Myra here.
Thank you to dear Irene Latham at Live Your Poem for hosting this week.
This year, we hope to feature books that fit any of the following criteria:
-
Postcolonial literature and/or [pre/post] revolutionary stories
-
Stories by indigenous / first-nation peoples / people of colour
-
Narratives of survival and healing, exile and migration, displacement and dispossession
-
Books written or illustrated by people who have been colonized, oppressed, marginalized
Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem (Amazon | Book Depository)
Words by Amanda Gorman Illustrated by Loren Long
Published by Viking Books For Young Readers (2021) ISBN: 9780593203224 (ISBN10: 0593203224) Borrowed via Overdrive. Book photos taken by me.
I loved Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem, The Hill We Climb. Thus, when I found out late last year that she had a poetry picturebook out illustrated by no less than Loren Long, I immediately tried to find it, and was so delighted to see it on Overdrive.
The poem begins with the promise of something to come:
I can hear change humming
In its loudest, proudest song.
I don’t fear change coming,
And so I sing along.
What I especially find to be moving in this poem is that it acknowledges the difficulty in having this kind of change happen; there is a recognition that not all people would understand this song that is now in the air.
Yet there is also a quiet resolve and certitude that change will come, nonetheless. It also centralizes this change – not from somewhere outside of the self – but within one’s own actions because:
I’m the voice where freedom rings.
You’re the love your bright heart brings.
What a perfect read-aloud for young children in the classroom.
#DecolonizeBookshelves2022 Update: 9 out of target 100
January 28, 2022 at 06:31AM Myra Garces-Bacsal
