Summary: This Joyce Sidman book of poetry was written in 2007. The name alone describes the book: This is just to say: Poems of apology and forgiveness. I must admit the book was a little confusing at first because it states in the Introduction that it is a book of poems written by children of the Florence Scribner School. The Introduction is written by a student, Anthony K., who describes himself as “editor” and explains how the first part of the book is a collection of poems written by the students wherein the students apologize for various transgressions. The second part of the book is the responses to those poems from the person to whom they were written. The Introduction is so convincing that I had to re-examine the title page because I thought perhaps this was a collection of poems put together by Ms. Sidman. Ultimately I realized that Ms. Sidman was writing these poems as fictional characters.
Quality: One is immediately drawn into the life of these students writing the poem. It is easy to believe they are a group of elementary students who are apologizing for various misdeeds. The words they use in their apology poems are easy to understand and very “childlike”. The topics of the poems are very much what school children might be apologizing for. For example:
This is Just to Say (To Mrs. Garcia in the office; by Thomas)
I have stolen
the jelly doughnuts
that were in
the teachers’ lounge
and which
you were probably
saving for teachers
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so gloppy
too bad
the powdered sugar
spilled all over my shirt
and gave me
away
Appeal: This book will appeal to children of all ages. It touches upon some funny topics (like the donut stealing mentioned above) but also on some very serious subjects that students deal with. For example, “Not Really” and “A Waste of Heart” deal with boy-girl relationships. Actually, these poems are not gender specific, which I think is a positive. I refer to them as boy-girl relationships because that is a shortened way to describe the content of these poems. The poems could actually be appealing to students in same sex relationships. There is also the poem “It Was Quiet” which is about the death of a pet. The response to this poem, “Losing Einstein” is a touching response from an adult to a child about the feelings of losing a pet. These would be wonderful poems for a counselor to read to a student during a time of hurt. There are also apology poems and response poems between siblings and the child and parent.
Use: As mentioned above, I think this book would be a terrific one for a counselor to keep handy. Many of the poems deal with real life situations and sometimes a short poem showing a student he or she is not alone might be helpful. There is also a “pantoum” poem in this book. That is a poem where the 2nd and 4th line of the first stanza becomes the 1st and 3rd line of the next stanza. I had never seen this type of poem and it could be used as an example for students to try this kind of poetry writing. Here is a short example from the poem:
Spelling Bomb (by Anthony to his mother) - First 3 of 5 stanzas
I can’t believe I lost
I know I disappointed you
Do you really think I don’t care?
I know how important it is to win.
I know I disappointed you;
I saw it in your face when I misspelled.
I know how important it is to win;
I studied hours and hours.
I saw it in your face when I misspelled.
I saw you turn away from me.
Even though I study hours and hours.
I never seem to be your champion.
This book should definitely been in everyone’s collection.
References:
Sidman, Joyce. 2007. This is just to say: Poems of apology and forgiveness. Ill. Pamela Zagarenski. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN: 978-0-618-61680-0
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