Children's Lit Book Reviews

Summary: Jack is a student in Miss Stretchberry's classroom, Room 105. He is inspired to write poetry yet is scared to because boys don't write poetry. To Jack, in the beginning, poetry is a girl thing. He starts off very standoffish about his poetry and asks Miss Stretchberry to not post his poetry on the board and to not even read it out loud. His poem first starts off being about a blue car speeding down the road, and his teacher becomes confused and asks why so much depends upon the blue car. Jack becomes confused and tells the teacher that the poem about the wheelbarrow guy didn't contain a why. Jack then confesses that he doesn't want to write about the blue car. The reader might begin to feel here that Jack has a personal feeling against that blue car at this point. However, the teacher continues to inspire Jack by providing him many different examples of other poems. Each of them inspire him to change his poem a little and make it better. Suddenly, Miss Stretchberry shares a poem by Walter Dean Meyers, and it inspires Jack to completely re-work is poem. Eventually, Jack has the opportunity to write Walter Dean Meyers and invite him to his school. Jack becomes self conscience but is still pretty excited for this opportunity to share his poem with Mr. Meyers. When the time comes for Mr. Meyers to visit, Jack writes him a very special thank you with his poem in it, telling Mr. Meyers that it contained his words and was inspired by him.
Who would benefit from reading this book? I think that this is such a great little poem/novel. It's inspiring and will cause anyone to pick up a pencil and begin writing poetry as well. This book is for everyone to read and enjoy.
What problems/concerns could this book potentially cause? There are no problems or even any concerns that could potentially arise from this wonderful novel.
My reaction: This is my first introduction to poetry written in novel form, and it was absolutely splendid. I didn't know what to expect, but I couldn't put this book down and finished reading it in about 15 minutes. I will definitely recommend this book to all poetry lovers and readers alike.