Poetry

   

   

     In Grumbles from the Forest: Fairy-Tale Voices with a Twist, authors and poets Jane Yolen and Rebecca Kai Dotlich deliver new and clever interpretations of some very old stories. Each opening features two poems about a well-loved fairy tale, offering different perspectives and explanations of the story. 

     Unusual voices emerge in many of the poems in this anthology. In “Just One Pea,” the lonely pea that was stealthily hid under the princess’ bed shares his sad, homesick lament for his pod and fellow peas. The wicked fairy who poisoned Sleeping Beauty chastises herself for a bad spell in “Words of the Wicked Fairy.” Yolen and Dotlich also provoke us to think more deeply about the outcomes of the original stories. “Beauty and the Beast: An Anniversary” portrays Beauty with her aging Beast, rather than a handsome prince whose youth and form were restored. Beauty reflects on her fate as she wonders what it might have been like to have had children. Such questioning, though out of place in the simple dualistic plot structure of a fairy tale, creates a sense of the character's depth and humanity. Further, the authors play with cultural variations of the same tale with “Enchanted Frog” and “Princess Gossip," two very different accounts of what actually happened to the Frog Prince and his compliant or temperamental maiden, depending on which point of view you believe.

     Illustrator Matt Mahurin has created double-page spread illustrations on each opening. The colors are mostly subdued, creating a somber mood for the book. Each illustration elaborates on the perspectives shared in the poems. On the opening dedicated to the Frog Prince, the frog's account seems more believable as we observe an enlarged green frog in the foreground whose motion through the air is suggested by the maiden’s outstretched arm. The Gingerbread Boy expresses his concern about being eaten while the bakers adopt unexpected paternal attitudes toward him, claiming that “it broke our hearts when he ran away.” Mahurin tells us the truth though in a remarkable close-up of the Gingerbread Boy, precariously balancing on the teeth of a large, open mouth. 

     As I read this specialized anthology, I marveled at the humor and ingenuity of the poems and illustrations while trying to recall the traditional endings of each fairy tale. Yolen provides a brief synopsis of each story in the last pages of the book, noting differences among contemporary, traditional, and cultural versions of the same tales. The anthology concludes with the charge, “so ever after, all happily be - enchanted with magic from kingdoms to seas. Now close your eyes, and dream of these.” However, after finishing Grumbles from the Forest, I found myself reading through my collections of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, not quite ready to give up the magic and fantasy for sleep.

     Young People’s Poet Laureate Margarita Engle has created a single-poem picture book to share the true story of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, a Chinese-African-Cuban girl who overcame cultural tradition and gender discrimination to become a female drummer in Cuba. In Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music, we follow the young girl who hears the rhythm of drums in her dreams, in the movements of the birds, in her footsteps, in the carnivals, and even in “the comforting pat of her own heartbeat.” The Drum Dream Girl dreams of playing conga drums, bongo drums, and timbales, and she eventually plays them in secret because neither her dream nor her talent can be restrained. She also faces the prejudice of her father before she is finally allowed to express her music, thereby changing a Cuban musical tradition.

     Illustrator Rafael Lopez uses bright colors and geometric shapes to create illustrations reflecting a folk art style. With few exceptions, most of Lopez’s double-page spread illustrations incorporate a blue, star-filled sky. This background reminds us of the girl’s unrelenting dream to play the drums, especially evident in the two openings where she floats in her dreams with her drums. However, the most compelling image in the book may be that of the suspended Drum Dream Girl being pulled back to earth with a rope by her father. Lopez communicates here the tremendous power that parents possess to help children actualize their dreams. As the young girl is drawn back to earth, Engle tells us, “her father offered to find a music teacher who could decide if her drums deserved to be heard.” The girl’s father is no longer suppressing her dream; he is empowering her to realize it.
   
     Engle's poem shares what can happen when a child has the courage to dream, and her loved ones have the courage to believe. Engle emphasizes the Drum Dream Girl's persistence as well as her hard work in learning and sharing her music. She tells her readers, particularly young girls, to follow their dreams and to trust themselves regardless of the voices around them. This is a potent message for girls today in a world and economy still marred by inequity and discrimination. 

Engle, M. (2015). Drum dream girl: How one girl's courage changed music. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Yolen, J. and Dotlich, R.K. (2013). Grumbles from the forest: Fairy-tale voices with a twist. Honesdale, Pennsylvania: WordSong.