Couldn’t be you they’re talking to anyway, right? This is advice so many young people could use! Response You get to decide that! If someone calls you something you’re not, ignore it. Grimes is telling readers, by responding to a name someone gives you, you give them the power to say that’s who you are. If someone yells a name at you, ignore them. “Choose the name you answer to.” Such a simple idea, but how compelling. Kids yell ‘albino boy.’ / I don’t turn around. Manny is albino and is well-experienced with hame calling, so Garvey asks him how he handles it. Later, in chorus, Garvey talks to his new friend Manny about it. Garvey retaliated, shouting a mean name back. In the previous poem, a kid passing by Garvey had catcalled him, shouting out a mean name.
Grimes’ also blesses readers with some unexpected insights. When Garvey overcomes his fears and joins the school chorus, and eventually develops a musical commonality with his dad, readers will be overjoyed at Garvey’s triumphs. Even his own sister affectionately call him “Sweet Chunk.” And his dad ridicules his food choices and lack of sports participation. Kids throw verbal cheap shots at him in the hall on a regular basis. Garvey is also teased in school because of his size. Many readers will relate to this feeling of being misunderstood by a parent. He feels like he and his dad are from two different worlds. Garvey like Star Trek, outer space, chess, and music. Garvey’s dad wants him to be a jock, like his sister Angela. The reader develops sympathy for Garvey and his relationship with his dad. Through her verses, Grimes creates characters that the reader becomes truly invested in. Many of Grimes’ verses have a similar feeling. The alliteration of the second line and “baby brohter.” The the last line rolls off the tounge and the play of spatters and laughter. Small qualities in this verse give it a muscial quality. I tell her, ‘You’re not / as much older as you think.’ / She spatters me with laughter”(Grimes, 2016, p. Take this verse titled Portrait: “In Angela’s eyes, / I’m little baby brother. The words in Grimes’ verses are musical in more than just their syllabication, though. Each stanza in the novel follows the tanka style, giving it a distinct rhythm and musicality. Tanka poems are 5 lines that follow a syllable pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. This may be partly due to all of the poems being written in the tanka style.
Nikki Grimes’ poetry definitely possesses the quality of music in language. Cover image of Garvey’s Choiceretrieved from.
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