Partly Cloudy

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Soto, Gary. 2009. Partly cloudy; Poems of love and longing. New York: Harcourt. ISBN 97800152063016

PLOT SUMMARY

Partly Cloudy is a compilation of poems about young love from several perspectives. Completely open and honest poems about first kisses, jealousy, and heartbreak come from the views of both teenage girls and boys.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Gary Soto, renowned poet, strikes again! He transparently reveals thoughts and emotions held within adolescents in and out of love. As I reader, I could relate to feelings expressed by female personas.

The compilation of poems reflects views of love from many different people. While this is not evident at first, the reader will see lovers’ contrasting characteristics described. For example, in “Rumors,” the boy alludes to guitar-playing abilities. However, in “Country Music,” the boy doesn’t sing or play guitar. In “So Much Alike,” the boy only goes to church to impress the girl he likes while the writer of “Beautiful Trouble” gets warned by his dad, the church deacon to look out for dangerous girls.

Soto includes a wide range of emotions in his personas. “The Invisible Girl” feels unnoticed while “Bossy Girl” laments over lost love. The “Vegan for Your Love” boy sacrifices his own desires for a diet like his girl’s. “Simple Me” pines for the girl he follows closely in the school cafeteria. The strong boy in “A Certain Weakness” describes the exhaustion that comes from thinking of his crush. None of the personas appear weak or conceited or anything other than genuine in their sentiments. Each reader, no matter their culture, surely will identify with at least one persona’s feelings.

In other pieces I’ve read by Soto, characters are described in more detail than these love-struck (or heartbroken) characters. Very few personas identify themselves or others by name. On occasion, such as in “Barriers,” the cultures of the young people are expressed—Japanese girl and Mexican boy—as well as a few common phrases in each language and the peculiarity of the two being in a relationship together. In “Meaning What?” a classmate speaks Mandarin and translates for the persona.

Just as the persona changes from poem to poem, so does the setting. Evidence from poems like “Obsession”—“Downloaded photos of you…” —and “Little Puppy”—“ I secretly flip open my cell”—indicate the tense of these poems is present. However, seasons change from poem to poem as is exemplified in “Facts of Life,” “Beginning of Baseball Season,” ”Danger,” and “Fall Dance.”

The location of these smitten teens varies as well. One boy writes in “Iowa Evening”  about helping out in the fields while in “A View of Heaven,” the boy describes the “forest of TV antennas.” Quite often, the events take place at school as seen in “Jealousy” and “Imagination.” The female persona of “Neighborhood” gives great detail about her rough neighborhood with no pretty lawns but the “yellow grill on the face of a thug” who yells at her as she passes by.

Many of Soto’s pieces include allusions to his own Hispanic culture. That is a rare find in Partly Cloudy. A few exceptions include the dancing peas “almost doing a samba” in “Simple Me.” As mentioned previously, a girl of Japanese descent is in love with a boy of Mexican origin. Other than a few exchanges of common phrase, the reader does not learn details of how their cultural differences impact their relationship.

As with most of his other poetry, Soto creatively twists words together to make a powerful statement. In “The Big Chill,” a hint of what is to come occurs in the description of shadows: “Shadows the color of diesel exhaust.” “Facts of Life” compares a bee pollinating a flower to a boy making his intentions known to a girl. A completely smitten girl exaggerates the homemaking abilities of her “multitasking lover boy” in “Natural Talent,” creating an element of humor for the reader.

Most reader may miss Soto’s female persona alluding to an Old Testament account in “Testing You.” The girl tells her love that her gardener father would make him “shovel seven years / For [her] sweet-smelling hand.” This parallels the account of Jacob in Genesis who agreed to work for Laban seven years to earn the hand of Rachel.

While Partly Cloudy lacks cultural depth, the absence of one particular ethnicity creates a unity among readers. No matter your background, heritage, language, or location, at some point, you will or have felt the emotions displayed in Partly Cloudy.

AWARDS & REVIEWS

Best Books:

Choices, 2010, Cooperative Children's Book Center

Pure Poetry, 2008; Voice of Youth Advocates

“Soto writes…with humor, wonderment, and a generosity toward life.”—Kirkus Review, quoted on book jacket

“Young teens will enjoy the ‘love sick’ puns and the metaphors, lyrical and sad, that show there is poetry in the way they speak.” –Booklist, Feb. 2009

“The free-verse poems all somehow ring true: appropriately corny, rich with image, accessible and believable. They describe a range of emotions and experience.”—Horn Book Magazine, 2009

CONNECTIONS

Country Music

In the poem “Country Music,” the boy wishes to write a song about the girl he loves, but he feels he lacks the ability to do so. Many of the poems in this collection compare to country songs by the likes of Taylor Swift. Choose one poem’s situation and turn it into a Taylor Swift-style country song. Use one of Swift’s catchy melodies to guide you, if you so choose.

Perfect Match

While none of the female personas’ poems are intended to regard one of the male personas, the two personas could match up to make a perfect pair. Choose one poem from the female section and one poem from the male section to partner up. Create two posters detailing what each persona is describing so that they each match up. For example, if the female is expressing how she enjoys being with the boy exposes her to nature, match that poem with the male poem that details an outing the couple goes on.

Immediate Response

Many of these poems equate to one-sided diary entries. What if the person the persona is talking to—a lover, ex, or crush—could respond to the poem? Do that! Write a poetic response to one poem. Please identify the poem and persona to whom you are replying. Use a Web 2.0 app such as Animoto to record your performance of this poem.