Poetry Book Review for Social Studies

Hesse, Karen. 1997. Out of the Dust. NY: Scholastic Press.

The Novel that I selected that would be suited for teens and the Social Studies curriculum is written as a journal in free-verse in narrative form by a 14 year old girl named Billie Jo. Out of the Dust received the John Newberry Medal awarded annually by the American Library Association.

According to the Notable Children's Social Studies and additional essential skills developed through poetry, this book assists in acquiring information: reading skills, acquiring information: vocabulary, organizing and using information through thinking skills, as well as interpersonal relationships and social participation skills.

The Curriculum Standards for Social Studies identifies ten strands for studying this discipline. Of these strands, Out of the Dust focuses on history, culture, identity, geography, economics, citizenship, government, technology, global connections, and institutions.

The setting is in the Oklahoma dust bowl during the Great Depression. The story timeline begins in the Winter of 1934 with a girl by the name of Billie Jo telling of her birth in August 1920. The story is an emotional rollercoaster of this young girl's pain, strength, mood swings, love and courage that keep her tied to the land and Oklahoma. She tells of her family as they are struggling to survive on their land with the terrible dust storms that are never-ending, rain seldom comes and grasshoppers destroy the plants that survive the storms. The townspeople, neighbors, crops and livestock have a slim chance to none of surviving. Billie Jo's struggle and heartbreak continues with the death of her mother and unborn brother. Billie Jo's hands are scarred and deformed in an attempt to save them. The hurt and pain of her hands as well as the pain and anger of unforgiveness and blame haunt Billie Jo on a daily basis.

A poem inside the book narrated by Billie Jo, gives a powerful descriptive account of the dust storms and pain associated with the storms. This is lengthy in text beginning on pages 142 to 146 but it definitely touches the readers senses and stirs emotions:

Dust Storm

I never would have gone to see the show
if I had known a storm like this would come.
I didn't know when going in,
but coming out,
a darker night I'd never seen.
I bumped into a box beside the Palace door
and scraped my shins,
then tripped on something in my path,
I don't know what,
and walked into a phone pole,
bruised my cheek.

The first car that I met was sideways in the road.
Bowed down, my eyes near shut,
trying to keep the dust out,
I saw his headlights just before I reached them.

The driver called me over and I felt my way,
following his voice.
He asked me how I kept the road.
"I feel it with my feet," I shouted over the
roaring wind,
"I walk along the edge.
One foot on the road, one on the shoulder."
And desperate to get home,
he straightened out his car,
and straddled tires on the road and off,
and slowly pulled away.

I kept along. I know that there were others
on the road,
from time to time I'd hear someone cry out,
their voices rose like ghosts on the howling wind;
no one could see. I stopped at neighbors'
just to catch my breath
and made my way from town
out to our farm.
Everyone said to stay
but I guessed
my father would
come out to find me
if I didn't show,
and get himself lost in the
raging dust and maybe die
and I
didn't want that burden on my soul.

Brown earth rained down
from sky.
I could not catch my breath
the way the dust pressed on my chest
and wouldn't stop.
The dirt blew down so thick
it scratched my eyes
and stung my tender skin,
it plugged my nose and filled inside my mouth.
No matter how I pressed my lips together,
the dust made muddy tracks
across my tongue.

But I kept on,
spitting out mud,
covering my mouth,
clamping my nose,
the dust stinging the raw and open
stripes of scarring on my hands,
and after some three hours I made it home.

Inside I found my father's note
that said he'd gone to find me
and if I should get home, to just stay put.
I hollered out the front door
and the back;
he didn't hear,
I didn't think he would.
The wind took my voice and busted it
into a thousand pieces,
so small
the sound
blew out over Ma and Franklin's grave,
thinner than a sigh.
I waited for my father through the night, coughing up
dust,
cleaning dust out of my ears,
rinsing my mouth, blowing mud out of my nose.

Joe De La Flor stopped by around four to tell me
they found one boy tangled in a barbed-wire fence,
another smothered in a drift of dust.

After Joe left I thought of the famous Lindberghs
and how their baby was killed and never came back
to them.
I wondered if my father would come back.

He blew in around six A.M.
It hurt,
the sight of him
brown with dirt,
his eyes as red as raw meat,
his feet bruised from walking in worn shoes
stepping where he couldn't see
on things that bit and cut into his flesh.

