Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville, Tennessee
by Nikki Giovanni
Ages 5+
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Knoxville, Tennessee is a poem in picture book form in which a young girl describes her favorite things about summer in Knoxville, Tennessee. 

The first time I read through the book it did not leave a lasting impression.  I did not approach it as a poem but a short story.  I thought the language and pictures were simplified and did not really connect to the story which is presented as a list of southern, summer memories.  Then I read through it slower, and a third time even slower taking time to hear the words, look at the pictures  and read the words again.  It grew on me, especially the way the illustrations work with the text.  The poem style comes across as a giant, run on sentence and reminded me of how young children tell a story.  The poem begins "I always like summer best" and goes on to describe the "okra and greens and cabbage and lots of barbecue and buttermilk".  I could hear the sing song voice of a five year old telling me about Knoxville, Tennessee.  The illustrations appear to be done in oil pastel in an impressionist style.  The illustrations use a lot of blue, green and brown which gives them a rich feeling of nature with white highlights which creates a sense of innocence. The light in the drawings is blurred and makes the scenes feel heavy with summer heat.  The illustrations added a lot of detail to the simple text.  At times I could not relate to the specific references but the illustrations reminded me of summers when I was a kid; long hot hours playing outdoors, the light through the trees and the cool shadows when the sun went down.

I would use this book in a class as a basis for personal reflection and/or poetry.  I would use this book to prompt students to think about what makes summer special for them.  I would encourage them to write about their summer using their senses; what do they see, feel, hear, smell, taste.  Then I would ask them to go into as much detail as possible.  In the book the young girl mentions things that are very particular to her summer in Knoxville such as okra and walking to the mountains.  This would be a great opportunity for students to reflect on their experiences and see how unique they are from person to person and share with each other.  There is a line at the end of the poem "and be warm, all the time, not only when you go to bed and sleep".  This is such a simple line but can reveal a lot about the writer.  Why do they value warmth so much?  Why would they only be warm when they go to bed?  By examining their experiences in detail and comparing them to others, students could learn a lot about themselves.  This book would also be a good introduction to poetry for students. It would give them early understanding that poetry does not have to have a rigid rhyming structure.