THIS IS JUST TO SAY: POEMS OF APOLOGY AND FORGIVENESS by Joyce Sidman

Sidman, Joyce. 2007 This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness. Illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 9780618616800

NCTE award winner, Joyce Sidman, and Caldecott Honor winner Pamela Zagarenski, team up in this unique book of verse that has won numerous awards including a Texas Bluebonnet Award Nomination and School Library Journal Book of the Year.  The table of contents alerts the reader to the Introduction, the poem by William Carlos Williams that inspired the title of the book, Part 1 Apologies, and Part 2 Responses.  The poems are written as letters of apology from the fictional Mrs. Merz’ sixth grade students.   Motivated by an assignment in their poetry unit, they are so pleased with their poems that they decide to put them in a book and even ask for subsequent poetic responses to the “sorry” letters.  Eighteen apologies and 17 responses will entertain, and pull emotional responses from every corner of your heart.  Sidman writes her poems in various forms from haiku to dialogue including her favorite form, pantoum.  It’s easy to believe that a classroom of sixth graders wrote these poems, because Sidman’s poetic voices are convincingly unique and her topics are age appropriate.  Dodge Ball competitions, love of pets, sibling conflict, school stress, parental irresponsibility, are just a few of the authentic topics that these phantom sixth graders wrestle with. Zagarenski’s whimsical illustrations compliment the text perfectly as if the students had illustrated the book themselves.  

My favorite in the collection is one of the more poignant poems written by Anthony to his mother.  It is written in the pantoum form with the second and fourth lines of each stanza being repeated in the first and third lines of the next stanza.

Spelling Bomb

by Joyce Sidman

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.

I saw you turn away from me

and in that moment would have given anything

to be your champion.

To see your bright, triumphant pride.

In this moment, I would give anything—

do you really think I don’t care?--

for your bright, triumphant pride,

which I can’t believe I lost.

by Anthony

I would introduce this poem with a discussion about times when students let down their parents and times when parents have let down their kids, or about experiences of school stress.  I would encourage the students to write their own letters of apology, or letters they wish someone would write to them.  If the mood needs to stay in a lighter mode, the discussion could take a turn toward fantasy and a more lighthearted deflection could be suggested by imagining school pressure or disapproval in an animal family or other fictional creation.