Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

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POETRY POEM
You don't just get to write a poem once
You gotta write it over and over and over
until it feels real good to you
And sometimes it does
and sometimes it doesn't
That's what's really great
and really stupid
about poetry.

One of my exciting discoveries at NCTE this year was that during those big, expensive banquet hall breakfasts and lunches on the program they allow convention attendees to come sit in the back of the room at no cost when the meal is done, and it's time for the keynote speaker to make their presentation. I didn't make it in time for the breakfast speakers--I stayed up too late reading the great 2003 advance copies that I was picking up on the exhibition floor--but I hit several lunchtime presentations. One I won't soon forget was on Saturday, when I had the pleasure of sitting upon a counter in the back of the Imperial Ballroom and listening to Jacqueline Woodson read extensively from her latest book, LOCOMOTION:

MAMA
Some days, like today
and yesterday and probably
tomorrow--all my missing gets jumbled up inside of me.

You know honeysuckle talc powder?
Mama used to smell like that. She told me
honeysuckle's really a flower but all I know
is the powder that smells like Mama.
Sometimes when the missing gets real bad
I go to the drugstore and before the guard starts
following me around like I'm gonna steal something
I go to the cosmetics lady and ask her if she has it.
When she says yeah, I say
Can I smell it to see if it's the right one?
Even though the cosmetics ladies roll their eyes at me
they let me smell it.
And for those few seconds, Mama's alive
again.
And I'm remembering
all kinds of good things about her like
the way she laughed at my jokes
even when they were dumb
and the way she sometimes just grabbed me
and hugged me before
I had a chance to get away.
And the way her voice always sounded good
and bad at the same time when she was singing
in the shower.
And her red pocketbook that always had some
tangerine Life Savers inside it for me and Lili

No, I say to the cosmetics lady. It's not the right one.
And then I leave fast.
Before somebody asks to check my pockets
which are always empty 'cause I don't steal.

Now, I'm somebody who likes to have a book in my hands, rather than on tape (a habit my buddy Cheryl at Books on Tape is trying hard to cure me of). Hey, Cheryl! Just make me a tape of Jackie Woodson reading this book and I'll be a convert for sure! Her reading enveloped me in Lonnie's story; LOCOMOTION was the first book I grabbed when I got home yesterday.

"Everybody's doing a brand new dance now
Come on baby, do the Locomotion
I know you'll get to like it if you give it a chance now
Come on baby, do the locomotion
My little baby sister can do it with ease
It's easier than learning your abc's
So, come on. come on, do the locomotion with me"
--Gerry Goffin & Carole King

LOCOMOTION is a verse novel in which Woodson tells the story of Lonnie Collins Motion (Get it?) who is eleven. He was lucky to survive his premature birth, and then saw his world devastated at seven when his parents were killed in a fire. Next, he is separated from his beloved little sister, Lili. All by himself, Lonnie suffered through the group home ordeal until coming to live with Miss Edna. With the help of his new foster mom, his inspiring teacher, Ms. Marcus, and the poetry through which he reveals his story, Lonnie begins healing from the trauma he's been enduring. There are good friends at school (one who's even a girl), a new big brother, and a regular schedule of visiting with Lili. Life's not all Disneyland, but Lonnie's a survivor who has made the most of his small share of good luck.

PIGEON
People all the time talking about how much they hate pigeons 'cause pigeons fly by and crap on their heads and then somebody always says That's good luck! That's good luck! so you don't feel all stupid going through your pockets tryna find a tissue to wipe it off and you never find one 'cause you don't be carrying tissues like an old lady so you gotta walk up to some old lady with that pigeon crap on your head and ask her for a tissue and she just goes Don't worry, that's good luck like everybody else and it makes you hate those sky roaches 'cause they're everywhere in the city so you better duck if they fly over your head or else...

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com