105 Ways to Give a Book

Poetry Friday: Me I Am!

Hold it one minute. Are those bold and italics and
blockquotes
I see on my Blogger template? Wow! Oh Wowie Wow Wow! I can do this and this and
this
without coding on a Mac. I’m going to save so much time! I can even spllchck... I mean spellcheck with one click. And what does this button do? Links! It’s links! I can link here or here for no other reason than I feel like it. Is this what you PC people have been doing all along? Because it rocks!

Sorry, but this is exciting news. But let’s get to Poetry Friday’s picture book selection, Me I Am! by Jack Prelutsky. One poem, from 1983, is adapted into a new picture book with the illustrations of Christine Davenier. The first half of the poem is:
I am the only ME I AM
who qualifies as me;
no ME I AM has been before,
and none will ever be.

No other ME I AM can feel
the feelings I’ve within;
no other ME I AM can fit
precisely in my skin.
I love the way this poem expresses the uniqueness of each person and celebrates our individuality. It’s like a personal anthem.

But for this picture book, I’m giving the nod to the artist, Christine Davenier, who has turned the poem into a celebration of childhood. Each two-page spread is a story in itself, told only in the pictures. Over two pages, we see a girl trying on a frilly dress, rejecting it, putting on play clothes, skating away, falling, and getting up again happy. There is another story for a little boy, and then another little girl, and then in the end they all come together. So much more is going on in this book than the words, and it’s all wonderful. In fact, I’m debating buying ME I AM! today and bringing it to ALA tomorrow to get it signed by Jack Prelutsky. I’ll have to wait to find the illustrator another day, especially given that she lives in Paris. Beautiful, special book for any child.

I’ll be back later with one more ALA posting and a meme-palooza, and next week, oh next week, I have a Very Special Picture Book to review. I’m all tingles just thinking about it.

3 comments:

Bill said...

The additional Blogger options are there because I went ahead and installed the beta version of Safari 3 (which, incidentally, is now also available for the PC) onto the home iMac.

I've been running it on my PowerBook for a few days now and have been pretty happy with the results. Most of the additions are fairly minor, but I thought that little bonus would please you...

Mary Lee said...

Firefox has all the buttony-goodness, too!

Magpie said...

What Mary Lee said...Firefox is great.