Lucille CliftonBesprekingen

109000

Clifton experienced so much darkness in her life, and it comes vividly through in her poetry. While she is brilliant, I cannot enjoy very much of her work in a short amount of time. Too much pain.

Somehow Blessing the Boats was the first Lucille Clifton collection I have read, which is EMBARRASSING, as I have been intending to read her for ages (and have certainly read isolated poems of hers here and there.)

Her writing is spare and accessible and razor sharp, exemplified by a poem like "why some people be mad at me sometimes"

they ask me to remember
but they want me to remember
their memories
and i keep on remembering
mine

I didn't quite fall all the way in love with these, which is I think largely because this is a collection from collections (which I somehow didn't realize when I picked this up). These cherry-picked "best of" collections many have isolated favorites, but I almost always prefer encountering the poems in their home collections, like listening to songs in their original albums rather than a "Best Of" CD. The context is missing.

I will have to pick up one of those soon.

Excellent. Love her voice. Looking forward to the next collection.

A young girl is convinced everyone in her family makes promises to her that only she remembers

Lucille Clifton was an American poet, writer, and educator from New York.
Common topics in her poetry include the celebration of her African American heritage,
and feminist themes, with particular emphasis on the female body
Good Times, her first book of poems, was published in 1969. She has since
been honored as Maryland's Poet Laureate.

Powerful.

This slim book is a memoir, and a family history. Written by a poet, which gives it an ease and pacing and repetition that is memorable, comfortable, and feels very safe and homey.

Clifton frames this around her father's funeral, a time when she traveled home, saw lots of relatives, and thought a lot about her father's life and the stories he told about their family history. And that is what we have here. The repetition feels exactly like a parent telling their children stories--the same things pop up here and there, with different phrasing and context. She frames how he taught her to be brave and capable and confident despite your surroundings, just like his great-grandmother who raised him from the age of 8. Clifton took all of this to heart.

There is a good family tree (with sources) on familysearch.org. It does not go back to Carolie and the first Lucy--whether their passed-down history is exactly 100% true (lack of online sources does not mean it is not true, as any historian or genealogist can confirm) is irrelevant in light of the relevance and importance of the stories to the later generations, giving them history and background and love.

As a historian and genealogist, I wish everyone (especially the oldest generations) would write their own version of this. No they would not be poetic and evocative like this, but they would still be important within their own families and even to their own local historical/genealogical societies.

I had to buy a new copy because I don't know what happened to mine--did I loan it out? If I did, I hope that person loves it as much as I do. I feel like I've lost the ability to talk about poetry, but I will try. The topics she chooses can be so focused in and then so focused big and outward. Her language and form are minimalist, but still expansive--precise. There is something so bared about her voice. These "tiny" poems are so vulnerable and thus so courageous. I will always love poetry about periods, about the physical experience of being in a certain body. And then songs to the world and to the past. The quilt concept is perfect.

I thought I'd like this book at first glance. I saw it had been written by an African American woman, and it was the winner of the National Book Award.

I was wrong. I read the poems aloud, but I got very little out of most of them. They sounded fine, but seemed to be way over my head. I simply did not understand what they were trying to say. There were very few that appealed to me. Those were Sorrow Song (the eyes of children), Photograph (black boys twirling), and (the best one) Wishes for Sons (a hex on men).

This is not the kind of poetry I like. I am curious, though, as to what is so appealling about most of these poems to others?

A poetry book that expresses the emotions of a boy called Everett coming to terms with the loss of his father.

I liked how you couldn't exactly tell who was who at first. This book talks about all the stuff Jacob can and can't do but doesn't show it in a negative light. Sammy helps Jacob with a lot of things but Jacob helps Sammy too. Everything Sammy struggles with, Jacob is right there and vise versa. They have such a lovely friendships and they're so accepting of each other. This book shows that if you really want to do something, you'll learn no matter what. There'll be bumps in the road but if you keep trying and don't give up, you'll succeed.

