Poetry Speaks Who I Am

Poetry Speaks Who I Am

Edited by Elise Paschen

Series Editor: Dominique Raccah

Illustrator: David Gordon

Publisher: Sourcebook Jabberwocky

Copyright Date: 2010

# of Pages: 176

Genre: Poetry

            I spent a lot of time looking for a good poetry book with a recent copyright date I could use. When I came across this book, I was attracted to the cover’s grungy texture on the cover. It looked like a school notebook that has been drawn on. There are 108 poems from different poets in this book that cover subjects that range from death, love, race, animals, anger, and confusion. This book was a lot more mature than the other books of poetry I’d read previously. This book would be something that’s appropriate for sixth grade when a lot of these feelings and emotions are really starting to take center stage in these students’ lives.

            The illustrations are done in computer graphic print and hand drawn with black ink. Each page has this texture to it that’s very rough and splattered. The illustrations are nothing more than doodles of figures like flowers, mouths, and eyes. A couple of the pages have boarders drawn above them. In general though, the illustrations are just there to give the book this feeling of a doodled in personal notebook.

            If you used this book in your sixth grade class, you could use subjects that are newly relevant to students in the class to begin discussions about things that are hard to talk or write about. This book also comes with a CD with the poems read by the poets accompanied by music. You could incorporate this into an audio center that accompanies your library. In the back of the book, there are pages for students to write their own poetry. I liked this feature a lot because it not only tried to relate to students on a visual level, but it also was able to connect with student’s sense of creativity.