When Thunder Comes: Poems for Civil Rights Leaders

Gr 7 Up—Lewis once again stretches his own poetic boundaries with this moving and informative collection of poems that introduce 17 courageous leaders of civil rights causes in America, Bangladesh, Burma, India, and South Africa. Some of the names will be unfamiliar to teens, but their concerns should be clearly understood. A technically perfect Shakespearean sonnet prefaces the collection, promising to draw from the poet's "thin bag of verse" some "tales of thunder" … "For history was mute witness when such crimes/Discolored and discredited our times." The poems, written in various styles-rhymed couplets, free verse, quatrain, prose-evoke sadness, but never hopelessness; speak of bigotry and hatred replaced by acceptance and equality; and describe inhumane mistreatment that has resulted in positive change and wrongful punishment that has brought about freedom. To young Sylvia Mendez, every door at the public school "was locked with a secret combination of frowns," but she found the key. To Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi banker who gave small loans to the country's poor, money for fishing gear allowed some beggars "to catch eel and carp-and profits." Other subjects include Harvey Milk, Coretta Scott King, Josh Gibson, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Nelson Mandela. A note about each person, with a resource, is appended. Five illustrators each contributed three of the full-page paintings that range from softly detailed portraits in lush oils to colorful caricatures, acrylic folk art, and bright watercolors contrasted with shadowy gray. This thoughtfully written, carefully and cleverly worded collection demonstrates Lewis's poetic versatility and his ability to capture the essence of each subject and situation.—Susan Scheps, formerly at Shaker Heights Public Library, OH