Learning | Maya Angelou

Dr. Maya Angelou's estate has published a new book of her work, entitled The Complete Poetry.  

The book includes the poems we already know and love, like, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," "And Still I Rise," and "Phenomenal Woman." 

It really is a book to be savored.  I've picked it up a dozen times since I checked it out yesterday. I open the book to a random spot to read a poem, maybe one I already know, or one that is new to me. I marvel at her ability to find the right words and rhythm, to conjure up images, moments, and moods.

Artistic interpretation of And Still I Rise:
LaSalle Mural (New Orleans)
from
Derek Bridges' photostream on Flickr.com.
Some rights reserved.

I was surprised and selfishly pleased to find it on the new book shelf at my branch. Most of you are aware that Dr. Maya Angelou has a Stockton connection; her mother, Vivian Baxter Johnson, lived here for many years. Dr. Angelou's books are especially popular in this neck of the woods.

I had heard of the book, but considering that this is National Poetry Month, and April 4 would have been her eighty-seventh birthday, AND there's a new United States Postal Service Forever stamp honoring this great lady, I really expected that The Complete Poetry of Maya Angelou would already be checked out.

Speaking of that postage stamp, if you are free on the morning of Saturday, April 11, you may wish to head over to the Maya Angelou Southeast Branch Library for a very special occasion. 

There will be a dedication ceremony for the Maya Angelou stamp at 11 a.m. 

The short ceremony will include artistic performances by students of
Aspire Rosa Parks Academy, Stockton. Refreshments will be available, and you will have the opportunity to purchase commemorative items related to the stamp, with an option for a special souvenir cancellation.

Need help finding the Maya Angelou Southeast Branch?  Here's a link to the branch's web page; you will find a link on that page with a map. The Maya Angelou Branch is located at 2324 Pock Lane, Stockton CA 95205. 

Learning | The Crossover is a Winner!

Last Monday, I read the latest Newbery Medal Winning book.  It took me only one day to read The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. This book is really different from the typical Newbery book; it is a novel written in verse. 

The book gets its title from a basketball maneuver that involves rapidly switching hands while dribbling the ball. Good players say they can make an opponent break his ankles, when they change sides suddenly.

Josh Defines Crossover in a Poem,
from
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

I must admit, when I first started reading the book, I wondered if I would like it. I don't have anything against basketball, but if the whole book was going to be about basketball, I wasn't sure it would hold my interest. 

I was mistaken.

There is a lot of basketball talk in this book, because Josh (the narrator) and his twin brother are basketball stars at their school. Basketball talent must be hereditary in their family; their father is a retired pro basketball player.  But there's so much more to this book. For example: 

1. Josh is part of a loving family. But they are headed for some rough patches in this book, which test their bonds.  
2. Josh loves words!  In between the poems that move the story along, there are poems about vocabulary words. 
3. Basketball is a metaphor in this book.  Especially the term "crossover." Read the book. Think about this. Then tell me what you think about it.
4. Josh's poems are so varied! Some of them have fun visual effects; some sound like lyrics from a song. Others are more like narratives.  I found myself wondering what I would find, whenever I turned a new page.
5. Remember what I said about not being sure the book would hold my interest? I got so absorbed in this book, I didn't want it to end.

Middle school and high school aged readers will especially enjoy The Crossover, but I would recommend it to anybody from 6th grade and up.

Teens Only | Dickinson, Yeats, Zaman and Aday

To my list of favorite poets -- including William Butler Yeats, Emily Dickinson, e.e. cummings, and Shel Silverstein -- I now add two more: Labibah Zaman and Sofia Aday. Perhaps you've not heard these names before, but trust me when I say: you won't soon forget them.

 

Labibah and Sofia are winners of the Cesar Chavez Central Library's Poetry Contest held in celebration of April being National Poetry Month. We asked youth (ages 5-18) to write a poem of 100 words or less about why they love the Library. The younger winners were announced Tuesday on the 4 Kids blog.

