If you'd enjoy discovering all kinds of great things happening during April, for poetry month, see this post by Jama Rattigan, at Jama's Alphabet Soup.
And, don't forget the Progressive Poem hosted by Irene Latham at Live Your Poem! Today's line will be created by Anastasia Suen. It's already getting interesting!
These past few days I've been enjoying my spring break, catching up on different tasks, including reading. I'm excited to share a book I've just completed, Silver People: Voices From The Panama Canal, a verse novel out just on March 25th.
It’s a pleasure to read great novels in verse, filled with strong voices and images. Sharing important stories in
beautiful words of poetry grabs me every time. I sink into the story, admiring
the ability of those who are able to tell stories that sing. And I am always
left wanting more of the lives that have been told.
I’ve looked forward to Margarita
Engle’s book Silver People since I first heard about it. I read about the amazing feat of the building of
the Panama Canal in a brief book by David McCullough a long time ago. Then last
week, I read a children’s non-fiction book in order to gain some additional
background of the construction, knowing the book was about to be published. I
realize I cannot know the story of every part of history, but when I supported
my students’ research, I pressed them to ask, as I do, “what is the ‘other’
story?” the one that hasn’t been told. Do you remember the radio pieces by Paul
Harvey? And now, in my mind, the Canal was a feat like few others, but because
of Margarita’s book, I know the “rest of the story”.