Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat (A Poetry Speaks Experience Series) Book

This anthology of poems was put together by Nikki Giovanni to excite and inspire young readers to love poetry. The book includes poems from popular poets such as Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou, as well as song lyrics from Kanye West and Queen Latifah. The individual poems span a variety of themes and topics. Some are about love or family and some are more specific to the culture of the particular poet. The dialect in some of the poems follows that of the poet's background and experiences, rather than keeping "perfect grammar" that students are asked to use in their schoolwork. All of the poems in the anthology have a beat that is east for children to pick up on, especially when it is written about rap or R & B music, encouraging children to make the connection between poetry and the music they listen to. The illustrations in the text are incredibly detailed and beautifully drawn to go along with the poem on each page.
I think this is a great book to include in any classroom library because it connects something most children love, music, with a genre of literature that students are not exposed to as frequently. If a student does not particularly enjoy reading, I believe this book of poems would still appeal to many children because of its fun, musical nature. The fact that there are poems and lyrics by popular rappers and singers in the anthology makes it that much more appealing. There is also a CD that is included with the book and it has musical renditions of some of the poems. Students can listen to the CD as they read along with the poem (or before/ after) to relate their reading and literacy work to exciting, upbeat music. I think it would make a great introduction into studying other music and looking at it from a writing/ literacy point of view. Doing this would allow a lesson on different cultures and how poetry and literature is seen in different cultures.
The poems are written from a cultural perspective and I believe that most children will appreciate that they can relate to what the poet is sharing in some of the different entries. The fact that many of the poems are written in the dialect of the poet is an important detail to acknowledge when students are reading this book. In school there is such a strong focus on teaching proper grammar and spelling and I think it is important to show students that using a variation of the language is just as valuable. There is a certain beauty about expressing one's feelings in a way that is unique to that individual and I think students will realize that when reading the poems in this anthology.