2. Locomotion

Woodson, Jacqueline G. P. Putnam’s Sons / New York. 2003.

Annotation: Lonnie Collins Motion, AKA Locomotion is an 11 year old boy living with his foster parent Miss Edna. Lonnie is an energetic kid (hence the pseudonym “Locomotion”) and needs to express the grief of his situation along with other complex emotions that connect to school, friends and his poetry teacher, Ms. Marcus. Ms. Marcus gets Lonnie writing poetry to work out these issues and the book is sort of like Lonnie’s finished portfolio. Through his poems we come to know Lonnie and sympathize with his tragic past and hopeful future. We also get to see Lonnie develop his poetic talent one poem at a time.

Justification for Nomination: Although Locomotion is a simple, little unassuming book it accomplishes some remarkable effects with noticeable grace. Starting with the title and cover art the book promises to be energetic and like the little boy dancing on the cover the poems shift and move, snap and pop. This works well in several ways. Right away the readability of the book is heightened with the lively imagery of poetry. What’s particularly effective is that Woodson’s voice seems genuine to that of an 11 year old boy with all the aforementioned issues in his young life. Very quickly we come to know Lonnie and care about him. We want to learn more about him and through the poems we get clues to the mystery of his parents death which is the lynch pin in understanding Lonnie. The sense of mystery makes the book a page turner and with some pages only containing a haiku, the pages flip and turn like subway break-dancers. So for students with an interest in music and lyrics this book could be an excellent fit.

                        Students interested, yet cautions about poetry in general could really benefit from this book as well. Is Lonnie a “good poet?” That’s all in the eye of the beholder. But what’s interesting is that we get to see him develop as a writer though the course of the book. In his poems he includes conversations with his teacher. In the very first poem he says “I write the string-of-smoke thing down real fast./ Ms. Marcus says We’ll worry about line breaks later” (2). We see Lonnie’s talent for imagery and metaphor, yet room for thought in poetic form. In this way Locomotion also reads like an introductory course in poetry. From the teaching perspective you’ll want to keep a notebook handy because lesson plan ideas will emerge with each poem. From analyzing line breaks, imagery, word choice, rhythm and even a little rhyme, these free verse poems show how we can jump into poetry at any time and begin working out our own voice and as Paul Valery said so long ago, “A poem is never finished, only abandoned.” This book could be a great introduction to students in demonstrating that poetry (and other writing and literacy) is alive, evolving it grows as we grow and some times we grow from it.

                        The great strength of poetry as an art form is its ability to deal with complex emotions. We could have endless discussion as to weather the poems in this book (or any book) are any good. Another great strength of Locomotion is that it turns the conversation more towards asking if the poems are effective or not. One of the turn offs to poetry is the impression that poems are inaccessible riddles, an inside joke between the author and his/her poem for us to puzzle though, and analyze only to be told by the teacher that the "true" meaning is something entirely different. Instead, Locomotion presents fairly simple language yet connects to complex emotions by showing and not telling what the emotional weight is. The artistry of the book plays heavily on suggesting the emotional connection which is key in understanding other poetry and in writing our own. A good example of Lonnie direct style is in his Poetry Poem:

You don’t just get to write a poem once
You gotta write it once and over and over
until it feels real good to you
And sometimes it does
and sometimes it doesn’t
That’s what’s really great
and really stupid
about poetry.

The ambiguity of what’s “great” and “stupid” in poetry would be a fun discussion of student’s own feelings and examples of great and stupid poetry. Throughout the book Lonnie continues to invite us into his conversation in this way. For Lonnie he just needs to get it on the page. It fits with his character that he’s not to the point where he’s ready to put clear labels on his feelings, he can only describe them. This works well in that we get to understand who Lonnie is while watching him develop as a writer and all the while we’re becoming better readers of him and of poetry. What’s even more impressive is that this doesn’t come across as a gimmick. Woodson maintains such an authentic voice throughout the book that I never thought I was reading her. I always felt that I was reading Lonnie.

Genre of Catalog: Verse Novel, Free verse poetry, Realistic Fiction, Awards: Maud Hart Lovelace Award nominee, 2007-2008.