THE CHRISTMAS COAT: MEMORIES OF MY SIOUX CHILDHOOD by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve ~ Culture 4

THE CHRISTMAS COAT: MEMORIES OF MY SIOUX CHILDHOOD by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve

Author: Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve

Title:  The Christmas Coat: Memories of My Sioux Childhood

Illustrator: Ellen Beier

Publisher:  Holiday House

Publication Date: 2011

ISBN:  9780823421343

Plot Summary

Virginia and her brother are never allowed to pick first from the donation boxes at church because their father is the priest, and she is heartbroken when another girl gets the beautiful coat that she covets. Based on the author's memories of life on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.

Critical Analysis

One Christmas, my self-employed father didn’t have money for Christmas gifts. He stayed in the master bedroom, bed-ridden and watching TV. He didn’t know my mother had squirrelled away some money and had given it to me to shop for gifts. I knew money was tight, so I purchased gifts I thought we would need. I bought my dad a can of his favorite pipe tobacco because I noticed he was low. I bought my mom some new Isotoner gloves since she had left hers behind on the Metro bus. My dad reluctantly participated in opening presents on Christmas and was almost moved to tears when he opened that box of pipe tobacco. I was so happy that I had made my mom and dad happy that I can’t even remember what I received at all. If you have a similar story in your background, you will connect with The Christmas Coat by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve.

The subtitle clues you in that this children’s holiday picture book is from the Native American culture: Memories of My Sioux Childhood. The story is based on childhood memories from Sioux author Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve. The story opens in the cold winter with children struggling through mud, snow and cold on their walk to school. The children wish for new boots and a new winter coat. They hope there will be something for them in a box of donations. But here’s the catch: the children are the pastor’s children and they are taught to serve other’s first before taking for themselves. In other words: the children can take from the donations box, but only after everyone else in the village has a chance to look first. There is a coat that will fit young Virginia, but it is claimed by another classmate. Virginia struggles with jealousy and longing for the coat, but quickly learns that the fur coat isn’t suitable for the harsh conditions of a South Dakota winter. Still Virginia longs for a coat and on Christmas day she has a huge package to unwrap. Inside is the perfect winter coat: “‘Sometimes the congregations in the East send boxes especially for the priest and his family. They ask what the family needs the most and then they try to send those items’” (unp.). The story continues: “A coat! Not a fur one, but a smooth and soft red one. It even had a hood. She looked up at Mama and felt tears in her eyes. She couldn’t say anything” (unp.).

The textual Native American cultural markers in this picture book show in the names of the characters: the Driving Hawk family, Dan Reed Buffalo, Mrs. Little Money, or Mrs. High Bear. However, the true cultural markers are in the book’s illustrations. Illustrator Ellen Beier has drawn everyone with dark hair, dark skin and strong noses. Most of the girls are drawn with their hair in braids. There are other cultural references in the background images: a picture of an Indian Chief hanging on the wall, a Native American star quilt folded in a chair, a traditionally dressed Sioux doll on a table. And the landscapes! You can feel a chill in the air looking at the houses and the snow-covered plains the children are drawn walking through on their way to church and school. Most notable, however, are the three Indian Nativity wise men in full Native American headdresses, vests and moccasins that appear on the book’s cover and during the Biblical manger scene at church: “There was a long pause before the Wise Men entered. The whole guildhall seemed to give a big ahhh as Marty led two other boys into the hall. They wore headdresses that only the wise leaders and elders of the tribe could wear” (unp.). It seems like a perfect blend of Native American traditions mixed with more modern Native American life.

Reviews

• CCBC (2012): “Young Virginia s authentically childlike feelings of disappointment and jealousy as she struggles to uphold the values of selflessness stressed by her parents are wonderfully realized. And her effort is sweetly rewarded, most notably when Christmas brings an unexpected surprise in this picture book that offers a realistic look at economic hardship in the context of a warm and loving family. Aspects of Native (Sneve is Sioux) culture are subtle elements of the story, and occasionally stand out in the illustrations.”
• Kirkus (2011): “The story unfolds in a linear, matter-of-fact way reminiscent of the writing of Laura Ingalls Wilder, with school and family scenes and a strong sense of the main character's emotions and family ties. Realistic illustrations in watercolor and gouache capture the snowy, flat landscape, the simple schoolroom and the crowd of children each experiencing something different at the holiday events. Virginia's personality shines through in this poignant story that entertains and informs without recourse to stereotypes.”