 

Today it gives me great pleasure to share with you, dear readers, the winners of the 11-13 age group and the 14-18 age group.

 

Why Do I Like the Library?

 

Kids like me, love the library,

It is cool and fun,

And it is open for everyone,

Babies, Kids, Teens, Adults,

And even old grandmas and grandpas,

You know what I mean?

 

Loving the library is okay,

For me.

 

Having fun...

Reading books,

Playing games,

Doing homework.

 

Did I mention checking out books for free,

Not only books, but video games, videos, magazines, and etc. for free,

I got to agree.

 

by Labibah Zaman, age 13

 

I love that Labibah captures the open access of our wonderful Library in her free verse. Way to go, Labibah!

 

Read on:

 

The Bibliophile

 

The bibliophile is a wanderer

Who traverses the shifting sands of the world,

Ever-seeking something more to feed on;

A victim of his own desire.

The library is his haven.

Where he is free to gloss through the stories

Of the unbecoming at his own leisure.

The sensation gives him peace.

Something he was never quite able to attain in the real world.

 

by Sofia Aday, age 18

 

All I can say is: Wow. This poem says it all. Thank you, Sofia. Thank you for getting it!

 

We are so fortunate all of our young poets took the time to enter this little poetry contest. Thank you ALL for sharing your creative genius with us.

 

The teen blog will return every Saturday afternoon to celebrate great books you'll want to check out from your local Library.

 

In the meantime, happy reading!

4 Kids | Poetic Geniuses Among Us

So I'm back after a very lengthy absence. I could tell you that I've been traveling to places far away, performing on Broadway, etc., etc., etc., but that would not be truthful! But I am back and ready to share a whole bunch of great books with you each and every week.

 

Before that, however, I think it important that we celebrate poetry since April is National Poetry Month.

 

Earlier this month I hosted a little poetry contest at the Cesar Chavez Central Library. I asked young people (ages 5 -18) to write a poem no longer than 100 words about why they love the Library. I received some really great poems, but alas had to pick just 4 winners. Today I am proud to share the winners from the 5-7 age group and the 8-10 age group. I'll share the other winning poems on the teen blog (which you'll see returning to the Library website on a Saturday very soon).

 

The winner of the 5-7 age group is written by Atticus Chan, age 6! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do:

 

I like the library,

because it's great!

I might even learn,

how tigers mate.

 

The library is the best,

I like the library,

and I like fiction,

and all about berries!

 

My favorite book,

is always due, 'cause

I've been looking in it,

for a week or two!

 

The winning poem from the 8-10 age group is written by Amelia Morrison, age 8. (If these  poems don't inspire you to write some of your own, I don't know what will!)

 

One thing I need

Is a good book to read.

Just take a look

On the shelves for a book.

They're quiet as mice

Librarians are so nice.

The library is great

Don't turn your book in late!

 

By the way, whenever you check out items from the library, you get to enjoy them for 3 whole weeks! If the due date is approaching and you're not quite finished, you can renew your items online, by phone, or at the library. It's very simple.

 

So let's give a big round of applause to our two poetic geniuses -- Atticus Chan and Amelia Morrison! You make us all proud!

 

Until next week, happy reading!

Learning | Poetry Month

It's April already! Time for asparagus, sunshine, flowers and poetry!

April is poetry month.  That means you have an especially good excuse for borrowing and reading poetry books, or writing your own poems.

One of the easiest forms of poetry to write is the haiku.  A traditional haiku does not even need to rhyme; all it needs is 17 syllables, divided into three lines, containing 5, 7 and 5 syllables. Here is an example I just made up: 

Sunshine through windshield

You could cook an egg in here

Where is that sun shade?

Let me tell you about a beautiful new picture book written and illustrated by Jon J. Muth. It's called Hi, Koo! A Year of Seasons, and it arrived just in time for Poetry Month! It's loaded with beautiful watercolor illustrations of a Panda bear named Koo, who apparently makes up poems as he experiences the four seasons.  

