The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog: and Other How-to Poems by Paul B. Janeczko

Bibliography

Janeczko, Paul B., and Richard Jones. The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog: and Other How-to Poems. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2019. ISBN 0763681687

Summary

The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog: and other how-to poems is a book of how-to poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko. 

Analysis

This gorgeous book greets readers with a whimsical illustration of an adorable hedgehog and a variety of colorful trees. The table of contents provides readers with easy access to individual poems which include poems from some familiar names like Kwame Alexander, Douglas Florian, Nikki Grimes, J. Patrick Lewis, Marilyn Singer, and many more. Many poems are short and silly, such as one of my personal favorites, How to Tell a Camel” where readers can learn an easy way to remember which breed of camel has one or two humps. Other poems such as A Lesson from the Deaf are longer more poignant with a touching lesson on saying “thank you” in sign language. Poems are rhythmic and fun to read aloud like To Make a Meal which reads, “Find yourself a water cracker./ Top it with a kipper./ Sprinkle it with pepper./ Now you have our supper” Young readers in particular will enjoy this book on their own or read to them. 

Sample Poem

How to Take Care of Your Tree

Hug his trunk when he’s afraid

of summer hurricanes and floods.

In springtime feed him lemonade

when he begins to sprout taste buds.

In fall when you discover that

a lack of leaves has left him naked,

knit your tree a stylish hat

from all the leaves that you have rakéd.

Or use a bit of tape and glue

to reattach each leaf that fell.

It takes a while, but when you’re through,

your tree will be so grateful.

When winter winds begin to blow

and snowdrifts rise up higher and higher,

wrap your tree in calico

and keep him warm with Mom’s hair dryer.

And if your tree falls on the ground,

he’s lazy and his roots aren’t sound.

You’ve done the very best you could.

Now chop him up for firewood.

ALLAN WOLF

Activities

There are a ton of poems in this book that are just waiting to be used to inspire activities. You could make pancakes after reading Mix a Pancake by Christina Rossetti or practice learning a few basics of sign language after reading A Lesson from the Deaf by Nikki Grimes. For this poem, consider using it with students who are learning about the changing seasons. Go outside and observe trees. Use the clues from the poem to determine what season it is. Read this poem on earth day to celebrate taking care of the earth! 

Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets by Naomi Shihab Nye

Bibliography

Bryan, Ashley, and Naomi Shihab Nye. Salting the Ocean. New York, NY: HarperCollins World, 2001. ISBN 9780688161934

Summary

Naomi Shihab Nye, poet and teacher, shares a collection of one hundred poems by young people that she has collected over the years. Readers will enjoy and be inspired by these young poets and their ability to bravely share their words with the world. 

Analysis

On the cover of Salting the Ocean is a colorful illustration of young people in a boat. They are holding up signs that read “free verse”, “sonnet”, “haiku”, a book titled “ode”, and the waves read “ballad”, “quatrain”, etc. Inside, readers will find these types of poems and more written by young people across the country. Before diving in, and after flipping through the table of contents where categories of poems by different subjects are listed, there are three introductions to different types of readers: to anyone and a couple in Nova Scotia, teachers and parents, and the poets. Each section thanks the groups and shares the purpose for this book. In particular, the introduction dedicated to the poets reads, “What do we need? A quiet minute, a pencil, a page. Notebooks are good for keeping pages together. Please be kind to yourself when you write. Don’t expect you will love everything that comes out--let many things come out, and know that now and then you will like a line or a phrase enough to let it carry you away,” and shows this collection’s most beautiful and important purpose: to inspire young poets to write. 

The book covers multiple topics including “The Self and the Inner World”, “Where We Live”, “Anybody’s Family”, and “The Wide Imagination”. Readers can easily find each section using the table of contents. They are a mix of silly and nonsensical, like How to Grow Up, and there are more serious, contemplative poems. Because there are so many different authors or different ages and experience levels, the poems vary greatly. The use of similes and metaphors really stands out such as “In the morning I felt like/ and empty jug so I felt...” from My Mind Is an Empty Jug and “...my face, a new-bloomed/ flower, my teeth, big bright stars,” from a poem by Lee Childress. There are poems that use alliteration like the one titled Monday Mornings and poems of free verse and rhyme. There are all sorts of techniques to enjoy, explore, and emulate. This is a great book for enjoying and inspiring, and will make a great addition to any library or classroom poetry collection. 

Sample Poem

Mimi

My mimi never got mad.

She would welcome you

happily.

She was good at many things

but mostly 

being nice.

A manger scene

by her big brick fireplace,

and a colorful parrot magnet…

she walked about

like she was confused.

She was sweet singing

and old carpet.

She smelled of 

perfume.

I was cleansed water

from a rock stream.

My mimi never got mad.

She is happy above

watching everyone.

I was afraid to give her

The picture I colored for her birthday

in fear she knew

I thought she would die in four days.

