Paint Me Like I am

WritersCorps. (2003). Paint me like I am: Teen poems from Writerscorps. New York: HarperCollins.

This book is a collection of poems by teenagers from three urban centers in San Francisco, Washington, DC, and New York City (the Bronx). A program was started through WritersCorps to help at risk teenagers by teaching them how to express themselves through writing. The pages are filled with amazing work that could have been written by accomplished authors. This book gives a voice to troubled youth, and you are able to see their lives through their work. The book is separated into 6 categories and each section contains poems with subjects like the category. The six categories are 1. The Artist 2. Friendship 3. I too Am American 4. As we sit here 5. Furious 6. The tree that's in front of my house. The are many different literary techniques,  poetry styles, and forms found throughout this book. Repetition can be found in a poem entitled My poem, when the words my poems are repeated several times; or in the poem Hip Hop Shoes in which every line of the poem begins with Hip Hop Shoes. There are also many narrative poems in the book some examples are The Artist which tells the story of two African American graffiti artist, or No Gumbo for Me which tells the story of a little girl trying gumbo for the first time. The poem begins with these words "the first time I had gumbo I thought it would be nasty but my grandmother said, "it's good."  There were several uses of figurative language, in which things were compared to something else. Metaphors were used in many poems in the I am too American category. The poem with the same name as the category gives this example for a metaphor( I am the tools that bang to make all the buildings and factories that pollute the cities.) "I am a sleepy flower" is used in Good Night Petals  and "I am a transcendent light" is used in the poem I am. This collection was excellent and I would definitely recommend it to teenagers. This book can be used to show examples of peer work in writing. If students see that teenagers are capable of producing excellent work they will want to rise to the challenge. I would ask students; What does it mean to be an Artist? What does friendship mean to you? What is your American story about?  What does it mean to be an American? What do you do when you have a moment to sit? What do you do when you are furious?  What story would the tree in front of your house tell? After discussing these questions I would require the students to create at least one poem that could go in each of the six categories in the book.