On the move Home is where you find it

Rosen's latest poetry collection, comprising 49 mostly free-verse compositions (some previously published), focuses on migration and its effects on humans, including succeeding generations. In four sections, Rosen explores his own life growing up as a Polish Jew in London where Yiddish was spoken at home; the years following WWII when he encountered antisemitism and othering; the fates of his European relatives, many of whom perished fleeing from Hitler; and the experiences of more contemporary migrants. The poems are mostly short and heartfelt ("Counting"), express sometimes absurd situations encountered by immigrants ("English Literature"), and convey an affinity with the plight of migrants today ("The Migrants in Me"). Perhaps most moving are the accounts of Rosen's Holocaust-era relatives and his attempts to learn their stories. Blake's watercolor-and-ink illustrations, reproduced in blue/gray tones, accurately reflect the verses' moods and speak to the difficulties faced by migrants then and now. Appended with further resources, this will be useful for units on human migration and perhaps as reader's theater.

Former U.K. Children's Laureate Michael Rosen illuminates issues of human migration by attempting to fill the gaps in his Jewish family history. His introduction explains the distinctions between migrant and refugee and divides the collection of mostly free-verse poems into four thematic sections. In the first section, "Family and Friends," Rosen explores his immigrant roots by reflecting on significant experiences and people from his childhood. In one deceptively simple poem, "The Songs My Father Sings," he ponders his paternal ancestry: "Where has my father been? / Who sang the songs that he now sings / and what do the songs mean?" Two poems recall antisemitic slights by Rosen's childhood classmates. The second section, "The War," pieces together parental reminiscences of World War II and of family travels in postwar Europe. In "The Migrants in Me," the potent third section, Rosen investigates missing family members. His father testifies, "I had two French uncles. / They were in France / at the beginning of the war. / They weren't there at the end." In the narrative poem "Finding Out," Rosen painstakingly unearths information about these uncles--Oscar and Martin--and discovers old photos of them in a long-hidden box of family memorabilia. A duad of wrenching poems directly address Oscar and his wife, Rachel, imagining their emotions during escape, discovery by Nazis, and shipment to Auschwitz. Yet another poignant elegy, "Cousin Michael," memorializes Rosen's father's cousin, evacuated to safety as a teen by parents he'd never see again. The final section, "On the Move Again," explores the disruptions that uproot people and bring different cultures into contact. In Blake's blue-washed watercolors, faceless figures trek beneath glowering, threatening skies. A graceful tapestry weaving together personal and global perspectives and a heart-rending memoir of human endurance. (resources) (Poetry. 8-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.