In this four lined stanza the readers are able to tell how angry Carrie is at her sister Alyssa. Some poems are very strong with emotions such as in the poem Roses are Red. Maria the author used stanzas that did not rhyme to explain her actions. This seemed as if she was explaining what she was doing more than apologizing to her mom for eating them. In the poem Brownies, Sidman uses nine two-lined stanzas to show how Maria smelled the brownies from her room and how she cut and ate the brownies even though she felt her mom was watching her. The topics range from dodge ball to brownies. In THIS IS JUST TO SAY, writers use various ways to say they are sorry and what they are sorry for. This book shows how authors are able to communicate their feelings towards each other using poetry. Other response poems such as The River of Forgiveness shows how the reader has forgiven Bao Vang for telling on her when she hit the fire alarm. In the poem Roses Are Red, written by Carrie, we learn that some are unhappy even though an apology has been made. The second part of the book consists of responses to the first part of the book. The class takes their poems that are about dodge ball, fashion sense, brownies, secret messages and pets and put them together in a book which forms the first part of the book. In Sidman’s book of poetry THIS IS JUST TO SAY, we are introduced to Anthony, the student who is the editor because it was his idea to make a book using the poems from the students in his class.

This is just to say by joyce sidman