The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary

Bibliography
Fleming, C. (2008). The Lincolns : a scrapbook look at Abraham and Mary. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books. ISBN: 9780375836183

Plot Summary
The saying often goes “behind every great man there is a great woman”. Author Candace Fleming recognized this about the Lincoln’s during her research on the sixteenth president. Thus inspired this scrapbook of the influential couple and their lives together.
  
Critical Analysis
After the introduction, where the author explains their reasoning for writing about man and wife, a timeline is provided for the couple. A short key is given to separate Abraham Lincoln and Mary Lincoln and note when the events were shared by both.

The book is separated into chapters titled to reflect the contents with a quote from one or both Lincoln's. The chapter is then separated into sections conveyed with a black strip and white text in all capital letters. Each page is organized to look like a newspaper spread. Or a scrapbook with newspaper clippings. Images are provided with most if not all selections. Important documents, book covers, maps, and other documents that reflected the Lincolns lives are all archived within the pages.

The first two chapters are mirrors of each other almost. Lincoln, a “Backwoods Boy”, grew up the son of a poor farmer. His father remarried soon after Lincoln’s mother died, and he loved his stepmother deeply. Mary Todd, conversely, had a decadent childhood and wanted for nothing. She despised her stepmother and couldn’t wait to leave home. Later chapters develop the relationship between Abraham and Mary, and their journey into politics and the Civil War. The very end of the book details Mary’s bouts with depression, how she copes as a widow, her only living son’s betrayal, and her death.

The font used in this book is called Old Times American which is based on typefaces from the 1800s (this information is provided at the beginning of the book with the copyright page). This font helps support the newspaper theme the pages have.

The amount of text on each page will intimidate or reluctant readers. Advanced readers and lovers of history will rejoice in the information held in the pages. The research Fleming conducted for this book was extensive. Fleming describes the research experience at the very end of the book in the section titled “A Little Bit About the Research”. “Any biography of the Lincolns should be founded on their own words”. Fleming goes into a thorough description of her attempts to create as authentic a depiction of the Lincolns’ as possible. Following this section, Fleming provides notes for each chapter and the resource it came from, as well as an index for easy to find information.

Review Excerpt(s)
Norman A. Sugarman Award (2010)
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award (2009)
Society of Midland Authors Award for Children's Nonfiction (2009)
NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book (2009)
BOOKLIST: "Fleming offers another standout biographical title, this time twining accounts of two lives—Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln—into one fascinating whole."
HORN BOOK MAGAZINE: "Fleming is able to compare and contrast the president with his first lady, giving us not only greater insight into each of them but also a fuller picture of the world in which they lived."
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "It's hard to imagine a more engaging or well-told biography of the Lincolns."

Connections
After studying the pages, students will create their own “scrapbook” newspaper page about a person of their own choosing. One section will be about their childhood, another about their attempts to break into the industry they are known for, a current piece or what happened after they retired. They will need to find an authentic document or quote to add to their piece. A picture should occupancy each article.
Create a bookmark with the Top 10 Things you’ve learned about either Abraham or Mary Lincoln.
Math: Money comparisons. The book often talks about money conversions. Have student convert money today from that of the 1860s. Students should also practice with international conversions.
Geography - Map out the battles from the Civil War. What advantages or disadvantages did the North or South have?
Create a timeline for the beginning of the Civil War. What lead to this? (The Mexican War should definitely be on here, as well as the Compromise of 1850).
Create a timeline of “firsts” - Mary Lincoln was the first “First Lady” and there were many other firsts conceived during Lincoln’s presidency as reflected on page 129.
Students can create an interview with one of the people that interacted with the Lincolns. Such as Elizabeth Keckly, Mary Lincoln’s trusted confidant who wrote a tell-all, Robert Lincoln, or one of Lincoln’s appointed generals.

What To Do About Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy!

