Module 2: Poetry Break: NCTE Award Poet

The Dark

By Myra Cohn Livingston

Introduction: Never mind how distracted I was by the wonderful collection of poems in this Big Book of Poetry! I concentrated on the three poems by NCTE Award winning poet, Myra Cohn Livingston. I chose to use The Dark for my Poetry Break. The Dark is a poem for every child who has had some apprehension when the lights go out at bedtime. This poem would be fun to read in the dark with a flashlight. After reading the poem, look around the darkened classroom and identify things that look much different in the dark than they do with the lights on.

The Dark

It's always

dark

around my bed

and darkest

where I put my head;

and there are nights

when strange sounds

call

inside

the hollow

of the wall

and creaking noises

from inside

the closet

where

the

nightmares

hide;

so after I have said

my prayers

and hear them

talking from

downstairs,

I look around

so I can see

where everything

I know should be--

especially

along the floor,

the crack of light

beneath the door.

Extension: Follow up with the Caldecott award winning book, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Take time to notice the illustrations as Max's bedroom furnishings transform into exotic locations with mythical creatures. *Invite students to share scenarios they have imagined after their lights go out at bedtime (* discuss with older elementary students)

Martin, Jr, Bill and Michael Sampson. 2008. The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Photo courtesy of http://www.target.com/

Module 2: Poetry Book Review: Naomi Shihab Nye (Multicultural)

A Maze Me

Poems For Girls

by Naomi Shihab Nye

Illustrated by Terre Maher

Naomi Shihab Nye, is an American, an Arab, a Poet, a parent, a woman of Texas, a woman of ideas. The daughter of a Palestinian father and an American mother, she's lived in old Jerusalem, in St. Louis, and now with her own family in San Antonio, Texas.

Naomi Shihab Nye provides insight into her childhood in her Introduction at the beginning of A Maze Me. She reflects on her desires to stay a twelve years old and the frustration of having to grow up. She encourages tweeners to write three lines down in a notebook every day and to reflect upon those thoughts in order to identify uncanny connections.

Nye provides the reader with over 70 poems that speak to females from age 11 to 99. Many poems in this collection provide imagery and life application lessons. In the poem "The Bucket", a little girl who frolics by the sea offers a lesson in the simplicity of a child's life. "I Said to Dana's Mother" provides insight into a teenagers yearning for adulthood. Dana's Mother quickly and succinctly states, "Missy", she said (not my name), "you'll never be as free as you are now." Teenage angst is found "In the School Cafeteria" ("You're not here today. Are you sick? Why are you absent? And why, among all these faces, is there only one I want to see?") and in "Where He Is" ("Because I knew the boy I haven't met yet is here too, somewhere close by, and I knew he was looking up. I could feel him looking."). Nye provides young women with poetry that can be referred to during the formative years of adulthood in a way that they can relate to. This poetry book is a must for any female coming of age.

Life is a tangle of

twisting paths.

Some short.

Some long.

There are dead ends.

And there are choices.

And wrong turns,

and detours,

and yield signs,

and instruction booklets,

and star maps,

and happiness,

and loneliness.

And friends.

And sisters.

And love.

And poetry.

Life is a maze.

You are a maze.

Amazed.

And amazing.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. 2005. A Maze Me. Greenwillow Books.

School Library Journal Best Book
ALA Notable Children’s Book
Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award

Photo Courtesy of http://www.alibris.com/ and Michael Nye.