The illustrations in this book are similar to John Steptoe's first book. I like how the images look like they are done in clay but I think it is just paint. However, the images are beautiful and different. The colors contrast beautifully together. They also are more on the blue and red hues. The illustrations i believe make this book so beautiful.½

This book is a heart tugging story of a little boy who is trying to come to terms with his fathers death. The book follows him through the many stages of grief and lastly acceptance.
Ages-(6-8)
Source-(Pierce County Library)

Everett Anderson's Goodbye is an easy reader book that teaches kids about how to deal with grief. Everett loses his father, and as a result show signs of depression. He cares for nothing and wants nothing but his father, over time and with the love from his mom Everett grows to gain a better understanding of love, and how it is everlasting. In this day in age young children are finding it difficult to deal with depression, and the only outlet is to harm themselves. It is important that these topics are discussed at younger ages because children are having to deal with more real life issues at younger ages. These issues do exist, and teaching students how to cope will improve many situations. I absolutely loved the illustrations in addition to the story. The grief the author was trying to convey came out in the illustrations.

This story shows about a child that inferences about the feelings and intentions of others which is his friend and sees the viewpoint in another person which is great for children 4 and up to read.

this book is very strong in character. not recommended for classroom use, more one on one as it deals with the abuse of a child
ages 8+
pierce college library

This is a book about a boy who has a friend whos possibly being abused he decides to tell his mom because he doesn't know what to do. This book helps children know to tell adults if they have concerns for a friend. Ages 4-8 classmates book

I would rate this 4 stars because I was confused on who was Jacob and who was Sam from the pictures. Once I figured it out, I thought it was pretty cool how the child with the disability was white and the other boy was African American. It was significant because this book was published in 1980. The book starts off with what Jacob can do. It focused on how he was such a caring, thoughtful person. It also showed progress, that he could still learn simple things such as knocking on the door. Overall, a very simple, realistic book.

This was a very good book. It address the stuff he can do and stuff he can't do. I like how it doesn't just talk about the things that Sammy does for Jacob like he is dependent on someone else, but it also talks about the things that Jacob does to help Sammy. It also talks about how he doesn't get things the first time, but he is able to get things eventually, which shows that he has perseverance. The only thing I don't like about the book is that it doesn't state the disability that Jacob has. This won't be helpful for the children because they won't understand why he can't get things the first time. However, a teacher or a guardian could explain the disability to the child or children to help them better understand Jacob and how he learns.

Jacob is a 17 year old boy with some form of mental disability probably teetering on Autism. The narrator tells the story about how Jacob is his best friend and how Jacob is very good at certain things, but he has trouble in other areas. The narrator focuses on all of the things Jacob is good at. For example, Jacob knows every make and model of every car he sees on the road, a skill he is helping the narrator learn to do as well. The Narrator and Jacob work together a lot in the story, like when they go shopping and Jacob helps carry the groceries and the narrator remembers everything they need to get. While the narrator does find some things that Jacob did to be annoying, the narrator never got angry and always helped Jacob to figure out the different social situation. Jacob was extremely friendly and always showed support to the narrator, like when the narrator was learning all of the different types of cars.

Amifika feels as if he will be thrown out. Children can relate to this book when they are expecting a sibling or just feeling as if they do not fit in. This is an amazing book to use as a conversation starter. You can use this book to help children open up about their feelings.

This is a great book about a boy who's father has been gone for awhile and wonders if he will remember him when he gets back.

A young Everett gains acceptance of his mother’s newest interest after what appear to be the loss of his father. Everett was use to the way things, where with just him and his mother; one and two. When “three” being Mr. Perry came along at first he was reluctant to accept him then embraced him.

This book is about a boy named Sam and his very, VERY, best friend named Jacob. They live next door to each other and Jacob likes to help Sam with many different things. What I found interesting about them is that Jacob is 17 years old and Sam is only 8. Throughout the story, Sam teaches Jacob things as well, like how to knock on someone's door before opening it.
I really enjoyed reading this book! It was so good for me to see that despite these kids differences, they were the best of friends. At first when I was reading this book, I didn't even realize that there was something different about Jacob. I like that the author really didn't focus on the disability , but focused more on him as a person. The author shows that we should accept people who are different, like Jacob, and put the person first rather than the disability.

This was an easy read. It was about two friends. One happened to have a disability and was slightly older. However, Sam, a young child, didn't mind. they were best friends and helped each other out. Although, for Sam helping Jacob was a little more difficult. Jacob took some time to learn things. Everything was always a reminder. One day Sam thought Jacob to knock on the door instead of just walking in. By surprise Jacob then knocked on the door! Sam and his family were so excited! This book teaches kids it's ok to be "different" as well as, being friends with people that are "different" is ok. I also like the book because although he is a teen with a disablitly he is still able to learn and do anything Sam would do just at a different rate.