In the introduction to the book, we learn that many modern poets choose to follow the five-seven-five structure loosely. So I guess that means this poem I made up in fourth grade really could be a haiku:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Daisies are mixtures

I did a search for the subject "poetry" in our catalog. That search returned more than three thousand titles.  I've only read a small fraction of those, and I enjoy reading poetry!  

"Poetry Books" from chillihead's photostream on Flickr.com.
  Some rights reserved.

Looking for poetry, but don't have a specific book in mind? You can browse the library shelves in the area with Dewey Decimal numbers that begin with 811. Or ask at your library's information desk--the reference staff can show you those areas, or even help you find picture books with poetry.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Flora and Ulysses: the Illuminated Adventures One of the many charming aspects of this 2014 Newbery Award winner is Ulysses, the squirrel who types poetry.  If you haven't read it, do.

Anything by Jack Prelutsky. He writes hilarious poems for kids. His "As Soon as Fred Gets Out of Bed" poem actually made one of my sons laugh so hard that he, er, never mind....

The Poet Laureate Anthology is a collection of works from the American Poet Laureates since 1937 (although the title "Poet Laureate" has only been used since 1985, previous appointees were called the "Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.") Each poem is introduced by editor Elizabeth Hun Schmidt, giving us literary and historical contexts.

Caroline Kennedy's Poems to Learn by Heart is a fine collection, but it is greatly enhanced by more watercolor illustrations by Jon J. Muth, the author of the first book I mentioned in this post: Hi, Koo!

My mother would be disappointed if I forgot to mention Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses, which we often read together during my childhood.  It's an oldie, but goodie.  

What are your favorite poems, poets, or poetry books? How do you celebrate Poetry Month?

Teens Only | Whoa!

I know last week I told you how hugely affected I was after reading Neal Shusterman's Unwind. You're going to start thinking I have a bit of a problem with the way books affect me. But first, give me a chance to explain.

So it's April, and for those of you who don't spend 5 out of 7 days a week in a library, that means it's National Poetry Month! I thought I should check out some novels in verse (or stories written in poetic form) so I could share them here with you, dear readers.

I went to the library catalog and did a quick search with the term "novels in verse." On that first page of hits was a title that grabbed me. I'm not sure why. But I went to the shelf and picked it up and read it.

And then I heard about another collection of poetry from a couple of my colleagues, so I thought I'd pick that up too.

Whoa! 

You kind of want me to go on, don't you? You're wondering what happened. Did something jump out of one of the books? 

I almost don't want to ruin the enjoyment of either of these books for you, gentle readers. I don't want to alter the experience that each of you have when you read one of them (or hopefully both of them). 

I promise if you read them, you will be moved.

Number 1. October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Leslea Norman. For those of you who might not remember, Matthew Shepard was the 21-year-old gay college student who was lured out of a Wyoming bar, savagely beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die. That was in 1998. 

October Mourning is a collection of 68 beautiful, riveting, and sometimes heartbreaking poems -- in various forms -- that tells the story of Matthew's murder from the imagined perspectives of Matthew, the murderers, other people, and even the fence to which Matthew was tied.

In fact, if you read no other poem in this very moving collection, read "The Fence." 

Number 2. The Rose That Grew From Concrete by Tupac Shakur. This is a book of poems written by the famous rapper when he was only 19 years old, before he became famous. I'll admit that I haven't read this one yet, but it's on my pile to read this weekend. But seriously, I feel the tears well up inside me when I remember my colleague Bill reading the poem "The Power of a Smile."

I'm starting to remember why I loved, loved, loved poetry so much when I was younger. I remember the attraction; I remember the pull. And it doesn't matter where you stand on the "issues" these books might raise. (Although yes, you'll probably think a lot after reading both.) 

This is poetry. 

Read them and be moved. 

--Suzy