Patrice Vecchione

Poetry anthologies can be hit or miss, but this is one of the best I've read in quite some time. Despite a very clear theme, the poems are incredibly wide-ranging in tone, subject matter, and voice, and nearly any one of them would be worth reading the collection for--that's how powerful the collection is, and how powerful most of the poems are.

With incredible language and voice, poem to poem, this anthology brings breadth to the questions and controversies surrounding immigration and the show more refugee experience, but with such nuance and centering on the individual, the message never overtakes the experience; instead, the message and understandings here are part of the poetry and the experience, all wrapped together, and the nuance is all the more powerful because of it. show less

There's a famous quote that says "When you seek revenge, dig two graves." This couldn't be more accurate. These poems in this anthology show the darkness of revenge and the relief of forgiveness. This is very relevant for people of all ages. It's best to forgive and let go then to hold on and try to get revenge.

Whisper and Shout Poems to Memorize, edited by Patrice Vecchione, is a collection of about 50 poems divided into categories such as “Poems about life”, “Wordplay poems”, “Poems of family and friends”, “Humorous poems”, “The natural world”, “Wisdom and wonder”. Some of the poets featured in this book include: William Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, Lewis Carroll, E.E. Cummings, Nikki Giovanni, Jack Prelutsky, George Barlow, Gelett Burgess, Christina show more Rossetti and T.S. Eliot, to name a few. The selections include excerpts from longer works as well as entire poems. “Swift Things Are Beautiful” by Elizabeth Coastworth featured in “the natural world” section is a good example of the sensory images of sight and touch that are represented here. E.E. Cummings is featured in the “wordplay poems” section with his “in Just-“ poem. The repetition of the “balloonman” as well as the “far and wee” and the combining of words “eddieandbill” and “bettyandisbel” help to convey the wonders of spring when everyone comes out again to play. In “poems of family and friends”, the poem “A Lesson in Manners” sounds like it would be preachy, but it’s humor allows a point to be made without the wagging of the finger. John Ciardi warns children to wait until after supper to be bad so they don’t go to bed hungry. Instead of telling them to be good all the time, he simply suggests: “If you have to be bad, you must learn to wait/Till after supper. Be good until eight./If you let your badness come out late/It doesn’t hurt to be sent to bed. Well, not so much. So use your head:/Don’t be bad till you’ve been fed.” The editor concludes the book with a resources section that features a short biography of each of the poets featured, as well a couple of suggested readings for further study. No illustrations to speak of enhance this book, other than the silhouettes of children, usually one, are featured at the beginning of each section/category. This particular book is appropriate for older elementary age children- 4th through 6th grades. show less

Truth & Lies is listed for young adults, young people who are trying to figure out the puzzle of human connection. They will find more than one poem in this book to hang on a mirro and think about through life.