Through the Looking Glass Book Reviews: Amazing Faces

Welcome!

Dear Book Lovers, Welcome! I am delighted that you have found The Through the Looking Glass blog. For over twenty years I reviewed children's literature titles for my online journal, which came out six times a year. Every book review written for that publication can be found on the Through the Looking Glass website (the link is below). I am now moving in a different direction, though the columns that I write are still book-centric. Instead of writing reviews, I'm offering you columns on topics that have been inspired by wonderful books that I have read. I tell you about the books in question, and describe how they have have impacted me. This may sound peculiar to some of you, but the books that I tend to choose are ones that resonate with me on some level. Therefore, when I read the last page and close the covers, I am not quite the same person that I was when first I started reading the book. The shift in my perspective might be miniscule, but it is still there. The books I am looking are both about adult and children's titles. Some of the children's titles will appeal to adults, while others will not. Some of the adult titles will appeal to younger readers, particularly those who are eager to expand their horizons.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Poetry Friday - A review of Amazing Faces

Happy Friday everyone! For today's post I have a review of wonderful book of poems.

Amazing Faces

Lee Bennett Hopkins

Illustrated by Chris Soentpiet

Poetry Picture Book

For ages 4 to 8

Lee and Low Books, 2010, 978-1-60060-334-1

All too often we are quick to notice how different we are from people who live in different cities or countries, who speak different languages, and whose skin is a different shade from ours. We judge based on how different we are rather than notice how much we have in common. For this unique picture book, Lee Bennett Hopkins has chosen sixteen poems that all show to great effect that there are universal experiences and feelings that connect us.

In the first poem in the collection, Rebecca Kai Dotlich looks at the “Amazing Face” of a baby. Parents and siblings all over the world every day see amazing baby faces. They see in that little face how this baby will one day “watch from a window,/ whisper to a friend,/ ride a carousel,/ melt candy on your tongue.”

In the poem Miss Stone, Nikki Grimes explores a first day of school experience. We meet a little African American child who wishes “somebody, anybody/ Would come over and ask me to play.” How many children in playgrounds all over the world have felt this way?

To accompany the poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, Chris Soentpiet has created rich paintings full of expressive faces. We see smiles, sparkling eyes, looks of love, and looks of pain. We see in these amazing faces the threads that bring us together.