I liked the book This Big Sky because of the Spanish incorporated in the poetry as well as the personification. When Pat Mora incorporates Spanish into her book, she puts the Spanish words in context so that the English reader can understand. For example, she writes, “River goes sliding, sliding by. / Río goes gliding under night black sky.” Because the author wrote river at the beginning of the first line, the reader can understand that the first word in the next line (río) means river. The similar structure of both sentences allows the reader to understand this. The author also includes interesting imagery. For example, the text reads, “tricks and treats may change / and slither / down your throat, quick / flick their slimy tales.” This description allows readers to think of how it must feel for a snake to go down their throats. It also helps the reader understand the surprise in a treat changing into a creature as they eat it. The main message of this book of poetry is that nature has human-like qualities that people can see when they observe it closely. Both of the above examples include personification that uses the movement of nature to show the intertwining of human qualities and the liveliness of things in the natural environment. ( )

This was a very interesting poem book. One reason I found it interesting was because of its amazing illustrations. For example, on each page there was colorful illustration that went along with the poem. For one of the poems I liked called Old Snake it had an illustration of a snake with a read pattern design. Another example of the books amazing illustrations were if the poem had to do with something that was dark then the illustrations were dark colored and gloomy looking. The Halloween poem represented a dark topic. The second reason I thought that the book was interesting was because of the incorporation of Spanish terms into the poems. For example, one of the titles of the poem was “NOCHE”. Noche means night in Spanish. Another example of Spanish terms is in the poem River-Moon when the words “rio” and “Luna”, which mean river and moon in Spanish, were put into the poem. Even though this is a poetry book I believe that it still has a big message. I believe that the big message is poems can be about anything you want them to be about. The author dedicated the book to her daughter because she likes animals and deserts, so it shows that poems can be about what you like or what others around you like. ( )

This collection of poetry has a main theme of the southwest. It includes poems about different animals and plants in the region. The theme of the book is to portray the southwest in a different more natural way.

I liked the poetry. For example I found the collection to be simple and to the point. For me, I have an interest in animals and plants. I also have spent time in the southwest. These poems were some nice reminders of what I saw, like different lizards.

The colors and illustrations are great. I really like the illustrations. For example, illustrations are done in paper collages. I always appreciate these illustrations, knowing the effort going into it. The collages are able to also give the pictures a different kind of texture. These illustrations help portray the poems. I also feel that the pictures are true to the colors found in the southwest. I found this to be good collection of poems for any age! ( )

This is a book full of poems that all depict some type of southwest picture. The colors and images throughout the book grab the readers attention. The poems are all based around themes in the Southwest and the desert. The poems have both English and Spanish words in them which make them appealing to many different types of students.

The following website is the authors website where there are more books by Pat Mora, some even include activities for the classroom:

http://www.patmora.com/ ( )

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