But she knew.

She has now spread throughout my mind

so she pops up in every thought.

But now

I can’t tell her

everything 

anymore. 

Rachel Dealy

Activities 

This poem is a great example of a writer describing all the images that they are seeing when they think about a particular person. Start with introducing the book and it’s formation. Share the author’s introduction to poets to inspire students. Then, share this poem. Read it aloud. Allow students to share their initial thoughts. What parts did they like? What parts would they want to emulate in their own writing? Use this as an example of taking a familiar topic (a family member, a friend, an important place), and writing out what they visualize about that place. 

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Bibliography

Acevedo, Elizabeth. The Poet X. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2020. ISBN 9780780436404

Summary

Xiomara, an Afro-Latina teen living in Harlem, discovers her passion for slam poetry after being invited to join her school’s club. Unfortunately, her very religious Mami is unlikely to support Xiomara’s poetry, especially when it interferes with her confirmation classes at church. Readers will love this honest, sharp coming of age story. 

Analysis

Elizabeth Acevedo has written a novel in verse that will capture readers from the first poem, Stoop-Sitting, where she describes a day of freedom before her mother arrives home from work. Acevedo has the ability to capture the essence of the teens years, grasping for freedom and becoming your own person, and she does it with musical language. Acevedo uses apt similes and metaphors such “her eyes like bright lampposts shining on my face” and “the intense makes bow tie pasta of my belly/ That all the lit candles beckon like fingers/ that want to clutch around my throat”. Her main character, Xiomara, is an Afro-Latina teen whose relationship with her devout catholic mother is tumultuous. While Xiomara struggles with her own religious beliefs and the relationship with her mother, she is discovering herself and her first loves: poetry and Aman. After her teacher shows them a video of a stand up poet, her poem reads “but instead of raising my hand I press it against my heart/ and will the chills on my arms to smooth out”. Throughout the book, Xiomara has poems that she writes for class, but it is not the paper she turns in, which appears on the next page. The poems she writes are raw and beautiful, and at the very end of the book, the last poem is titled Assignment 5--First and Final Draft as Xiomara finally finds her voice and shares it freely. 

Sample Poem

In Translation

My mouth cannot write you a white flag,

it will never be a Bible verse.

My mouth cannot be shaped into the apology

you say both you and God deserve.

And you want to make it seem

it’s my mouth’s entire fault.

Because it was hungry,

and silent, but what about your mouth?

How your lips are staples

that pierce me quick and hard.

And the words I never say

are better left on my tongue

since they would only have slammed

against the closed door of you back.

Your silence furnishes a dark house.

But even at the risk of burning,

the moth always seeks the light. 

Activities

Use this book for a book talk and/or a mentor text for spoken word poetry. Introduce the book and author to students. Watch the author’s reading of the poem here: https://youtu.be/kfsWw2BY2Fo . Ask students what they liked about the poem and the author’s reading. Acevedo is a great example of the rhythms of spoken word poetry because she is a spoken word poet. 

What the Heart Knows: Chants, Charms, and Blessings by Joyce Sidman

Bibliography

Sidman, Joyce. What the Heart Knows: Chants, Charms, and Blessings. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. 

Summary

Newberry winner Joyce Sidman’s What the Heart Knows: Chants, Charms, and Blessings is full of gratitude, loss, and hope. Readers will be inspired by the words of her poems.

Analysis

Joyce Sidman’s What the Heart Knows: Chants, Charms, and Blessings is full of whimsical artwork by Caldecott Honor winner Pamela Zagarenski, the first of which appears on the cover, that perfectly accompany the fantastical, hopeful nature of the poems. The poems are separated into Chants & Charms, Spells & Invocations, Laments & Remembrances, and Praise Songs & Blessings. Readers can easily locate specific poems from each of the sections using the table of contents that appears right after the author’s note to readers. The poems themselves cover topics like friendship, bravery, loss, and other topics of human experience. They are contemplative, reflective, encouraging, and empathizing. Some poems follow a structure like the triolet poem Chant To Repair a Friendship. Other poems vary in structure, but Sidman intentionally uses white space to create rhythm and emphasis. I particularly enjoy her use of space in Invisibility Spell which has six stanzas varying in line number. Her poems are full of imagery like that in Lake’s Promise which reads, “I am the lake. I wait for you./ with cool, blue arms and silver face.” and “My wavelets lap, my pebbles gleam/ where once you left your barefoot trace,” which is written from the perspective of the lake. These are wonderful poems to read aloud to all ages, but middle grade to young adult readers could also enjoy them on their own.  

Sample Poem

TIME SPELLS

I. (To Speed Up)

God of Time,

bring forth all galloping things

to thunder through this endless waiting,

split it open like an exploding balloon.

Let the minutes shatter and scurry

with pounding of feet:

the sound of me running

toward the future.

II. (To Slow Down)

O sweet Time:

stretch like a sleepy dog,

slow and languid and warm

with flickering light.

