This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness

Bibliography:

Sidman, Joyce. 2007. This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness. Ill. by Pamela Zagarenski. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN: 0618616802.


Summary:

A grade school class reads William Carlos William’s poem “This Is Just to Say,” and they decide to write their own poems of apology. These “sorry” poems range from serious to humorous as kids apologize for hurting a sibling, sneaking brownies, and hitting a friend with a dodge ball. Then the people the kids wrote the poems to write their own poems of forgiveness in response.
(Thomas: “I have stolen/ the jelly doughnuts/ that were in/ the teacher’s lounge”; Mrs. Garcia: “Of course I forgive you/ But I still have to call your mother.”)

Analysis:

The book is inventive and touching. It is all from the author’s imagination, I believe, but she successfully captures a variety of child and adult voices, and puts in details that makes it seem like a real class project. Some poems bring up serious issues, like a father’s abandoning his daughter, and the response is moving. There are a variety of poetical forms, though most don’t rhyme, and they flow nicely. All the apology poems are in the first section and the forgiveness poems in the second, but the best way to read it is to flip through and read the corresponding apologies and responses together. Children will enjoy the poems and the colorful illustrations, which are a mix of sketches and collage.

Reviews/Awards:

Claudia Lewis Poetry Award

School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

“Zagarenski’s (Mites to Mastodons) inventive mixed-media illustrations brim with items found in a classroom: a dictionary entry on “apology,” for instance, becomes part of a student's clothing, and white hole reinforcements resemble a character's stolen doughnuts.”
Publisher’s Weekly

“Mrs. Merz assigns her sixth-grade students to write poems of apology, and what emerges is a surprising array of emotions, poetic forms, and subjects from dead pets and biting hamsters to angry siblings and betrayal of trust.”
School Library Journal, starred review

Connections:
*This book lends itself very well to a project like that found in the story – children writing poems of apology and/or forgiveness.
*The author has used many different poetry forms, like haiku and pantoum, and the book can be used to study types of poetry.