POETRY - The Poetry of US - Edited by J. Patrick Lewis -

More than 200 Poems That Celebrate the People, Places, and Passions of the United States
Illustrated by National Geographic Photographs 

2018, National Geographic

HC $24.99

192 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.67

My rating:  5
Endpapers:  BRIGHT yellow, almost a yellow orange

My comments:  Divided into sections of the U. S. (New England; Mid-Atlantic; Southeast; Midwest; Great Plains; Rocky Mountain West; Pacific Coast, and Territories) this gorgeously photographed book of poetry for kids is right-on and really fun!  I read this a couple of days after the shootings in Gilroy, CA and El Paso, TX, and there were poems about each of those places in here!  I really enjoyed reading them and discovering some new poets as well.  There are three separate indexes - by title, poet, and first line and a resource list.  A few new-to-me poems about places and things I care about follow after Goodreads synopsis.

Goodreads:  It's all about us! Join former U.S. Children's Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis on a lyrical journey through the United States to experience the wonders of America's people and places through 200+ inspiring poems and stunning photographs.
          Celebrate the gift of language and the vibrant culture of the United States with this collection of classic and never-before-published poetry. Poems are arranged by region, from coast to coast, and among them you'll find works by Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker, Robert Frost, Naomi Shihab Nye, Walt Whitman, and more. From the familiar to the surprising, subjects include people, places, landmarks, monuments, nature, and celebrations. Designed for sharing, but geared to younger readers, this beautifully illustrated treasury is a must-have for the whole family.

Groundhognostication

                 Punxsutawney, PA

                 February 2^nd

Gobbler’s Knob lies blanketed in February snow,

but even in the biting cold, people’s faces glow.

They’ve travelled here from far and wide to celebrate together

and listen as the groundhog gives his verdict on the weather.

They join in festivities as bands play on for hours,

while Punxsutawney Phil warms up his shadow-reading powers.

Finally, the main event – the “groundhognostication!”

Mittened fingers cross in hopes of spring’s initiation.

Will they suffer six more weeks of winter’s frigid gloom?

Maybe yes, or maybe no, but soon bright buds will bloom.

                                                F. J. Lee

                                                from The Poetry of US (Edited by J. Patrick Lewis)

Silent Sentinel

     Battle of Gettysburg

At field’s edge atop Cemetery Ridge, an old,

battered tree stands – split down the middle like

so many families whose sons

went separate ways in war.

Silent sentinel, it saw that costliest of campaigns –

an eternity of suffering in three days’ time.

Unmovable witness, it watched Pickett’s charge,

counted up its colossal casualties

With roots bathed in bloodshed –

did it break at once or over time, riven by

the weight of sorrow, torn apart by conflicting

passions of thousands injured and dead?

Still it stands, an aged, living monument

in a park full of granite and bronze markers.

One by one, in time, witness trees fall,

the last living veterans who survived it all.

                                    Kelly Fineman

                                    from The Poetry of US (Edited by J. Patrick Lewis)

The Jackalope

            Douglas, Wyoming

The oddest thing you’ve never seen

are antlered hares.  They’re very mean,

or so you’ll hear if you pop in

to Douglas diners now and then.

A cry is heard up in the hills,

the kind of cry that gives you chills.

“The jackalope,” townsfolk explain –

but if you look, you’ll look in vain.

For no one’s ever seen up close

that warrior rabbit.  No one knows

just where it sleeps, how fierce its fight,

how high it leaps, how sharp its bite.

Indeed, this creature’s very rare:

The only actual antlered hare

is mounted on a wall – a prop

made by a taxidermy shop.

Some taxidermists though it fun

to sew two creatures into one –

but still at night it gives you chills

when lonely cries rise from those hills.

                                    Abigail Carroll

                                    from The Poetry of US (Edited by J. Patrick Lewis)

Legends of the Sonoran Desert

My mom left Tucson twice in her life.

Both times she came back fast and said,

“I like it better here.”

She lets tarantulas walk up her arm.  She says

all the collared lizard needs is a tie

and he can go to dinner anywhere.

She favors saguaro and chaparral.  She blows

kisses at the unlovely javelin but she adores

the remorseless gila monster because,

“It looks like a fancy beaded purse your father

almost bought me.”

                                    Ron Koertge

                                    from The Poetry of US (Edited by J. Patrick Lewis)

Golden Gate Bridge

Rising above

            the fog,

I am an aria

            of orange,

a symphony

            of steel –

a remembered

            melody.

Beneath

            I span the

Golden Gate Strait,

            from shore to

shore, with a

            chorus of cars.

What song will you

            discover

On the other side?

                                    Joan Bransfield Graham

Poetry Picture Book - This Big Sky by Pat Mora

Illustrated by  Steve Jenkins

1998, Scholaswtic Press

currently OOP, but used available cheaply

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  

My rating:  4

Endpapers:  Terracotta

Illustrations:    Cut-Paper Collage 

My comments:  14 poems about the southwestern desert!

