Cootie Shots

 Cootie Shots: Theatrical Inoculations Against Bigotry for Kids, Parents, and Teachers: Plays, Poems, and Songs Edited by Norma Bowles with Mark E. Rosenthal
2000
Weight: 1.9 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating

I am not an educator, and I do not work with children.  I am confident that I would not be the best person to review this book.  What I do like, is having helpful conversations with kids about race, ability, sexuality, gender, consent, age, and culture instead of acting like every person is the same and that you need to see no differences.  This way of thinking hinders children, as they exist in a world where racism, sexism, ableism, etc DOES exist and then they do not have the words or comfort level to further explore and understand this.  If we do not have the language, we cannot learn and progress.

This book offers playful ways to get children talking and learning about diversity.  You know it is going to be good when one reviewer claims it will cause gender confusion in children and encourage cross-dressing!  Mostly this book receives 5 star reviews, and it looks like that particular reviewer was never inoculated.  Do you see what can happen?

Poetry Reviews

Lilies and Cannonballs Review: Volume 1, Number 2/Fall/Winter 2004-2005
Columbia Poetry Review No. 15 2002
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Donating

I always enjoy reading poetry reviews and literary journals.  You never know what you might find in them.  Generally, there are authors I have never heard of and a chance to discover something or someone new.  I am sure I gained these while I was in college, and I have been carrying them ever since.  I have re-read them and will be sharing them now.

Keeping My Name

Keeping My Name: Poems by Catherine Tufariello
2004
Weight: 9. 6 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating

This was a good one and a powerful one.  The author is clever, talented, and has the perfect balance of despair and quiet amusement.  Someone will be very lucky to stumble across this one.  That might be the most appropriate way for it go.  I believe I found it in a stack of books someone was giving away in college.  It was a very lucky find.

Maya Angelou: Poems

2 X Maya Angelou: Poems
1996
Weight: 9.6 0z
Method of Disposal: Lending Library

Now is a time for much needed inspiration.  What will rile us up more than Maya Angelou poems?  They are gritty, angry, and raw.  Some exude sex and desire.  Others express rage.  I was surprised at how many were written from a male point of view.  I see "we rise" "still I rise" "I rise" everywhere lately--college commercials, football, memes.  I thought this poem would be an appropriate preview of the book and a pertinent and stronger use of "Still I Rise."  I am assuming most readers have read about the caged bird and the phenomenal woman.  If not, you should look them up for sure.  Or, if you want your very own copy of her poems just let me know, and I will mail them to you instead if I still have them!