Immerse In Soul Looks Back In Wonder Fabricated By Tom Feelings Delivered In Digital Edition

poems and the illustrations are equally wonderful, I bought this book in hardcover many, many years ago, I just reread it. Still powerful. I didn't love this. I can't decide if it's me or if there really are flaws to this, So I will state my opinion and acknowledge that it could just be I'm not the audience for this and that's okay,
I thought this was a really great idea that struggled with execution, Of course these are all classic poets and I liked that the selections chosen were ones that may not be as common, but they didn't really seem to be selected with a picture book audience in mind.
Also the art, while lovely, was very heavy and dark and didn't seem to help young eyes with the poetry, It could be that this style of art while popular at the time is just somewhat dated now,
I dunno. It's an award winner so it could be it's just me, That's okay. More than anything else, I enjoyed reading about how much passion Tom Feelings put into this, Hes been so many places and done so many things!
Soul Looks Back in Wonder
by Maya Angelou
This book is a collection of inspirational and descriptive poetry.
Found in a first grade classroom, The book adds to the wonder and strength of black history, Showing the personal struggle, dreams, and ideas of black poets through out the world,
The art work is beautiful, showing traditional influences and inspiration from the meaning of the poetry, The book shows the true nature of historical perspective,
A good connective resource for students, of African heritage, It also shows other cultures and histories that may not be known by students outside the African heritage, The book shows a very brief explanation of the poets and their struggles, A small dip into beautiful truths, I just happened to see this book that included some of my favorite poets after I had completed a goal, so I bought the book for my reward.
There are some wonderful poems, my favorite being the one by Angelou, The illustrations by Tom Feelings are wonderful! "Soul Looks Back in Wonder" combines the poetic talents of great African American writers such as Maya Angelou and Walter Dean Myers with the beautiful collage illustrations of Tom Feelings.
Feelings describes African Americans' past, in a forward of the book, as a time when their creativity was stiffled, Now, where it was once oppressed, creativity is overflowing through visual art, music, and dance, This book was written, according to Feelings, because African American children of today need to have a strong hope for the future, They need to know that together, they can reverse the destruction and capture tomorrow, My favorite phrase from the book is, "I am the creativity keeping my people alive, " Some of the themes I found in this book are togetherness, human connection to nature, cultural pride, community, and the belief that the past can keep you strong.
Another beautiful book and an important one to add to a classroom or school library, Soul Looks Back in Wonder was written by Tom Feelings and I am glad I choose this book because it was a very powerful piece, This book contains a collection of Tom Feelings art and he has poetry to go along with every piece of art, Not only does he have poetry to go with the paintings, he has well renowned writers such as Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes lends their talents to go with his beautiful art.
Langston Hughes wrote a poem specifically for this book because every other used something that was already published, Every piece of art that Tom Feelings has drawn is done very beautifully and they all seem to go with the flow of the poems, I can see why this book won a Coretta Scott King Award because there is just so much beautiful art and poetry done so well and all done by African Americans.

This book is a good book because of the beautiful art, well written poetry, and both seem to just inspire something about one self, This may be a book aimed toward young children, but it can speak to all audiences, All of the poetry was done masterfully, but the Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Mari Evans, and Alexis De Vaux poems really stuck out to me, Langston Hughes poem made me want to help a child with their dreams Maya Angelou did a real good job with personification, Mari Evans made me realized how proud I am to be African American , and Alexis De Vaux gave creativity a vibrant life.
I want children to get the same things from

this book that I am getting and I believe they can and will,
Soul Looks Back in Wonder is a book of poetry withdifferent poems from African American poets and illustrated by Tom Feelings, This poetry book is for adolescent readers and most of the poems are freeverse poems that are untraditional and don't rhyme, The theme of all of the poems in this book is embracing the beauty of being African American which is brought to life through the illustrations, Each spread is dedicated to a poem with a beautiful illustration spread out across both pages, This book won the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustrators which is an award that celebrates outstanding African American illustrators of books that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and human values.
This collection of AfricanAmerican poets is worthy, The artwork is enchanting. One feature that troubled me though is the protruding foreheads as though the people have a knot or swollen forehead, I didn't like that and how each person's face seems melancholy, Still the artwork is beautiful! “Education is an important element in the struggle for human rights, It is the means to help our children and people rediscover their identity and thereby increase selfrespect, Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today, ”

Malcolm X I can not remember where I came across this title, but it arrived in my reserve selections at the library and I have loved reading it, taking in the beauty and texture of the illustrations, and immersing myself in the verse.


I think the best way for me to review this gem and remind myself of its contents is simply to include the introduction printed before the first poem.
. .

