Poems In The Attic

Bibliographic Data
Poems in the Attic by Nikki Grimes
Illustrations by Elizabeth Zunon
Lee & Low Books, May 2015
ISBN 978-1620140277

Brief Plot Summary

This book is about a 7-year-old girl who upon visiting her grandmother's house discovers a box of her mother's poems in the attic. The poems detail her mother's travels around the world as a child as an "Air Force Brat." The young girl feels closer to her mother than ever before reading the poetry and creates a gift for her mother when she creates a book for her mother with her own poems included.

Critical Analysis
This book appeals to an individual's sense of adventure and tugs on the reader emotionally. The author used free-verse for the young girl's poetry and a Japanese style of poetry called tanka, for her mother. Special memories of the young girl's mother are created as she travels along with her mother's adventures as a child. The illustrations reflect the warmth of the poetry and highlight the emotional bond between a young girl, her elders, and her mother. An example of a free-verse poem from the young girl in the book is:

                Grandma’s attic is stacked with secrets.
                Last visit, I found poems Mama wrote
                Before I was born, before I was even imagined.
                She started when she was seven—same age as me.

The mother’s poems take the form of tanka, and all follow the 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic arrangement. For example, her is a poem from the mother titled Cedar Box:

                I choose you to keep
                all my rememberings safe,
                poems about home,
                no matter where that might be.
                Each place is special to me.

The poems are paired throughout the book. After each of the mother's poems a city, state, or country that matches the locations of various air force base locations she visited is given. For example, the poem set in California is titled “Cabrillo Beach” and describes the grunion run. The image illustrates a father and a daughter together on a beach enjoying the grunion. All of the illustrations are vibrant with color and provide a deep connection to the emotions of the young girl reading about her mother's past. The way the book reads tells a dual story one from the daughter's perspective and one from the mother's.
     
In the end, the young girl is inspired to write her own tanka and creates a book that combines the poetry and gives it to her mother as a gift. The final poem is The Gift:

                I run to Mama,
                tackle her with hugs, kisses,
                then hand her the book.
                Breathlessly I wait for her
                to unwrap our memories.

Awards and Excerpts

Arnold Adoff Poetry Award Honor
Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year 2016
NCTE Notable Poetry List 2016 
New York City Dept of Education National Poetry Month recommendation 
Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee

A girl discovers her mother’s childhood poems in her grandmother’s attic and embarks on a journey through family history that inspires her own poetic tribute to her mother. ... According to her author’s note, Grimes drew on the varied stories of friends who grew up as military brats to create this imagined intergenerational dialogue. ... Succinct poetry shines in this impassioned celebration of history; the stories of this African-American family traveling the globe are rich with heart and color.

Kirkus Reviews, starred review

A 7-year-old girl, exploring in Grandma’s attic, finds a box of poems her mother wrote as a child. On each left-hand page, Grimes (“Chasing Freedom,” “Words With Wings”) has her narrator write in short bursts of free verse, while on the right-side pages the poems her mother wrote are in the Japanese five-line form tanka. The result is a story that conveys decades of family history with an almost magical concision. Elizabeth Zunon’s warm, bright illustrations provide a cheerful balance, but it’s the ache of a parent’s absence that most powerfully animates the book.

New York Times Sunday Book Review

Connections

Dialogue with students about the difficulties of moving many times in a year. It is a challenge for many children. Students can recognize how this may be a physical and emotional upheaval and write their own experiences around transitions. it can also help students to be kind when "the new kid" arrives in the middle of the school year.

Student can also create their own tanka or free-verse poetry and create books or anthologies in class.