SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Book Discussion
  • Heavy Medal Mock
  • Process

November 24, 2021 by Steven Engelfried

Spider Verse and Golden Shovels: Poetry Collections for Mock Newbery Consideration

November 24, 2021 by Steven Engelfried   2 comments

This has been a big year for novels in verse, with titles like STARFISH, RED, WHITE, AND HOLE, and AMBER AND CLAY receiving lots of attention from Heavy Medal readers. I haven’t been as focused on tracking picture book poetry; RUNAWAY: THE DARING ESCAPE OF ONA JUDGE is the one standout for me so far. I didn’t find many poetry collections this year, though. In my county library’s collection, I only identified nine eligible titles. Of those, here are two that I rate highest:

LEGACY: WOMEN POETS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE by Nikki Grimes
As she explains at the beginning, Grimes uses the “Golden Shovel” form, in which you “take a short poem in its entirety, or a line from the poem…to create a new poem using the words from the original.” (7) The achievement of creating poetry within those constraints is impressive, and the best examples shine as poems on their own and also in the way the reflect or expand on the words of the original. 

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

It the first poem, for example, the source is three lines from “Heritage,” by Mae V. Cowdery: 

Our dark fathers gave us

The gift of shedding sorrow

In a song. 

p 15

From this, Grimes creates “Before,” building a new poem around the relationships between fathers and daughters. She creates a short stanza from each of those three lines, and each of these brings an inspiring spirit. First she demands that the daughters be asked about the gifts:

Before we were women, we were our

Daddies’ daughters, the dark

princess who stole our fathers’

hearts. A single story says they gave

us little, except disappointment. But ask us. 

That “ask us” is powerful, and the next stanza offers answers, while also shifting it to a personal viewpoint:

Ask me and I’ll chronicle the

currency of love Dad splurged on me, the gift

of “yes you can,” and modeling dignity in the face of

vile attacks on his manhood without ever shedding

his humanity or surrendering to sorrow.

Finally, she expands on the “song” of the last line of Cowdery’s poem, tying that to the father-daughter relationship:

Like many dark fathers, he’d reclaim his soul in

the sweet strains of music, a

lesson we daughters learned: siphon sadness through a song.

p 16

That leap from the original to new, with a nod back to the original’s themes, is executed very well throughout the collection. In “Room for Dreams,” for example, she takes the oppressive words from the first lines of the original and flips them into defiant, assertive independence (23-24). In Blanche Taylor Dickinson’s “Four Walls,” the poet wonders what breaking free of walls might be like; in the companion poem, the narrator sees the walls and completely rejects them (83-84). As with most collections, not every poem is equally stellar, but this is probably my top poetry choice of the year…if it’s eligible. 

As Emily noted in an earlier post, Newbery eligibility for LEGACY is not clear cut. The Newbery Criteria require that a book be “original work,” but the Newbery Manual notes that “This does not mean that some minor portion of the work cannot have appeared elsewhere. It does mean, however, that no significant part of the book under consideration was originally part of another work.” (p 67). In this case, half of the poems have been previously published. I would argue that the “significant part of the book” is Grimes’ own poems, and that the others appear more to set the stage for hers. It’s hard to imagine any Golden Shovel collection that would not include the source material. The real Committee may decide otherwise, and because of confidentiality rules, the only way we might learn what they decided is if it does win Newbery recognition (that happened with UNDEFEATED a couple years ago). For our Mock-Newbery purposes, though, we’ll assume that LEGACY is eligible. 

SPI-KU: A CLUTTER OF SHORT VERSE ON EIGHT LEGS by Leslie Bulion, Illustrated by Robert Meganck

The poems in this collection are clever and fun, but also informative. They’re paired with fairly detailed prose paragraphs that provide background facts to the arachnids featured in the poems and to spiders in general. The two styles work together, sometimes almost inextricably. For instance, here’s a bit from the prose section about fishing spiders:

Fishing spiders can also row, using their second and third pairs of legs like oars, or raise their first pair of legs and sail across the water.

p 12

The poem recreates that in a playful manner:

Row, row, row my legs,

Pairs two and three are oars,

My first leg feels the way ahead,

Which do no work? My fours!

p 12
SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

You need to know about the leg functions for the poem to work. In “Australian Social Crab Spiderlings,” you figure out from the poem the unusual way in which the spiderlings interact with their mother (“When frost kills Mom’s deliveries / In fall, we drink blood from her knees”…) (35), but the accompanying text clarifies this just enough. 

The poems are mostly short and include a variety of forms. I like the wordplay in “Desert Blond Tarantula,” especially the double meanings of “split” and “swell.”

comfy 

on her silk pad

tarantula bursts her

tight exoskeleton and splits – 

all’s swell!

p 11

Other favorites include the two-voice verse between “The Orbweaver and The Wasp Larva” (spoiler: it’s a “spider blood buffet.”) (28) and “Green Ant-Hunter Spider,” a concrete poem in the shape of an ant (because the spider uses “ant perfume” as a disguise) (21).

The interplay between poetry and straight text is effective, but at times I felt a little unbalanced. On the smoothest pages, it is clearly evident which facts are tied to which poems. Sometimes the prose is a little more dense with information…it’s well-written and interesting, but disrupts the balanced flow that exists between the two parts on some spreads. Overall, though, SPI-KU is successfully demonstrates the potential of the always challenging poetry/prose mix in an informational book.  