Let the fire of this moment--

with my friends beside me--

burn

and burn

and burn. 

Activity Ideas

Start by modeling the poem read aloud to students. Have them join in on the last three lines. Then, split students into two groups. Have the first group read the first half of the poem, then have the second group read the second half of the poem. If students are comfortable, have one or two students read the poem. You may also use this poem as an example of white space usage.  

Somos Como Las Nubes We Are like the Clouds by Jorge Argueta

Bibliography

Argueta, Jorge. Somos Como Las Nubes = We Are like the Clouds. Toronto, CA: House of Anansi Press, 2016. 

Summary

In this collection of poems, Jorge Argueta shares the experiences of migrant children from Central America. Readers will learn more about the hardships, hard decisions, and hope of a people group who is often misunderstood. 

Analysis

Jorge Argueta’s book Somos Como Las Nubes: We Are like the Clouds is a collection of poems about the experiences of young migrants. This lyrical and moving account is written side by side in both spanish and the english translation by Elisa Amado. This book is an instrument in understanding the motivations of young people to leave their home countries and make their way to the United States. Readers can look at this book as a window into the lives of those unlike them, and many readers might see their own stories or the stories of their family members reflected in the poems. Nature is often personified in it such as “its water runs smiling” and “each star,/ like her hand,/ guides me with its light” emphasizing the connection between the people and the land. The message of the book is a hopeful one. As one character imagines a different life he says, “we’d all be brother and sister/ the world would be my home”. Along with the words are beautiful illustrations by Alfonso Ruano giving readers a visual of the experiences of these young people. With the poems El desierto (The Desert), Los grillos (The Crickets), and La arena del desierto (The Desert Sand) is an illustration of two young people sleeping on the ground with backpacks in their arms and in the distance is an older man in the distance either keeping watch or potentially the father of one of the voices of the poems who stayed behind. This book reminds us that a people group that is often vilified are in complicated situations that lead them to leaving their homes, but no matter what, they are still our brothers and sisters in humanity. 

Sample Poem

Somos como las nubes We Are Like the Clouds.

Somos como las nubes. We are like the clouds.

Somos como el viento. We are like the wind.

Somos como las mariposas. We are like the butterflies. 

Somos como los ríos. We are like the rivers. 

Somos como el mar. We are like the ocean.

Activity Ideas

Read the poem in Spanish and then in English. Read the spanish version and then have students choral read the English version of the text (or vice versa if you have spanish speaking readers). 

Poems to Learn by Heart

 

Bibliography

Kennedy, Caroline, and Jon J. Muth. Poems to Learn by Heart. Los Angeles, CA: Disney Hyperion Books, 2013.

Summary

Poems to Learn by Heart is a collection of poems compiled by Caroline Kennedy that tug on our hearts and are perfect for memorizing. Each poem explores different emotions and topics, but is equally a delight to readers and listeners. 

Analysis

Caroline Kennedy has compiled a wonderful collection of poems in Poems to Learn by Heart. Poems are from familiar poets like Naomi Shihab Nye, Shel Silverstein, Langston Hughes, and Robert Frost, and readers can discover new poets as well; there is a huge variety. When readers first look at the book and flip to the title page, they will see paintings by Jon J Muth. His watercolor paintings are seen throughout the pages accompanying each poem; it really brings the book together nicely, and adds appropriate visuals to the poems. Poems are grouped together by topics such as “poems about the self”, “poems about friendship and love”, and “nonsensical poems”. Readers can locate specific topics or poems using the table of contents. There are also useful indexes in the back that list poems by first line and author last name. Poems vary in style since there are over a hundred different poems with a variety of authors. There are silly poems like The Parent by Ogden Nash and Brother by Mary Ann Hoberman as well as serious poems that address topics of race and unity such as Liberty by Janet S. Wong and Tableau by Countee Cullen. There is a whole section of poems about war that would be useful in celebrations honoring soldiers or being read in history class. Poems are a mix of lighthearted, and deep and contemplative. A favorite of mine is the poem What Are Heavy? by Christina Rossetti which exemplifies the way that a few words can make a profound impact. Readers of all ages can find poems to enjoy in this book. It is a great resource for educators as well. 

Sample Poem

It Couldn’t Be Done

Edgar Albert Guest

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done

But he with a chuckle replied

That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one

Who wouldn’t say so till he tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin

On his face. If he worried he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;

At least no one ever has done it;”

But he took off his coat and he took off his hat

And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,

Without any doubting or quiddit,

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,

There are thousands to prophesy failure,

There are thousands to point out to you one by one,

The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,

Just take off your coat and go to it;

Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing

That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it. 

Activity Ideas

Model reading the poem to students first. Give each student a copy of the poem. In the second read, have students join in for the last line of each of the two stanzas. Then, let student groups experiment with reading different parts in groups or individually as they see fit. Let groups share their reading with the class.