Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

reimagined and illustrated by Christopher Myers. 2007. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. (9781423103721). 

Media: watercolor and acrylic paints

Author/Illustrator Website: none

Awards and Honors: Booklist, Starred Review

Annotation: 

A creative reimagining of Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll's famous poem from Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There.

Personal Reaction:

      Christopher Myers' colorful and creative spin on the most famous gibberish verse in the English language bristles with energy and dynamism. Myers has (through research and a few artistic liberties) transformed a poem that is ostensibly about a knight who slays a monster into a modern verse about a one-on-one basketball challenge. The Jabberwocky becomes a dark, hulking, 13-fingered giant with glowing eyes and flashing teeth. The hero is a boy who appears, sneakers in hand, to challenge the monster on the court. He makes quick work of the Jabberwocky ("One, two! One, two! And through, and through") and struts off the court dribbling the basketball. Myers accompanies the action with illustrations that set up the context- children running through opened fire hydrants, playing double-dutch and shooting marbles. This contemporary interpretation would be an excellent way to introduce a classic poem to students, or to supplement curriculum on British literature.

    

Curriculum Connection: Middle school language arts- poetry

ellington was not a street

ellington was not a street
by Ntozake Shange, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, 2004. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. (0689828845).

Author Website: http://www.ntozakeshange.org/home.html

Illustrator Website: http://www.kadirnelson.com/

Media: oil

Awards and Honors: ALA Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration , ALA Notable Children's Books , Capitol Choices List (DC), CCBC Choices (Cooperative Children's Book Council), Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best , Coretta Scott King Award, Kansas State Reading Circle Primary Titles, NAACP Image Award Nominee, NCTE Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts, NYPL 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, Once Upon a World Award (Simon Wiesenthal Center & Museum of Tolerance), Parents' Choice Award

Annotation: A personal tribute to poet Ntozake Shange's childhood home and the influential men who gathered there.

Personal Reaction/ Discussion of Artwork:
      Poet Ntozake Shange's childhood home was frequented by some of the most influential African Americans of the 20th century. From W.E.B. DuBois, to "Dizzy" Gillespie, Paul Robeson and the eponymous Duke Ellington, these "men/ who changed the world" are remembered in Shange's poem and expressively depicted in Kadir Nelson's oil illustrations.

     If Shange's poem comes off a bit solemn- as an ode to what used to be and now is "mere memory", Nelson's illustrations are a celebration. His portraits are beautifully rendered in oil with special attention given to the features and expressions of his subjects. We see this extraordinary group of men sing, mingle and converse (about exactly what, we are left to imagine, but we can infer they are likely matters of significance). Nelson's oil illustrations are rich with color and detail. On the cover of ellington was not a street the author appears as a pig-tailed young child of seven or eight, holding an LP copy of Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo"- the song from which the title of Shange's original poem is taken. Opposite the title page the author appears again, this time as a teenager seated on a piano bench while holding the same record. Observant readers will notice on the first page of the book that the woman on Ellington Street with the red umbrella is also, in fact, our narrator. Within the body of the poem, Shange is depicted as a very young child, perhaps two or three years old at the most, dwarfed by the musicians, politicians and activists who visit her home. Other reviewers have pointed out that the age of the narrator in the bulk of the illustrations is at odds with the age of the intended audience of the book. Nelson takes artistic liberties here; by depicting Shange as a tiny child, the men are transformed into grand and imposing figures- literally as well as figuratively.

Curriculum Connection: Middle School- Language Arts/ poetry

Harlem

Harlem
a poem by Walter Dean Myers, illustrated by Christopher Myers. New York: Scholastic. 1997. (0590543407).

Author Website: http://www.walterdeanmyers.net/

Illustrator Website: none

Media: ink, gouache and collage

Awards and Honors: Caldecott Honor Book, 1998; Coretta Scott King Award; Selected title of the White Ravens, 1998; Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Fiction Honor, 1997

Annotation:
A boldly illustrated, vibrant and sophisticated tale of the storied New York neighborhood and the people who moved there for the promise of a better life. 

Personal Response: 
     "Harlem was a promise..." begins Walter Dean Myers' poetic tribute to the community, culture and contributions of Harlem and its people. A hope for a better life drew people to the neighborhood where they created a vibrant new community. Myers has written much about Harlem in his novels for young adults, and he manages to encapsulate the spirit and soul of the neighborhood in this poem. Myers' rhythmic prose, its cadence reminiscent of a preacher's sermon, vividly conveys the sights, sounds, smells and colors of Harlem. Christopher Myers' collage illustrations, rendered in bold warm tones accented with strong indigos focus primarily on the residents, both young and old, engaged in play, worship and social activities. This is a beautiful and lyrical book, which will likely appeal to an older audience. Those older readers already familiar with landmarks like the Apollo and the Cotton Club and figures such as Langston Hughes and W.E.B. Du Bois will get the most out of this poem- its references are too sophisticated for elementary or even most middle school readers.