Bravo! Poetry Friday Roundup

Welcome to this week's Poetry Friday roundup!

Quick intro: My name is Katie, and I am a language arts and social studies teacher in Wisconsin. I teach seventh grade language arts and previous taught both third and fourth grades. I have been holding weekly Poetry Friday time with my students for several years now, and it is one of my favorite things about teaching.

Bravo!

Today I wanted to share about this fabulous new book of poetry: Bravo! Poems about Amazing Hispanics (2017) by Margarita Engle and illustrated by Rafael López. Each biographical poem gives insights into the life, desires, and dreams of a different person, paired with a full-page illustration. The backmatter includes a list of "more and more amazing Latinos" as well as short biographical sketches about the individuals featured. [You can hear a podcast about the book here, All the Wonders. Thanks Laura for the heads up!]

There are so many things to love about this book! To begin, it's a great way to introduce readers to a wide variety of Hispanic people, including both well-known and lesser-known names from the past 300 years. The poems themselves are powerful and insightful, as you would expect from Margarita Engle. Finally, this would be an excellent mentor text for having students research and write their own biographical (or autobiographical) poems.

Final Stanza from "The Magic of Words" about Cuban poet José Martí

I say that each day is a poem.
Some hours are green and peaceful.
Others are red, like festivals or storms.
I love teaching children how to tell
their own stories.

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Please leave your link and a description in the comments, and I will continue to update the post throughout the day. (If you have any trouble, drop me a line at katie at thelogonauts.com.) I look forward to reading all your amazing poems and posts; happy Poetry Friday!

Poetry Friday Roundup

Original Poems

Laura Purdie Salas shares a new/old poem, How to Make a Dog Live Forever, in honor of her beagle, Jack.

Linda Mitchell shares an original poem about mid-summer stress, along with some new picture books in her TBR stack.

Linda at Teacher Dance shares an original poem (and photographs) inspired by the end of her summer beach vacation with family.

Kiesha at Whispers from the Ridge shares an original poem inspired by the life of a dear friend, and she issues an invitation to all to use poetry as a way to soothe overwhelming emotions.

Author Kathryn Apel shares an original sollage and a collection of amazing family photographs. Great fodder for more poems!

Sharing, Reviewing, and Otherwise Celebrating Poems

Jan at the Book Seed Studio is hosting a Q&A with author / illustrator Lisa Desimini about her newest book, The Fleatastics. You can also win a copy (giveaway ends Mon. July 24th).

Linda Mitchell highlights an upcoming book by Pakistani-American poem Adeeba Shahid Talukder along with a link to one of her poems.

Laura Shovan shares about a new book, Into the Deep, Deep Brave, by three-year old poet Arthur. Laura's post also provides some background about Arthur's hyperlexia and the story behind his book's creation.

Brenda shares an original poem by Tabatha Yeatts that she received as part of the summer postcard swap. Part Narnia, part politics, pure pleasure.