This is Just to Say

Bibliography: Sidman, Joyce. 2007. THIS IS JUST TO SAY Ill.by Pamela Zargarenski. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN: 9780618616800

Review: Inspired by Williams Carlos Williams' simplistic but beautiful poem by the same name, This Is Just To Say is a collection of poems based on forgivness and apologies of Ms. Merz's sixth grade class. The collection of poems is separated into two sections. The first part consists of apologies and the second half of the book contains responses to some of the previous section's poems. The poems have a range of style, type and mood. The collection contains free verse poems, haiku, rhymes, pantoums, and more. Many are laugh out loud funny such as “I got carried Away” by Reuben who apologized to his friend, Kyle for an overzealous game of dodge ball while others are heart wrenching such as Raneesha's “A Waste of Heart” which expresses her hurt feeling over an unrequited love.

The illustrations contained in This is Just to Say are also a highlight of the book. The illustrator, Pamela Zagarenski, created the art with a sixth grader and an art teacher in mind. Each poem receives its own illustration and each is specific to the poem. Many of the illustrations are cartoonish and comical much like the poems themselves. The poems and illustrations of This is Just to Say come together to create an enjoyable reading experience.

Excerpt: Dodge Ball Crazy Sorry, /Reubs,/ for belting you/ as hard/ as I could/ in dodge ball/ I'd like/ to say/ I wouldn't/ do it again/ but I'd/ be lying by Kyle

Introducing the Poem: This Is Just to Say would be great to introuduce to an English class of any age though those in middle school and younger grades would be best. This collection would be great to use in introducing poetry for the first time due to it's wide range of topics and wide range of poetic styles. Students new to poetry will understand that poetry can be written in any style they wish and regarding any topic they desire to write about whether that be dodgeball, a pet hamester, or even a delicious plate of brownies. A classroom may even be inspired to create their own series of apology poems after reading This Is Just To Say.