Harlem

Book Title: Harlem

Author(s): Walter Dean Myers

Illustrator/Photographer/Artist: Christopher Myers

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Copyright Date: 1997

Genre: Poetry

Brief Annotation: Harlem is a poem that talks about the colors, sounds, and feelings of taking the A Train down to Harlem. The illustrations are a combination of ink, gouache, and collage, which really add to the hodge-podge multi-culture feel of the book. 

Your Rating (1-5) and why: 2--The poem does not flow well page-to-page, which makes me think that it would be difficult to read to a group of young students. Splitting students into smaller groups to examine parts of the story would be more manageable, but as a read aloud I would not choose it.

Readers who will like this book: Readers who will like this book are those who are fascinated by in-depth illustrations. Those who are auditory listeners may enjoy the rhythm, but those who read for story content or continuity will be disappointed.

Teaching Strategy from Tompkins or Yopp & Yopp (you'll link a strategy to at least 10 of your 40 books) : I would use a combination of Story Boards (Tompkins, p. 116) and Gallery Walks (Tompkins, p. 38) for this book. I would split up each two-page section that describes an aspect of Harlem per small group and ask them to look at the illustrations that accompany the words. If they would illustrate the same way, then try to replicate it. If they would do it differently, go for it. We would then line up how our storyboard would look and talk about the feel we get from our book versus the actual book.

Question to ask about this book before a read aloud: Do you know where Harlem is? It's part of a big city, sort of like where we live. When you go into the city, what do you hear? What does it feel like to be part of such a big city?

List Awards: Caldecott Honor Book