Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson is the prequel to Peace, Locomotion which I recently reviewed. I’m not sure which one I enjoyed more. But that’s the beauty of it. I don’t think I have to put one book above the other. Both books could be read on their own but together they are a beautiful story.
Locomotion is the story of Lonnie Collins Motion who at the age of seven, his parents die in a tragic house fire, while he and his sister are on an overnight outing, He is forever changed. After spending some time in a children’s home, Lonnie and his sister are separated and put in two different foster homes. Now at the age of eleven, Lonnie has turned to poetry to help him sift through his feelings as he transitions from his stable home to one of uncertainty.
Lonnie writes:
But when Miss Edna’s voice comes one, the ideas in my
head go out like a candle and all you see left is this little
string of smoke that disappears real quick
before I even have a chance to find out
what it’s trying to say.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.
I tell her about the smoke and she says
Good, Lonnie, write that.
Not a whole lot of people be saying Good, Lonnie to me
so I write the string-of-smoke thing down real fast.
Ms. Marcus says We’ll worry about line breaks later.Write fast, Lonnie, Ms. Marcus says.
And I’m thinking Yeah, I better write fast before Miss
Edna’s voice comes on and blows my candle idea out.
Locomotion is an excellent book for readers of all readers, especially middles readers to introduce them to the fact that poetry isn’t hard to write nor understand. I must admit that I am not a huge poetry fan. It’s usually not what I read in my leisure time, but I will admit that I am loving all the free verse novels I’ve read this past year. Woodson creates the perfect characters and the perfect backdrop of words for them to live in. I truly loved them all. A simply beautiful book.
Other books I’ve reviewed by Jacqueline Woodson: Show Way, Feathers, If You Come Softly and Behind You. Jacqueline Woodson’s website.
Do you read free verse novels? Do you have any favorites that I should read?
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Tags: female author, Fiction, free verse novel, I-L Title, published 2003, Publisher: Putnam Juvenile, series, U-Z Author
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Wow! This book sounds fantastic – I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
on April 13th, 2009 at 6:11 amI own If You Come Softly, but have not read it yet. Locomotion sounds like one I will have to add to my wist list!
on April 13th, 2009 at 7:47 amI love Locomotion by Woodson and have read it aloud to 5th graders, who were fascinated by it. Witness by Karen Hesse and Love that dog/Hate that cat by Sharon Creech are great.
on April 13th, 2009 at 12:55 pmI do like free verse novels. I’m reading A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl right now (I’m like. . .eight pages in).
on April 13th, 2009 at 3:13 pmWhat a great way to introduce young readers to poetry! I admit that I kind of stay away from it because I know it is more work than picking up a novel, but I do have my favorites. I wish I knew of a book like this when I was in grade school.
on April 13th, 2009 at 9:37 pmOh cool, I read Feathers and liked it but I haven’t yet checked out any of her others.
on April 13th, 2009 at 9:38 pmVery interesting concept. I’ll have to check out this book and the author.
on April 14th, 2009 at 7:50 amI did a little searchie poo, and came across a few titles of free verse. I’m not sure if you’ve done them, but one my daughter read and enjoyed was “Out of the Dust”. Yalibrarian.com also recommends “Make Lemonade” and “What My Mother Doesn’t Know” to name a few.
I love your blog, Natasha. Keep up all the great work.
on April 14th, 2009 at 11:49 amIt sounds like a pretty good read. I’ll have to check that out soon (:
on April 14th, 2009 at 2:10 pmKathy – If you haven’t tried Woodson I highly recommend her.
Missy – If You Come Softly was such a lovely story. Do read it.
Michelle – Thanks for the recommendations! I’ll look into those.
Janssen – That book title reminds me of a Tim McGraw song title. Something along being a bad boy but such a good man. I can’t remember exactly how it goes.
Trish – What was great about this poetry was that it read pretty much like a normal story but the structure was certainly different.
Kelly – Feathers was the first book I read by Woodson and I must admit pretty forgettable for me. But WOW since then, I’ve loved everything I’ve read from her.
Beth F. – Woodson is very prolific. A lot of choose from.
Karey – Thank you for the titles. I’ll go look them up!
Katrina – Come back and tell me if you do!
on April 14th, 2009 at 11:56 pmI haven’t read many free verse novels but it sounds like I should!
on April 16th, 2009 at 12:51 amI recently read Locomotion. Loved it. I’m a huge Woodson fan.
on May 3rd, 2009 at 8:12 pm[...] Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (African American) [...]
on December 30th, 2009 at 9:35 pm[...] at Maw Books I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This: Reviewed at Maw Books Locomotion: Reviewed at Maw Books Peace Locomotion: Reviewed at Maw Books Show Way: Reviewed at Maw Books Feathers: Reviewed at Maw [...]
on January 26th, 2010 at 6:54 ami love the book locomotion
on April 8th, 2010 at 4:23 pmDoes anyone know how to read Locomotion online for free?
on January 30th, 2011 at 11:32 am