This Big Sky

This sky is big enough

for all my dreams.

Two ravens burst black

from a pinon tree

into the blare

of blazing sun.

I follow their wide ebony flight

over copper hills,

down canyons shimmering gold

autumn leave.

Two ravens spread their wings, rise

into whispers

of giant pines, over mountains blue

with memories.

This sky is big enough

for all my dreams.

Goodreads Summary:  An evocative collection of fourteen poems that combines Pat Mora's simple, yet stunning words with Steve Jenkins' bright collage images to capture the beauty and mystery of the American Southwest.
          In fourteen lyrical, beautifully spare poems, renowned Latina poet Pat Mora brings the landscape, animals, and people of the Southwest into sharp focus. Steve Jenkins richly textured cut-paper illustrations work with the text to evoke the power of this vast place where every heart has a home, and every dream has a piece of sky.

Desert Day, Desert Night - Anthony D. Fredericks

Illustrated  by Kenneth J. Spengler

2011, Rio Nuevo Publishers

HC $15.95

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.25 (4 ratings)

My rating: 2-text and 5-illustrations (That's an average of 3.5)

Endpapers: Dark purple-blue

Illustrations: Colorful, detailed, special - this was what drew me to the book

Title page:  The only "white" page, but it has shades of lght brown around the edges.  A lone quail walks across the page.

"Can you find who is hiding in the shadows?  In every illustration look for a glimpse of the animals from the previous page and a hint of the animal from the next page.  Don't forget to spot the quail, too!"

1st verse:  Sonoran night,/ Dancing light,/ Shadows playing--/ Full moon bright.

My comments:  I love the illustrations! I love hunting for the animals in the shadows and the quail on every page.  I'm not so fond of the simple, four lined rhymed verses.  I imagine they're just fine for really young children, but somehow they seem a little forced to me, they don't flow and they're very simple.  The "field notes" in the back of the book are an excellent addition, I wouldn't even mind if they were ON the page they referred to.
Here are a couple of the pages:
     Stingers lash./ Whip, and dash./ Scorpions grab/ In a flash!
     Above the ground--/ High-pitched sound./ Tiny owls --/ fluffy, round.

Goodreads has no review or summary

41. In the Kingdom of Men - Kim Barnes

2012, Alfred A. Knopf

324 pgs.

Written for adults

Finished 9/16/2013

Genre: Historical Fiction/1967

Goodreads Rating: 3.44

My Rating:  Liked it (3.5)

TPPL

Setting: rural Oklahoma but mainly the American Aramco company housing and desert surrounding it in Saudi Arabia (simply called "Arabia" in the book) in 1967

1^st sentence from the prologue: "Here is the first thing you need to know about me: I'm a barefoot girl from red-dirt Oklahoma, and all the marble floors in the world will never change that."

1st sentence from Chapter 1:  "In the beginning  --- these three words my daily bread, recited at the kitchen table in our shack in Shawnee, the bible open in front of me.":

My comments:  I have ups and downs with my reactions to this book. I loved the setting - a mysterious one, for me. Arabia in the 1960's, in the American-based housing commune - certainly nothing I had any prior knowledge about.  The Bedouin.  The animosity.  The "kingdom of men"......  And I was unprepared for the ending, a feeling that left me pleasantly surprised, because it was unexpected and perfect for the story.

Goodreads Review:   1967. Gin Mitchell knows a better life awaits her when she marries hometown hero Mason McPhee. Raised in a two-room shack by her Oklahoma grandfather, a strict Methodist minister, Gin never believed that someone like Mason, a handsome college boy, the pride of Shawnee, would look her way. And nothing can prepare her for the world she and Mason step into when he takes a job with the Arabian American Oil company in Saudi Arabia. In the gated compound of Abqaiq, Gin and Mason are given a home with marble floors, a houseboy to cook their meals, and a gardener to tend the sandy patch out back. Even among the veiled women and strict laws of shariah, Gin’s life has become the stuff of fairy tales. She buys her first swimsuit, she pierces her ears, and Mason gives her a glittering diamond ring. But when a young Bedouin woman is found dead, washed up on the shores of the Persian Gulf, Gin’s world closes in around her, and the one person she trusts is nowhere to be found. 

   Set against the gorgeously etched landscape of a country on the cusp of enormous change, In the Kingdom of Men abounds with sandstorms and locust swarms, shrimp peddlers, pearl divers, and Bedouin caravans—a luminous portrait of life in the desert. 

