This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness
Illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007. ISBN: 9780618616800. 48 pages, ages 8-12
I Got Carried Away
Kyle, I’m sorry for hitting you
so hard in dodge ball.
I just really get carried away
in situations like that.
Kids screaming and ducking,
Coach bellowing,
all those red rubber balls thumping like heartbeats
against the walls and ceiling . . .
What would you write if you could apologize for anything you've ever done wrong?
In this book, the students in Mrs. Merz's 6th grade class decide to find out. Using William Carlos Williams’ iconic poem as a starting point, they write apology poems about dodgeball accidents, broken windows, crushes, and lost pets. Then they boldly ask for responses to their poems. Join these characters as they find out what it truly takes to apologize—and to forgive.
This book makes an excellent Reader's Theater script. It has also been adapted into a stage play for schools (see Resources below).
Claudia Lewis Poetry Award
Cybils Poetry Award
Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book
“Sidman’s ear is keen, capturing many voices. Her skill as a poet accessible to young people is unmatched . . . This is an important book both for its creativity and for its wisdom.”
*School Library Journal (starred review)
“A fabulous book to show students the many forms that poetry can take and to inspire them to write their own 'sorry' poems.”
Book Page
“Packed with the intensity of everyday pain and sorrow, kids and adults exchange the words that convey grief, delight, love and acceptance of themselves and others.”
Kirkus Reviews
How this book began . . .
While teaching writing residencies in local schools, I often use W.C. Williams' poem "This Is Just to Say" as a poetry model. One year, in front of a 4th grade class, I wrote a poem to my mother, apologizing for breaking her glass deer (yes, it was me). One of the students looked me in the eye and said, "Are you going to send it to her?” After a little hemming and hawing, I did, and she wrote me back a lovely letter explaining how she'd felt all those years ago. That made me think: what if sorry poems were sent to the people they were written to? And what if those people wrote back? A book began to form in my head. And as I sat down to write, a group of earnest students stepped forth from my imagination to utter their apologies, one by one.