iffer's review
3.0
Although as with any collection, I liked some pieces more than others, I appreciated all of the historical and biographical information about the authors. It helped me place the poems in context, and I liked being able to conceptualize African American poetry as an evolving constant presence in the literary landscape. Since this was oriented towards children, though it seemed intentionally optimistic and lacking in angry/sad/complex emotional African-American poetry that exists.
sabrinacamp's review
4.0
This is one of the first collections of poetry I have read, though some of the poets and poems are already familiar, like W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou, and Alice Walker.
Though poetry is not my favorite, nor my strong suit, I think this is a great collection of African American poetry, ranging from the 1700's to the late 1900's. And along with the poems, the collection includes vivid illustrations side-by-side. As the illustrator puts it, the art is "a fitting home for the vivid imaginations celebrated throughout the pages" (128).
One of my favorites is "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. It is such a short poem, but there is so much content that readers can pull out of each line and phrase. And how many poems have a subtitle? I love that the rhyme scheme is set up like a Jazz song, and it addresses so many vices in society with only three word sentences. "We/left school. We/Lurk late" are such short sentences, but they have so much meaning packed into them. The speakers are school dropouts, probably only getting educated via street smarts, and now they stay out late. The audience would have a strong idea of what kind of things the speakers might get into.
I think that this collection should be mandatory in all high school classrooms. The poems not only address history from minority communities, but they provide such a wide range of views, styles, and subject matter that students will have a wide range of exposure. There is also such a wide range of emotions in these poems from optimism to misery, to the grave discussions of someone's headstone. Students deserve to get a well rounded understanding of many of these historical events from beyond just their history textbooks and classrooms. I can imagine our classes endlessly discussing and analyzing specific word choices and emotions that they would have been missing from learning only the history. The English Classroom is supposed to dig deeper into the humanity and emotional standpoint of many of these moments in history for students to understand and build their empathy.
This collection would give our class an opportunity to not only discuss the events in the book, but also to understand some major literary movements, such as the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz poetry, as well as exposing students to different vocabulary.
Though poetry is not my favorite, nor my strong suit, I think this is a great collection of African American poetry, ranging from the 1700's to the late 1900's. And along with the poems, the collection includes vivid illustrations side-by-side. As the illustrator puts it, the art is "a fitting home for the vivid imaginations celebrated throughout the pages" (128).
One of my favorites is "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. It is such a short poem, but there is so much content that readers can pull out of each line and phrase. And how many poems have a subtitle? I love that the rhyme scheme is set up like a Jazz song, and it addresses so many vices in society with only three word sentences. "We/left school. We/Lurk late" are such short sentences, but they have so much meaning packed into them. The speakers are school dropouts, probably only getting educated via street smarts, and now they stay out late. The audience would have a strong idea of what kind of things the speakers might get into.
I think that this collection should be mandatory in all high school classrooms. The poems not only address history from minority communities, but they provide such a wide range of views, styles, and subject matter that students will have a wide range of exposure. There is also such a wide range of emotions in these poems from optimism to misery, to the grave discussions of someone's headstone. Students deserve to get a well rounded understanding of many of these historical events from beyond just their history textbooks and classrooms. I can imagine our classes endlessly discussing and analyzing specific word choices and emotions that they would have been missing from learning only the history. The English Classroom is supposed to dig deeper into the humanity and emotional standpoint of many of these moments in history for students to understand and build their empathy.
This collection would give our class an opportunity to not only discuss the events in the book, but also to understand some major literary movements, such as the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz poetry, as well as exposing students to different vocabulary.
ksoanes's review against another edition
Having poetry read to you is so much better than reading it out of a book.
More...