Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word

Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word
By Bob Raczka
Roaring Brook Press, 2011. 43 pgs. Middle Grade Poetry

This is a collection of poems all formed using letters from a single word. For example:
creative
i
crave a
art

However, the poems are arranged in order of how the letters appear in the word order:
creative
          i
cr a     ve
      a
  r     t

I like the idea here; it's fun to see poems developing from a single word. However, sometimes the arrangement made it hard to know where one word ended and the next word started. Granted, there is a wider space between words than between letters that just go onto a second or third line, but it's not quite as clear as I'd like to make it a smooth read. However, on the page following each poem, there is a line-by-line, easy-to-read version of the poem.

3.5 stars. Clean read.

Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto

Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto

By Paul B. Janeczko

Candlewick Press, 2011. 102 pgs. Poetry

Summary and Review:

This is a collection of brief poems that describes how the Nazis herded Jews into the Terezin ghetto before shipping them off to the death camps. The poems show the view point of the Jews, as well as the SS guards and the non-Jewish people who were removed from their homes in order to build the ghetto. It’s a slim collection of poems, but it’s definitely moving, showing lost love, broken lives, and more.

3.5 stars.