Awards

• 2012 American Indian Youth Literature Award, winner (Grade 1 up)
• 2013 Arkansas Diamond Primary Book Award, nominee
• 2013 Prairie Pasque Award, nominee

Connections

• Have community service and read the book as part of a coat drive.
• Read as part of a multicultural Christmas storytime theme. Other books could include ‘Twas Nochebuena by Roseanne Greenfield Thong and The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola.
• Author Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve does not have a professional website. Have students research her life and prepare a biography presentation.

Bibliography

Beier, Ellen. 2011. The Christmas Coat: Memories of My Sioux Childhood by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve. New York: Holiday House. ISBN 9780823421343

Cover, Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Personal photograph by Amy Wilson. October 15, 2017.

Sneve, Virginia Driving Hawk. The Christmas Coat: Memories of My Sioux Childhood. New York, New York: Holiday House, 2011. ISBN 9780823421343

THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN by Sherman Alexie ~ Culture 4

THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN by Sherman Alexie

Author: Sherman Alexie

Title:  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Illustrator: Ellen Forney

Publisher:  Little, Brown and Company

Publication Date: 2007

ISBN:  9780316013697

Plot Summary

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Critical Analysis

As a school librarian at a PreK-12 private Christian school, there is no way I’m suggesting this book be put on a reading list – despite the many awards the book has received and the very real, funny, heartbreaking, and honest story of a contemporary Native American. Full disclosure: the author is very open about masturbation – not a topic of discussion I want to have with my students, their parents or administration.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian pulls the reader behind the curtain to see the true life of a modern Native American living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. The first chapter alone has you laughing and yet feeling concern for the health care available to Native Americans. You’re left asking yourself, “Is it like this on all reservations?” Alexie then turns the reader’s attention to the level of poverty on reservations: “And sure, sometimes, my family misses a meal, and sleep is the only thing we have for dinner…” (p. 8), and “…it’s not like my mother and father were born into wealth. It’s not like they gambled away their family fortunes. My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people” (p. 11). Then there is the alcoholism. Drinking and being drunk is depicted as being a part of everyday life for Native Americans. Junior, the main character, is affected by alcoholism in every aspect of his life: his parents drink, his sister dies as a result from drinking, his grandmother dies because of a drunk driver, and more. “…plenty of Indians have died because they were drunk. And plenty of drunken Indians have killed other drunken Indians. But my grandmother had never drunk alcohol in her life. Not one drop. That’s the rarest kind of Indian in the world. I know only, like, five Indians in our whole tribe who have never drunk alcohol. And my grandmother was one of them” (p. 158). My heart breaks for this fictional character.

Alexie identifies the specific Spokane Tribe when he writes about their modern-day powwow: “The Spokane Tribe holds their annual powwow celebration over the Labor Day weekend. This was the 127^th annual one, and there would be singing, war dancing, gambling, storytelling, laughter, fry bread, hamburgers, hot dogs, arts and crafts, and plenty of alcoholic brawling” (p. 17). If the reader does the math, they would figure out that the powwows having been held since 1880 – making the Native Americans a part of today’s time, not a thing of the past.

I want to encourage readers of this book to look for more contemporary Native American fiction and to learn more about the lives a modern Native American leads.

Reviews

• Booklist (2007): “Alexie’s humor and prose are easygoing and well suited to his young audience, and he doesn’t pull many punches as he levels his eye at stereotypes both warranted and inapt. A few of the plotlines fade to gray by the end, but this ultimately affirms the incredible power of best friends to hurt and heal in equal measure. Younger teens looking for the strength to lift themselves out of rough situations would do well to start here.”
• Children’s Literature (2007): “In this blunt yet poignant story of a teenager wanting to make the best of himself, Alexie uses his own experiences to give us a feel for an Indian boy crossing over into a white world. … Multiple alcohol related deaths in Junior’s family are particularly hard-hitting but make the point that alcohol is still a significant problem on many reservations. The sarcastic, self-deprecating humor should add to this book’s appeal.”

