Poetry Review of Aneesa Lee and the Weaver's Gift by Nikki Grimes, Illustrated by Ashley Bryan

1. Bibliography
Grimes, Nikki. 1999. ANEESA LEE AND THE WEAVER'S GIFT. Ill. Ashley Bryan. New York: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Books. ISBN 0-688-15998-2

2. Plot Summary
Nikki Grimes tells readers the story of Aneesa Lee in this heart-warming book of short poems. Each poem tells a different aspect of Aneesa's life as a weaver - how she creates her pieces to how she feels about her days as a weaver. The author weaves a tale of multi-culturalism and family love through Aneesa's rich heritage - white, black, and Japanese all rolled into one person. Aneesa uses the colors of her yarn to express the importance of the fact that many different colors can combine to make one masterpiece.

3. Critical Analysis
Grimes does an excellent job of joining each individual poem together to create a complete picture of Aneesa's life and perspectives. This picture poem book could be enjoyed at even the youngest of ages. Older children will understand the symbolism of the different colors of yarn coming together to represent the aspects of multi-culturalism. She uses the subject of weaving as a metaphor for understanding how cultures blend together and how the love of a family is about acceptance and coming together. Not only does the book fall in the picture poem book category, but it also has a topical quality to it. Some of the poems and figurative language within those poems are simply to explain the intricate process of weaving, which is a craft that is near and dear to Grimes' heart. The author's use of punctuation within the poetry - a comma here, a hyphen there, is purposeful and adds emphasis just where she wants it, and the deep reader can understand the meanings behind these syntactical efforts.

There is a mixture of rhyming and non-rhyming poems, each one feeling natural and fitting the author's themes and purposes. Two favorites of a certain five-year old that I shared the book with were, "Family Gathering" and "Love is Purple" because she noticed the pictures first, commenting, "All of the colors melt together," or "Everyone is together," understanding the author's message of "bringing all kinds of people together." Reading the pages occurred after these initial reactions and observations. Figurative language such as "wispy hairs of hope" and "feelings laced or knotted" is sure to bring about emotional and intuitive conversations about Grimes' poetry. The vocabulary reference aid of weaving words at the beginning of the collection enhances what students will get out of the poems.

Ashley Bryan's illustrations of tempera and gouache paints are simply stunning. They are in full, vibrant, wispy colors of abstract and concrete images blended to create complete compliments to the also very colorful poetry of Nikki Grimes.The expressive emotions of "anger and gladness" and hope and worry are evident in the plethora of colors that Bryan uses to showcase the words in the book. The illustrations are vital to express Aneesa's weaving story fully and definitely articulate the themes and ideas of the human condition, family, and the blending of cultures further than just the words alone.

4. Review Excerpt(s)

-KIRKUS REVIEWS "The poems describe the art and craft of weaving including gathering natural materials for making dyes, spinning yarn, warping the board, dressing the loom, and completing the tapestry. Then there is Aneesa Lee, “a weave/of black/and white/and Japanese/a blend that sometimes/led to teasing,” in a poem that exhibits the poet’s larger theme, of how love weaves families together and how the craft of weaving links the past and present, connecting people in “a community of cloth.”

-PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY: "In a series of thoughtful, interlocking poems, Grimes (Meet Danitra Brown) skillfully uses the metaphor of weaving to explore the world of a talented girl. The young weaver's strands of black, white and Japanese heritage have "produced a pleasing,/ living, breathing tapestry/ christened Aneesa Lee."

-SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "The variegated colors of the yarn and the various textures of the woven tapestries express her shifting emotions of sadness, hurt, anger, worry, joy, and love. Each spread features a poem on the left facing a full page of art. Bright, folk-style illustrations in tempera and gouache explode with color. Decorative borders reflect the artistic unity of words and illustrations."

-My five-year-old daughter Makena, "The colors are so beautiful! Look at all of the different people." "I think we should look at the pictures first and tell about them and then read the story." (Well said, Kena girl!)

5. Connections

A. The vocabulary section at the beginning of the book is all weaving words, and those words are a great way to introduce the concepts in the book and to cover a vocabulary lesson.Children could draw pictures of the words with a partner, guessing what they think the terms look like before ever reading the book.
B. This book lends itself to viewing the pictures first and letting younger children tell each other what they think the story will be about so that they understand the strong connections the illustrations have to the text.

Other books of poetry about multi-culturalism:
Woodson, Jaqueline. THE OTHER SIDE. Ill. E.B. Lewis ISBN 9780399231162
Gillian, Maria Maziotti and Jennifer Gillian, Ed. UNSETTLING AMERICA: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN MULTI-CULTURAL POETRY. ISBN 9780140237788

Image from Kirkusreviews.com