(Credit)
Woodson,Jacqueline, Locomotion. New York: Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 2003.
ISBN: 0-399-23115-3
Locomotion is a novel written in verse poetry by Jacqueline Woodson. Woodson has received many awards for her work like the Coretta Scott King Award and two Coretta Scott King honors. She is a wonderfully talented author who writes so vividly and descriptively you feel as though you are the character in her book. Locomotion has won several awards including:
National Book Award Finalist
Coretta Scott King Honor
2003 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award (Fiction Honor)
Horn Book Fanfare List
School Library Journal Best Book
IRA-CBC Children’s Choice for 2004
2004 Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts (sponsored by the Children’s Literature Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English)
2005 New Mexico Battle of the Books (Middle School/Grades 7-9)
2004-2005 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Master List (children’s choice award for Vermont)
2005 Kentucky Bluegrass Master List (Grades 3-5)
2006 Louisiana Young Readers Choice Award Nominee (Grades 3-5)
2004-2005 Maine Student Book Award Nominee (Grades 4-8)
2004-2005 William Allen White Children’s Book Award Nominee (Kansas children’s choice award)
To summarize, Locomotion is the story of a young boy, Lonnie or Locomotion, who loses his mom and dad in a house fire, and is separated from his sister due to foster care. We walk with Lonnie as his teacher teaches him and his less cooperative classmates how to write different types of poetry. Lonnie learns that writing poetry is a way for him to express his feelings and actually enjoys himself. This story is deeply personal and offers a wide variety of moods for the reader to be immersed in. I felt like I knew Lonnie, like he was a friend of mine. I hurt when we hurt, I laughed when he laughed. Woodson really grabs the reader with her relatable content and as odd as it may seem, she had such good placement of her lines that it set the mood of the poems.
This is such a fast read! It’s very interesting and I am positive that children, about 5th grade and older would really enjoy this book. There are poems about playing basket ball, losing friends, finding a girlfriend, and deeper stories about loss and raw, uncontrolled emotion. The poetry is delivered in many different forms like haiku, sonnets, epistle and list poetry. Another reason Locomotion is a great teaching tool! There are a wide variety of examples of poems.
The inside cover of this book describes Woodson’s voice as “lyrical”. I agree, very much! There is something about her dialog that is smooth and flowing. Many times with verse novels, the content is choppy and difficult to follow in a story format but in Locomotion, it was just the opposite, very smooth and easy to enjoy. Overall, I thoroughly enjoy this novel and would really encourage everyone to have a copy or two of this on hand. The content can be a little heavy in places but I would still, highly recommend it!
As for its use with children, I think it would be more appropriate and better used with older children. The content is not graphic, but there are many ‘moments’ in this novel that some younger children just will not understand. I would love to work on writing activities using this book. Lonnie is very self conscious about his writing. He doesn’t want to share his works with anyone because he keeps his memories private. Hakiu Poem is a great example of this on page 59:
Haiku Poem
Ms. Marcus wants to
see all my poems. No way.
Some things just your own.
Over the years, I’ve noticed that students are very sensitive about their work. Although they know I love them and am trying to help them, they still feel attacked, like they just didn’t live up to their expectations. It breaks my heart to correct their work via one on one conferencing! I would like to share this poem with students and show them that it’s okay to be private about your writing!
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