I tried to scare up something we could eat,
but couldn't keep the table clear of dust.
Everything I set
down for our breakfast
was covered before we took a bite,
and so we chewed the grit and swallowed
and I thought of the cattle
dead from mud in their lungs,
and I thought of the tractor
buried up to the steering wheel,
and Pete Guymon,
and I couldn't even recognize the man
sitting across from me,
sagging in his chair,
his red hair gray and stiff with dust,
his face deep lines of dust,
his teeth streaked brown with dust.
I turned the plates and glasses upside down,
crawled into bed, and slept.

March 1935


Hesse, Karen. 1997. Out of the Dust. NY: Scholastic Press. ISBN 0590360809

This book is an AR book for a 5.3 level reader. The reading level is ages 9 - 12 but I found many things in the book to be so powerful and tragic that they may upset a young reader. I would recommend the book for teen level social studies in discussing geographical locations, climates and weather, people, the president of that time, etc.

Reviews:

Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year: "Readers may find their own feelings swaying in beat with the heroine's shifting moods."

School Library Journal, Best Book of the Year: "Free-verse poems...allow the narrator to speak for herself much more eloquently than would be possible in standard prose."


Additional books that may be used along with the novel by Karen Hesse include:

Out of the Dust Study Guide by Judy Cook. It integrates vocabulary, activities, comprehension and analysis, and critical thinking into lessons.

A Guide for Using Out of the Dust in the Classroom by Sarah Clark offers a variety of lessons and extensions of the novel for cross-curricular activities.

Spring Poetry Break

Pieces: A Year In Poems & Quilts
by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Introduction:

The season of spring, a time of beauty, growth, and delightful smells all around. On a beautiful spring day, I could sit for outdoors for hours listening to the sounds of birds chirping, feeling the cool breeze, breathing in the scented air, reading or daydreaming. Tucked inside the poetry book "Pieces" is a spring poem that focuses on the reader's senses. See what you think:

Nose Knows
by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Locusts line the walkway,
lilacs by the wall,
lilly of the valley,
the sweetest smell of all.

Put me in a blindfold
so I can't see a thing.
Even with my eyes closed
I'll still know it's spring.

Anna Grossnickle Hines


The illustrations are wonderfully created by the author who uses her technique of quilting to create beautiful pictures of each poem. She has selected fabrics to give the illustrations life and beauty.

Extension: Conduct the class outdoors. Have your students close their eyes as the poem is read aloud to them. Select poems from the book that are created for the current season. For spring, have the students with eyes closed, smell flowers, feel plants, smell freshly mowed grass, listen to the sounds around them. Then have them open their eyes and look around for signs of spring.
Indoors, the children can each draw a picture on paper. These could be combined to make a classroom "paper" quilt or cut into 1 inch squares, pieced back together and glued onto paper.

I would like to add another poem from the book in relation to spring:

Do You Know Green"
by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Green Sleeps in winter
waiting
quiet
still
beneath the snow
and last year's stems
and old dead leaves
resting up for spring
and then . . .
Green comes . . .
tickling the tips
of twiggy tree fingers
Psst!
Psst! Psst!
poking up as tiny
slips of baby grass
Ping!
Ping! Ping!
springing up as coiled
skunk cabbage leaves
Pop!
Pop! Pop!
bursting out on bare
brown branches
Pow!
Pow! Pow!
Brand New baby yellow green
bright gold biting busy green
until it seems
everywhere one goes
green grows.

Extension: During spring, take students on a nature walk to observe things that are green, discussing these along the walk. Point out shades of green, budding trees, flowers, weeds etc. Have students write a poem in a journal describing things they observed, the walk or demonstrate making a poem in the shape of a tree or flower. Encourage illustrations.

Bibliography:
Hines, Anna Grossnickle. 2001. "Pieces". NY: Harper Collins:
Greenwillow Books. ISBN 0688169635.

Free Verse Novel for Young Adults

Love That Dog

Creech, Sharon. Love That Dog. NY: Harper Collins: Joanna Cotler Books, 2001.

This novel is written in free verse for children and young adults. The book is about a young boy who is not interested in writing poetry at school and believes that writing poetry is for girls. The boy is confused about the concept of poetry as well as the senseless poems his teacher selects to read aloud to the class. Through his imagination, stories of his life happenings, animals, and a well-know poet by the name of Walter Dean Myers, he is able to overcome his mental block on writing poetry and is inspired to create works of his own.

