Picture Book - Ode to an Onion: Pablo Neruda and his Muse by Alexandria Giardino

Illustrated by Felicita Sala

2018 Cameron Kids, Petaluma, CA

HC $17.95

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.27 - 128 ratings

My rating:  5 Love, love, love...
Endpapers: Thick ONION SKIN!

1^st line/s:  "Pablo was hard at work, writing a long, sad poem.  His pen whirled.  the pages piled high."

My comments: Within this very cool picture book is the story of a friendship/relationship, how to begin thinking about a poem, and beautiful words.  It ends with Neruda's actual "ode to the Onon" (in both English and Spanish!) and a paragraph about Pablo and Matilde's relationship.  Outstanding biography!

Goodreads: A poetic, beautifully illustrated picture book inspired by Ode to the Onion by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904–1973).  Pablo has a lunch date with his friend Matilde, who shows the moody poet her garden. Where Pablo sees conflict and sadness, Matilde sees love and hope. The story is less a biography of Neruda and his muse, Matilde Urrutia (1912–1985), and more a simple ode to a vegetable that is humble and luminous, dark and light, gloomy and glad, full of grief and full of joy—just like life.
A Junior Library Guild Selection.

72. The Poet's Dog by Patricia MacLachlan

Library Book
2016, Katherine Tegen Books
96 pgs.
Middle Grades CRF w/a touch of magical fantasy
Finished 12/22/16
Goodreads rating: 4/03 - 740 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting:   Contemporary winter, somewhere in the USA where it snows

First line/s:  "I found the boy at dusk.  The blizzard was fierce, and it would soon be dark."

My comments:  A very sweet, gentle story, told as though a dog could really and truly converse with humans; humans who love poetry and dogs.

Goodreads synopsis:  From Newbery Medal winner Patricia MacLachlan comes a poignant story about two children, a poet, and a dog and how they help one another survive loss and recapture love. "Just what I needed," raves Brightly.com. "It's a heart-warming story of loss and love that filled me with hope for a better future and renewed my belief in good."
          Teddy is a gifted dog. Raised in a cabin by a poet named Sylvan, he grew up listening to sonnets read aloud and the comforting clicking of a keyboard. Although Teddy understands words, Sylvan always told him there are only two kinds of people in the world who can hear Teddy speak: poets and children.
          Then one day Teddy learns that Sylvan was right. When Teddy finds Nickel and Flora trapped in a snowstorm, he tells them that he will bring them home—and they understand him. The children are afraid of the howling wind, but not of Teddy’s words. They follow him to a cabin in the woods, where the dog used to live with Sylvan . . . only now his owner is gone.
          As they hole up in the cabin for shelter, Teddy is flooded with memories of Sylvan. What will Teddy do when his new friends go home? Can they help one another find what they have lost?

My Uncle Emily - Jane Yolen

Illustrated by Nancy Carpenter
Philomel Books, 2009
$17.99
32 pgs.
For: Lovers and discoverers of Emily Dickinson's poetry (including those who don't "get" her poems!)
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: Rosy cranberry
Illustrations: "Pen and ink and digital media." They look old-fashioned and really work beautifully with the story and subject.

Based on facts that Jane Yolen has researched, we are treated to a little bit of the life of Emily Dickinson and of the people who loved her, the lives she touched. It explains what a "recluse" is, and gives us a wonderful glimpse into the possibilities of her quiet personality.

When she givers her six-year old nephew (and next-door neighbor), Gib, a dead bee and a poem to take to school to share, he feels obligated to do so - even though he doesn't understand the poems and knows that his classmates probably won't either. When one of the boys makes fun of his aunt (she refers to herself as Uncle Emily), he socks him in the nose. Not wanting to tell the truth at a family gathering that night, he omits the fighting part of the story, buy Uncle Emily is the one that figures out there's something missing. And she gets it out of him in with a poems and gentle kindness.

There's a note at the end entitled "What is True About this Story."

A for-sure addition to reading aloud the poems of Emily Dickinson to kids! Many love her poems, some have glimmers of understanding, but many screw up their faces and say, "I don't get it." This story should be included! For sure.

What a lovely cover illustration!

A River of Words - Jen Bryant

The Story of William Carlos Williams
Illustrator: Melissa Sweet
For: kids & poetry lovers
Rating: 5
2008
endpapers:light lime green with other greens in blocks, 5 poems on front, 4 poems on back

From the time he was a young boy, William Carlos Williams loved to be outdoors, taking things slowly, looking at the world. He loved the gentle sounds and natural rhythm of nature...and this same feeling carried over to the times when his teacher read poetry aloud. At a young age he began writing poetry. He filled journals, he wrote all the time. But he knew that writing poetry would not support a family, so he went into medicine, becoming a doctor. A good one. For forty years. But his good friends - writers (Ezra Pound, Hilda Doolittle), and artists (Charles Demuth) kept his creative juices flowing. He kept writing. And writing.

This books includes timelines (1883-1963), all sorts of interesting added information from the author and the illustrator, a list of books for further reading, and a short selection (9) of poems.

The illustrations are interesting and different, usng an altered book technique that delights my own creative juices. The way this book is illustrated really gives you a chance to think beyond the words. I think it's very effective. I love it.

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

The Great Figure

Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.