Book post: Out of the Dust

Book cover from Scholastic

Hesse, K. (1997). Out of the dust. New York, NY: Scholastic.

*Winner of the 1998 Newbery Medal*

Billie Jo is a young girl growing up in the Dust Bowl when she experiences a great loss. Her mother and baby brother die because of a household accident, and Billie Jo and her father both feel a responsibility for what happened. They have to learn to live with their pain and with each other in the aftermath. Written as a series of poems in free verse instead of traditional chapters, the format adds to creating Billie Jo's first person voice. This is a great text for studying elements of poetry and it would be fun to emulate the style in writing autobiographical narrative poems. It can also be used as an introduction to life in the Dust Bowl and the challenges that people endured during that time in American history.

Book post: My People

Book cover from Charles R. Smith, Jr.

Hughes, L. and Smith, C.R. (2009). My people. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

*Winner of the 2010 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award*

Langston Hughes' poignant poem "My People" is turned into a book with photographs by Charles R. Smith, Jr. Hughes wanted to lift up his race through his poetry. The book, like the poem, celebrates black people, showcasing shared culture and diversity within the race. This would be a great way to talk about the importance of respecting one's family and heritage, and introduce one of America's greatest poets. I love the variety of faces shown in the book and the way their facial expressions match the tone of the poem perfectly.

Book post: Here comes Mother Goose

Book cover from Candlewick Press

Opie, I. (Ed.). (1999). Here comes Mother Goose. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

This book is a collection of Mother Goose songs and rhymes. Many of them are fairly obscure. I feel like I know a lot of nursery rhymes because my mom taught them to me at a young age and I had many Mother Goose types of books when I was younger, and my daughter has some now, but I didn't recognize a great deal of these. I suppose this speaks to the fact that the editor did a lot of digging to find them for this compilation, but I thought it was just too many. The book is over one hundred pages, which is daunting for a child. My daughter definitely wouldn't sit through a reading of this book, since it is not a continuous story. It is more of a skimmable (flip through and randomly find something to read) kind of book. The illustrations, done by Rosemary Wells, are adorable, though. I even recognized her characters Max and Ruby, or rabbits that look just like them. 

Book post: Love That Dog

Book cover from Sharon Creech

Creech, S. (2001). Love that dog. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

*ALA Notable Children's Book*

Love That Dog is about a young boy, Jack, learning to develop his voice through writing poetry.  He begins his class journal stating that poetry is for girls, but then realizes through the encouragement of his teacher that he is actually good at writing poetry.  The book is written entirely in poems, which means the reader is reading poetry and a novel at the same time.  This would be a great book for teaching format and line breaks for poems, as well as how to emulate types of poems.  Jack writes a poem inspired by his favorite poem, Walter Dean Myers' "Love That Boy," which I loved because I am a fan of Myers as well.  Jack is a wonderful character who shares and learns a lot about himself through his poetry.