Great Reading: Bookmark It!

Volume 29, Number 1, October 2001

Poetry Continued, Grades 7-12

Rosemary Chance

The basket counts. Arnold Adoff. Illustrated by Michael Weaver.
Simon & Schuster, 2000. $17.00. 0-689-80108-4. Full-page color illustrations accompany most of the 27 poems that evoke the action and feelings of basketball players, both male and female.

Love that dog: A novel. Sharon Creech.
HarperCollins, 2001. $14.95. 0-0602-9287-3. A boy's struggle to write poetry is chronicled in brief free verse diary entries. This brief work will inspire both students and teachers.

Slam. Cecily von Ziegesar.
Alloy/Penguin Putnam, 2000. $5.99. 0-14-130919-9. A slam is a poetry competition with poets, judges and a scorekeeper. It can take place almost anywhere a group of people gather who love poetry. This collection contains the freshness of teen poets and the solid voices of familiar poets.

Truth & lies: An anthology of poems. Patrice Vecchione, ed.
Henry Holt, 2001. $17.00. 0-8050-6479-6. These poems by both classic and contemporary poets speak of the complexities of telling the truth and of telling lies.

You hear me? Poems and writings by teenage boys. Betsy Franco, ed.
Candlewick, 2000. $6.99. 0-7636-1159-X. Seventy uncensored poems and writings reveal the range of thoughts and emotions of boys from across the United States.

Rosemary Chance is assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. She can be reached at rchance@student.necc.cc.ms.us.