Locomotion

by Jacqueline Woodson (Author)

Locomotion
Told through his own poetry, 11-year-old Lonnie shares his heartbreak over his parents, killed in a fire four years ago, and his love for his younger sister Lili, separated from him when they were placed in foster care. "Powerful and engaging."--"School Library Journal, " starred review.
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School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-Four years after losing his parents in a fire, and separated from his younger sister, an 11-year-old African-American boy finds catharsis in writing poetry. Told in Lonnie's affecting voice, this tightly constructed, exemplary novel in verse will touch readers' hearts. JD Jackson's cassette narration allows listeners to feel the rhythm of the different poetic forms from sonnets to haiku to free verse. Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review
The kinetic energy of the aptly named Locomotion (the nickname of Lonnie Collins Motion) permeates the 60 poems that tell his sad yet hopeful story. Lonnie's first poem sets up a conflict familiar to anyone who has attempted creativity: despite the cheering of his teacher, Ms. Marcus ("Write it down before it leaves your brain," she says), as he begins to write, Lonnie hears the critical voice of his foster mother ("It's Miss Edna's over and over/ Be quiet!"). As Lonnie explores poetry's various forms throughout this brief yet poignant and occasionally humorous volume, he also reveals Miss Edna's kindness toward him in the little things she says and does ("The last time Miss Edna came home and found me/ crying She said Think/ about all the stuff you love, Lonnie"). Gradually Lonnie reveals that at age seven, his parents died in a fire, leaving him and his younger sister, Lili, orphaned. Lili was adopted, yet Lonnie figures out a way to visit her regularly. The gradual unfolding of his life's events intermingle with his discoveries about poetry as a form, from haiku to sonnets ("Ms. Marcus says "sonnet" comes from "sonnetto"/ and that sonnetto means little song or sound/ It reminds me of that guy's name Gepetto/ the one who made Pinocchio from wood he found") to the epistle poems he writes to his father and to God. Woodson, through Lonnie, creates (much as Sharon Creech did with the boy narrator in Love That Dog) a contagious appreciation for poetry while using the genre as a cathartic means for expressing the young poet's own grief. Ages 10-up. (Jan.) Copyright 2002 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

Review quotes

Praise for Miracle's Boys, recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award: "Powerful and engaging."

this book is amazing

so amazing like the best

Jacqueline Woodson
Jacqueline Woodson (www.jacquelinewoodson.com) is the recipient of a 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children's Literature Legacy Award. She was the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, and in 2015, she was named the Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. She received the 2014 National Book Award for her New York Times bestselling memoir Brown Girl Dreaming, which was also a recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, the NAACP Image Award, and a Sibert Honor. She wrote the adult books Red at the Bone, a New York Times bestseller, and Another Brooklyn, a 2016 National Book Award finalist. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Jacqueline grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from college with a B.A. in English. She is the author of dozens of award-winning books for young adults, middle graders, and children; among her many accolades, she is a four-time Newbery Honor winner, a four-time National Book Award finalist, and a three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner. Her books include Coretta Scott King Award winner Before the Ever After; New York Times bestsellers The Day You Begin and Harbor Me; The Other Side, Each Kindness, Caldecott Honor book Coming On Home Soon; Newbery Honor winners Feathers, Show Way, and After Tupac and D Foster; and Miracle's Boys, which received the LA Times Book Prize and the Coretta Scott King Award. Jacqueline is also a recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement for her contributions to young adult literature and a two-time winner of the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9780142415528
Lexile Measure
840
Guided Reading Level
V
Publisher
Nancy Paulsen Books
Publication date
January 07, 2010
Series
Coretta Scott King Honor - Author Honor Title(s)
BISAC categories
JNF042000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Poetry | General
JNF050000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | School & Education
JNF019050 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Family | Orphans & Foster Homes
JNF019070 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Family | Siblings
Library of Congress categories
Brothers and sisters
African Americans
American poetry
Children's poetry, American
Schools
Orphans
Foster home care
African American boys
Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards
Honor Book 2003 - 2003
National Book Awards
Finalist 2003 - 2003
Bluebonnet Awards
Nominee 2005 - 2005
Coretta Scott King Award
Honor Book 2004 - 2004
Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award
Nominee 2005 - 2005
Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award
Nominee 2006 - 2006
Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award
Nominee 2007 - 2007
Massachusetts Children's Book Award
Nominee 2005 - 2006
Virginia Readers Choice Award
Nominee 2006 - 2006
Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award
Nominee 2008 - 2008
Nutmeg Book Award
Nominee 2008 - 2008

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