The novel is written in free verse as a dated journal. Many of the peoms give an account of the conversations that take place between the teacher and this child. The boy's poems also give a visual and descriptive image of occurrences that have happened in his life.

As I read the title, I had no idea what the book would entail. As the dated pages unfold, random stories of the boy's life, classroom activities and a dog are told. The dog has been rescued from the Animal Protective Shelter by the boy and his father, his name is Sky. The novel ends with the boy signing his name to a thank you note written to Walter Dean Myers and revealing his name as Jack. Jack then writes a poem inspired by Mr. Myers titled Love That Dog. The back pages of the book contain poems, an apple shape poem and selected verses of poems discussed throughout Jack's journal.

This book is wonderfully written and a must read. It will make you laugh, cry, and bring back childhood memories or remind one of a child that is similar to the character in the book. Children who read the book will realize that this is a different type of poetry with the non-rhyming text. Students will be inspired to pick up a pen or pencil, paper and write their thoughts down.

Extension:

Read from the pages of this book and additional poetry books, pointing out that the words do not rhyme and that not all poetry has to rhyme. Encourage children or youth to copy from the book and create their own works in a dated journal or re-tell the poem in their own words on paper. The children can also illustrate their poems and display these around the school. Have students volunteer to read their poems aloud to an audience. Provide a list with such things as holidays, pets, family, vacation as a starting point for the students to begin their writing.

Poetry Break

Forgotten
by Eric Metzdorf

Introduction:
This poem has been written in an unusual form that is known as free verse. The poem is a combination of short one word lines and longer lines consisting of two to six words. A young child created this poem. It is a wonderful poem written in free verse with descriptive details. The poem does not rhyme but the language used enhances the rhythm. This nine year old child is sending a strong message.

Metzdorf, Eric. "Forgotten," in For the Good of the Earth and Sun, ed. Georgia Heard,146. New Hampshire: Heinemann, 1989.

Forgotten

Long,
brown hair
cascades
over her shoulders.
Shoulders over-burdened
with duty,
or maybe guilt.

I see her face,
pale and tight
with lines of exhaustion
etched in patterns
like artwork.

Her beautiful hair
tied
in an ugly
ball
on the back of her head.

Through gentle wisps of hair,
I see
my mother.

Erik Metzdorf, age 9

Extension: Use this poem as an example to children between the ages of 8 - 10 to demonstrate how a poem sounds without the normal rhythm and rhyme. Beginning writers of poetry could experiment using their own writing techniques and words to put on paper what they are feeling inside or to send a descriptive message. Children would feel more relaxed in creating their own works if they realize that the lines in a poem does not have to always end with rhyming words.

Celebrating Black History Month

Black History Month evolved as a week long event beginning the second week of February 1926. A scholar from Harvard by the name of Dr. Carter G. Woodson selected the date because of the birthdays of two important men and their strong impact on the black population. They were known as Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Today the four week celebration continues as Black History Month during the month of February.
http://www.history.com/minisites/blackhistory.

Bibliography:
Grimes, Nikki and Michael Bryant (ill.). 1996. Come Sunday. Michigan: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, ISBN 0802851088

Introduction:

Nikki Grimes is an African-American who grew up in New York. She began writing poetry at the age of six. She has written for children and adults, has read and appeared on an International level. She has received many awards including the Coretta Scott King Honor Book Award, the ALA Notable Award, Bank Street College Book of the Year and NAACP Image Award Finalist in 1993. Her book “Come Sunday” is an ALA Notable.

http://www.visitingauthors.com/authors/grimes_nikki/grimes_nikki_bio.html.

Come Sunday is the story of an African-American young girl around age eight who gives a detailed account of her Sunday encounter at church as she is awakened by her mother to get ready for church and the detailed accounts of activities and people that she encounters at Paradise Baptist Church.

The watercolor illustrations are bright and colorful, flowing well throughout the text giving the reader a visual image of LaTasha’s Sunday life at home and in the church. The pictures are warm and welcoming to anyone who visits Paradise Baptist Church through these poems. The “blue-haired” ladies bring back memories, laughter and visual images of elderly women with blue-hair.

Professional Reviews:

Publishers Weekly
Nikki Grimes recounts LaTasha's Sunday adventures in ParadiseBaptist Church from rising in the
morning, greeting the blue-haired ladies at church, to the soft and powerful voice of the visiting lady preacher, the church offering, a baptism, a church supper and finally home to bed, Grimes brings the experience of Sundays at church to life. Reverent, funny and wildly energetic all at the same time, this is a wonderful book for introducing children to church life. Ages 5-9.

