A Pocket Full of Words
Title: A
Pocketful of Poems
Author: Nikki
Grimes
Illustrator: Javaka
Steptoe
Date: 2011
Publisher: Clarion
Books
ISBN: 0395938686
Plot Summary:
Tiana lives in
Harlem with her mama and her daddy. She plants seeds in her mother’s flower
box, dances in the rain and feeds the pigeons that rest upon her windowsill.
She carries a pocketful of words to play with. “You can borrow most of them if
you want to.”
Critical Analysis:
A Pocketful of Poems is a delightful blend of poetry
that uses free verse and haiku in an alternating pattern. Coupled with collage illustrations created
from various recycled and hand crafted materials this book creates the engaging
story of young Tiana’s life in the city of Harlem.
The language of such poems as Shower creates
the image of a city clean and brand new. The double meaning of the word shower
not only allows the reader to remember puddle stomping on a rainy day but the
play on words brings to mind bubble baths and bath time fun.
SHOWER
This word
wets my pocket.
I have to
stay indoors
until my
blue jeans dry.
SHOWER is a
clean word-
soap and
water for the sky.
One can literally
see Tiana running in the storm with raindrops falling on her face. The
deceptively simple Haiku that coincides with the free verse allows us to share
Tiana’s joy in a clean new day.
April
showers scrub
the air. No
wonder I can
run now. I
can breathe!
The illustrations
enhance the text as we see Tiana dancing in a rain shower as she wears blue
jeans and carries a sponge and soap. It
seems as if she is actually creating a clean new day to enjoy.
The repetition of
the sounds of the letter “p” in this poem let us feel a pigeon pecking at us
through our pocket. Ouch!
PIGEON
Ouch! This
word pecks my pocket
like some
wild thing, anxious to go free.
PIGEON
Its
speckled sister paces along
the windowsill,
staring in at me.
The Haiku describes
pigeons masquerading as wildlife and the illustrations show various pigeons
dressed in different disguises. They no longer look like wildlife but like city
folk out for a stroll around the block.
Pigeons
masquerade as wildlife.
They can’t
fool me.
We’re all
city folk.
With a clever
combination of sounds, vivid imagery and creative illustrations A Pocketful
of Poems is a wonderful introduction to the joys of poetry
Reviews:
"There's so much vibrant energy and
freshness in this collaboration, the book will dance into the hearts of
children right away." Booklist, ALA,
Starred Review
“A playful and thoroughly successful pairing of
words and pictures.” School Library Journal
Connections:
Use
in connection with lesson plans on poetry, specifically Free Verse and Haiku.
Read the book. Discuss the definitions of the two styles of poetry. Construct a
Haiku and/or Free Verse poem together. Have each child create one of their own
and create illustrations to convey the meaning of their poems. Alternative: Have
the children work in pairs. Have one writing and the other illustrating the
poem.
Introduce
poetry using this book as the opening icebreaker. Discuss how the individual
poems make the students feel. What do they picture in their minds? What
thoughts and feelings do the poems convey to them? Make a sister poem to match
the one read. Use either free verse or haiku. Then introduce other types of
poetry in later lessons.
Use
this story in a story time. Find music that enhances the poetry and ask the
children to show what the poems make them see and feel using motion and
movement.
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