I also looked at DELICIOUS, HARD BOILED BUGS FOR BREAKFAST, HELLO EARTH, HOOP KINGS 2, THE LAST STRAW, MY MAGIC WANDS, and MY THOUGHTS ARE CLOUDS. I’d love to hear if others have strong support for any of these, but for me the strongest poetry collection contenders of the year are SPI-KU, and especially LEGACY.    

Filed under: Book Discussion

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
Heavy MedalLegacyMock Newberynewbery 2022Newbery AwardSpi-Ku

About Steven Engelfried

Steven Engelfried was the Library Services Manager at the Wilsonville Public Library in Oregon until he retired in 2022 after 35 years as a full-time librarian. He served on the 2010 Newbery committee, chaired the 2013 Newbery Committee, and also served on the 2002 Caldecott committee. You can reach him at sengelfried@yahoo.com.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

January 2023

Who Will Win? 2023 Newbery Predictions

by Steven Engelfried

January 2023

Heavy Medal Mock Newbery Finalist: THE LAST MAPMAKER by Christina Soontornvat

by Steven Engelfried

January 2023

Heavy Medal Mock Newbery Finalist: BERRY SONG by Michaela Goade

by Steven Engelfried

January 2023

Mock Newbery Finalist: ATTACK OF THE BLACK RECTANGLES by Amy Sarig King

by Steven Engelfried

January 2023

Heavy Medal Mock Newbery Finalist: AIN'T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT By Jason Reynolds

by Steven Engelfried

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

2023 Caldecott Jump

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Ben Mortara and the Thieves of the Golden Table | This Week’s Comics

by Lori Henderson

Heavy Medal

March suggestions: early Mock Newbery possibilities

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Teen Librarian Toolbox

New Reports Show a Decline in YA Book Sales and I Have Some Thoughts as to Why That Might be Happening

by Karen Jensen, MLS

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Newbery Medalist Amina Luqman-Dawson visits The Yarn

by Colby Sharp

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

Children’s Publishing World Reacts to Michaela Goade's History-Making Caldecott Medal, Rest of the YMA Winners

Ringing in the Newbery (and Caldecott): An awards-trivia smackdown with Betsy Bird and Travis Jonker

2021 Youth Media Awards Winners

Linda Sue Park: Children Love Books with "Fierce Adoration" | The Newbery at 100

Susan Cooper on her Wartime Childhood and How Writing Is "Fed by My Unconscious" | The Newbery at 100

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kate Todd says

    November 26, 2021 at 5:38 pm

    Although there are few poetry collections this year, there are plenty of books for readers who enjoy poetry.
    In addition to the 3 verse novels mentioned by Steven, ALONE by Megan Freeman and UNSETTLED by Reem Farqui are written in verse and appear on the Heavy Medal November list.
    Linda Sue Park uses the Korean Sijo poetic form for her ONE THING YOU’D SAVE.
    Veera Hiranandani embeds original poems in HOW TO FIND WHAT YOU’RE NOT LOOKING FOR. This not only provides some poetry for reading but explores how ideas and experiences influence the writing of poetry.

  2. Emily Mroczek-Bayci says

    December 4, 2021 at 5:41 pm

    I forgot to comment on here earlier, but you are convincing me to nominate LEGACY (though you haven’t nominated yet either!!) I was so sad when ONE LAST WORD didn’t get any love in 2018 and STILL think about that one!

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

  • Other Mock Newbery Sites

    • Anderson’s Bookshops
    • For Those About to Mock
    • Good Reads Mock Newbery
    • Northport-East Northport PL
    • Rhode Island OLIS
  • Resources

    • Jen J's Starred Reviews Spreadsheet
    • Newbery Manual
    • Newbery Medal & Honor Books
    • Newbery Terms & Criteria
  • Follow This Blog

    Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    Primary Sidebar

    • News & Features
    • Reviews+
    • Technology
    • School Libraries
    • Public Libraries
    • Age Level
    • Ideas
    • Blogs
    • Classroom
    • Diversity
    • People
    • Job Zone

    Reviews+

    • Book Lists
    • Best Books
    • Media
    • Reference
    • Series Made Simple
    • Tech
    • Review for SLJ
    • Review Submissions

    SLJ Blog Network

    • 100 Scope Notes
    • A Fuse #8 Production
    • Good Comics for Kids
    • Heavy Medal
    • Neverending Search
    • Teen Librarian Toolbox
    • The Classroom Bookshelf
    • The Yarn

    Resources

    • 2022 Youth Media Awards
    • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
    • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
    • Summer Reading 2021
    • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
    • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
    • Summer Programming Survey
    • Research
    • White Papers / Case Studies
    • School Librarian of the Year
    • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
    • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

    Events & PD

    • In-Person Events
    • Online Courses
    • Virtual Events
    • Webcasts
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Media Inquiries
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Content Submissions
    • Data Privacy
    • Terms of Use
    • Terms of Sale
    • FAQs
    • Diversity Policy
    • Careers at MSI


    COPYRIGHT © 2023


    COPYRIGHT © 2023