5/30/2023 0 Comments Garvey's Choice by Nikki Grimes![]() * 'Grimes returns to the novel-in-verse format, creating voice, characters, and plot in a series of pithy tanka poems, a traditional Japanese form similar to haiku, but using five lines. ![]() (Oct.) Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission. Garvey's journey to self-acceptance is deeply moving and will linger with readers long after they finish this brief, incisive verse novel. ![]() In simple, searing language, Grimes captures Garvey's heartache at his father's inability to accept him as he is, as well as the casual but wounding teasing Garvey endures at school ("The change bell always/ sinks fear into me like teeth./ Ugly name-calling leaves me with bloody bite marks: / lard butt, fatso, Mister Tubbs"). ![]() Help arrives in the form of friends Joe and Manny, an albino boy who embraces his difference, but when Garvey risks joining the school chorus and lets his voice soar, he learns to become proud of what he can do, instead of focusing on what he can't. He eats to mask the pain of his father's disappointment and is teased at school for his size. Garvey loves books and, despite his father's efforts, cannot get excited about sports. Writing in five-line tanka poems, Grimes ( Words with Wings) weaves a heart-wrenching story about a boy who isn't the jock his father dreamed he would be. ![]() By Grade + Interest - K to 1st By Grade + Interest - 2nd to 3rd By Grade + Interest - 4th to 5th ![]()
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