn Rodgers wrote Portrait, about a mother who spent her life in a gallon milk jug. She kept pennies, nickels, quarters, and dollars to pay for four children's college educations. Occasionally the kids would "borrow" money from they jar to buy pop or candy, but their mom was constantly living out of that gallon milk jug trying to make a way to pay for her kids college education. 
• Sonia Sanchez had wrote the poem, To P.J. (2 yrs old who sed write a poem for me in Portland, Oregon), which was inspired by a younger brother who was 2 years old. He was the inspiration for any poem she would try and write as beautiful as her little brother. If they could have written a poem as beautiful as the little brother than poetry would have gone out of business because it would've been an incredible piece.
• Julius Thompson wrote To Malcom X, which was a poem about the life of Malcom X. He knew someone would take his life for the words he would speak, but he lived life not in fear, but embraced it. He said that all men are brothers, and should treat one another as such.
• Larry Thompson wrote Black Is Best. This poem is about a child saying that black is the best, and the mom constantly telling them to not say that. All this child was trying was embrace their blackness. 

My Thought on This Book...

    I really enjoyed this book and its collection of poems. I loved how these poets wrote, whether it be true to their time period or how they spoke. All these poems went together, and created a full sense of the experience and what it means to be black in any part of the world. It felt unified and cohesive, and presented different aspects to being black and what it means to be black. Granted, this was written mostly from before the current times, so they don't reflect  current society, however it is a good book of poetry for people of all ages to read and get an understanding of black culture. Black Is Best, is one of the poems that stuck out to me because for so long many people have tried to suppress black people, and they no longer want to feel that way. We are tired of our voices not being heard, and now more than ever. We aren't saying that others don't matter, but it's self-love for our skin because for so long we've been told we don't matter, or that we're not important enough. I loved this book, because it not only showed me poetry of familiar authors I know of, but introduced to a few new ones, and made me want to read more of their work and see what else they have written and what other topics they have talked about.