Module 5: Book Review 14- Hopkins Award Poetry

 A Maze Me: Poems for Girls

Bibliography

Nye, N. S. & Maher, T. (2005) A Maze Me: Poems for Girls. New York: Greenwillow Books. ISBN 0060581891 

Summary

Experience a novel with an assortment of fabulously written poems about family, friends, school, boys, and everything else about life associated with young girls.  Naomi Shihab Nye uses free verse writing to explore the many aspects of life using feelings and moments that are easy to comprehend.  This story is full of loving, humorous, and thoughtful poetry that will be a hit with preteens and up and readers will have a blast reading and discussing them. 

Analysis

A Maze Me: Poems for Girls is a collection of poems written in verse form for girls ages eleven to seventeen.  In this piece written by Nye, readers experience a development of growth of a young lady, through poetry, separated into five different parts.  Each part is written using vivid images to evoke specific feelings that the young girl experienced and are relatable to other young girls too. 

Metaphors, sensory image, and repetition are some of the poetic forms used in the book.  The poem My Body is a Mystery, is a perfect example where all three poetic forms are used well together.  Oh my eyes are the windows/ and my face is the sky/ And my legs are the trees that hold me/ My hands are the branches and my head is a box/ and I spend my lifetime picking locks. Nye continues the poem sharing more parts of the young girl’s body as comparisons and repeats the first and second stanzas as the last stanza in the poem.  This poem is just one of the wonderfully written poems that are relatable to preteen girls and up and why this book is perfect for this group to read.

This book is an easy and quick read that captures the heart and essence of a middle or high school girl.  It also conjures up memories and images from adults that have had similar experiences from their past that adds a sense of enjoyment to the book.  All readers can make a connection from at least one of these poems which is why this book is wonderful and worth the read. 

Excerpt

Supple Cord

My brother, in his small white bed,

held one end.
I tugged the other
to signal I was still awake.
We could have spoken,
could have sung
to one another,
we were in the same room
for five years,
but the soft cord
with its little frayed ends
connected us
in the dark,
gave comfort
even if we had been bickering
all day.
When he fell asleep first
and his end of the cord
dropped to the floor,
I missed him terribly,
though I could hear his even breath
and we had such long and separate lives
ahead.

Use

This poem is a great introductory poem to teach about personal narrative writing.  Discuss that the writer of the poem took a moment in her life and shared the events that occurred between her and her brother.  Encourage students to write their own personal narrative about a moment in their life.  Allow them to write in poetic form or create a story.