Awards

• 2007 National Book Award, Young People’s Literature winner
• 2008 American Indian Youth Literature Award, Young Adult winner
• 2008 YALSA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults
• 2009 Odyssey Award winner

Connections

• Use the Teaching Guide available from Scholastic: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teaching-content/absolutely-true-diary-part-time-indian-storia-teaching-guide/
• Learn more about author Sherman Alexie at his website: http://fallsapart.com/
• Promote other Sherman Alexie novels, such as
• The Toughest Indian in the World ISBN 978-0802138002
• War Dances ISBN 978-0802144898
• Reservation Blues ISBN 978-0802141903

Bibliography

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York, New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007. ISBN 9780316013697

Cover, Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Personal photograph by Amy Wilson. October 15, 2017.

CODE TALKER by Joseph Bruchac ~ Culture 4

CODE TALKER by Joseph Bruchac

Author: Joseph Bruchac

Title:  Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two

Publisher:  Dial Books

Publication Date: 2005

ISBN:  0803729219

Plot Summary

After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending messages during World War II in their native tongue.

Critical Analysis

Code Talker is a beautiful young adult novel example of the correct way to build awareness of Native American literature. The book emphasizes the Navajo dances and blessings and describes how they are sacred: “I had to go with my parents to a singer who would do a ceremony for me. With the protection of Hózhǭǭjí the Blessingway, I might be kept safe when I went into danger. I was glad to do that. The Blessingway is done for all that is good. That is its only purpose” (p. 50). Also, the book stakes claim to its Navajo heritage while simultaneously portraying a contemporary Native culture: “Finally, in 1969, we were told that we could speak about being code talkers. New computers were more efficient than people in sending and receiving code. Our story was declassified. We formed a Code Talkers Association and began having meetings” (p. 213). Readers of Code Talker can go online to learn more about the association – definitely a representation of contemporary Native American life!

Cultural markers within the text defines Code Talker as a worthy example of Native American literature. Within the first few paragraphs author Bruchac describes the physical attributes and clothing of Navajo people: “There stood my tall, beautiful mother. Her thick black hair was tied up into a bun. She was dressed in her finest clothing – a new, silky blue blouse and a blue pleated skirt decorated with bands of gold ribbons. On her feet were soft calf-high moccasins, and she wore all her silver and turquoise jewelry. Her squash-blossom necklace, her bracelets, her concha belt, her earrings – I knew she had adorned herself with all of these things for me” (p. 5). There were also several references to religious practices through blessings, prayers, dances, and songs. The main character, Ned Begay, often referred to his pouch of pollen and how it helped him: “I stood with nothing over my head but the sky. I faced the east, took a pinch of pollen from my pouch, and placed it on my tongue. I put a little dab of pollen on top of my head and spoke my words to the Holy People. ‘Let me have clear thoughts, clear speech, and a good path to walk this day,’ I prayed as I watched the rising sun” (p. 178).

Of course, a book about the Navajo language includes many Native American cultural markers with the heavy use of dialect and first language. The story is told as if a WWII Navajo Code Talker was telling his WWII story to his grandchildren. The Navajo words are in italic typeface and the main character explains the word’s meaning in English. “Nihimá, ‘Our Mother.’ That is the Navajo word we chose to mean our country, this United States” (p. 2). And: “Dine-ba-whoa-blehi, ‘man trap,’ was our word for a booby trap. Na’ats’ǫǫsi, ‘mouse,’ as I told you already, was the Japanese” (p. 129).

I hope that readers of Code Talker will come to appreciate the Navajo people even more after reading the book. Their knowledge of their native language truly saved many lives during World War II. My grandfather fought in the Pacific Theater during WWII and I’m sure I have a Navajo to thank for his safe return!

Reviews

• Kirkus (2005): “Telling his story to his grandchildren, Ned relates his experiences in school, military training, and across the Pacific, on Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Guam, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. With its multicultural themes and well-told WWII history, this will appeal to a wide audience.”
• VOYA (2005): “Bruchac's fictional Ned Begay represents all the Navajo Marines who, despite their treatment by white America, fought valiantly in foreign wars. Ned tells his own story in simple, measured prose, as a grandfather's tale to his grandchildren. The author never allows his lovely and poignant novel to become a polemic against the mindless abuse of the mission schools or the horrors of war in the Pacific, but he instead offers a portrait of a brave and generous man who represents any teenager caught in the forces of history.”

