Friday, July 13, 2007

Blog anniversary: Meet POETRY PEOPLE

I’m tickled pink to celebrate the one year anniversary of my blog! My first entry set my purpose: to “explore what's new in the field of poetry published for children and young adults.” And my first entry was also a shameless plug of a new book I wrote to promote poetry with young people entitled, Poetry Aloud Here, a practitioner's guide to sharing poetry with children (ages 5-12) in ways that are fun, meaningful and participatory. Well, brace yourself for more brazen self promotion. I’m pleased to announce I have published another resource to help with promoting poetry with kids entitled, Poetry People; A Practical Guide to Children’s Poets (available now from Libraries Unlimited).

This new book provides a comprehensive introduction to more than 60 contemporary poets writing for young people, from Arnold Adoff to Douglas Florian to J. Patrick Lewis to Naomi Shihab Nye to Gary Soto to Janet Wong, and many more. The entry for each poet includes brief biographical information, highlights selected poetry books authored, showcases awards won, notes related web sites, and provides suggestions for making connections (programming ideas, related books, and activities across genres).

Additional supplementary information is also provided, including further lists of poets to know, awards for children’s poetry, helpful poetry web sites, a list of poems about libraries and reading, recommendations of must-have poetry anthologies, a poetry practices checklist, tips for poet promotion activities, and a calendar of poet birthdays to celebrate month by month.

Poet and anthologist Lee Bennett Hopkins calls it a “poetry treasury” and a “readable, useful, not-to-be-missed resource… a reference volume that will leap from the shelves.” Thank you, Lee!

If you’re looking for more help in promoting poets or simply want to familiarize yourself with many of the wonderful poets writing for children today, I hope you’ll check it out. And I welcome any input on the blog as a whole, especially any suggestions or questions for future content. Thanks for stopping by!

Picture credit: Libraries Unlimited

4 comments:

Violet N. said...

Congratulations on the one year blogaversary! Both of your books sound fascinating. As a former teacher and sometimes-rhyme-maker for kids, I am finding your glimpses into the world of children's poetry interesting.

Sylvia Vardell said...

Thanks a bunch for your kind words. I hope you'll visit often-- and share any ideas, suggestions, or questions you might have about sharing poetry with children.

Elaine Magliaro said...

Sylvia, Happy Blogiversary! Glad you're a blogger in the kidlitosphere. I enjoy reading your terrific posts about children's poetry.

Sylvia Vardell said...

Elaine,
Thank you so much for those sweet thoughts. It has been such a pleasure to get to know you-- through the Cybils and poetry. And I enjoy your blog postings and poetry, too! Keep on...