Wonderful Words: An Anthology

Poetry Book Review: A poetry collection compiled by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Book Review: WONDERFUL WORDS POEMS ABOUT READING, WRITING, SPEAKING, AND LISTENING

Bibliography

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 2004. WONDERFUL WORDS POEMS ABOUT READING, WRITING, SPEAKING AND LISTENING. Ill. By Barbour Karen. New York: Simon and Schuster, ISBN 0689835884.

This collection of fifteen poems was selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and features poems relating to reading, writing, speaking and listening. The collection celebrates words and how they influence our lives through their shear power. The selections include poems by authors Richard Armour, Emily Dickinson, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Karla Kuskin, Nikki Grimes, David McCord, Patricia and Fredrick McKissack, Eve Merriam, Pat Mora, Ann Whitford Paul, Heidi Roemer, Carl Sandburg, Alice Schertle, Tom Robert Shields, and the author who compiled the selections, Lee Bennett Hopkins.

Pat Mora’s “Words Free as Confetti" and David McCord’s “How to Say a Long Hard Word” integrate the sense of sound into words. Patricia and Fredrick McKissack’s "Share the Adventure" and Tom Robert Shields "I Am the Book" envision the experiences to be shared through the reading of a book.

Lee Bennett Hopkins is a distinguished poet, writer and anthologist. Other anthologies in this poetry series include Marvelous Math: A Book of Poems and Spectacular Science: A Book of Poems. He has received both the Christopher Award and a Golden Kite Award for his poetry autobiography Been to Yesterdays: Poems of a Life.

The book, illustrated by Karen Barbour, in gouache with water colors in bold bright colors that complement the text. A spectacular connection between speaking and listening is made on a double page spread connecting Rebecca Kai Dotlich’s "Let’s Talk" to Lee Bennett Hopkins’ "Listen". The colors are so bright and bold they seem to dwarf the poems at times.

Reading the poems aloud to listeners will give them the opportunity to imagine all the places the words might take the children and allow them to see how words influence our lives. Wonderful Words is sure to inspire the imagination of those who read it.

HALL PASS By: Kristine O'Connell George

Poetry Break 1 (A poem about school, the library or books and reading)

Introduction
On the first day of school have ready in class a rather cumbersome piece of lumber with this poem written on it. Have it hanging in an obvious place in the classroom.

Hall Pass
By Kristine O’Connell George

Guess they don’t want to
misplace one of us,
have to confess to our parents
one of us escaped.
So if you need to go to the
cafeteria, office, library,
restroom, or whatever,
you’re expected to haul
a weathered hunk of lumber
huge as a rowboat oar.

Only one way to leave class—
rowing down these wide halls
with this enormous pass.

[from SWIMMING UPSTREAM MIDDLE SCHOOL POEMS, (Clarion, 2002)]

Extension

Have your classroom rules from the previous year ready to share with the class. Go over the rules, allow students to make recommendations for revision. I have found that students (5th graders) are usually fair and within acceptable boundaries with their recommendations. This allows the students to feel as if they have some ownership. The poem above might help this necessary part of the beginning school year. This might be especially beneficial in a setting where students move from class to class and hear and see rules all day long the first day of school.