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A review by gymnerdreader
Tan to Tamarind: Poems About the Color Brown by Malathi Michelle Iyengar
5.0
Annotated Bibliography Entry: Tan to Tamarind Poems About the Color Brown by: Malathi Michelle Iyengar
Summary:
This poetry book features collections of poems on the color brown. It basically features either objects that are brown in color (and most objects have some sort of cultural importance) or brown as a skin color, which is what the last poem in the book is about and it is basically a culmination of all the different color browns mentioned in the story. For example there poems about coffee, old picture albums autumn leaves, mountains. These are more ordinary subjects. Then there are other poems about the color of a sari, traditional Indian dresses and cultural food as well so there is a wide mix of poems from more ordinary objects that are brown in color to cultural objects that are brown. So it is a pretty comprehensive selection of poems.
Personal Response:
The poems in this book are beautiful and I love the way the poems sound. A lot of the poems have a great deal of imagery and it really paints a picture of what the poem is trying to say, which I love. The poems do not rhyme, but I feel like it will be appealing to children because of the mental images it produces. You can really feel and imagine the poem. The poems also all begin in the same format and I think children will like that consistency. This book also has a good comprehensive selection of poems ranging from just ordinary objects to more cultural ones so I like that it is so diverse because these poems can be used for a variety of different purposes, such as ELA or even a social justice approach. All in all, the poems are all about diversity (more in terms of the diversity of brown as a color), which is a great subject to teach kids about. Absolutely love this poetry collection and could definitely see myself using it in my future classroom!
Descriptions of Illustrations:
While this book features beautiful poems, it also features beautiful illustrations to accompany them. The illustrations appear to be done in watercolor paints, however I am not positive as art is not my forte. They are beautiful nonetheless. On another note, the illustrations really help paint a picture of what the poem is saying. For some of the poems the illustrations are the only way to understand them because of the wording of some of the poems. So the illustrations are very useful for this book and they effectively illustrate the poems, which will aid in comprehending the overall poem.
Classroom Connections:
There is a lot you can do with these poems, it is so multi-functional! I think these poems could be used to teach students about imagery and as an activity students could write poems in the format of the poems in this collection (as these poems seem to follow the same format) paying close attention to the imagery present in their own poems. I also think these poems could be used to teach about descriptive words and students could use these poems to increase their use of descriptive language. Besides language, these poems could be used to teach students about diversity and students could bring in a cultural object of their own and write their own poems on that object and the students could then present both their cultural object and poem to the class and explaining why it is important to them. Teachers could also teach from a social justice perspective and use this book to discuss the diversity in their classrooms and talk about their skin colors and letting them know that their skin color is beautiful etc. (much like the last poem in the collection). Teachers could also read a poem and have the student draw whatever is in their head (much like the chart board drawing we did for Each Kindness). There is a lot of stuff that can be done to incorporate this book in the classroom and there a lot of activities that teachers could use this collection for.
Summary:
This poetry book features collections of poems on the color brown. It basically features either objects that are brown in color (and most objects have some sort of cultural importance) or brown as a skin color, which is what the last poem in the book is about and it is basically a culmination of all the different color browns mentioned in the story. For example there poems about coffee, old picture albums autumn leaves, mountains. These are more ordinary subjects. Then there are other poems about the color of a sari, traditional Indian dresses and cultural food as well so there is a wide mix of poems from more ordinary objects that are brown in color to cultural objects that are brown. So it is a pretty comprehensive selection of poems.
Personal Response:
The poems in this book are beautiful and I love the way the poems sound. A lot of the poems have a great deal of imagery and it really paints a picture of what the poem is trying to say, which I love. The poems do not rhyme, but I feel like it will be appealing to children because of the mental images it produces. You can really feel and imagine the poem. The poems also all begin in the same format and I think children will like that consistency. This book also has a good comprehensive selection of poems ranging from just ordinary objects to more cultural ones so I like that it is so diverse because these poems can be used for a variety of different purposes, such as ELA or even a social justice approach. All in all, the poems are all about diversity (more in terms of the diversity of brown as a color), which is a great subject to teach kids about. Absolutely love this poetry collection and could definitely see myself using it in my future classroom!
Descriptions of Illustrations:
While this book features beautiful poems, it also features beautiful illustrations to accompany them. The illustrations appear to be done in watercolor paints, however I am not positive as art is not my forte. They are beautiful nonetheless. On another note, the illustrations really help paint a picture of what the poem is saying. For some of the poems the illustrations are the only way to understand them because of the wording of some of the poems. So the illustrations are very useful for this book and they effectively illustrate the poems, which will aid in comprehending the overall poem.
Classroom Connections:
There is a lot you can do with these poems, it is so multi-functional! I think these poems could be used to teach students about imagery and as an activity students could write poems in the format of the poems in this collection (as these poems seem to follow the same format) paying close attention to the imagery present in their own poems. I also think these poems could be used to teach about descriptive words and students could use these poems to increase their use of descriptive language. Besides language, these poems could be used to teach students about diversity and students could bring in a cultural object of their own and write their own poems on that object and the students could then present both their cultural object and poem to the class and explaining why it is important to them. Teachers could also teach from a social justice perspective and use this book to discuss the diversity in their classrooms and talk about their skin colors and letting them know that their skin color is beautiful etc. (much like the last poem in the collection). Teachers could also read a poem and have the student draw whatever is in their head (much like the chart board drawing we did for Each Kindness). There is a lot of stuff that can be done to incorporate this book in the classroom and there a lot of activities that teachers could use this collection for.