As a lover of poetry, I thought this book was excellent. Room 214 explored the lives of a group of students through poems they wrote throughout a school year. Each character had such a strong voice, I wasn't sure if I were reading fiction or nonfiction. The story even left some open endings which, although was disappointing to me as a reader, was very realistic. Not every story line in life is able to neatly and concisely end as the school year closes. A lot of events and situations in life do leave people without closer or with a "To Be Continued..." and that is frustrating but something we have to accept. ( )

Room 214 follows a 5th grade classroom for a year. There are ups and downs among the authors of the poems. Yet this book focuses mostly on poetic form and its practices, with this edition of the book even having a virtual workshop on all the forms discussed . It is a beautiful book that had me tearing up, questioning the forms, and reading in sheer awe of the power of poetry. ( )

This book reminds me of the other book Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson. Both books use a collection of different poems to express the feelings of the writer. This book, however, is a collection of different poems from different people who seem to be in the same class. I like that it shows the various views from males, females, teachers, staff members. On the ebook, pg56 the poem "Perfect" by Shawna stood out to me because she says something that I thought was important to this book. Shawna writes, "Everyone's life has something hard". She continues to talk about how she thought otherwise and this event of Monique losing her father has made her realized this. This book shows the different feelings and invites the readers into the lives' of these students. It shows there is more than one way to look at things. It shows that people have feelings that, sometimes, they don't show. It shows that everyone is dealing with something and despite our differences we have things in common. I feel like this message is also expressed by the use of poetry. There are all different types of poems but they the same in ways. ( )

I love how this book is made up of poems written by the students about their life and problems. I love how the teacher cares so much about her kids. I think it is so sweet how much the students care about each other. I think the voice of this book is mask voice. Helen Frost wrote all the poems in this book but put a child's name on it that would be in the classroom. This book has all different types of elements of poetry like, rhyme and imagery. It also has alliteration and consonance. I really loved this book and all the stories it told. ( )

"Room 214: A Year in Poems" is a collection of poems written by fifth grade students. Each student writes about their personal lives in different types of poetry styles. Some of the subjects mentioned by the students are: abusive parents, deaths of loved ones, homelessness, and bullying. Each poem is written in a different style of poetry and delves into different subjects, but still connects each story to the next, uniting the overall story being told. There are so many problems that children deal with in their daily lives and this book goes into these harsh and real situations and deliver it through poetry, truly painting a picture of these children's lives. Overall, I really loved this book. It touched my heart and I felt I could relate to some of these children's stories. I would definitely read this book with my own students to teach them about different styles of poetry and the diversity and relatability in other students' lives. I'd love for my students to write our own collection of poetry to help them express their thoughts and stories. ( )