Belinda RochelleReviews

Words with Wings consist of several different poets who have written about the lives of African Americans. Belinda Rochelle selected the poetry and art of this book bringing in different aspects form a variety of writers. They write about their experiences throughout life and what it was like to live as an African American.

This beautiful collection of famous African American artists and their paintings, displayed with past and present African American poets. "Your World" is a beautiful poem I love to read my students at the beginning of the year, a poem of courage to try new things as the author "cradles my wings in the breeze". You will find poets like Alice Walker, Lucille Clifton, Rita Dove, Langston Hughes. The paintings give such rich possibilties tor discussion, and there are clear and informative biographies in the back for each writer and artist. The collator Belinda Rochelle says these poems and paintings were collected to inspire creativity. They certainly inspire me!

I really enjoyed Words with Wings. This book of poems constantly switches time periods, giving the perspectives of African Americans all through American history. I really enjoyed how the author structured the poem collection, because it allowed the reader to make connections between poems. For example, the poem entitled "How Poems are Made" says that, "I know how poems are made. There is a place the loss must go. There is a place the gain must go." Then, on the very next page, the poem takes place about fifty years later (in the 1960s). The poem talks about the losses and gains an African American student has at her school. Obviously the structure of this collection added a lot to the reading experience.

I also enjoyed the art style. Because the poems take place in different time periods, they incorporated a variety of art techniques! The poems start with art in the African style (bright block colors and prints), then proceed to detailed paintings and finally to geometric modern art. The flow of the art style very much represents how things have changed over the course of American history.

Excellent. A very good selection of poems and the artwork was amazing.

Excellent. A very good selection of poems and the artwork was amazing.

book of African American based poems
Aunt Sue's Stories is my favorite poem...it is about an older woman who has many stores to tell about the slaves and she sits on the porch telling them to her grandchildren.

I liked this story for two reasons. I like that each individual poem has its own illustrator, and illustration. For example, "Woman" by Alice Walker was illustrated by William H. Johnson and was a painting done of Harriet Tubman. Also I liked the language used in each poem. For example, the language was vivid and descriptive. The main idea of this book was to inform and entertain. This was a collection of poems written by Famous African American poets for children.

I liked this book because children can relate to it. Children can relate to being embarassed about something that makes them "different" from other children. Jo was embarassed of her name because she thought it was strange and unlike the names of other girls, but her grandfather told her the story behind her name and it gave her a sense of pride. This book would be good for children ages 7 and up.

This book contains the stories of the young people who lead the integration movements throughout the South during the Civil Rights Movement. It opens with a quote from Claudette Colvin, who is the dominant voice of her own book, Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice. The involvement of young people during the Civil Rights Movement is also known as the Children's Movement. These young people stood up during a time when their lives were threatened on a daily basis; when it was often unpopular to speak up for one's self; and during a time of great civil unrest and civil disobedience to demand their place at America's table.

Words with Wings (ages 8-11) is an anthology of African American poetry and art selected by Belinda Rochelle. The anthology is comprised of 20 poems by 17 poets, including Maya Angelou, William Stanley Braithewaite, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, Countee Cullen, Rita Dove, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Nikki Giovanni, Robert Hayden, Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and Alice Walker. Core classic poems included are Langston Hughes's 'My People' and Lucille Clifton's 'Listen Children.' The illustrations are reproductions of African American artwork (paintings, sculpture, collage) by 19th and early 20th century artists like Henry Ossawa Tanner and Charles Dawson, or mid 20th century painters like Romare Bearden, Horace Pippin, and Hughie Lee-Smith. Brief biographies on each poet and artist are included at the back of the anthology. Each poem’s layout is a double page spread; for example, the cover image of Harriet Tubman by William H. Johnson is paired with Alice Walker's 'Women,' a poem about generation of women who fought for freedom: 'With fists as well as/ Hands/ How they battered down/ Doors' . . . 'To discover books/ Desks/ A place for us/ How they knew what we/ Must know/ Without knowing a page/ Of it/ Themselves.' All of the poems and art in Words with Wings were selected to, “enable us to make our worlds bigger,” by, “bringing to them our own experiences and histories, and our willingness to let them take us somewhere new.” This anthology does just that by combining the diverse styles of poetry and art into a unified whole that will transport the reader to distinct times, places, experiences in African American history and life.