14. Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander

 

14. Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander

Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets: Alexander, Kwame, Colderley, Chris, Wentworth, Marjory, Holmes, Ekua: 9780763680947: Amazon.com: Books

Alexander, K. (2017). Out of wonder: poems celebrating poets. Summerville, MA: Candlewick Press

This is a collection of original poems by Kwame Alexander, Chris Colderley, and Marjory Wentworth that celebrate 20 different famous poets. The book is split up into three different sections, Got Style, In Your Shoes, and Thank You, and each section begins with brief explanation about the theme of section that ties all the poems within it together. Each individual poem honors a well-known poet, sometimes with references to their work and sometimes emulating their style. The book also contains quick biographies at the back of the book for each famous poet. The chosen poets are a variety of poets from the past and present day, they have different styles, backgrounds, and cultures.

I have been advised against calling a book beautiful, but there is no other way to describe this one.  The front and back cover are colorful and pleasing to the eye.  The paper used to print it is nice and thick.  The illustrations are poetry for your eyes, just like the words are poetry to your ears. When I read the book, I read it out loud to myself so I could hear the rhythm.  The poems are simple, and short, so I could read a poem a day to my class and have a quick discussion.  I could even have the students try and read some of the poems.

I found several web sites with teaching resources and ideas based on the book.  I found an activity where students choose on of the poets featured in the book.  They read the poem from the book and an original poem by the same person and do a comparison.  The following link has this activity and some other ideas for using this book in the classroom.

http://blog.amplify.com/national-poetry-month-2018-1

 


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