Bibliography
Kerley, B. & Fotheringham, E. (2008). What to do about Alice? : how Alice Roosevelt broke the rules, charmed the world, and drove her father Teddy crazy. Ill. by Edwin Fotheringham. New York: Scholastic Press.ISBN: 9780439922319

Plot Summary
Theodore Roosevelt has done a lot in his life. He’s bagged a grizzly bear, lead the Rough Riders, and served as the President of the United States. But even with all of that experience, he has never learned how to do one thing. What can be done about his daughter, Alice Lee Roosevelt?

Rather than focus on the man, the president, this biography focuses on the daughter. What was life like for the daughter of the future president of the United States? What sort of hijinks did she get into? Find out in this peak into one of the most prominent families in United States history.

Critical Analysis
The beginning of this classic picture book introduces Theodore Roosevelt’s problem: his daughter, Alice. After the descriptions of everything Roosevelt has faced, he is no long Theodore Roosevelt, but Father. The story follows a chronological progression from young Alice to her contributions as the wife of a congressman.

The images are colorful and the illustrator manages to compact heaps of information in a limited space. For example, pages 8 and 9 depict a train that conveys the move the family made between New York and Washington D.C. On the same page as the trains, there are oval pictures of Alice picnicking, pretending to ride a horse, and drinking tea to reflect the text on the page. A few pages later, Alice falls down a set of stairs due to her braces. The fall is revealed with dotted lines.

At the very back of the book, in the Author’s Note, the author provides more information about the presidents’ firstborn daughter. President Roosevelt never called her Alice. The pain of losing his first wife kept him from uttering her name so he called her “sister” instead. The author also provides details about Alice’s contributions in Washington D.C. long after her husband's death. Rather than giving the reader a detailed list of resources, the author cites only a few sources in small print on the back cover. The inspiration behind writing this book is given in the author’s biography. Barbara Kerly came across an image of Alice in a historical magazine with an interesting caption that prompted her to write this book.

What To Do About Alice? is an interesting and different take on the original biography. It shows that the presidents weren’t the only interesting figures living in the White House.

Review Excerpt(s)
Sibert Medal Nominee (2009)
Irma Black Award Nominee (2009)
BOOKLIST: "Irrepressible Alice Roosevelt gets a treatment every bit as attractive and exuberant as she was....The large format gives Fotheringham, in his debut, plenty of room for spectacular art."
KIRKUS:"Theodore Roosevelt s irrepressible oldest child receives an appropriately vivacious appreciation in this superb picture book.... Kerley s precise text presents readers with a devilishly smart, strong-willed girl who was determined to live life on her own terms and largely succeeded."

Connections
Journal Prompt: What trouble do you get into at home that would make your parents say “What to do about _____?”
Provide different biographies about other children of presidents.
Have students choose a child of a president. Students will conduct an interview with the president’s child. This could be presented as a podcast so students will have to work in partners. One student is the interviewer and the other is the president's’ child.
Math: determine the distance between Washington D.C. and New York City. Create a word problem with this distance.

Apex Predators: The World's Deadliest Hunters, Past and Present

Bibliography
Jenkins, S. (2017). Apex predators : the world's deadliest hunters, past and present. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN: 9780544671607

Plot Summary
Author Steven Jenkins introduces readers to apex predators, the top dogs of the food chain. Learn about predators of the past and present, and what qualities made them so formidable. You may be surprised at the height and width of some of these dangerous hunters!

Critical Analysis
Each page in this book has a colored illustration of a predator. The first page gives the reader the definition of what a predator is and an example of a present predator and extinct predator. The present day predator has a green/blue box at the top of the page with the same color for the title text with a short name and description of the predator in black. The extinct predators have a red box with how long they have been extinct. The extinct animal also has a red title and short descriptor written in black.

After the first page, the author goes into the different modern-day predators. There are two per spread. The name of the animal is bolded. A small scale is provided with each animal to demonstrate how deadly the animal is compared to an average human. This is helpful to the reader, and also introduces a sense of fear in the reader at the thought of encountering such an animal.

