On the Second Day of Christmas...

...my true love gave to me, poetry!  Last year I also featured some poetry books but I really feel like you can never get enough poetry.  This year I bring you two that have made multiple lists as the best of the year.

Everything on It by Shel Silverstein
Age 6 - 12

I mentioned this book earlier when it first came out.  The book was published this year, long after Shel Silverstein passed away.  It contains "never-before-published" poems from the famous poet.  I love how the book begins.

Years From Now

Although I cannot see your face
As you flip these poems awhile,
Somewhere from some far-off place
I hear you laughing - and I smile.

What a perfect poem to start a new collection, where Shel will hear us only from "some far-off place."  And boy did I ever laugh.  Poems like "Everything On It" which describe ALL the ingredients on a hot dog, or "Milking Time," which tells what happened to Nearsighted Norman who learns his lesson when he pulls up a stool and a bucket to milk the bull, will get your giggling loud enough for Shel to hear. There are also the poems that make you think, like "Masks" which goes like this...

She had blue skin, 
And so did he. 
He kept it hid 
And so did she. 
They searched for blue
Their whole life through,
Then passed right by - 
And never knew.

Shel delivers...again!  A great tribute to a great artist!

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Age 10 - 13

This chapter book written in verse tells the story of Há, a ten-year old girl living in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.  Inside Out & Back Again won the National Book Award for Young Adult Lit this year and it is easy to see why.  The reader is taken back to a place and time not often written about in young adult literature.  I can't imagine such a powerful experience to be shared in any way other than poetry.  We feel the calm, the fear, the anxiety, the strength, and the growth through each poem's words and format.  As young Há chronicles her journey from Saigon to Alabama, we learn about her struggles. First, the war comes closer to her home, and her father still does not return from fighting, her family makes the decision to flee.  Then, we travel with her on the boat ride where,

Everyone knows the ship
could sink,
unable to hold
the piles of bodies
that keep crawling on
like raging ants
from a disrupted nest.


But no one
is heartless enough
to say
stop
because what if
they had been
stopped
before their turn?


After Há's family arrives in America, they wait to get a sponsor, a family to host them and help them adjust to American life.  Meanwhile, she starts to learn the rules of learning a new language.  We hear her progress, her confusion, and her frustration.  After finding a sponsor, Há and her family now meets the challenges of being a stranger in a new place not used to strangers.  The children are not friendly to her and it is painful to read how they tease her about her name, the way she looks, and the way she talks.  The neighbors are just as unfriendly.  In the poem "Neighbors" we hear how after a frustrating experience, her mother decides to meet the neighbors only to face slammed doors and shouts until they meet "MiSSSisss WaSShington." Miss Washington is different from her neighbors and welcomes the family with open arms.

The book offers many lessons relevant to hot topics with kids.  Bullying, war, accepting others, and taking pride in yourself are all big themes that wind through the lines of these poems.  Definitely worth the win, and worth your time!