BEHIND THE WHEEL: POEMS ABOUT DRIVING by Janet S. Wong

1. Bibliographic data

Wong, Janet S. 1999. Behind the Wheel: Poems about Driving. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books. 0-6898-2531-5.

2. Plot summary

Janet Wong uses her words in the book Behind the Wheel: Poems about Driving to express a myriad of circumstances and emotions that deal with growing up and experiencing what life throws at you. From the point of view of a teenager just beginning to drive, Wong uses driving actions such as braking, turning, crashing, signaling, and following the speed limit as lessons for life.

3. Critical Analysis

An inventive book which uses driving to reveals lessons about life, Behind the Wheel: Poems about Driving by Janet S. Wong expresses what it feels like to grow up and learn about interacting with the world around you.

Relying solely on words, Wong uses free verse to express her thoughts on driving and life. Suing her creative license to divide up lines and phrases as she chooses, Wong gives emphasis and meaning to different parts of the poem. Wong often repeats lines that she wants to emphasis such as "You need insurance. / You need insurance. / You need insurance. / Got it?" to get her point across. Wong even puts all of her words together in a paragraph, like the poem "ILMN444."

The content of Wong's poems differs throughout the book. At times it seems as if she is trying to teach the reader something through her poems about driving, such as "Forget kindergarten, / sharing. / Everything you need to know / you learn right here / behind the wheel." Other times, she simply relates feelings that have to do with driving, such as "read the handbook / read it again / read it again / sleep on it / dream those signs / dream / the license is mine." Whether Wong is trying to teach a lesson about life or driving is not always apparent, but there is always something to be learned through her words.

In addition to lessons about driving and life, Wong gives the reader a taste of her family's culture. She speaks of her grandfather's Chinese paper dollars in her poem "Crash" and how 444 is an old Chinese number for death in "ILMN444." These few mentions provide insight into the life of another culture and teaches the reader not only something new about Chinese culture, but also shows that every family - no matter what background - goes through similar things like teenagers learning to drive.

I think that these poems are best fit for middle school children, particularly seventh or eighth grade. Students of this age are nearing the age to drive and will better understand the pressures, situations, and imagery present in this book. Many poems in this book have a depth and seriousness to them that would take a knowledgeable and more advanced reader to fully comprehend.

I learned a lot from this book. I have never perceived driving as being anything else than how I get from Point A to Point B, so Behind the Wheel: Poems about Driving was refreshing and enlightening to read. I liked how it was about so much more than driving, and I connected with many of the stories about beginning and learning to drive. The poetry is inventive and the content is unusual, and you are done reading before you know it. I really liked this book and would recommend it to students and adults alike.

4. Review Excerpts

"Wong presents driving as a metaphor for life. She makes the rather obvious analogy in the poem "Behind the Wheel": "Everything you need to know/you learn right here/behind the wheel./Watch out for the other guy./Keep your eye on your rear./Thank the old lady who lets you in./Don't steal someone else's spot./When you rush to park and end up hopeless, crooked-/just start over." Many of the poems are simply memories of driving-related events, e.g., taking grandma to the store, a first hitchhiking attempt, and dreaming of luxury cars at the auto show. These glimpses are a bit distant, not really enticing readers to slip inside the memories. The metaphors continue throughout the book, often becoming tiresome. In "Restraint," parents are compared first to seat belts, and then to airbags: "...when you mess up-WOOOMPH!-/they're there, like air bags,/in your face." There is the obligatory, somewhat preachy poem about drunk driving, a little too light to have much impact. Not entirely convincing, these poems don't succeed as extended views of life." - Library Journal

"Wong's brief, clear lines will be accessible even to the most reluctant poetry readers, and readers of all ages will be moved by the intersection of poignancy and humor as she describes the thrilling freedom of the car and an emerging adult's awareness that, although she's traveled, her road still leads to home." - Booklist

5. Connections

Activity: Ask students to think of any activity - eating breakfast, cleaning, sleeping, going to the movies - and have them write a free verse poem about it. Collect the poems and make a class book titled "Poems about _(insert activity here)_."

Related Books:

Wong, Janet S. 1999. The Rainbow Hand: Poems about Mothers and Children. Ill. by Jennifer Hewitson. New York: M.K. McElderry Books. 0689821484.