Poetry,
Humor, and News Media-Locomotion by
Jacqueline Woodson.
Woodson,
J. (2003). Locomotion. New York, NY:
G.P. Putman’s Sons.
Life
has not been easy for Lonnie Collins Motion also nicked named Locomotion since
his parents died when he was seven years old. Ever since then he had to live
from relative to relative or Group homes and is now living with his new foster
mother, Miss Edna. He is going to a new school and trying to cope being
separated from his little sister Lili, who lives with her new mother in a
different part of the city. At school his teacher Ms. Marcus is teaching them
about poetry by keeping a poetry journal. Through poetry Lonnie finds a way to
express himself and in a series of poems that his teacher has assigned. He
slowly begins to remember the memories of his family. The poetry notebook
becomes a way for Lonnie to grieve, find his place at Ms. Edna’s and have hope
for his future.
Locomotion is a novel that
is told in sixty poems. According to Jennifer Verbrugge from School Library Journal, “Jacqueline
Woodson uses various forms of poetry, such as haiku, sonnet, and free verse, to
convey the boy’s range of emotions” (2012) and I would agree with her as this
is evident in the example in the poem titled “Haiku” when Lonnie is having a rough
day and doesn’t really care to be learning about haiku, “Today’s a bad day Is
that haiku? Do I look like I even care” (Woodson, 2003, p.14). Another Haiku is
represented when Ms. Marcus, Lonnie’s teacher wants to see all his poems and he
doesn’t want to share. He says, “Ms. Marcus wants to see all my poems. No way.
Some things just your own” (Woodson, 2003, p.59).
It
is beautiful and sad to see Lonnie’s character develop as the novel continues.
At the beginning Lonnie doesn’t feel comfortable sharing what has happened to
him or his family in his poetry journal or how he honestly feels about things.
He struggles whether he should share or not. On the one hand his teacher Ms.
Marcus is encouraging him to write while on the other hand he hears the voice
of Miss Edna telling him to be quiet. “This whole book’s a poem ‘cause every
time I try to tell the whole story my mind goes Be quiet! Only it’s not my
mind’s voice, it’s Miss Edna’s over and over and over Be quiet!...This whole
book’s a poem ‘cause Ms. Marcus says write it down before it leaves your brain.
I tell her about the smoke and she says Good, Lonnie, write that. Not a whole
of people be saying Good, Lonnie to me so I write the string-of-smoke thing
down real fast…And I’m thinking Yeah, I better write fast before Miss Edna’s
voice comes and blows my candle idea out. (Woodson, 2003, p. 1-2)
As
the story continues Lonnie’s character slowly begins to develop and open up
about what he has gone through, and where he belongs. After going from home to
home Lonnie doesn’t really feel like he belongs anywhere, but slowly he begins to
see that he is wanted and loved. When he is shopping with Miss Edna at C-Town and
buy Twinkies the cashier thinks that Lonnie is her son and says, “I guess your
son likes Twinkies, huh? And Miss Edna looks at me sideways, Then smiles and
says Yeah, I guess he does” (Woodson, 2003, p. 37). Then later on when Miss Edna’s
son Rodney comes home from the war he calls Lonnie little brother, “Then he
lifts me up, says Look at Little Brother Lonnie all growed up” (Woodson, 2003,
p. 82). This begins to give Lonnie a sense that he now has a place where he
belongs and is wanted and he confirms this in the poem titled “Almost Summer
Sky” as he and Rodney are walking in the rain and through the park and Rodney
is explaining that the trees upstate are not like any other trees you see and
how nice it is to live up there but then Lonnie states “Can’t imagine moving
away From Home” (Woodson, 2003, p. 88). This statement reassures the reader
that Lonnie has found a place at Miss Edna’s, a place where he belongs.
The
theme of Hope is found throughout Locomotion.
According to Moreillon & Cahill “Lonnie uses his life experiences as
inspiration for his school work and finds hope in difficult situations” (2011,
p. 26). In the poem “Birth” when Lonnie writes about when he was born he weight
less than four pounds but his mother had hope, “Doctors said there’s a little
bit we can do but mostly you have to hope hard and pray” (Woodson, 2003, p. 74)
is what his momma used to tell him. Then later in the poem titled “Church” when
Lonnie is at church with Miss Edna he describes the what the preacher says, and
what the people are wearing but then he decides to write the word hope on his
hand, “I sneak a pen from my back pocket, bend down low like I dropped
something…I write the word HOPE on my hand” (Woodson, 2003, p. 77).
According
to Publishers Weekly “Woodson through
Lonnie, creates (much as Sharon Creech did with the boy narrator in Love That Dog) a contagious appreciation
for poetry while using the genre as a cathartic means for expressing the young
poet’s own grief” (2002, p. 69). This novel written in poetry form is a
definite must read for children 10 and up. It is a wonderful way to introduce
students to poetry while at the same time providing a story of hope when
sometimes it feels like there’s none.
References
Locomotion.
(2012). Booklist, 109(2), 78.
Moreillon,
J., & Cahill, M. (2011). Growing in knowledge: Rooted in community. School
Library
Monthly,
27(8), 24-26.
Roback,
D., Brown, J. M., & Zaleski, J. (2002). Locomotion (Book). Publishers Weekly,
249(47), 68.
Verbrugge,
J. (2012). Locomotion. School Library
Journal, 58(8), 56.
Woodson,
J. (2003). Locomotion. New York, NY:
G.P. Putman’s Sons.
