Wednesday, May 16, 2012

TLA Videos: Dana Jensen

More video nuggets from the 8th annual TLA Poetry Round Up.
Next, Dana Jensen. You may remember that I reviewed his new book-- his first book for young readers, A Meal of the Stars, during April and he read from it at TLA.

Dana Jensen both writes poetry and teaches it to children and has been involved in the Twin Cities' COMPAS Writers and Artists in the School's program for many years. It was fellow Minnesotan Joyce Sidman who connected him with her editor who worked with him on A Meal of the Stars, his first book for young readers.

Joyce Sidman said this about Dana and his new book: Dana Jensen perfectly taps into the mystery of a child’s world with this up-ness and down-ness. With each page turn, there is a sense of suspense: Should we read up or down? And as we climb the ladder of the poem—or descent, rung by rung—we are like Jack and his beanstalk, not sure where we will end up, and what we will be when we get there.”

Booklist called A Meal of the Stars: "Imaginative and accessible, these verses show how the most ordinary of pleasures can pique a child's or a pair of friends' curiosity to explore the natural and urban worlds."

Dana made his very first conference appearance ever with at TLA and it was lovely to meet him! Here he shares one poem from A Meal of the Stars.

2 comments:

Joyce Sidman said...

Yay, Dana! He is magic with student poets, too.

laurasalas said...

Fun! This book is on my tbr list. Sounds like TLA was wonderful:>)