Why Oh Why Are Deserts Dry? - Tish Rabe

All About Deserts
Illustrated by Aristides Ruiz & Joe Mathieu
The Cat In the Hat's Learning Library, Random House, 2011
HC $8.99
45 pages
Rating:  3
Endpapers:  orange

Not as good as trees or butterflies (the two I've read previously), but informative and fun.  My two problems with it stand out strongly, though.   Some of the rhythm seems off, some of the rhyming seems forced.  And although it mentions and describes deserts - the Sonoran, the Namib, the Sahara, the Mojave, Antarctica, it jumps around giving facts.  Some kids might think camels and kangaroos live in the Sonoran Desert!  It never tells where anything's located.  A map of the world showing these deserts' locations would be a great addition.

The glossary includes abdomen, burmoose, burrow, cell, differ,geologist, glare, habitat, mirage, nocturnal, oasis, and shimmering.

The 3 Little Dassies - Jan Brett

G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2010
$17.99
32 pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers: woven basketweave with bugs, butterflies, moths...

Yes, it's a cute fractured fairy tale. Instead of three pigs it's three cute creatures native to the Namib Desert in southern Africa. Excellent for comparing and contrasting, retelling. But it's Jan Brett's signature illustrations that really captivate. How does she draw like this?

Incorporating native fabrics, flora, and fauna, one barely needs the words at all. The clever illustrations tell the whole story. make sure to examine them carefully!

Art & Max - David Wiesner

Clarion Book, 2010
$17.99
40 pages
Rating: 5
Endpapers: Desert sand brown
Setting: the desert, mountains in the background and saguaro here and there....and lotsa lizards.

Art (Arthur, if you please) is an artist, and his friend Max wants to try. Not the best idea....

This begins a series of events that will change them both - physically and artistically! I read it through twice. It's so much fun and so darn clever! Art is an iguana and Max and his cohorts are lizards. I'm not going to say another word. You have to read it and see what's going on for yourself.

The art is -- well -- it's David Weisner. Magical. Special. Talk about giving a lizard personality! The faces alone show enough expresion that barely any words are needed.

OH! When you take the book jacket off you're greeted with quite a surprise - a colorful Jackson Pollock-like spatter/splatter that represents a part of the story. Big smile. Cool book.

Yellow Elephant, a Bright Bestiary - Julie Larios

Illustrated by Julie Paschkis
Harcourt, 2006
32 pages
Rating: 4

14 poems about 14 animals, illustrated in bright colors on a white-framed page. Really lovely illustrations.

Orange Giraffe

Orange sun rising
over the savana --

Can you see the orange water

of the Juba River?
Can you hear the hyena's
high orange laugh?
Look!
On the riverbank,
an orange giraffe.

Turquoise Lizard

Thunder rolls

across the desert,

quieting the buzz

of the cicadas.

One worried lizard

zips quickly

under a rock.

When raindrops fall,

the small lizard,

turquoise tail curled,

stays bright and dry

in the wet world.

Green Frog

One thing for sure

about a green frog

on a green lily pad

on a green day

in spring:

One hop

and her green

is gone.

See how she swims,

blue frog now

under blue water.

Tan to Tamarind - Malathi Michelle Iyengar

Poems about the Color Brown
Illustrated by Jamel Akib
Children's Book Press, SF, 2009
$16.95
32 pgs.
Rating: 4
Enepapers: Abstract brown leaves

A lovely book of poetry celebrating brown that includes family, tradition, food and home. Tan, sienna, topaz...bay, sepia, cocoa...ocher, beige, sandalwood...coffee, adobe, tamarind...spruce, nutmegt, BROWN. All written in the same format. A wonderful model. A beautiful picture book. Lovely poetry.

Sienna
Brown.
Sienna brown.
Rusty, dusty, coppery brown.

Reddish-brown mountains,
our southwest home.

Dad hears coyotes calling
I spot their sandy tracks.

Four o'clock breeze
drifts the smell of sage
across our sienna path.

Strong, unyielding brown.
Warm, abiding brown.

Keep going! You can make it!
We scramble over the rocks,
brush past juniper branches,
to reach the top and look out
across our sunset canyon,
sienna brown.

I can't show the indentations properly. Wish I could.

50. Death Assemblage - Susan Cummins Miller

Frankie MacFarlane #1
Texas Tech Univ. Press, 2002
Rating: 3.5

Set in Pair-a-Dice, Nevada, a tiny "hick" town in the northern part of the state, our heroine, six-footer Frankie MacFarlane, is working on her graduate thesis in geology and smarting over a broken romance. She has nine lives, a huge curiosity, and is very nosy. There's a huge cast of characters, murders, break-ins, strangers, and an inordinate amount of clues that DO come together at the end. It's improbable, interesting, and a fun read. The suicide? accident? murder? of her ex sets up a future novel...

It's not a "polished" story - many clues and much information are introduced weakly, but it's the first in a series (even possibly her first book?) and it will be interesting to see if character development is better in future novels.