Reading Love that Dog, then Brown Angels, allowed me to see the connection between the two. Jack in Love that Dog, loved to hear and write Walter Dean Myers’ poems, and now I can see why. His poems are simple, they contain no long verse, or difficult words, but each poem correlates with the pictures on the page. The pictures in this book are extraordinary. You can see first hand how difficult the times where, yet each child is delighted to have his or her picture taken. The verse “Pretty Little Black Girl” was one of my favorites. What caught my attention the most is that Myers did not just use the word “black” to describe the girls, but brown, tan, and coffee. Each color portrays the various skin tones of the young girls. It is strange to me how just a change of words (tan and coffee) and create such a visualization for the reader. Myers’ usage of words tend to have a ring to them. I noticed as I read, some of the poems could be read in a melodic way, almost sounding like a short song.
At the beginning of the book, Myers’s makes a profound statement that has trapped in my head ever since I read this book, “Why do I love children? I think it is because the child in each of us is our most precious part. Children remind us of a time of innocence, a time of giving, and unfettered love of life”. That statement is absolutely true. Children posses such innocence and joy, and as teachers it is our job to allow them to share that joy not just with us, but with others. We as teachers can have such an impact on students, and we need to constantly remind ourselves that we are there to love them, and help them grow in knowledge and still keep that playful innocence.
