This Is Just to Say book review

Bibliography

Sidman, J. 2007. This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness. Ill. by Pamela Zagarenski. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780544105072

Plot Summary

This Is Just to Say is a thematic collection of apologetic and forgiving poems separated into two parts. The first part is a collection of apology poems written by sixth-grade students, followed by the second part, which is comprised of responses to the apology poems; the sixth-grade students had to write a “sorry” poem as a classroom assignment and had the people they wrote the poems to write a response in poetry. However, while the poems were apologetic, some writing styles expressed varying emotions and rhythms, showing diversity in their poetry writing.

Critical Analysis

Every child has their own style of writing. This is seen by the various structures of poetry seen throughout the book. The diversity of the poems indicate two important elements of poetry: rhythm and emotion.

A few poems are written in a staccato-like style, short and precise, while others feel like reading a chapter off of a book in a fluid and prose-like manner. For example, the short rhythm is shown in “Dark-Haired Girl,” with lines containing one to four words in each line, such as “Raneesha/ dark-haired girl/ with flashing eyes.”

On the other hand, the prose poems are represented in “Fashion Sense,” with a poem that takes up two pages and has lines containing eight to twelve words in each line. The different rhythm presented in this poem can be seen in each line, such as ”You know how the words slip out and you can’t believe it?/ And they echo in your head forever and ever?”.

The emotions of the poems also vary in the book, with some being lighthearted, and others being mellow and sorrowful.

An example of a lighthearted poem can be seen in “Brownies- Oops!” with a poem of a girl who unapologetically eats the middle of a brownie, saying “I saw the warm, thick/ brick of brownies”// “My head said, Oops!/ but my stomach said, Heavenly”. On the other hand, as humor and happiness are expressed in some poems, sadness and guilt are represented as well.

Sadness can be seen in “Next Time,” in which a young girl writes to her father and wishes she could have been a better daughter, stating “What did I do this time?// Whatever it is,/ I can fix it// I’m sorry, Daddy./ Next time I’ll be/ perfect.”

The intentions and messages of each poem are different, but the emotions and rhythms of them help indicate the diversity of the children’s writing styles and preferences.

Review Expert(s)

• Kirkus Review:"Despite a slight uneven quality or perhaps because of it, the whole is far more captivation than expected" (May 20, 2010). 

Connections

• These short poems can be read in an ELA/Reading classroom as examples to have for students when discussing poetry. 
• A lesson can be done with students writing poems to one another, switching them, and then having them write a response to it. This book can be used as guidance for what is expected.