Book
Suggestion and Activity Guide
Title: Jabber Walking - Written and
illustrated by Juan Felipe Herrera - Hardcover | 144 Pages - Candlewick Press, 2018
Grades 5 to 12 – Particular potential for visual, kinesthetic,
auditory and *“musical” readers
As a college undergrad I was fully taken by Walt Whitman’s
image of the poet on the open road inviting others to join him. This Brooklyn
19
th century son burst into the poetry world with a full blown
persona that invited readers or listeners to travel the road and observe the
poetry inherent in everyday life. United
States
Poet Laureate (2015 to 2017), Juan Felipe Herrera has taken to that
road often to write, scribble, talk and color/mark up his poetry on paper bags,
newspapers,
and any diy material that can take scribbles.
These ideas unfold in the video Juan Felipe Herrera’s winding path to
poetry”
https://youtu.be/iykpWev3NLY.
The film of course makes. what was for the 19
th
century audience of Whitman only a powerful
text voice, become
Youtube accessible and authentic to a
new audience.
As a teacher who also wants to pass forward a lifelong love
of poetry as a genre, the cover of this
book with its paint splatter
and its
identification of author Herrera as poet laureate grabs attention.
This book is Herrera’s
personal pitch
at to
sharehis craft with a young audience .
Even more compelling is the poet’s immediate
identification with Carroll’s the Jabberwocky and Herrera’s private use of
“Jabberwock” to signify poet and “burble” to mean “poem.”
The book trailer nicely includes dynamism
of Herrera’s vision of poetry
https://youtu.be/lhushpbR8kg.
It deftly illustrates,
with its sole
focus on the poet’s scribbles and hand drawn/marker made art,
that these images and scribbles are part and
parcel of poetry as he defines it.
Unlike other works by
renowned poets targeted at young readers, this one approaches poetry writing in
a visually compelling with, employing a very active, type face punctuated by
scribble art (Herrera’s exact style of
writing- a mix of scribbles and doodles on various available media) punctuated by his asides,
suggesting to the reader to “rush” through certain chapters. Thus poet Herrera introduces his, accessible
to all readers who doodle and adore graphic narratives guide, with chapter
titles in brackets with kidding asides. One great example is how, amusingly,
the Jabberwalking narrator is references rapidly walking his dog Lotus on the
way to a scheduled Library of Congress event.
What I liked best about this was that the poet uses this
format, which ironically is true to his style of writing and performance art,
to inspire young readers with an array
of traditional poetry craft insights and references to recognized poets. Among those he includes are: Walt Whitman,
Frieda Kahlo, Robert Bly, Eva Aguirre, and Ko Un.
He also provides the young reader with an insider understanding of how he
crafts a poem from his scribbles ( he uses newspapers to write on and suggests
the paper bags Kahlo used) and provides the reader with a step by step, easily
tacked process of going from scribble to identifying poetry words, to “shape” ing the words into “fun groups” to the final “new shape”
sprinkling in “other words.” Young
readers can immerse themselves in the method to yield their own ‘burbles.’
Herrera focuses on family and cultural affirmation as an integral part of a
being a fast moving Jabberwalk poet . He
encourages readers to look at photos of their family members and include family
stories plus native homeland musical culture and historic details in their
poems. He also recounts and emphasizes the teachers who believed he had a
good voice, could direct a play, and how developing film rolls of 35 millimeter
film black and white stills inspired his artistic process.
How teachers can use
this work:
Students can mimic the suggestions of the poet,
author of this book by “jabberwalking”; running and writing poetry, for
instance; creating while involved in any number of his suggested, highly
inviting, yet very unorthodox writing related activities. They can mark up
newspapers with markers and create poems as he does. They can narrate as
they enact separate book chapters while being recorded, thus producing digital, uploadable
audio recordings and videos as records of their jabberwalking activity and as
fresh jabberwalk products.
The Library of Congress in Washington, DC provides teachers
and students with a priceless video “Jabberwalking with Juan Felipe Herrera “
https://youtu.be/ZW8xlyrSG2c of the
poet leading a group of students, not only through the galleries of the library
with colored pages, markers, crayons and pens and boards to create poems, but
also deliberately taking them through tunnels and interiors of the
building.
This view of Herrera interacting
with actual students captures how infectiously joyous and accessible his brand
of poetry and observation fitness walking can be; something that can be done at
any school or student center.
Student
poems – “burbles” –are read aloud as part of this video.
Students can compare this book with other recognized author’s
craft tips including Walter Dean Myers Just Write (2012), Gail Carson Levine
Writing Magic (2014) and Stephen King’s On Writing (2000).
In response, they can prepare a podcast
discussion on which of these writers’ methods and ideas about how to write
better inspire young readers.
Students
can select chapters and dialogue with the racing poet as he narrates to write a
co-authored Herrera young reader reaction dialog about the writing of
poetry.
Since the typeface and scribble
art of the book are so much a part of its intensive close conversational
relationship with the reader who is to race along, students can be challenged
to craft their own mixed typeface and graphics story for a target reader using
this style.
Of course, students can also use Scratch or other animation-related resources to
craft their own presentations, mirroring the animations in Herrera’s book
trailers. They can also react to the book review of this work
https://latinosinkidlit.com/2018/06/14/book-review-jabberwalking-by-juan-felipe-herrera/
This site, ostensibly for Latino kids, will take comments from
those other than Latino backgrounds or from Latinos.
Herrera asks his reader to understand that: “Writing saved
my life. . . . (he) Wrote so much, sang so much , that one day I began to write
as I was walking. . . . To walk and to speak for the lives of others.”
Herrera’s invitation to readers to join
him is a compelling one. Watch out for all those jabberwalkers ahead!! Enjoy
their burbles (poems)!! Support them in writing their walks (jabberwalking), exercising their
scribbling, burbling , singing and talking poetry muscles.
Dr. Rose Reissman
is the founder of the Writing Institute,
now replicated in 200 schools including PS 205 in The Bronx, New York
City. She is a featured author in New York State Union Teachers
Educators
Voice 2016 and was filmed discussing ESL student leadership literary
strategies
developed at Ditmas IS 62, a Brooklyn public intermediate school. Ditmas IS 62 is under the leadership of Marielena Santiago Principal and
Michelle Buitrago AP. The Writing Institute Team are: Michael Downes,
Angelo Carideo, and Amanda Xavier.
Contact: roshchaya@gmail.com
