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A review by worldlibraries
Poetry for Young People: Maya Angelou by Maya Angelou
4.0
This series is so inspiring and so outstanding, I think I will have to read every title in the series. I wish it included poets from all over the world though. Where is Rumi? Kahlil Gibran? Omar Khayyam? Hafiz? Bashō?
I thought of myself as familiar with much of Maya Angelou's oeuvre. I wasn't. Dr. Angelou was a highly productive person and there were so many poems in this collection new to me. Unlike Langston Hughes, there was not a video available of each poem that I could listen to with Dr. Angelou reading - or even someone else reading it. I enjoy reading the text first, and then going to YouTube to listen to all of the different interpretations of a poem.
Moments in life that Maya can take you to immediately in just a few words: a child's pride in her parents in the poem 'Little Girl Speakings:'
'No lady cookinger than my Mommy,
smell that pie,
see I don't lie,
No lady cookinger than my Mommy.'
Or the dignity seen watching a hard-working elder moving about in her poem about her Uncle Willie and 'Song for the Old Ones.' 'Song for the Old Ones' is a sober read. Times were so hard for those who lived through slavery, Maya Angelou celebrates that their accomplishment was 'living on the edge of death / they kept my race alive.' Wow.
A couple of her poems have been enhanced by superb artistic collaborations. 'Life Doesn't Frighten Me' is a poem for those children who are scared but who are NOT going to admit it. I love the Jean-Michel Basquiat drawings that have been matched with this poem in a picture book of the same name.
The music video created of Harlem Hopscotch is so exciting and fun, how could any child not fall in love with poetry after seeing it. Dr. Maya Angelou knows how to create excitement for life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mBHyKECPuA
The pièce de résistance in this book is Maya Angelou's wise, prescient, thoughtful poem written for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, 'A Brave and Startling Truth.' This is exactly the kind of thought-provoking knowledge from a human elder the younger members of humanity, especially those involved in governance, need to hear. I would love to see this poem receive more acclaim and worldwide appreciation.
I thought of myself as familiar with much of Maya Angelou's oeuvre. I wasn't. Dr. Angelou was a highly productive person and there were so many poems in this collection new to me. Unlike Langston Hughes, there was not a video available of each poem that I could listen to with Dr. Angelou reading - or even someone else reading it. I enjoy reading the text first, and then going to YouTube to listen to all of the different interpretations of a poem.
Moments in life that Maya can take you to immediately in just a few words: a child's pride in her parents in the poem 'Little Girl Speakings:'
'No lady cookinger than my Mommy,
smell that pie,
see I don't lie,
No lady cookinger than my Mommy.'
Or the dignity seen watching a hard-working elder moving about in her poem about her Uncle Willie and 'Song for the Old Ones.' 'Song for the Old Ones' is a sober read. Times were so hard for those who lived through slavery, Maya Angelou celebrates that their accomplishment was 'living on the edge of death / they kept my race alive.' Wow.
A couple of her poems have been enhanced by superb artistic collaborations. 'Life Doesn't Frighten Me' is a poem for those children who are scared but who are NOT going to admit it. I love the Jean-Michel Basquiat drawings that have been matched with this poem in a picture book of the same name.
The music video created of Harlem Hopscotch is so exciting and fun, how could any child not fall in love with poetry after seeing it. Dr. Maya Angelou knows how to create excitement for life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mBHyKECPuA
The pièce de résistance in this book is Maya Angelou's wise, prescient, thoughtful poem written for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, 'A Brave and Startling Truth.' This is exactly the kind of thought-provoking knowledge from a human elder the younger members of humanity, especially those involved in governance, need to hear. I would love to see this poem receive more acclaim and worldwide appreciation.