Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes
Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes
Poems by: Langston Hughes
Poems Edited by: David Roessel and Arnold Rampersad
Illustrated by: Benny Andrews
Genre: Poetry
Major Awards: Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award (2007)
Grade Level: 3-6
Summary: This book contains poems written by Langston Hughes. They cover many aspects, including his childhood, his adult life, his African American heritage, and music. Hughes uses emotion purposefully and skillfully to convey his own feelings and to paint a picture with his poetry. One of my favorite parts of this book includes two poems side by side that are "companion pieces." These two poems contrast pessimism and optimism, showing his personal range of emotions and outlooks in the world.
Evaluation: I really, really enjoyed this book and I think it would be a wonderful addition in any classroom. The poems covered a range of topics and truly showed that poetry is an expressive art form that have the ability to reveal a lot about a person's thoughts, feelings, and lives. Something that I really liked about this book was that before each poem, the editors inserted a small blurb about the poem, whether it was about its meaning, a bit of history about the poem, or even why the author wrote it. It also included definitions at the bottom of the page for certain slang words to help readers better understand the poetry.
This book is great for third through sixth grade, and even beyond. Each poem has a ton of personality and style, making it fun to read as well as intriguing. The illustrations are also wonderful and add so much to the atmosphere that each poem creates. These poems can be read independently and aloud, so it really opens a lot of doors for the students in these grades.
Out of the five poetry books I read for this section of my blog, this was by far my favorite. I loved that I got cultural insight from the poems as well as learning about the author in the introduction and blurbs throughout the book. I think this book would be an excellent tool for teaching writing style as well as how poetry is more than just words on a page. I can also see myself using this to teach about cultural differences. For instance, I could find poetry books by authors within different cultures or poems that discuss culture and heritage. The students could then compare and contrast them to help them gain insight about the individuals as well as the culture as a group.
This book is great for third through sixth grade, and even beyond. Each poem has a ton of personality and style, making it fun to read as well as intriguing. The illustrations are also wonderful and add so much to the atmosphere that each poem creates. These poems can be read independently and aloud, so it really opens a lot of doors for the students in these grades.
Out of the five poetry books I read for this section of my blog, this was by far my favorite. I loved that I got cultural insight from the poems as well as learning about the author in the introduction and blurbs throughout the book. I think this book would be an excellent tool for teaching writing style as well as how poetry is more than just words on a page. I can also see myself using this to teach about cultural differences. For instance, I could find poetry books by authors within different cultures or poems that discuss culture and heritage. The students could then compare and contrast them to help them gain insight about the individuals as well as the culture as a group.
Kayla -- I like that you discussed why this poetry book was your favorite. Good blog post.
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