Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets selected by Naomi Shihab Nye

Bibliographic Citation:

Nye, Naomi Shiham. 2000. Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books. ISBN: 0688161936.

Review:

Salting the the Ocean is a poetry anthology book that features 100 poems by young poets. Naomi Shihab Nye created this anthology based on the students that she has met through the last 25 years of working with children on writing poetry. The book starts out with a introduction from Nye but she does it in a very interesting way. She wrote her introduction in three parts, the first part was to anyone, the second part was to teachers, librarians, parents and the third part was to the poets. I felt that this was a creative introduction and would be sure to allow all readers a instant connection with the book. Not only was Nye's introduction interesting, but I also appreciated the way she split up the 100 poems. She separated the poems into 4 sections: The Self and The Inner World, Where We Live, Anybody's Family and The Wide Imagination. I liked how she was able to group the poems based on the topics and think that this would make it easy to navigate for teachers and students.

All of the poems used in this anthology are very unique, since they are each written by a different young poet. What I liked most about this book was that it wasn't predictable, you never knew what was going to be on the next page. Whether it was a funny, uplifting or sad the poem, the reader was always left guessing what would be next. It was incredible to read all of these poems and know that they are the words of a young poet, not an adult. I loved getting to see a little excerpt of that child's life and thoughts through their words, and think that this book would be great to share with children of all ages. Not only will this motivate them to write their own poetry, but show them that you can be an author at any age.

There were not very many illustrations used in this book, only at the beginning of the chapter and the first poem in each chapter had a picture. The pictures were very bright and charming, but did have a outdated feel to them. I do think that it was wise for Nye to not overshadow the children's poetry with pictures, and appreciated the fact that she only did a few throughout the 105 page book. I highly suggest checking this book out and sharing it with your child/students. I don't think think that this would be a book that children would normally check out, so I encourage teachers and parents to do it for them. This book will not only motivate but help foster a love for poetry.

Spotlight Poem:

It's Inside of Me!

The movement of
rivers is in me.
In my blood.
The smartness of Einstein
is in me.
In my head.
The stillness of rocks
is in me.
In my body.
The color of trees
is in me.
In my skin.
The looseness of dirt
is in me.
In my bones.
The fastness of rabbits
is in me.
In my legs.
The seeing of eagles
is in me.
In my eyes.
The neatness of cats
is in me.
In my hands.
That is me.

Adam Delavan

Activity:

As I was reading this book, I was in disbelief that all of these poems were written by kids. The poems had so much depth and complexity that I felt it was written by a wise adult. I think a great way to introduce this book would be to read the poems to the students and not share with them that it is an anthology of poetry by children.

After reading several poems, I will then ask them what they thought of the poems and what their favorite parts were. I would also ask them what they envision the poet to look like and maybe ask them how old they think he/she was at the time of writing it. After hearing their responses, I will then tell them that it was written by children like them and watch their shocked faces. My hope is that by sharing this little known fact will help motivate them to write poetry and start to see themselves as poets. Poetry can be written at any age and I want to show them that!