The extinct predator pages look much the same as the modern day predators. After the bolded name of the animal, there are pronunciations in parenthesis. One animal, the Daedon or killer pig, takes a two page spread.

The last two pages of the book offer up an Apex Predator Face-Off On Land and In the Water. The pages offer up the question as to which predator would win in a fight? The predator that is now extinct or the present day one? The final page provides the reader with more reading material and websites to check out.
This book will definitely interest reluctant readers with the colorful images and short blocks of text.   

Review Excerpt(s)
SLJ: "Jenkins has done it again—all nonfiction collections will want this title."
BOOKLIST: "It’s a clear and simple addition to Jenkins’ books of animal infographics, and browsers interested in the fiercest of the animal world will snap it quickly up."
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: "The intricacy of Jenkins’s distinctive artwork will capture readers’ imaginations, as will the predator face-offs he stages between pairs of predators. Great white shark vs. Dunkleosteus, anyone?"

Connections
Battle of the Apex Predators. Have students compare two predators and decide which would win. Students must provide evidence for their reasoning.
Create a social media profile for one of the apex predators. Must include where they could be found, their favorite foods, and an image.
Create a food chain with one of the modern-day apex predators at the top.
Have students find additional apex predators that can be added to this book. Students will create a page to add to the book, pamphlet, or bookmark. 

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream

Bibliography
Stone, T. & Weitekamp, M. (2009). Almost astronauts : 13 women who dared to dream. Somerville, Mass: Candlewick Press. 

Plot Summary
In 1957 the Russians initiated the space race when Sputnik launched. The United States created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in order to beat the Russians. The Mercury Seven were the first seven men selected, after extensive training and testing, as the first group of American astronauts.

But what about the women?

Almost Astronauts conveys the struggles that thirteen women went through in order to prove that women were fit to travel to space. Thirteen women demonstrated bravery, resilience, and determination throughout the same testing and training as the Mercury Seven astronauts went through. Many of them endured the tests with superior results compared to their male counterparts. Despite their results, prejudice won out. It would be another twenty years before a female could claim the title of astronaut and embark on a mission to space.

Critical Analysis
This is a chapter book that follows a chronological sequence. The first chapter is from 1999 and introduces the main idea of the text, but the next chapter goes backward to 1960. Each page has relevant pictures to the text in black and white. If there is a spread without a photograph, the background of the page is often an expanded version of a photograph. The Foreword, for example, has a picture of clouds in the background. Later, on pages 68-69, is a blown-up version of the picture on page 66 of Jerrie Cobb and Jane Hart. It is not until page 103 and onward that there are colored pictures in the book. This is to reflect the gap from when the women fought for their right to join NASA to 1999 when Eileen Collins “took to the skies”.

The author also provides political cartoons and magazine covers from the time period the chapter focuses on. A copy of a letter from then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is provided on page 64 as evidence to his disregard for female astronauts.

At the end of the book, the author provides all of the resources they used to complete this book. They also provide source notes for each chapter. Photography credits, an appendix and an index to pertinent information are also supplied at the end of the book. The author offers up further reading in case the reader is interested in learning more about these women and their efforts.

Review Excerpt(s) 
Sibert Medal (2010)
Jane Addams Children's Book Award Nominee for Older Children (2010)
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award (2010)
YALSA Award Nominee for Excellence in Nonfiction (2010)
NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book (2010)
The HORN BOOK: “Stone presents the full story of early-sixties public discourse about women’s capabilities and clearly shows the personal, political, and physical risks taken by the women in pursuit of their dream.”
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: Readers with an interest in history and in women's struggle for equality will undoubtedly be moved.
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: This passionately written account of a classic but little-known challenge to established gender prejudices also introduces readers to a select group of courageous, independent women.

