National Poetry Month Eve

Some of my blogging colleagues have come up with amazing plans for National Poetry Month starting tomorrow. I'll be posting daily in April, for the third consecutive year. This year, I'm planning a poetry-book-review-a-day on new 2009 poetry books for kids, with sample poems, activities for kids, and poet interview tidbits. Should be fun! Meanwhile, here’s the lowdown on a few other poetry-centric blogs and their plans for April, just FYI.

Gregory K. Pincus, at Gottabook has created a tremendous resource for April with original poems by many well-known children’s poets for every single day, calling it “30 Poets/30 Days.” Here's the alphabetical list of the poets he will featuring: Arnold Adoff, Jaime Adoff, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Douglas Florian, Betsy Franco, Kristine O'Connell George, Charles Ghigna, Nikki Giovanni, Joan Bransfield Graham, Nikki Grimes, Mary Ann Hoberman, Lee Bennett Hopkins, X. J. Kennedy, Julie Larios, J. Patrick Lewis, Pat Mora, Kenn Nesbitt, Linda Sue Park, Ann Whitford Paul, Gregory K. Pincus, Jack Prelutsky, Adam Rex, Jon Scieszka, Joyce Sidman, April Halprin Wayland, Janet Wong, and Jane Yolen. Won’t that be amazing?!

For National Poetry Month, Dr. Patricia M. Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect will be posting interviews with children's poets each day. Her distinguished roster includes: Kenn Nesbitt, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Avis Harley, Ann Whitford Paul, Joyce Carol Thomas, J. Patrick Lewis, Janet Wong, Joseph Bruchac, Ralph Fletcher, Steven Schnur, Jane Yolen, Linda Ashman, Julie Larios, Adam Rex, Marilyn Singer, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Georgia Heard, Joyce Sidman, Paul Janeczko, Arnold Adoff, Jaime Adoff, Joan Bransfield Graham, Bobbi Katz, Kristine O'Connell George, Jorge Argueta, Carole Boston Weatherford, Betsy Franco, Lisa Westberg Peters, Laura Purdie Salas, Calef Brown, Marilyn Nelson, Helen Frost, Sara Holbrook, Douglas Florian, Mary Ann Hoberman, and Pat Mora. She’ll be incorporating mini reviews and activities alongside the interviews, too.

Elaine Magliaro at Wild Rose Reader will be giving away children's poetry books as prizes again this year. She has a variety of posting plans including theme-related posts on haiku, cats, dogs, birds, and geography; interviews with Alice Schertle, Julie Larios, Kris George, Linda Ashman, book reviews, and perhaps a poetry research report. Check out her new solo blog called Political Verses, too.

Anastasia Suen at Pencil Talk will be collecting school poems written by children throughout April and posting one each day. Of course there are many other blogs that will be celebrating poetry in all kinds of ways during the month of April. See you online!

Roses are red,
blogs are sublime
Let the postings begin,
it’s poetry time!

Image credit: library.otterbein.edu