Awards

• 2005 Best Children’s Books of the Year
• 2006 Notable Children’s Books
• 2006 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults

Connections

• Use this Teaching Guide from Scholastic: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teaching-content/code-talker-extension-activity/
• Play portions of the audiobook to students so they can hear the Navajo language
• Learn more about author Joseph Bruchac at his website: http://josephbruchac.com/bruchac_biography.html
• Have high school students research biographies on real Code Talkers and prepare a presentation. Information can be found at the National Museum of the American Indian website.
• Learn more about the Code Talkers Association at http://www.lapahie.com/ncta.cfm

 Bibliography

Bruchac, Joseph. Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two. New York, New York: Dial Books, 2005. ISBN 0803729219

Cover, Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Personal photograph by Amy Wilson. October 15, 2017.

YAQUI DELGADO WANTS TO KICK YOUR ASS by Meg Medina ~ Culture 3

YAQUI DELGADO WANTS TO KICK YOUR ASS by Meg Medina

Author: Meg Medina

Title:  Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

Publisher:  Candlewick Press

Publication Date: 2013

ISBN:  9780763658595

Plot Summary

A girl tells Piddy Sanchez that Yaqui Delgado hates her and wants to kick her ass. Piddy doesn't even know who Yaqui is, never mind what she's done to piss her off. At first Piddy is more concerned with trying to find out more about the father she's never met and how to balance honors courses with her weekend job at the neighborhood hair salon. But as the harassment escalates, avoiding Yaqui and her gang starts to take over Piddy's life.

Critical Analysis

Okay, I admit it: I totally chose this book for review based on the title. I really, really, really wanted to know what had upset Yaqui Delgado so much that she would threaten someone. Once in high school a girl threated to kick my ass because her parents were going through a divorce and my dad was her mom’s attorney. One word from me to my dad went from my dad to her mom -- and that was the end of that. The irony is years later when this same girl needed a divorce attorney herself, she hired my dad!

The reader hears very little from Yaqui Delgado. The reader must infer that Yaqui comes from a troubled home in a troubled area of town. She bullies because she feels that is what she must do to survive in her reality. Instead, the reader feels all emotions from the first-person perspective of Piddy, the focus of Yaqui’s hate. Piddy is a good Latina girl, helping her mother, making good grades, and working to help make ends meet. A move to a different apartment sends Piddy to another high school. She falls in with the geek/nerd click after she is rejected by the girls in the “Latin Zone” click because her curves drew the attention of the boys and Latina girls: “I’ve only had an ass for about six months, and now it seems it has a mind of its own.” … “Maybe she’s watching me right now, staring at my swishy ass, hating me. I hold my books tight and press forward in the crowd, keeping my hips as still as I can.” Piddy tries to diffuse the situation and does not intentionally attract attention to her body.

In addition to many references about Latina body shapes, other Hispanic cultural markers include the repeated inclusion of Spanish terms and forms of address (“Lila throws back her head and laughs. ‘¡No me digas! A dropout in the tenth grade! Qué lindo. And what are you going to do for a living?” … “Look at your poor mami.”), religious practices (“Ma lights a jar candle we keep on the piano instead. It’s our Dollar Store Virgen de la Caridad.”), and musical preferences (“Instantly half the room is singing along to ‘Rata de Dos Patas.’ It’s a hit in Spanish, but I have to wonder how it would do in English.”).

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass is a worthy winner of the 2014 Pure Belpré Award for its depiction of Latinas. The book has everything from the hard-working mother who provides, the honorary aunties in the ladies at the beauty parlor, the high school girls who want to make good grades to go to college, to the high school troublemakers who toe the line with the authorities.

