THANKU, POEMS OF GRATITUDE, by many authors--a review by Ashleigh, 13

I like poetry. I was attracted to this book because of the beautiful cover. The outline of a girl of Color blowing a dandelion that releases the names of the poets in rainbow colors. Yes, illustrator Marlena Myles (Spirit Lake Dakota/Mohegan/Muscokee Creek) did beautiful work.

This book contains a diversity of poems and poets, some of them Native. The first poem, "Giving Thanks," by Joseph Bruchac, is dedicated to the memory of Chief Jake Swamp, whose book GIVING THANKS, A NATIVE GOOD MORNING PRAYER, is in most of our homes and some of our schools. It's a Reading Rainbow book. Bruchac offer a shorter version that begins: "Thanksgiving is more/ that just one day, so a Mohawk elder/ said to me."

The back of the book includes part of the Bruchac poem--love that girl's hair!

Th@nksgiving is in the background of this book. The poems, edited by Miranda Paul, say thanku to things big and small without validating the anti-Indigenous US myth.

Carole Lindstrom (Anishinbe/Metis, Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe) does a "found poem," which we call a blackout poem, called "Drops of Gratitude." I like that you can put the fifteen words in a different order to change the meaning some.

Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee Creek Nation) has a two page "chant, free verse" poem called "Stories for Dinner." This is a "feast day table" with turkey where the elders "say Grace and Talk Story." This story includes generations of a Native family--who were in boarding schools and wars and water protector protests. The old and new celebrate "faith, food, friend, and family."

Traci Sorell's (Cherokee Nation) "cinquain" poem, "College Degree," is just five lines. But it is an important modern celebration. It begins, "The first. First Diploma..."

This book as poems by non-Native authors that are also wonderful, especially "Blue Sky," by Naomi Shihab Nye. They are all worth savoring and sharing with family and friends, like a favorite dish.

You can see from these two pages, the diversity and warm, welcoming feelings! My little sister Vi, who is autistic, sat to listen to some of them read aloud. She loved Myles illustrations of a duck and cats. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!

Comments

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Indigo's Bookshelf: Voices of Native Youth

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