Janice Jones has reviewed Massey University Press poetry collection Skinny Dip, edited by Susan Paris and Kate De Goldi, for AKO journal. Jones says:
‘Pop into your local independent bookshop and pick up Susan and Kate’s brilliant new anthology of poems about school, written for students in Years 7 to 10. Dip in and out — the contemporary writers, some well known in Aotearoa, some who soon will be, take you on a journey through four school terms with poems which are relatable, poignant, funny, beautifully observed — and very, very good.
. . .school sucks but all my friends are
there
spreading colds as quick as climate
change . . .
writes Vanessa Mei Crofskey, capturing, in free verse, the ambivalence of walking through the school gates again after the summer holidays.
kutu . . . like grains of sand
at the shoreline
of the scalp . . .
observes essa may ranapiri, in a perfectly formed Found poem.
Found poem? Yes, and you’ll also mean pantoums, sonnets, sestinas, villanelles, even haiku, among a fascinating array of poetic forms identified and explained in an entertaining and informative glossary.
Teachers notes — absolutely, and they’re great — available at https://www.masseypress.ac.nz/books/skinny-dip/ and focused on five of the poems. They walk you through ways for your students to deepen their understanding and appreciation of each poem, and then, ways for them to write and follow up creatively.
Great fun — for you and your students!’
