Publishers Weekly
In 60 poems, an orphaned boy explores the various forms of poetry. "Through her hero, the author creates a contagious appreciation for poetry while using the genre as a cathartic means for expressing the young poet's own grief," said PW in a starred review. Ages 8-up. (Dec.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
School Library Journal
Gr 4-6-Four years after losing his parents in a fire, and separated from his younger sister, an 11-year-old African-American boy finds catharsis in writing poetry. Told in Lonnie's affecting voice, this tightly constructed, exemplary novel in verse will touch readers' hearts. JD Jackson's cassette narration allows listeners to feel the rhythm of the different poetic forms from sonnets to haiku to free verse. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Count on award-winning Woodson (Visiting Day, p. 1403, etc.) to present readers with a moving, lyrical, and completely convincing novel in verse. Eleven-year-old Lonnie ("Locomotion") starts his poem book for school by getting it all down fast: "This whole book’s a poem ’cause every time I try to / tell the whole story my mind goes Be quiet! / Only it’s not my mind’s voice, / it’s Miss Edna’s over and over and over / Be quiet! . . . So this whole book’s a poem because poetry’s short and / this whole book’s a poem ’cause Ms. Marcus says / write it down before it leaves your brain." Lonnie tells readers more, little by little, about his foster mother Miss Edna, his teacher Ms. Marcus, his classmates, and the fire that killed his parents and separated him from his sister. Slowly, his gift for observing people and writing it down lets him start to love new people again, and to widen his world from the nugget of tragedy that it was. Woodson nails Lonnie’s voice from the start, and lets him express himself through images and thoughts that vibrate in the different kinds of lines he puts down. He tends to free verse, but is sometimes assigned a certain form by Ms. Marcus. ("Today’s a bad day / Is that haiku? Do I look / like I even care?") As in her prose novels, Woodson’s created a character whose presence you can feel like they were sitting next to you. And with this first novel-in-verse for her, Lonnie will sit by many readers and teach them to see like he does, "This day is already putting all kinds of words / in your head / and breaking them up into lines / and making the lines into pictures in your mind." Don’t let anyone miss this. (Fiction. 9-13)
From the Publisher
* “A moving, lyrical, and completely convincing novel. . . . Woodson nails Lonnie’s voice from the start, and lets him express himself through images and thoughts that vibrate in the different kinds of lines he puts down. . . . Woodson’s created a character whose presence you can feel like they were sitting next to you. . . . Don’t let anyone miss this.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
* “In a masterful use of voice, Woodson allows Lonnie’s poems to tell a complex story of loss and grief and to create a gritty, urban environment. . . . Minor characters are three-dimensional, making the boy’s world a convincingly real one. . . . The author places the characters in nearly unbearable circumstances, then lets incredible human resiliency shine through.”—School Library Journal, starred review
* “The sixty poems are skillfully and artfully composed—but still manage to sound fresh and spontaneous. The accessible form will attract readers; Woodson’s finely crafted story won’t let them go.”—The Horn Book, starred review
* “Woodson, through Lonnie, creates a contagious appreciation for poetry while using the genre as a cathartic means for expressing the young poet’s own grief.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
School Library Journal - Audio
Gr 4–6—Lonnie Collins Motion (Lo-Co-Motion) has been grieving the accidental death of his parents for four years. Now 11, he works through his grief by writing poetry with encouragement from his teacher who understands the nature of his poetic gift and the cathartic necessity of getting him to express his feelings through it. Bit by bit, listeners learn about Lonnie: the deaths of his parents in an electrical fire at their home; the twist of fate that spared Lonnie and his sister; his hard-knock stint as a "throw-away boy" in a group home; the foster home he now lives in with loving caretaker, Miss Edna; and the longing he feels to be reconnected with his sister. In her novel (Penguin, 2003), Jacqueline Woodson uses various forms of poetry, such as haiku, sonnet, and free verse, to convey the boy's range of emotions. Dion Graham gives Lonnie's lyrical voice a gravelly and deep tone, perfectly conveying his feelings. A powerful, heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful story.—Jennifer Verbrugge, Dakota County Library, Eagan, MN
JUNE 2012 - AudioFile
"People are poems," writes Lonnie C. Motion on the first page of this story, which is composed of the character’s poetry. If this is true, then author Jacqueline Woodson and narrator Dion Graham are epic. Together they bring the character Lonnie (aka Locomotion) to life. Episodes of his story are vividly depicted: the searing pain of the fire that took his parents, the sweet sorrow of smelling his mother's honeysuckle talc powder, the hope of his sister in a pink dress. Ms. Marcus, the teacher who assigns and encourages Lonnie's poetry, tells the class, "Every line should count." Graham, like Lonnie, takes the teacher's advice and delivers a performance that will lead the listener back to Chapter One the minute the audiobook closes. K.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award [Editors' Note--Those following along in the hardcover print edition should know that the audiobook opens with an excerpt that is not printed in the hardcover.] © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine