Tag Your Dreams: Poems of Play and Persistence

by Jacqueline Jules, Iris Deppe (Illustrator)

Overview

Dive into these poems about sports, play, and perseverance.

Whether just trying out for the team or reaching for the Olympics, there's something for every reader in this playful poetry collection! From baseball, basketball, and football to double-dutch, mini-golf, and turning a cartwheel, these poems look at facing fears, dreaming big, and never giving up. This well-rounded collection explores sports and play across all abilities and backgrounds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807567265
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	04/01/2020
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	830L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Jacqueline Jules is the author of fifty books, including Freddie Ramos Takes Off, a Cybils Award winner, and Never Say a Mean Word Again, a Sydney Taylor Honor Book. She lives on Long Island, New York. A former school librarian, she loves to interact with young readers and teachers.

Iris Deppe was born and raised in the Caribbean, lived in the Netherlands for several years where she studied Illustration at HKU University of the Arts, and is currently residing in Denmark. Iris enjoys working on many different projects, from drawings, collages, and album covers to children's book illustrations and film.

Editorial Reviews

"Each poem flows easily as a brief vignette that captures just the right sentiment and spirit."—Kirkus Reviews

"The relatable content and encouraging messaging pair with solid examples of narrative poetry, making this a worthwhile collection."—Booklist

From the Publisher

"The relatable content and encouraging messaging pair with solid examples of narrative poetry, making this a worthwhile collection."—Booklist

Booklist

2020-01-21
Get moving in whatever activity brings satisfaction and joy.

Jules presents a plethora of possibilities as the theme of children at play provides the structure for a collection of poems that encourage and applaud. Most of the verses are narrated in the first person, describing feelings of hope, patience, determination, frustration, pride, or glorious victory in games played singly, in pairs, or on teams. A batter ignores previous failures and concentrates on the next pitch while a fielder is so in the moment watching a ball that the outfield fence looms behind with the danger of a crash. A new friendship is formed with a clapping game, and a pair of tennis players waits endlessly for court time. Family relationships are forged and changed while engaging in hiking or miniature golf or riding scooters. Feelings of disappointment and hurt are overcome, and goals are set or achieved. Jules does not employ rhymes or obvious rhythm, but each poem flows easily as a brief vignette that captures just the right sentiment and spirit. The poems never indicate the gender or ethnicity of their narrators; that is left to Deppe’s bright, appealing illustrations. Here readers see nonstereotypical depictions of girls and boys of many different racial presentations. One of the children playing the clapping game is in a wheelchair.

Fun and games, with something deeper to think about. (Picture book/poetry. 6-10)

Kirkus Reviews