History in Verse

Just the facts, ma'am"? No thanks. History is story, and one of the hardest parts to tell is the personal aspect of it. How did it feel to be a soldier in the forests of Vietnam–what went through a young man's mind; what did he see and hear? How would a young resistance fighter on the streets of Nazi-occupied Warsaw make herself invisible? How might a boy, born enslaved, have perceived the world and found his place in it as the botanist/inventor we all know today as George Washington Carver?

The writers included here have used poetry to answer these questions for young readers. This genre provides a richness in image, voice, and metaphor that makes history vivid, immediate, and engaging, communicating complex ideas. Selections range from Walter Dean Myers's envisioning of the Middle Passage in Blues Journey: "Heard the top deck groaning, yes, and the ocean roar/Heard the top deck groaning, yes, and the ocean roar/Heard my brother crying till I couldn't hear no more" to Naomi Shihab Nye's powerful images of living in a war zone: "The bombs break everyone's sentences in half" (from "The Palestinians Have Given Up Parties" in 19 Varieties of Gazelle). These books give voice to the history and bring it alive for its readers. Read them aloud in the classroom, display them along with other nonfiction works on the subjects, and discuss them with young people.

Fiction

HESSE, Karen. The Cats in Krasinski Square. illus. by Wendy Watson. Scholastic. 2004. RTE $16.95. ISBN 0-439-43540-4.

Gr 2-6–In a picture-book format, Hesse tells of a Jewish girl in Warsaw during World War II who, along with other resisters, smuggles food into the ghetto with the help of some stray cats. Large, warm, mixed-media illustrations in an earthy palette accompany a verse full of alliteration, interior rhymes, and repeated imagery. The tale springs to life with just a few lines, drawing a complex picture of life in Nazi-occupied Poland.

KAY, Verla. Gold Fever. illus. by S. D. Schindler. Putnam. 1999. Tr $15.99. ISBN 0-399-23027-0.

Gr 2-4–In short, rhythmic, rhyming verse, Kay conveys the plight of a fictitious forty-niner, from "Packed a shovel/Pistol, pick,/Goldpan, bedroll,/Walking stick" to "Crusty long johns,/Smelly shirt./Sweat-stained britches/Caked with dirt." Pithily describing the trials that lead the man to quit his claim, she creates an engaging introduction on the topic for young students. Humorous, panoramic illustrations make this picture book an excellent read-aloud.

Nonfiction

BERNIER-GRAND, Carmen T. César: ¡Sí, Se Puede!/Yes, We Can! illus. by David Diaz. Marshall Cavendish. 2004. RTE $16.95. ISBN 0-7614-5172-2.

Gr 2-8–Free verse poems introduce Chávez's childhood and his work as a campesino that led him to organize the United Farm Workers and La Causa. Documented quotes and carefully chosen events and images combine with Diaz's luminous illustrations to make the verse engaging for a wide audience. Extensive end matter gives readers more information and sources. Teachers have been waiting for a book just like this.

CUMPIÁN, Carlos. Latino Rainbow: Poems about Latino Americans. illus. byRichard Leonard. Children's Press. 1994. PLB $23. ISBN 0-516-05153-9; pap. $7.95. ISBN 0-516-45153-7.

Gr 2-7–Twenty free verse poems introduce people (including Ritchie Valens, Linda Rondstadt, César Chávez, and Roberto Clemente) and events ("The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo," "Central American Refugees") that may not be familiar to all readers. Cumpián's voice occasionally strays to the prosaic, but always comes back to the engaging image and the message of each person's contribution. Rich oil paintings portray subjects in a lively context.

HOPKINS, Lee Bennett, sel. Lives: Poems about Famous Americans. illus. by Leslie Staub. HarperCollins. 1999. Tr $15.99. ISBN 0-06-027767-X; PLB $16.89. ISBN 0-06-027768-8.

Gr 2-5–Fourteen poems by various well-known poets (Jane Yolen, Louis Phillips, X. J. Kennedy, and others) introduce famous figures, including Sacagawea, Babe Ruth, and Marin Luther King, Jr. Some are free verse; some use rhyme and meter. Each one is accompanied by a facing portrait in bright oils with contextual images giving the volume the feel of a scrapbook or a walk through a gallery.

JOHNSTON, Tony. The Ancestors Are Singing. illus. by Karen Barbour. Farrar. 2003. Tr $16. ISBN 0-374-30347-9.

Gr 3-7–History abuts contemporary life in these free verse poems about Mexico, from the rainy season in Mexico City to a grandmother's grinding stone, from Hernán Cortés landing in Veracruz to Quetzalcóatl sleeping "in the tall green corn." Presented as tales told by a grandmother, the collection brings multiple generations together, connecting family history to cultural and folkloric history. Line illustrations reminiscent of folk art fill out the pages, adding to the warm, magical tone of the book.

LAWRENCE, Jacob. Harriet and the Promised Land. illus. by author. S & S. 1993. Tr $18.95. ISBN 0-671-86673-7.

K Up–Lawrence's moving series of paintings depicting Harriet Tubman's life are accompanied by short, rhyming verse that presents her struggles and triumphs. "A runaway slave/With a price on her head,/ 'I'll be free,' said Harriet,/ 'Or I'll be dead!'" The simple verse suits the naive style of the boldly drawn, dramatic paintings, making this an excellent read-aloud to introduce young readers to a complex topic.

MEDINA, Tony. Love to Langston. illus. by Gregory R. Christie. Lee & Low. 2002. RTE $16.95. ISBN 1-58430-041-8.

Gr 2-5–Through free verse poems in the first person, Medina imagines moments and periods in the life of Langston Hughes. From "First Grade" to "Leaving Harlem for Africa" and back again, the author uses images and metaphors that will connect immediately with young readers, infusing his verse with loose rhyme and rhythms. Notes about each poem at the end add factual context, while lush, angular illustrations enhance this wonderful read-aloud.

ORTIZ, Simon. The People Shall Continue. illus. by Sharol Graves. Children's Book Press. 1988. Tr $14.95. ISBN 0-89239-041-7.

Gr 1-6–"American" history from a Native perspective is told in a poetic, oral form. From creation, through the destruction of the land by Europeans, "All this time, the People remembered…The People told each other,/ 'This is the life of our People./These are the stories and these are the songs./This is our heritage.' And the children listened." The text is laid across brightly colored full-bleed spreads of the people in all their diversity. Both history and the story of how history is kept, this book remains a unique contribution to the curriculum.

SHANGE, Ntozake. Ellington Was Not a Street. illus. by Kadir Nelson. S & S. 2004. Tr $15.95. ISBN 0-689-82884-5.

Gr 2-6–The free verse poem "Mood Indigo" introduces important black male figures through the eyes of a little girl while putting their achievements in the context of community. "nkrumah was no foreigner/virgil aikens was not the only fighter." Glowing oil illustrations in detailed spreads depict Paul Robeson, W. E. B. DuBois, Dizzy Gillespie, and others as they gather in a house whose "doors opened like our daddy's arms." Brief biographical notes are appended.

Fiction

CORMIER, Robert. Frenchtown Summer. Delacorte. 1999. Tr $16.95. ISBN 0-385-32704-8; pap. $5.99. ISBN 0-440-22854-9.

Gr 6 Up–In short-lined free-verse, Eugene tells of the summer he was 12, living in the Frenchtown area of a small town in Massachusetts, post-World War I. He's a quiet observer, watching the people around him as he struggles toward adulthood. Details of daily life–his paper route, the first sighting of an airplane–intertwine with the mysteries and secrets of relatives and neighbors, providing a perfect snapshot of the way of life and the consciousness of a people in a time past.

HESSE, Karen. Out of the Dust. Scholastic. 1997. Tr $16.95. ISBN 0-590-36080-9; pap. $5.99. ISBN 0-590-37125-8.

Gr 6 Up–In 1934 dustbowl Oklahoma, 14-year-old Billie Jo has aspirations that extend far beyond her bleak setting. But these aspirations wither as her pregnant mother dies in a terrible accident involving a fire that also scars Billie Jo's hands beyond use. Details of daily life and of the teen's growing awareness of the wider world are made vividly clear through Hesse's conversational free verse.

HESSE, Karen. Witness. Scholastic. 2001. Tr $16.95. ISBN 0-439-27199-1; pap. $5.99. ISBN 0-439-27200-9.

Gr 5 Up–Eleven characters speak about the events in a small Vermont town in 1924. Multiple situations revolve around two young characters in particular–an African-American girl and a Jewish girl–when the Ku Klux Klan moves in. Hesse uses free verse to bring each voice to life, setting it with carefully chosen period details that crystallize the chilling story.

Nonfiction

CLINTON, Catherine. I, Too, Sing America: Three Centuries of African American Poetry. illus. by Stephen Alcorn. Houghton Mifflin. 1998. Tr $21. ISBN 0-395-89599-5.

Gr 4-8–Works from 25 poets, from Phillis Wheatly through the Harlem Renaissance and up to Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, and Rita Dove, provide not only an excellent survey of this literature, but a historical overview of its development and–through the poems' subjects–of the people. Short, biographical essays and stylized, mixed-media illustrations, reminiscent of Aaron Douglas and the mural art of the 1930s, complete this handsome volume.

GIOVANNI, Nikki. Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking at the Harlem Renaissance through Poems. Holt. 1996. Tr $17.95. ISBN 0-8050-3494-3.

Gr 7 Up–Not a history text, literary criticism, or straight anthology, Giovanni's book combines elements of the three, resulting in a truly unique collection. Poems from 23 writers are accompanied by essays that explore these selections from a literary and historical standpoint. Infused with memoir, these essays bring the poems and their history to readers in an engaging, informative, and transforming context.

KATZ, Bobbi. We the People: Poems. illus. by Nina Crews. HarperCollins. 2000. Tr $15.95. ISBN 0-688-16531-1; PLB $15.89. ISBN 0-688-16532-X.