From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4. Fourteen short poems narrated by an African-American girl that concentrate mostly on preparing for and going to church with family and friends. Two poems, "On the March" and "Jubilation," catch the lively musical experience of this traditional black church. The people are of all ages and are dressed in their most colorful best. Light flows through stained-glass windows. Grimes's topical poems are short and down-to-earth enough to engage children and occasionally will sweep them along with a bouncy rhythm or a spark of recognition that brings LaTasha's Sunday to life.
Both the text and pictures evoke a celebration of one ethnic and religious group.

Nikki Grimes additional works of many include:

A POCKETFUL OF POEMS (Clarion)
MY MAN BLUE (Dial)
MEET DANITRA BROWN (Lothrop)

Extension:

In the school, many issues are raised with discussion of spiritual beliefs and the violation of one’s rights.
Children could discuss this book in a Sunday School class or at the Public Library as a comparative analysis of each child’s church life and spiritual encounters of their church denomination. Have the children drawn pictures or describe their church and discuss likeness and differences of each.

Students could extend from the daily Sunday life, giving accounts of life in school and the daily activities associated with teachers, students, families etc. Draw pictures, write poems, discuss how their lives are different at home and school.

Read additional books to the students and discuss Black History Month. A topic that arose on Television discussing Black History Month is famous inventors and the many things invented by African-Americans. The ironing board, oscillating water sprinkler….can you find more??

NCTE Poetry Award Recipient

The Excellence in Poetry for Children Award is a lifetime achievement award given by The National Council of Teachers of English beginning in 1977 as an annual award until 1982. In 1982, a decision was made to give the award every three years . Recipients must be living Americans whose poetry has been written for children between the ages of 3 - 13. To learn more about the NCTE visit their website: http://www.ncte.org.

Mary Ann Hoberman was the recipient of the NCTE Poetry Award in 2003. You Read to Me, I'll Read to You is a children's book that contains fourteen short stories written for sharing and reading together. Two people read the rhythm, rhyming and repititous text that has been color coded with one color aligned on the left and another color aligned on the right to easily determine the text to be read by each person. The words to be read together are in blue and centered.

The Snowman
by Mary Ann Hoberman

Hi Ho! Hi Ho!
The world is white!

Hi Ho! Hi Ho!
It snowed last night!

It snowed while we
Were fast asleep.

It's nice and high.
It's very deep.

Put on your clothes.
The ones for snow.

Pull on your boots
And then let's go!

What shall we do
The first of all?

Let's build a snowman.
Roll a ball.

I'll roll the bottom
On the ground.

I'll make the middle
Nice and round.

I'll find a pebble
For each eye.

And if he starts to melt,
He'll cry!

His mouth can be
An apple slice.

An apple slice
Will turn to ice.

I'm getting pretty
Icy, too.

You do look icy.

So do you.

Let's go inside
And get a drink.

Some cocoa would
Be good,
I think.

And while we're in,
What shall we do?

You read to me.
I'll read to you.

[from You Read to Me, I'll Read to You (Little, Brown and Company, 2001)]

Extension
This is wonderful for children to group together in twos and read to their class. They have fun, develop reading skills and become more comfortable standing in front of a group and speaking.

Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins

More Surprises is a collection of poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins as an “I Can Read” book. This book consists of thirty-five short poems with a touch of humor, imagination and added twists. The poems offer a variety of topics for young children with topics including witches, animals, body parts, insects, seasons and school. The book is illustrated by Megan Lloyd (published by Harper & Row, 1987). Listed below are samples of the poems in the book.

This Tooth

by Lee Bennett Hopkins

I jiggled it
jaggled it
jerked it.

I pushed
and pulled
and poked it.

But—
As soon as I stopped,
and left it alone,
This tooth came out
on its very own!

Worm
by Sara Perkins

The worm in the apple
rests in his chair.

He’s nibbled his rooftop
and eaten his stairs.

He’s gnawed off his kitchen,
the chimney’s not there.

When his front porch is swallowed,
he’ll go on to pears.

Ruth Luce and Bruce Booth
by N. M. Bodecker

Said little Ruth Luce
to little Bruce Booth:

“Lithen,” said Ruth
“I’ve a little looth tooth!”

Said little Bruce Booth
“Tho what if you do?
that’th nothing thpethial—
I’ve a looth tooth too!”