from our hands to yours

From Our Hands to Yours Is a poetry book written by English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students at Mana College from a variety of different cultures, edited by Adrienne Jansen and Alexandra Heke. Throughout the book are 19 different categories of poems. Some of these include topics like remembering, sounds, I wish, colours, and grandparents. There is also a teachers note page to help you teach the poems, which is extremely beneficial to inspire the tamariki in your class.

Personally, I wouldn't read this book as a story. The book is more a resource for exemplars, understanding and getting a small snippet of different children's thoughts and life. The poems are quite inspiring and make you feel a variety of emotions, like the poem called music. The first part talks about what music is, and yet the second part talks about what the child goes through, yet the music still understands him. The complexity of the poems ranges from simple to complex, which is a good aspect because all children were able to publish a piece of work, to inspire others. The thought and depth the authors have put into this book is beautiful and I would recommend to any teacher to read these poems. A very easy read.

Content advisory: some poems have deeper meanings of some dark times. For primary children I would get the teacher to choose the poem to read out loud. High school children would be fine to read the book independently.