Connections
Students can create a research project about one of the thirteen women that completed and passed the tests to become astronauts.
Have a bulletin display about women that struggled to get into a male-dominated industry.
Compared these women to the women from Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space.
Students can research the different tests that the women had to complete in order to become astronauts.
Attempt a deprivation tank activity. Have students lay down with cotton balls in their ears and turn off the lights. See how long it takes for students to begin talking to one another.
Have students expand their knowledge with the references given in the back of the book.

Words With Wings

Bibliography
Grimes, N. (2013). Words with wings. Honesdale, Penn.: WordSong. ISBN: 9781590789858

Plot Summary
Gabriella began daydreaming to escape her parents' arguments. The fighting escalates into divorce. Her father leaves. And six month later, Gabby starts at a new school. The daydreaming has grown into what her mother and teacher would call a distraction. She can’t seem to focus at all, and no one wants to be her friend. With the help of an innovative teacher, Gabby learns that maybe her daydreaming isn’t such a bad thing after all. 

Critical Analysis
The poems in this novel in verse a short, quick, and to the point. No rhymes are needed, and the thought of a rhythm escape once the reader is brought into Gabby’s world. Nikki Grimes conveys incredible emotion in only a few lines. Favorite Words proves this by expressing despair at the difference between her and her mother, and Switch proves this with a sense of hopefulness at the opportunity for a new friend. Grimes selects her words carefully, which makes sense considering the theme throughout the book.

The poems switch from what is currently happening to Gabby to some of her favorite words and things or daydreams she associates with those words. Some of the poems take a different format to reflect the word or subject matter. Stilts has “GABBY THE GREAT” in a larger font, but the poem is very thin with one to two words in each line. This is done to indicate a person on a stilt. Later on, in the poem Canyon, the ending of her name is shown in all capital letters, then the name is shown again with some lowercase letters and spread far apart and then it is shown a third time in all lowercase letters. This is to show the reader an echo from yelling into the Grand Canyon. The font switches from Times to Roman to Century Gothic so the reader can distinguish from a daydream and real life.

The cover of this book is as simple as some of the poems, but packs as much of a punch. A single desk with an open notebook. Wonderous things escape from the notebook, hinting at the magic that words can create. An excellent introduction to poetry and writing in general.


Review Excerpt(s)
Coretta Scott King Award for Author Honor - 2014

BOOKLIST:  ". . . Grimes has written a novel in verse that is an enthusiastic celebration of the power of words and imagination. . . Always accessible, Grimes' language is vivid, rhythmic, and figurative. . . Grimes' words speak to the daydreamer in every reader."

PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: " . . . Grimes packs substantial emotional heft into her poems, especially the way that Gabby's parents' separation weighs on her. . . her poems lovingly convey the rich inner life (and turmoil) of a girl in the process of finding her voice.

KIRKUS REVIEWS:  "In this delightfully spare narrative in verse, Coretta Scott King Award-winning Grimes examines a marriage's end from the perspective of a child. . . Throughout this finely wrought narrative, Grimes' free verse is tight, with perfect breaks of line and effortless shifts from reality to dream states and back. An inspirational exploration of caring among parent, teacher and child--one of Grimes' best."

Connections
Allow students to do as they did in Mr. Spicer’s class. Give them ten minutes to just daydream and then write about what they thought about. See what emerges after a few minutes to themselves and their thoughts.
Have students choose their own words that mean something special to them. Have students write poems about what they associate with that word, as Gabby did with her words.
The beginning of the book talks about how Gabriella got her name. Have the students go home and learn about the origin of their name and discuss in class.
*A cross between regular narrative and poetry, Between the Lines by Nikki Grimes can help readers learn the importance of poetry and the story everyone has to tell.
Grimes, N. (2018). Between the lines. New York, NY: Nancy Paulsen Books. ISBN: 9780399246883

Hidden

Bibliography
Frost, H. (2011). Hidden. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN: 9780374382216

Plot Summary
When they were eight years old, Wren and Darra both experienced a traumatic event that shaped the next six years of their lives. Wren was accidentally kidnapped in a robbery gone wrong. Darra? Her father was the accidental kidnapper.