Gr 5 Up–The voices of famous and not-so-famous Americans cross the decades in this anthology. Katz pored through letters, diaries, and other primary and secondary sources to produce 65 poetic snapshots, all told in first person, of moments and people. While she sidesteps some issues (for example, the poem featuring Juñípero Serra unfolds with no mention of the number of people destroyed in the California missions), her collection gives readers an engaging browse, a jumping-off point for discussion, and a model for making their own investigations.

MYERS, Walter Dean. Blues Journey. illus. by Christopher Myers. Holiday House. 2003. Tr $18.95. ISBN 0-8234-1613-5.

Gr 5 Up–Myers's blues style verses convey deep emotions that readers will understand on different levels. "Skipped out of Memphis, 'cause I was on the news/Skipped out of Memphis, 'cause I was on the news/Rode to Chicago in a freight car with the blues." The poems allude to the history of music and blues, as well as to aspects of African-American history, including the middle passage, sharecropping, Jim Crow, and lynching. Dramatic collage illustrations communicate both context and emotion.

MYERS, Walter Dean. Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices. Holiday House. 2004. Tr $16.95. ISBN 0-8234-1853-7.

Gr 4-8–Dozens of voices speak of life in Harlem in multiple styles of verse. From the deacon to the laborer, from the jazz artist to the undertaker, each one has something to say, and Myers elicits full-blown characters in just a few lines. Accompanied by reproductions of black-and-white portraits and photos of African Americans through the first half of the 20th century (from the author's personal collection, many unidentified), his characters form a lively scrapbook of a people, place, and time.

MYERS, Walter Dean. Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam. illus. by Ann Grifalconi. HarperCollins. 2002. Tr $16.99. ISBN 0-06-028363-7; PLB $17.89. ISBN 0-06-028364-5; pap. $6.99. ISBN 0-06-073159-1.

Gr 5 Up–Free verse is laid against collage illustrations in this picture book for older readers. Myers writes in the voice of a soldier on patrol in the forest: "I hear the sounds of the birds again./I wonder if they speak of us from the high branches./I wonder if what they see makes them sad." The collages, cut from photographs, marbled paper, and drawn figures, portray the place and the emotion realistically. This day-in-the-life story, rich with image, sound, and feeling, makes history horribly vivid.

NELSON, Marilyn. Carver: A Life in Poems. Front St. 2001. Tr $16.95. ISBN 1-886910-53-7.

Gr 7 Up–The intellectual life of George Washington Carver is explored in this collection. Characters from his childhood and adulthood speak, as does he, about formative moments in his life. "The perceiving self sits/with his back against rough bark,/casting ten thousand questions into the future." Reproductions of photographs of Carver and his work help to make his life real to readers. The result is a beautiful and intricate interior biography of a man whom many readers will be familiar with from much drier introductions.

NELSON, Marilyn. Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem. Front St. 2004. Tr $16.95. ISBN 1-932425-12-8.

Gr 7 Up–An enslaved man, Fortune died 200 years ago, and his "master," a doctor, prepared his skeleton for study. Fortune's skeleton was eventually donated to the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, CT. Recently, the museum opened an exhibit detailing Fortune's life and commissioned Nelson to write a eulogy. Six poems form a libretto as she explores the imagined feelings of the man and the journey of his bones across the centuries. Documented with photographs of the bones and reproductions of maps and prints, this is a fascinating examination of who "owns" a life, a body, and a story.

NYE, Naomi Shihab. 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East. HarperCollins. 2002. Tr $16.95. ISBN 0-06-009765-5; PLB $16.89. ISBN 0-06-009766-3; pap. $6.99. ISBN 0-06-050404-8.

Gr 5 Up–Personal history and world events interact in this collection. From "My Father and the Figtree," about language, immigration, and tradition, to "Jerusalem," in which Nye says, "I'm not interested in who suffered the most. I'm interested in people getting over it," the poems are boundary breakers. Connecting American responses to September 11th with current events in the Middle East, the selections turn again and again to the multiplicity of individual experiences, and how they are caught up in and transformed by larger events.

PHILIP, Neil, ed. War and the Pity of War. illus. by Michael McCurdy. Clarion. 1998. Tr $20. ISBN 0-395-84982-9.

Gr 4-8–Traditional and contemporary poems bring diverse voices to bear on war experiences across the centuries. From 11th-century B.C. China to traditional English ballads of the Napoleonic Wars, from Bertolt Brecht on post-World War II Germany to Clarence Major on the Vietnam War, a variety of styles of verse give breadth to a universal topic. Black-and-white woodcut illustrations starkly portray the settings.

YU, Chun. Little Green: Growing Up During the Chinese Cultural Revolution. S & S. 2005. Tr $15.95. ISBN 0-689-86943-6.

Gr 5-9–Little Green was born in China on the eve of the Cultural Revolution in 1966. This verse novel follows her from the country with her grandmother, to the city and her mother, evoking the scenery and the details of daily life. "Darkening clouds gathering in the sky above,/smothering thunders rolling on the horizon afar./Mama sat on Baba's bike, holding me in her arms; Baba paddled toward home against the cold night wind." Through imagery rich in metaphor and detail, Yu makes her story vivid and haunting.