Advanced Children's Literature: Poetry

Greenfield, Eloise. IN THE LAND OF WORDS. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

This is an upbeat volume of 21 “new and selected poems” by Greenfield. A good book for aspiring young writers, Greenfield mentions in her opening author’s note that she is often asked by children where she gets her ideas and she says there is no easy answer. Sometimes she tells us they come from dreams, other times memories, but she says often they just fill her head like a surprise and she has no idea where they have come from. Many poems are prefaced with a short commentary by Greenfield. One of the truly unique things about the book are the illustrations by Jan Spivey Gilchrist. Gilchrist uses felt for the artwork on the cover and each page. She uses scissors to cut the felt and big and small stitches to make collages. One of the most elaborate pages features beautiful satin stitch embroidery and french knot stitches with fancy ribbon for thread. This illustration accompanies the poem, “Flowers” and the idea for this poem is truly a collaboration. Gilchrist sent Greenfield a drawing she’d made of her husband & daughter and asked her to write a poem about stepfathers. Greenfield comments, “I could see and feel the love and care of a father, and the words came.” One of the poems that will be especially appealing to children is “Nathaniel’s Rap.” “It’s Nathaniel talking and Nathaniel’s me I’m talking about my philosophy About the things I do And the people I see All told in the words Of Nathaniel B. Free That’s me And I can rap I can rap I can rap rap rap” Here Gilchrist draws on the felt to show Nathaniel dancing around as he raps. Both author and illustrator have previously won the Coretta Scott King award.