Swimming Upstream Middle School Poems

LS5663 Module #1 (1/3)

Bibliography:

George, Kristine O’Connell, and Debbie Tilley. Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002. ISBN 0-618-15250-4

Summary:

This collection of 65 poems takes the reader through a year of middle school. Award winning poet, Kristine O’Connell George captures the emotions of middle school with a variety of poems. She uses the voice a first year middle school girl experiencing all of the ups and downs most kids will relate to. The collection starts with a poem titled, Wake-Up Call and then takes the reader through the turbulent world of middle school from the gossip to the lunch room and all through friendships and crushes. The books ends with a poem titled, Last Day of School. Between every few pages the illustrator creates a two page spread of a black and white scene from the setting of the book. The creative drawings entice the reader to identify the characters from the poems.

Analysis:

The cover art of the book is a colorful picture of a few kids facing the wrong way “swimming upstream” in a hall of kids at a typical school. Each of the kids walking against the crowd has a look of anguish on their face. I think most kids in middle school can relate to the feeling the kids are experiencing on the cover. The illustrations in the books have the same style but are in black and white. The illustrations in the book take up the entire two page spread. They have so many details the reader will want to take a minute and study the layout and try to recognize characters from the poems.

There is not a table of context or list of poems but each individual work is distinguished by its bold print title. Each individual page has only one poem published on it. However, the poems have a wide variety of length and style with some works only three lines in length while others fill the entire page.

The author uses one voice for the entire collection. The collection is one of high interest to most middle schoolers. With the range of emotions and situations a middle schooler faces, there will be at least one entry everyone will connect with. As a parent of 3 former middle schoolers I personally connected to most. The poems had me aching and laughing throughout the book. The book is set up in a way to loosley tell the story of a first year student, however each poem can be enjoyed in isolation, so the book would not have to be read all the way through.

Not only does the tone of the book vary in emotions, remarkably, the poems also range in style from rhyme, haiku, to arostic. I appreciate that her intended audience can see a collection of poems that have such a variety of forms. I think most middle schoolers have the misconception that a good poem has to rhyme. However, this book shows some of the more relatable pieces can move a reader without a rhyme. One such poem is called Due Date.

Activity:

This collection would be a great book to use to write reflections as 7th or 8th graders. The students can pick a poem they connect with and reflect on that connection now that they are out of that awkward year. The reflection can be written in a journal or shared in a class discussion. The students will most likely be surprised that so many of them had the same feelings walking into a new school.