Reviews

• Booklist (2013): “Medina authentically portrays the emotional rigors of bullying through Piddy’s growing sense of claustrophobic dread, and even with no shortage of loving, supportive adults on her side, there’s no easy solution. With issues of ethnic identity, class conflict, body image, and domestic violence, this could have been an overstuffed problem novel; instead, it transcends with heartfelt, truthful writing that treats the complicated roots of bullying with respect.”
• Children’s Literature (2013): “This is one of the most powerful stories about bullying out there. Medina effectively captures the emotions and fears of the victims of bullying. Make sure to have a box of tissues at hand!”

Awards

• 2013 Cybils Awards winner, young adult and fiction
• 2014 Pura Belpré Award winner, author
• 2014 International Latino Book Award 1^st place, best young adult fiction (English)

Connections

• Have students write a compare/contrast paper against another Pure Belpré Award-winning book. You can find a list of past winners and honors at http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpremedal/belprepast
• Learn more about author Meg Medina at her website: https://megmedina.com/
• Have students create a word search with the Spanish words in the book.

Bibliography

Cover, Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Personal photograph by Amy Wilson. October 1, 2017.

Medina, Meg. Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. Sommerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2013. ISBN 9780763658595

THE SURRENDER TREE: POEMS OF CUBA'S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM by Margarita Engle ~ Culture 3

THE SURRENDER TREE: POEMS OF CUBA'S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM by Margarita Engle

Author: Margarita Engle

Title:  The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom

Publisher:  Henry Holt and Company

Publication Date: 2008

ISBN:  9780805086744

Plot Summary

Poems that explore Cuba's fight for independence follow Rosa, a nurse who turns hidden caves into hospitals for those who know how to find her, and who does her best to help everyone, with no regard to race or nationality.

Critical Analysis

The forward of The Surrender Tree identifies the specific Cuban culture (and the subtitle should be a hint too). The book opens in 1850 and introduces the reader to the enslaved Cuban named Rosa, who is thought to be a witch by the Spanish slave hunters. Dialect is scattered throughout the novel in verse: cimarrones, pesos, campamentos de reconcentración, yagruma, ceiba, etc. – the Spanish words are set apart by being italicized.

If you didn’t know anything about Cuba before reading The Surrender Tree, you will after. Through the eyes of Rosa, Lieutenant Death, José, Silvia, and Lieutenant-General Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, the Marquis of Tenerife of the Empire of Spain, readers learn about the flora and fauna of Cuba (darting bats, night-blooming blossoms), the architecture (palm-thatched houses used as hospitals), and the first use of concentration camps (“The angel-man brings me/tiny bits of smuggled food,/but there is never enough,/and my brothers are turning into shadows. I feed them/imaginary meals/of air.”).

The Surrender Tree’s story for Cuba’s freedom ends where my knowledge of Cuba picks up: at the Spanish-American War (as it is known in the United States). Despite the hopeful ending (“The war is over – should I dance,/am I free to sing out loud,/free to grow up,/fall in love?”), I was left with a bad taste in my mouth: the knowledge that the United States only intervened in Cuba’s affairs because the island was a strategic outpost.

Young adults can make further connections to Cuba by reading the Author’s Note, the Historical Note, and Chronology at the end of the book. If more novels in verse about a country’s fight for freedom were written as well as Engle’s, young adults would easily learn more about world history.

Reviews

• Booklist (2008): “The switching perspectives personalize the dramatic political history, including the establishment of the world’s first reconcentration camps to hold prisoners, as well as the role of slave owners who freed their slaves and joined the resistance against Spain. Many readers will be caught by the compelling narrative voices and want to pursue the historical accounts in Engle’s bibliography.”
• Kirkus (2008): “Tales of political dissent can prove, at times, to be challenging reads for youngsters, but this fictionalized version of the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain may act as an entry to the form. The poems offer rich character portraits through concise, heightened language, and their order within the cycle provides suspense.”

Awards

• 2009 John Newbery Medal honor book
• 2009 Pura Belpré Award winner, author
• 2008 Cybils Awards finalist, poetry

Connections

• Students can create a timeline based on their readings from The Surrender Tree.
• Learn more about author Margarita Engle at her website: http://www.margaritaengle.com/
• Teachers can find classroom activities for The Surrender Tree at http://www.margaritaengle.com/teachers.html
• Other books about Cuba by Margarita Engle include:
• The Lightening Dreamer: Cuba’s Greatest Abolitioinist
• The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano
• Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music
• Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba

Bibliography

Cover, Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Personal photograph by Amy Wilson. October 1, 2017.

