Illustrated by J. Beth Jepson
2012, Kane Miller, a division of EDC Publishing
36 pgs.
Written for kids (but accessible to us all!)
Finished 10/26/2013
Poetry
My Rating: Awesome (5)
Acquired: Through TPPL interlibrary loan from the Geneva, Illinois Public Library
People included: Sylvia Mendez (discrimination against Mexicans in American schools), Nicholas Cobb (a kids helping homeless people in a big way), Father Gregory Boyle (humanitarian working with LA gangs), Anne Frank, Jonas Salk, Jean-Michel Basquiat (contemporary artist who died young), Michelle Kwan (most decorated female ice skater in American history), ASHLEY BRYAN (
see separate blog), Temple Grandin (autistic cattle rancher), Martha Graham, GEORGIA O'KEEFFE, Christa McAuliffe, Steven Spielberg, and last but not least, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim (YouTube founders)
Poets included: Jill Corcoran, J. Patrick Lewis, Alice Schertle, David L. Harrison, Jane Yolen, Joan Bransfield Graham, Ellen Hopkins, Georgia Heard, Hope Anita Smith, Elaine Magliaro, Janet S. Wong, Curtis Crisler, Denise Lewis Patrick, Joyce Lee Wong, Jacqui Robbins, Julia Durango, Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, Lisa Wheeler, Hope Vestergaard, Carol M. Tanzman, Stephanie Hemphill, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Joyce Sidman, Marilyn Singer, Rose Horowitz, Alan Katz, Kelly Ramsdell Fineman, Laura Purdie Salas, and Bruce Coville. WOW!
My
comments: This is a really special book. You don't even have to be a poetry lover to totally enjoy the thoughts, the words, the information, and the illustrations in this book. It tells of people who, mostly in their own quiet way, have made a difference in our world.
This book has a great rating. It's an amazingly wonderful book. To even borrow it from a library (there were none in any of the Tucson, Arizona branches), they were able to obtain it from interlibrary loan from....Geneva, Illinois! What's going on? Why is a special book like this so difficult to find?
Goodreads Review:
Nicholas Cobb
Four-year-old Nicholas Cobb
saw people living under a bridge, asked
why,
Asking still as years passed,
Boy Scout Cobb decided to do...
something...
make a difference.
Fifty-four kids at City House
needed more than shelter.
They needed hope, a way to cope,
a gift of love,
a warm coat.
That was something.
Nicholas asked friends to give,
left jars in barbershops,
made a website - Comfort and Joy,
did what he could
and
money came in.
Ten years from the bridge,
Eagle Scout Cobb,
doing what he could,
bought fifty-four coats
By learning what it means
to ask not why
but how
to make
a difference.
David L. Harrison
Some pages have two poems about the same person linked --
This Moment
The Frank Family - Monday 7:30 am July 6, 1942
Stepping over puddles on Prinsengracht Street,
shoes soaked, heavy rucksacks on their backs,
coats, caps and scarves although it's warm July;
silence between them.
Anne wonders how others on the street
can act like it's a normal day;
no knots in their stomachs, no legs trembling with fear,
At her father's office building, a spice warehouse,
they open the door - sweet cinnamon fills the air.
Now it's quiet. Office workers haven't yet arrived.
They climb the narrow staircase to the small rooms
in the back of the secret annex
where this moment turns into days
into weeks and months
into two years hiding - waiting.
Eerily ordinary days -
Westertoren church clock chiming every half hour,
playing Monopoly with Peter,
cooking supper,
eating split-pea soup and potatoes with dumplings
washing up
listening to the radio at night for news of the war
like any family.
While in hiding Anne writes to
Kitty.
Her words thread through
her dreams;
and later
ours -
threat through every moment -
ever after.
Georgia Heard
Faith of a Mustard Seed
In the attic, everything happens on a piece of paper: happiness, disappointment, fear,
Spite. I can laugh out loud. Shout. Make my voice heard. Tell
Of my love for a complicated boy.
Everything is documented.
I let my pen whisper my secrets into the ear of the page.
Still, I wish my dear Kitty could hear them first hand. I allow myself to
Believe that one day Peter and I will share a life together. That the
People we love will eat Shabbat dinner at our table. That we
Are only here until the world rights itself.
Basically, when someone soothes the beast.
Good always prevails. Doesn't it?
At least that's what I believe in my
Heart of hearts.
Hope Anita Smith
Painter
"Where I was born and where and how I lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest." ~Georgia O'Keeffe
Sky will always be.
So shall I.
Feel my sudden thrill
as I stand atop
a beloved red hill.
Hear my silent voice rush
from Charcoal, paint, a well-used brush
as I speak with hues --
vibrant violet, a grandeur of green -
bringing to life what I have seen.
Sense my strength
of a gigantic flower,
dry, desolate desert sands
I hard-studied hour after patient hour.
View my
ancient skulls of deer,
horse,
dried up ram ---
then you'll know just who I am.
Yes.
Sky will always be.
So shall I.
So shall I.
Lee Bennett Hopkins
Ripples
No one acts in isolation
And no act leaves the world the same.
Words and gestures ripple outward,
What shores they reach we cannot name.
All our lives end in a riddle --
A mystery without an answer,
For even gone we ripple on,
Like a dance without the dancer.
Did you extend a friendly hand?
Did you lift a battered spirit?
The one you helped helped someone else
Ah! Now we're getting near it.
That second someone dropped despair
Did not give in, instead revived
To teach, to love, to fight, to dare,
And what you've done lived on, survived.
On and out the circle widens,
Past all hope of comprehending.
The slightest touch can change the world
Healing, helping, lifting, mending,
Actions last for generations
Our fathers' mothers mold our hearts.
We in turn shape all that follows;
Each time we act, a ripple starts.
Bruce Coville
