I Am Someone Else: Poems About Pretending [Hardcover]

Celebrated poet Lee Bennett Hopkins shares a diverse collection of poems that ask (with the help of Newbery medalist Lois Lowry, former US Children's Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis, and others), Who do you want to be?

Kids can imagine pretending and dressing up in this playful poetry collection, flexing their creative muscles and bucking stereotypes. (Who says that girls can't be knights and boys can't be mermaids?) Fifteen poets write about who they might like to be, musing what life would be like as a wizard, a firefighter, a video-game inventor, and more.

There is nothing better than being yourself. You are unique and special in every way. Once in a while it might be fun to think about becoming someone (or something!) else. Who would you like to be? Imagine that you're someone else! --Lee Bennett Hopkins Imagine! Wish! Support! Invent! Hopkins organizes this brief, thematic anthology into three sections under the larger umbrella of imagining: Wish! Be a Storybook Character ; Support! Be a Person Who Helps ; and Invent! Be a Person Who's a Maker. Each of the collected poems is written in the first-person, and Hsu's energetic, cartoon-style digital illustrations depict the diverse children as the individual speakers. Words and pictures alike often upend stereotypes and gender norms. For example, a poem about pretending to be a mermaid by Janet Clare Fagal depicts a brown-skinned child with tight, close-cropped curls wearing a green, striped T-shirt as the voice of the poem, allowing children of varying gender identifications to see themselves. Hopkins' introductory statement affirms that There is nothing better than being yourself, which doesn't undermine the title in the least since he goes on to affirm the fun in pretend play. Sometimes such play is aspirational, and the poems included in the categories Support! and Invent by authors such as Douglas Florian, Prince Redclol³,