Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems about Love

by Pat Mora

Book Overview

Beloved children's book author and speaker Pat Mora has written an original collection of poems, each with a different teen narrator sharing unique thoughts, moments, sadness, or heart's desire: the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375843752
• ISBN13: 9780375843754
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Length: 165 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 7.5"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Everyone has experienced love, whether giving or receiving. For some it's spending time with their pet. For others, it's sitting down with a book. And for many, love involves other people. Pat Mora has set out to create a collection of poems capturing the elements of love in its different stages: the initial excitement, the hurt and pain, the healing, and the loving again. These experiences are described through everyday people's jotting down of words, some in familiar languages, others that are foreign. Some poems follow popular methods of rhyming, while others use much less well-known forms. Each poem, despite their differences, expresses one thing: love. With nothing but a very basic knowledge of poetry, I still enjoyed this quick read. DIZZY IN YOUR EYES offers many takes on love, not just the expected ones. The first poem drew me in instantly with the simple lines "the letters on the screen don't match the letters I type...No matter what I do, the keys type your name." Each poem was unique, but also went with the others. I especially appreciate this collection because it could be read in one sitting or drawn out over the course of time, revisited again and again. The thing about poetry is that, depending on the reader, it can be interpreted in many ways. While subtexts provide some guidance, the poems are left to the reader's discretion. That, I believe, is what will make DIZZY IN YOUR EYES an emotional collection for its readers. It reminds us that love is both simple and complicated, and that everyone can experience its effects. Reviewed by: McKenzie Tritt

A beautiful book of dizzying designs and wonderful poems!

Hispanic poet Pat Mora writes with a fresh voice in her poetry collection, //Dizzy in Your Eyes//. Her voice is the voice of young adults who are beginning to see the world around them with new eyes--eyes of love, thoughtfulness, and rebelliousness. Teenagers question things. They set certain truths and ideas down and commit them to memory. They experience new and conflicting emotions in their relationships and families, and they become agents in charting their own destinies. They begin to tell their stories in their own voices. Pat Mora's poems capture the beauty of the teenage years that often gets hidden beneath a surface of thick angst and insecurity. Her poems remind me of the collections written by other contemporary poets like Gary Soto and Naomi Shihab Nye. These poets give voice to the musicality of youth and the unselfconsciousness of expression that arises in everyday interactions and familial relationships. I could not put Pat Mora's collection down: I delighted in every poem and in the dizzying designs sprinkled throughout the book. This book will make you feel young again and exhilarated to see your own world anew. Reviewed by Viola Allo

Enchanting Review: Dizzy In Your Eyes: Poems About Love

DIZZY IN YOUR EYES: POEMS ABOUT LOVE PAT MORA YA Poetry Knopf ISBN# 978-0375843754 176 Pages $15.99 Hardcover--Available Rating: 4.5 Enchantments DIZZY IN YOUR EYES: POEMS ABOUT LOVE is filled with a collection of fifty poems of different types, from a simple poem, to '3 a.m. Blues' which is the blues to the last in the book 'My Song' which is written as a song. I have to admit, I'm not usually big on poetry but I really enjoyed DIZZY IN YOUR EYES: POEMS ABOUT LOVE. Every poem is different, told from a different narrator's point of view. The one thing they all have in common though is the theme--love. With some of the poems Ms. Mora provides a description of the type of poem on the opposite page, so those interested can learn more about that particular style. Two of my favorite poems are 3 a.m. Blues because I like the lyrical styling and an earlier one in the book, To-Do List because it's very much true to life. DIZZY IN YOUR EYES: POEMS ABOUT LOVE is Pat's second collection for young adults. Pat also wrote My Own True Name: New and Selected Poems for Young Adults and six poetry collections for adults. To learn more about Pat and her books visit her online at [...]. Lisa Enchanting Reviews January 2010

Find a permanent place on your bookshelf for this...

From best friends to teachers you won't forget who inspired you along the way; from watching your parents fill your life with love, to learning from all the other generations how powerful love can be, makes this a must read for anyone who is looking for peace, honesty, friendship, and love. This book is an offering from an award-winning children's author who has taken everything we feel deep inside and turned those emotions into a beautiful tribute that people of all ages will adore. The author took me through the beginning pangs of love that included creative dates where fortune cookies held the question of whether or not a young woman would go out with a young man. Others told of how the young man pined for his love and left long-stemmed roses on the windshield of her car to make her smile. I was then swept into a story of a young girl dancing with her brother's best friend, that took me back to a story of my awesome grandparents who had a love that "time would lie down and stand still for." My grandmother was like the heroine in Mora's poem, a girl who thought her brother's best friend was nothing more than a nuisance before he convinced her to say 'I do' and stay with him for the next fifty years. There was a poem about parents who watched out for each other, checked to make sure the other one was safe and happy, making the children of that union know what real love really was and that they should never settle for less. While reading, I remembered the look that my parents would shoot at each other from across the room, and how great that look was - how honored I was to be in the presence of people who felt so much for each other. Then, of course, I cried, because in the following pages I came across a poem that told of the "one day we'd kiss goodbye," that broke my heart - knowing that even the greatest and most beloved attachment can come to an end before renewing itself in Heaven. The poems also told of the friendship between sisters - the private laughter we share, and the secret stories that only a sister whom you've loved and despised all your life can know about you. I was brought back to History class as I read about that one teacher who writes notes on your essays - telling you that you are good with words, and that the world needs you to speak them loudly. You remember that teacher who planted a seed in your soul, making you want to continue on that path and engage readers for a lifetime. Of course, there was also the heartache of love being misunderstood, or not returned, like when your best friend who you've been with every day since birth decides to ask someone else to the prom. And, for the first time, you realize you have been relegated to friend status only and your heart breaks in two. The author speaks to you personally, using all different forms of poetry - from pantuom to tercet - to bring you back through the days of your youth; walk you through the mysteries of marriage; and remind you of the honesty, trust