Six years later, the two girls meet again in a chance encounter at Camp Oakwood. The try to keep their separate ways but are forced together during different camp activities. The two will have to confront the past to move on to the future.

Critical Analysis
The cover of this novel in verse is hauntingly beautiful. After having read the novel, it would appear that Darra is the girl on the left. The last six years have left her bitter and angry, and she doesn’t want to go to some random camp. The darkness suits her character in the second part of the book. Wren has been reunited with her family. She is friends with the “popular” crowd at Camp Oakwood. It seems as though life has leveled out for her. The fiery reds and lighter skin tone seem to reflect a person who may not be at peace with life, but who is getting there. But as you read Slideshow of Memories, you learn that it is actually flipped.

The first part of the book is split into chapters that contain short stanzas. It is told from eight-year-old Wren’s point of view in the back seat of the car. Many of Wren’s short thoughts that may pop into her head are enclosed within parentheses. This helps create a sense of urgency in some of the scenes, like when she is trying to figure out who the man, woman and little girl are.

The second part of the book is Darra’s point of view six years after Wren escapes. These poems are split by titles. They are longer poems. The pages almost look like that of a regular novel. This could be to represent Darra’s anger and how she is still trying to process her father being locked away for the past six years. She is surprisingly a daddy’s girl, even after his treatment of his family.

The third part, and the rest of the book flip between Wren and Darra’s point of view. The poems are separated by titles and underneath the title has the name of the character. The poems for Darra continue to be longer in length across the page whereas Wren’s are a tad shorter.

I Don’t Surface from Darra’s perspective is a distressing poem. “...I pull away, then reach for her arms,/but she gets my hair, pulls me toward her,/and kicks hard to surface. Only-I don’t surface-I stay/under. She’s holding me down/and I can’t get away. I tap her three times-she won’t let me up-Wren!-I don’t care if she pulls out a fistful of my hair-I need air!” The use of dashes and exclamation points emphasize the seriousness of the situation. This is especially troublesome because Wren has seemed rather...normal about the whole Darra being at the camp thing. But Wren begins to realize maybe she is not as healed as she thought.

The audiobook, which can be located at your local library’s Overdrive program, is approximately 2 hours long. It is read by Sisi Aisha Johnson and Maria Cabezas. This reader listened to the audiobook at 1.5x. The voices of the two narrators are close to one another. Maybe listening at 1.5x diluted some of their distinctive speech patterns. Both narrators enunciate properly, but they don’t really give unique voices to other characters to distinguish them from others. The narrators do a good job emphasizing the dashes and exclamation points. There doesn’t really seem to be a rhythm to the poems in this book. With the exception of the points where there are the dashes, exclamation points, or other such punctuation marks, it reads just like a regular novel.

The content of this book surprised me. Many novels in verse tend to surprise me. I don’t imagine I’ll care much for them and suddenly I’m listening to a story about a girl who is accidentally kidnapped! Where is this going to go?! It is always a pleasant surprise when that happens.


Review Excerpt(s)
VOYA - “Many teen readers will identify with Wren and Darra and how events that happened to us when we were younger help shape the person we become.”
BOOKLIST - “Like Frost's Printz Honor Book, Keesha's House (2003), this novel in verse stands out through its deliberate use of form to illuminate emotions and cleverly hide secrets in the text.”

Connections 
Students could practice writing a poem from another character’s POV - such as Wren’s mother when she goes into the little store or Darra’s father.
In Science, students could do some “Drown or Float” experiments to go with the game that is played at camp.
At the beginning of the novel, Wren’s mother leaves her alone in the car with the keys in the ignition. This could get students talking about whether they agree or disagree and evolved into a persuasive argument. Students can research kidnappings, car jacks, or kids dying in cars to support their arguments.