Engle, Margarita. The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 2008. ISBN 9780805086744

DIZZY IN YOUR EYES: POEMS ABOUT LOVE by Pat Mora ~ Culture 3

DIZZY IN YOUR EYES: POEMS ABOUT LOVE by Pat Mora

Author: Pat Mora

Title:  Dizzy In Your Eyes: Poems About Love

Publisher:  Alfred A. Knopf

Publication Date: 2010

ISBN:  9780375843754

Plot Summary

A collection of poems about the ups and downs, greats and failures of love by award-winning poet Pat Mora.

Critical Analysis

When I read “poems about love,” I automatically assumed all the poems in Dizzy In Your Eyes were going to be about romantic love. Instead, I found a wide variety of love poems from a grandfather to a grandmother, a father to a daughter, and even a student to a teacher.

Poet Pat Mora is a known Latina author; however, for the person reading this book of poetry by this poet for the first time, the “Note to the Reader” explains how she was raised bilingual Spanish and English. Otherwise, the first hint of Hispanic culture shows up in the poem “Mirrors” on page 15 with dialect and description of physical attributes: “Grandma makes me mad. ‘You’re beautiful. Tan linda,’/when I’m studying my face, boring as old bread,/my wide waist,/‘Tan linda,’/my hard-to-hide hips,/my too-flat chest,/my eyes that won’t open wide/and round like my sister’s,/that hypnotize guys. ‘Tan linda.’ What does Grandma see?”

Another Hispanic cultural indicator is the use of the word Papi in place of Daddy as found on page 29 in the poem “Valentine to Papi.” I noticed that unlike other Spanish words in the book of poetry, the Spanish word Papi is not italicized – a sure sign that another language is being used. “Remember, Papi, ten years ago? You smiled when you saw me wearing a new yellow dress.”

There aren’t any cultural markers in the poem “Opposites;” however, I enjoyed this poem so much. It reminded me that while my husband of 21 years can drive me up the wall with the things that are different between us, I love him because of our opposites. The ending sums it all up: “I confess I’m amazed to be so spellbound/on our wacky opposites merry-go-round.”

My favorite poem was “Oda a las maestras” on page 155. When I noticed it was 100% written in Spanish, I made a bee line to the high school Spanish teacher at the school I work at. My Spanish fundamentals go no farther than what I learned from watching Sesame Street when my son was a toddler. Kuddos to Mrs. Ashli Kottwitz at Mount Juliet Christian Academy for reading this poem aloud for me. If you don’t know Spanish, I recommend you find someone who does. Hearing the poem in Spanish brought a whole new breadth to the dialect and helped me to appreciate the identification of the Hispanic culture.

Reviews

• Booklist (2009): “Mora writes in free verse, as well as a wide variety of classic poetic forms including haiku, clerihew, sonnet, cinquain, and blank verse and for each form, there is an unobtrusive explanatory note on the facing page. The tight structures intensify the strong feelings in the poems, which teens will enjoy reading on their own or hearing aloud in the classroom.”
• Kirkus (2009): “The author employs an extraordinary diversity of poetic forms, from blank verse to a tanka, a cinquain to an anaphora, a haiku to a triolet and more, short notations adding a learning component for budding poets. The poems are complemented by abstract designs, the circles, rectangles and other geometric shapes repeating pleasingly. A must read for lovestruck teens, whether they're poets or not.”

Awards

• 2011 Americas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature, commended title
• 2010 Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Book Award, honor

Connections

• Don’t know Spanish? Have someone who does read the poem “Oda a las maestras” out loud for you.
• Learn more about the poet and author Pat Mora at her website: http://www.patmora.com/
• Have students focus on one form of poem that Pat Mora selected in her book Dizzy In Your Eyes; i.e. Tercet, List, Dialogue, etc. Have students create their own poetry in one of these forms.
• Compare Dizzy In Your Eyes with Mora’s other book of poetry for young adults, My Own True Name.

Bibliography

Cover, Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Personal photograph by Amy Wilson. October 1, 2017.

Mora, Pat. Dizzy In Your Eyes: Poems About Love. New York: NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. ISBN 9780375843754