"Change Sings"
Written by Amanda Gorman, illustrated by Loren Long
Recommended grades: PreK-3rd
This picture book is a combination of artwork and a poem which
was written as an anthem to stir children to action in changing the world for
the better. It’s a slightly abstract poem, about personal empowerment through and
for community connection, and collective effort. It ends with a clear call to a
young reader to join this joyful movement.
The poem in this book is beautiful. There is no surprise
there, Amanda Gorman is one of the most lauded poets in America today, for good
reason. She was the youngest presidential inaugural poet in history, when she
participated in Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. Her overall work is uplifting,
serving as a beacon of hope and optimism during these bleak political times. As
a result of bringing a stirring and inspirational attitude to politically
active people, she has won several awards, and become a New York Times bestseller.
The illustrations in this book are lovingly rendered, in a
soft-edged and cheerful style. They show an unnamed main character in a diverse
city setting, gathering neighborhood children a few at a time, before they all play
music together, and improve the neighborhood by visiting the elderly, cleaning up
trash, building a new wheelchair ramp, and turning an abandoned storefront into
a grocery store with the help of an adult. In the end, they paint a huge mural depicting
themselves, which says “We Are the Change”, in large letters. To my adult sensibility,
the story in the illustrations is an inspiring and morally righteous message for
young children to absorb.
There is one jarring issue. The words and the pictures are disjointed from one another. Unlike most picture books, even ones written as rhyming verse, the text and the pictures in this book don’t directly reference one another. The poem isn’t a narrative, it is instead written as slightly abstract song lyrics, which never directly reference the action taking place in the artwork that they’re paired with. There is very little imagery in the poem, and the imagery that is in the words is never on the page.
The only reason I could follow the connection between the artwork
and the words on each page is because of my adult-level understanding of
metaphor, symbolism, and of the political context that this book was written
in, when intolerance and suspicion has sadly become the cultural norm instead of
local community cohesion.
Four-to-eight-year old students may have a difficult time absorbing
both the words and the pictures at the same time, because of this disconnect.
The most gifted among them could grasp the connections and the overall meaning
of the combination of the art and the poem, but the adult-sized lessons and
political references in this book might be more inspiring to the adults reading
it than to the kids it’s being read to.
Note: Gorman has authored a second children’s book, “Something, Someday,” which looks to be more strictly narrative than this one. It looks promising. I will post a review of that one here soon.
Word Count: 505
No comments:
Post a Comment