Inside Out and Back Again

Bibliography
Lai, T. & Shappell, R. (2011). Inside out & back again. New York: Harper. ISBN: 9780061962783

Plot Summary
It is the first day of the lunar calendar. The year of the cat. 1975. Kim Há lives in Saigon with her mother and three older brothers. But as the Vietnam War ends and Saigon crumbles, Há’s mother makes the decision to leave Saigon. The family leaves the only home they have ever known. Há’s father is MIA from the war, but they will never find out if he returns. A new life in Alabama awaits the family. There, Há must learn to adjust to this new life, this new language, food and customs. How will things be when the year turns to the year of the cat, 1976?

Critical Analysis
This book in verse is split into three parts. The first part is in Saigon. It gives the reader a background to the life Há and her family live. Right off the bat, Há’s stubbornness seeps through when she touches her big toe to the floor. She refuses to believe that only males can bring good luck to the family. This sets off a chain of events that leads us to the second part of the book entitled At Sea. This section details the harrowing trip from Saigon to Guam, and then the family waits until someone from America agrees to sponsor them. The last section of the book, Alabama, describes the struggles Há and her family endure in this new life.

While this is a book in verse, it also appears to act as a diary. Instead of writing the date at the top of the page, the title is at the bottom of every poem. This could be a cultural custom that the reader may not know about. Dialogue is represented with italics, and there are many Vietnamese phrases scattered throughout the book. When Há is attempting to learn English, her frustration at the different rules are easily felt. The author, Thanhha Lai, writes several of the English terms the way Há pronounces them. One of the friends she makes, Steven, she refers to as SSsÌ-Ti-Vân.

Lai weaves her own experiences as a refugee from Vietnam into this tale. The stanzas are short, and most of the lines are no more than three to five words. There is no rhyming, but there is a sort of rhythm. While there is not as much text as a full novel, Thai is able to create emotion with her select word choice. The poem Current News, for example, creates a sad tone. “ But when we keep talking about/how close the Communists/have gotten to Saigon,/how much prices have gone up/since American soldiers left,/how many distant bombs/were heard the previous night,/Miss Xinh finally says no more./From now on/Fridays/will be for/happy news./ No one has anything/to say.”   

Há tends to compare everyone in America’s skin tones and hair colors to fruits. Steven/SSsÌ-Ti-Vân is “of coconut-shell skin” (pg 184). Another girl has honey hair (pg 189), and there are “three girls of bronze-bread skin…” (pg 189). One way the author uses dragonflies in Há’s belly rather than butterflies. This helps point out the difference in cultures.

The audiobook, which can be found through your local library’s Overdrive program, is approximately three hours long. The narrator is Doan Ly. For this particular reader, listening at 1.5x speed was and acceptable speed. By listening to this, the dates at the end of the poems are a little confusing. It took me until they were in the tent city in Guam that I realized the dates were at the end of the poem, not the beginning. It was helpful to hear the Vietnamese terms and names spoken by the narrator. Any time there was dialogue spoken by Há and her broken English, it made it easier for me to imagine her as an English Language Learner student. It was hard to listen to Há and her struggles at adjusting. But it happens slowly, over time, as it probably did for the author.

This has been a book on my list to read since I student taught. A student was reading this book, and she managed to talk her literature group into reading it for their historical book club book. I had minimal knowledge of it. One of my current students is reading it, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to build a relationship with her. In all honesty, this wasn’t as amazing as I thought it would be, but it was an enjoyable listen/read.

