Partly Cloudy Poems of Love and Longing

Soto, Gary. 2009. PARTLY CLOUDY; POEMS OF LOVE AND LONGING. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing. ISBN: 978-0-15-206301-6
Summary:
PARTLY CLOUDY is a collection of 79 poems written about young love both real and fake, jealousy, first kisses, and lost love. It appeals to young adults around the age of 13 both boys and girls. Soto has divided his poems into two sections, “A Girl’s Tears, Her Songs and “A Boy’s Body, His Words.” The poems express the feelings from both the girl’s and boy’s perspectives. As we read about fleeting love from the girl’s section in the poem, “The Big Chill”, (“We have lost something. /In September your hand squeezed mine”) and continues through the months until we read, (“In December the snow will erase/ Our footsteps. You’ll be gone.”). Then we find in the boy’s section, “Eternal Love”, (“What’s the meaning of time?/ You said , “I’ll be with you forever,”/ We lasted two weeks, one afternoon, / A half hour, a few minutes,”) time was different but pain felt from the loss of a love is the same. PARTLY CLOUDY is a wonderful collection of free verse poems that will appeal to the teenagers. There are poems that deal with jealousy, fitting in and sacrifices made for love. In “Jealousy” , (“When I turn to spy on her, I see she also turned-/ Tall as me, brown hair and eyes like me,/And both of us baring our teeth.”) speaks to the hurt and anger that jealousy brings to your life, while in the poem , “So Much Like Me” we see how fitting in becomes important as we read “ Because of you I wore a shirt with buttons,/Polished my shoes, and combed my hair,”) and some have given up favorite foods for young love as seen in, “Vegan for Your Love”, (“No chicken or chops,/No burger or chow mein with pork,/ No milk shakes thick as wet cement.”). Soto has included poems that touch the feelings and lives of many teenagers.
Analysis:
As I look for cultural markers in Soto’s poems I believe they are in the diversity of the settings and the emotions of the boys and girls. .”The contemporary settings include the classroom, (“I went to the class, sat in a chair”) and the theater, (“We missed the half – price/ Matinee. But it was ok.”) and “At McDonald ‘s ,/The one place we can afford.” The experiences of going to the “Fall Dance” “You cooed, We’ll waltz,”/ I smiled, swallowed,” “Worried. What was/ A waltz? I learned when”, and the baseball field, “I see you walking/ Across the baseball diamond,’ and after football practice all places that first loves begin and end, the sweet moments of “I saw what you did-/ You pretended to drink/ From the straw,” at the McDonalds. The humor and awkwardness of a dad explaining “The Birds and the Bees”, (“Let me tell you about girls,” /Dad began, and then said”) in a home that seems to be like many other homes during this time. There was one reference made to a relationship in the poem “Barriers”, “Who will understand us?/ Not your parents or mine, / As I am Japanese/ And you’re Mexican,” and in the poem “Playing Football” (For a while I liked/ Boys with curly hair,/And then straight hair,/Short Afros, or daring boys/ With green spiky hair,” that leads the reader to these poems reflecting the late 1980’s – 1990’s. The culture was teenage boys and girls as they navigate the waters of emotions that come with first love and heartbreak of rejection and love lost. Soto is able to touch both boys and girls with his words and thoughts and humor.

Reviews & Awards:
Booklist 02/15/09 School Library Journal 03/01/09
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 02/01/09 Voice of Youth Advocates (V.O.Y.A.) 02/01/09
Horn Book 10/01/09 Wilson's Junior High School 01/09/10
Publishers Weekly 03/09/09 Wilson's Senior High School 06/01/10
Full-Text Reviews
Booklist (February 15, 2009 (Vol. 105, No. 12))
Grades 6-9. “If only you would turn / And see me / Seeing you.” In rapid, clear free verse, young teens, both girls and boys, speak about falling in love—the jealousy, loneliness, and hurt of rejection and breaking up, as well as the romantic bliss. The speakers are as varied as their hairdos, which include curls, straight locks, Afros, or green spikes; and the contemporary settings are diverse, too, from the classroom (“I secretly open my cell / And look at you, digitally caught”) and cafeteria (“Lucky fork touched your lips”) to the forest (“where boys go / When a girl says no”) and town streets, where the speakers skateboard. The sex is minimal, mostly dreams (“Her hair against my throat / And the pink bud of her tongue”), and even parents’ discussion of sex isn’t direct; in one poem, a dad tries, and fails, to talk about the birds and the bees. Young teens will enjoy the “love sick” puns and the metaphors, lyrical and sad, that show there is poetry in the way they speak.

Horn Book (March/April, 2009)
Soto is well known for his range, but here's a first for him: seventy-seven original poems all about teenage love. Divided into two sections, "A Girl's Tears, Her Songs" and "A Boy's Body, His Words," the free-verse poems all somehow ring true: appropriately corny, rich with image, accessible and believable. They describe a range of emotions and experience, from "Not Yet" ("I a small tree, / You a taller, bending / Tree. The sun / Will roll over us, / And if a cloud / Of worry throws lightning, / Let's remember our fear") to "Imagination" ("Mr. Fried, you're a nice man, / But, please, you pick up the book / And float on an iceberg to Norway! / ...I don't want to read / About love, but feel love -- / Her hand in mine, / Her hair against my throat, / And the pink bud of her tongue..."). Humor, devastation, tenderness, jealousy...if any theme seems to repeat, it's Soto's soft spot for the date that can't afford the date, like the guy who orders a strawberry milkshake (her favorite) and only pretends to sip his half. Inevitably, readers will be drawn more to some poems than to others, but the simple, open design encourages browsing, and readers flipping through are bound to find the right words when they need them.

Horn Book starred (July, 2009)
Soto presents seventy-seven original poems about teenage love. Divided into two sections, "A Girl's Tears, Her Songs" and "A Boy's Body, His Words," the free-verse poems all ring true: appropriately corny, rich with image, accessible and believable. The simple, open design encourages browsing, and readers flipping through are bound to find the right words when they need them.
Connections:
PARTLY CLOUDY is not a book I would be able to use in my classroom, but it is one that I can recommend to our fifth grade and middle school teachers. Bringing in more age appropriate poetry is important in getting more of our students interested in reading and writing poetry.
For older students, choose a type of poetry as your theme for the month. Then read an example of that type of poem and discuss its characteristics at the beginning of each day. At the end of the month, have students create their own poem. Collect the poems each month, and by the end of the year, students will have their own anthologies.