Blog Entry #14

Under the Christmas Tree

By Nikki Grimes

Illustrated by Kadir Nelson

HarperCollins Publishers, 2002

29 pages

Poetry

 

 

            The reason I chose this book is it captures the joy and beauty of Christmas in 23 lyrical poems. This book is a collection of Christmas themed poems that are single illustrated. It includes both types of poetry, narrative and lyrical. The book captures the feeling of Christmas and covers many of the things that make it such a special season. The poems are about family gatherings, carolling, snow, decorating for Christmas, the excitement of getting a gift, and the many things you see in the city around Christmas. This book is focused on the African-American culture and the traditions, faith, and family values that are cherished in this culture.

            The illustrations are simply beautiful in this book. Kadir Nelson is a well-known illustrator, and painting is his medium in this book. He uses oil painting to capture the glow and warmth of Christmas time. The book has such soft lines and texture, and his illustrations really capture the feeling of the characters. Most of the paint colors are not very bright, but muted, and the brightness of the illustrations comes from the light that is painted onto the page. It can be seen very clearly where the light touches the pages in his paintings. That is a very important part of Christmas, the glow of all of the lights, and the illustrator reflected that appropriately.

            Under the Christmas Tree is appropriate for a second or third grade student that is an independent reader. I think this would be great poetry to read aloud with almost any grade level, but the early grades may need some vocabulary explanation on some of the poems. This would be a great book to read a different poem out of every day, for the month of December, in a classroom. There are several elements of poetry that could be discussed from this book. Poetic form could be discussed, because this book uses the couplet, tercet, quatrain, and cinquain forms. Narrative and lyrical poetry could be taught from this book, and free verse poetry. This book has a lot of free verse poems, and very few of them rhyme. This book has no awards or honors.