Review Excerpt(s)
Newbery Medal Nominee (2012)
National Book Award for Young People's Literature (2011)
Jane Addams Children's Book Award
BOOKLIST: “Based in Lai’s personal experience, this first novel captures a child–refugee’s struggle with rare honesty. Written in accessible, short free–verse poems, Hà’s immediate narrative describes her mistakes—both humorous and heartbreaking; and readers will be moved by Hà’s sorrow as they recognize the anguish of being the outcast.”
KIRKUS REVIEWS: “An enlightening, poignant and unexpectedly funny novel in verse. In her not-to-be-missed debut, Lai evokes a distinct time and place and presents a complex, realistic heroine whom readers will recognize, even if they haven’t found themselves in a strange new country.”

Connections 
Use the first part of the book as an introduction to the Vietnam war in a social studies class. The first portion is peaceful with hints of the strife Saigon is enduring. In the second portion, the tone shifts dramatically.
Compare refugees to immigrants. What’s the difference? Are Há and her family immigrants or refugees?
Find paired text with articles of the Syrian refugees, etc.
Historical fiction literature circles
This would be a good read aloud with an ELL class. Students may relate to Há’s trouble learning the English language, customs, and foods. This could then evolve into students speaking of their own culture and creating a project out of it that ends in a celebration of diversity.
*Another book in verse that takes place in 1975. Only this character was airlifted out of Vietnam and adopted by an American family: 
Burg, A. (2009). All the broken pieces : a novel in verse. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN: 9780545080927

Book Speak!: Poems About Books

Bibliography
Salas, L. & Bisaillon, J. (2011). Bookspeak! : poems about books. Ill. by Josee Bisaillon. Boston: Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN: 9780547223001


Plot Summary
Laura Purdie Salas manages to describe the whimsy of books with this collection of poems. Each poem has its own topic of discussion but follows the simple theme: books. There are poems to explain the function of books. There is a poem that describes who all creates a book. There is a poem that is rather conflicted. All in all, this collection of poems is perfect for any lover of books and reading.

Critical Analysis
Calling All Readers announces the first poem. This, along with the whimsical illustrations by Josee Bisaillon, hint at an incredible journey ahead. Bisaillon’s illustrations on the first page are rudimentary, but in a way that works well in the context. The last stanza does state, “I promise adventure/Come on, take a look!/On a day like today,/there’s no friend like a book”.

Each page of this book is unique in its own way. The poem Skywriting uses different fonts, and there is a clever use of ink stains to look like birds. The next page boasts a new poem and begins a trend seen throughout the book of what appears to be book pages in the silhouette of another image. The poem A Character Pleads for His Life depicts a person on a surfboard and two turtles. These characters are both shaped with book pages. The illustrator uses a pen to create spots, sunglasses, and markings on the surfboard.

The poems are often told from the point of view of the book. The poet Salas also takes into account the parts that make up a book. There is a poem titled Index that speaks of that alone. There are other poems that refer to what is inside a book's pages such as conflicts, characters, cliffhangers, and the middle of a book.

Book Speak!: Poems About Books is a great way to get emerging readers excited about reading books. Older readers especially love of the topics within this book's pages, will appreciate the rhythm and imagery many of the poems create. Some of the poems may invoke emotions in the reader they didn’t realize were there.

Review Excerpt(s)
Minnesota Book Award for Children’s Literature - 2012
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "Well crafted and clever, covering a variety of aspects of books and reading...An appealing offering that will be especially popular with librarians."
BULLETIN: "There's definite read-aloud and performance potential here.”
Connections

Connections 
This book could be used in Kindergarten classes as a read aloud in order to get students excited about reading.
Elementary grades could use this book as a scavenger hunt for what makes up a book.
This could be used as a mentor text for students to use for poetry. Conflicted could be a mentor text for students to mimic for their own purposes. The Middle’s Lament: A Poem for Three Voices is another poem that would be ideal for students to mimic. It is in a text message type format that students will recognize. It would be an engaging way to create a poem.
This could also be a mentor text for a topical or thematic collection that your class will create. After using this as a read aloud, the class can vote on a topic that they would like to center a class book around and create one of their own.