Tom Feelings selected drawings of people he sketched while in Ghana and Senegal, West Africa Guyana, South America as well as the United States, He blueprinted his finished line drawings onto sepiatoned sheets, and worked colour into the figures with coloured pencils, He then cut out and cemented down various shapes in coloured papers textured, flat, plain, marbleised, as well as wallpaper to create the final overall collage effect, Some stencilled cut outs were spray painted for instance the art for Haki R Madhubuti composed "Destiny" was spray painted on silver paper,
This is the first book Tom Feelings has done in full colour,

And from Tom Feelings:
Today the present is a dangerous place for children of African descent children of the sun, They are standing between childhood and adulthood, midway between the past and the future, pulled away from their center, They are removed from the benefits of ancient initiation rites rites of passage designed to ease young people into manhood and womanhood, into the responsibilities and protection of full communal life.
Too many teenagers are growing up in an environment where indifference and hostility are bullets aimed straight at the core of their spirits,
For four hundred years African creativity has been struggling to counter the narrow constraints of oppression, to circle it, turn it around, to seek order and meaning in the midst of chaos.
My soul looks back in wonder at how African creativity has sustained us and how it still flows seeking, searching for new ways to connect the ancient with the new, the young with the old, the unborn with the ancestors.
Our creativity, moving, circling, improvising within the restricted form of oppression, reminds us that we must remain responsible to each other we are not only individuals, but part of a collective that shares a common history and future.
This book is a part if that flow if creativity,
The artists who came together to create Soul Looks Back In Wonder understand that one way to protect our positive hopes for the future is for young people to see their own beauty reflected in our eyes, through our work.
And so this book is for our precious young African sisters and brother, who are out today and tomorrow, .

Published in, nearlyyears have gone by, so much has not changed, and so much can easily be translated here to the Australian experience,

Absolute favourite for me is the final poem by Mari Evans, Who Can Be Born Black

WHO CAN BE BORN BLACK
Who
can be born black
and not
sing
the wonder of it
the joy
the challenge

And/to come together
in a coming togetherness
vibrating with the fires of pure knowing
reeling with power
ringing with the sound above sound
above sound
to explode/in the majesty of our oneness
our comingtogether
in a comingtogetherness

Who
can be born
black
and not exult!



This is a beautiful book, and one where the words and pictures truly make one another stronger.
My only caveat and this is not a criticism of the book itself at all is that I don't think it's marketed towards its true audience, I found the book in the Elementary section of my library which also houses Dr, Seuss, but I have a hard time imagining these poems appealing to theyearold set, Most of them are about things that preoccupy older children, and I think the Soul Looks Back in Wonder's real home is with chapter books or YA, We shouldn't let the beautiful pictures trick us into thinking it's not fit for preteen consumption, Soul Looks Back in Wonder is a collection of poems by various writers meant to inspire younger generations of African American children and remind them of their roots.
Illustrator, Tom Feelings, illustrates all of the poems, Much of the artwork throughout the book is very abstract, meshing shapes, designs, outlines, and images in a way that symbolizes the ideas of the poems, While the poems use poetic abstract language, the illustrations are similarly poetic, The abstractness between the relationship of the illustrations and the poetic words pulls the audience to deeper thinking to discover the underlying messages that each offers, Feelings uses similar techniques in the illustrations throughout the book, many of which include African people and backgrounds incorporated with lines, circles, and other shapes, Feelings uses lots of colors throughout the book, but brown remains the most dominant color, incorporated on every page, and in some illustrations, takes up the majority of the entire picture.
The repeated and dominant use of the color brown symbolically relates to the theme of African culture, which the book celebrates, Overall, while this book is rich in culture, it is very abstract and I do not think many younger readers will be drawn to it, The figurative language and abstract illustrations make it very difficult to discern what is going on, This would be a good book to teach about abstract poetry and art, As a class, you might choose one specific poem to evaluate and talk about, Afterwards, students might be encouraged to write their own abstract poem and draw an abstract picture to go with it,

Feelings, T Soul Looks Back in Wonder, New York, NY: Dial Books, "Soul Looks Back In Wonder" by Tom Feelings is a very emotional and inspiring picture book, Tom Feelings is an outstanding artist and he managed to capture the voices of thirteen famous poets, This poetrypicture books celebrates the spirit of Africa, Poets that are featured in this book include Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Walter Dean Myers, My favorite poem was one written by Mwatabu Okantah, The poem is titled "Window Morning" and tells of a the strength of the "Mother Land," also known as Africa, Not only will the words of the poets move you, but the pictures will definitely move you as well, Soul Looks Back in Wonder is an illustrated collection of poems that celebrate the AfricanAmerican spirit and are dedicated to "our precious young African sisters and brothers, who are our today and our tomorrow.
" The poems by thirteen major poets, such as Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Walter Dean Myers, were written to accompany Tom Feelings' stunning collage illustrations:



Since I don't read poetry on a regular basis, I probably don't know how to appreciate it properly.
Still, I found most of the poems evocative and thoughtprovoking and they match the illustrations beautifully!, and three of them really spoke to me: Darryl Holmes' "Look at Us," Langston Hughes' "To You," and Maya Angelou's "I Love the Look of Words.
"

Here's my favorite:

"To You" by Langston Hughes

To sit and dream, to sit and read,
To sit and learn about the world
Outside our world of here and now
Our problem world
To dream of vast horizons of the soul
Through dreams made whole,
Unfettered, free help me!
All you who are dreamers too,
Help me to make
Our world anew.

I reach out my dreams to you,