Poetry books about summer

I'm off to the annual conference of the American Library Association in Anaheim and hope to pick up details on new poetry books to be released this Fall. I'll post whatever tidbits I can glean next week. Meanwhile, here's another excerpt from The Poetry Teacher's Book of Lists.

Poetry Books about Summer

Summer time is the perfect time to catch up on all kinds of poetry reading of course, but we can kick off our summertime events and gatherings with poems written specifically about summer and typical summer activities. Here are a few examples to get us started.

1. Alarcón, Francisco X. 1998. From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems/Del Ombligo de la Luna y Otros Poemas de Verano. San Francisco: Children’s Book Press.
2. Appelt, Kathi. 2004. My Father’s Summers: A Daughter’s Memoirs. New York: Henry Holt.
3. Bruchac, Joseph. 1995. The Earth under Sky Bear's Feet: Native American Poems of the Land. New York: Philomel Books.
4. Carlson, Lori M. Ed. 1998. Sol a Sol: Bilingual Poems. New York: Henry Holt.
5. Cohn, Amy L., comp. 1993. From Sea to Shining Sea: A Treasury of American Folklore and Folk Songs. New York: Scholastic.
6. Dotlich: Rebecca Kai 1998. Lemonade Sun and Other Summer Poems. Honesdale: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.
7. Dotlich, Rebecca Kai. 2004. Over in the Pink House: New Jump Rope Rhymes. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.
8. Esbensen, Barbara Juster. 1984. Cold Stars and Fireflies: Poems of the Four Seasons. New York: Crowell.
9. Fletcher, Ralph. 2001. Have You Been to the Beach Lately? New York: Orchard Books.
10. Florian, Douglas. 2002. Summersaults: Poems and Paintings. New York: Greenwillow Books.
11. Frank, John. 2007. How to Catch a Fish. New Milford: Roaring Brook Press.
12. George, Kristine O’Connell. 2001. Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems. New York: Clarion Books.
13. Giovanni, Nikki. 1981. Vacation Time: Poems for Children. New York: Morrow.
14. Graham, Joan Bransfield. 1994. Splish Splash. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
15. Grimes, Nikki. 2004. Tai Chi morning: Snapshots of China. Chicago: Cricket Books.
16. Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ed. 1993. Beat the Drum, Independence Day has Come: Poems for the Fourth of July. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.
17. Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ed. 2005. Days to Celebrate: A Full Year of Poetry, People, Holidays, History, Fascinating Facts, and More. New York: Greenwillow.
18. Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ed. 2006 Got Geography! New York: Greenwillow.
19. Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 2007. Behind the Museum Door. New York: Abrams.
20. Hopkins, Lee. Bennett Ed. 2010. Sharing the Seasons. Margaret McElderry.
21. Katz, Alan. 2011. Mosquitoes Are Ruining My Summer! And Other Silly Dilly Camp Songs. New York: McElderry.
22. Lansky, Bruce. Ed. 2009. What I Did on My Summer Vacation: Kids' Favorite Funny Summer Vacation Poems. Minnetonka, MN: Meadowbrook Press.
    
23. Lessac, Frane. 2003. Camp Granada: Sing-Along Camp Songs. New York: Holt.
24. Levy, Constance. 2002. Splash! Poems of Our Watery World. New York: Orchard.
25. Lewis, J. Patrick. 2002. A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme. New York: Dial.
26. Lewis, J. Patrick. 1994. July is a Mad Mosquito. New York: Atheneum.
27. Lewis, J. Patrick. 2005. Monumental Verses. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic.
28. McCord, David. 1999. Every Time I Climb a Tree. New York: Little Brown.
29. Moore, Lilian. comp. 1992. Sunflakes: Poems for Children. New York: Clarion.
30. Mora, Pat. 1998. This Big Sky. New York: Scholastic.
31. Schnur, Steven. 2001. Summer: An Alphabet Acrostic. New York: Clarion.
32. Shaw, Alison, comp. 1995. Until I Saw the Sea: A Collection of Seashore Poems. New York: Henry Holt.
33. Siebert, Diane. 2006. Tour America: A Journey through Poems and Art. San Francisco: Chronicle.
34. Singer, Marilyn. 2000. Fireflies at Midnight. New York: Atheneum.
35. Singer, Marilyn. 1992. In My Tent. New York: Macmillan.
36. Singer, Marilyn. 1989. Turtle in July. New York: Macmillan.
37. Spinelli, Eileen. 2007. Summerhouse Time. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
38. Weatherford, Carole Boston. 2001. Sidewalk Chalk; Poems of the City. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.
39. Wong, Janet. 2008. Minn and Jake’s Almost Terrible Summer. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
40. Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn. 2005. Sketches from a Spy Tree. New York: Clarion.
41. Wong, Janet S. 1999. Behind the Wheel: Poems about Driving. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books.
42. Yolen, Jane. 2000. Color Me a Rhyme: Nature Poems for Young People. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.

Any other good summertime poetry collections I should know about? Please let me know!

Image credit: RockBrookCamp

Copyright Sylvia M. Vardell 2012. All rights reserved.

Vacation poems

I’m in San Francisco this week—near the ocean—a perfect moment to mention a new poetry book by David L. Harrison called Vacation; We’re Going to the Ocean, illustrated by Rob Shepperson (Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press, 2009). It’s a fun and engaging summer poem collection, with a strong boy sensibility, and a story framework that bounces from poem to poem, cartoon to cartoon. Its small trim size (5 x 7) adds to its packable portability. My only quibble—a small one—is that the two-column layout of a few of the poems suggests they can be read simultaneously by two voices, but instead it’s simply to maximize space on the page. It’s a tad confusing in a few instances, but not a deal-breaker.

This small “beach book” packs a walloping 45 poems from “Hi” to “Home at Last” detailing a family’s road trip to the beach and their brief stay there. Each poem adds another moment, all from the perspective of a young boy named Sam who collects a spider, scorpion, tarantula, and crab along the way. Kids will enjoy the poems about sitting in the car, potty breaks, spending the night with relatives, camping, cookouts, coping with siblings, art museum stops, hiking, hotel overnights, and of course beach time activities. Shepperson’s black and white cartoons on every page add a strong dose of storytelling and humor, giving each family member a distinctive personality. (Harrison and Shepperson collaborated previously on Bugs, another small-sized, visually and verbally inviting poem collection.)

Here’s just a sample, sure to be a familiar topic to anyone who has sat in a car with kids for more than 5 minutes!







Are We There Yet?
by David L. Harrison

My foot’s
asleep,

my seat
is sore.

You said
“another hour”
before.

You say
“an hour”
every
time.

Your
hours
are much

longer
than
mine.

from Harrison, David L. 2009. Vacation; We’re Going to the Ocean. Illustrated by Rob Shepperson. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press, p. 14.

If you can’t get to the ocean yourself this summer, here’s a virtual vacation, complete with rambunctious kids and sand in your _________. Enjoy!

This week, the Poetry Friday Roundup is at A Year of Reading. See you there!

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2009. All rights reserved.

Image credit:boydsmillspress.com;ragingred.wordpress.com

ALA, Book Links & Poetry

I’m off to Chicago for the annual conference of the American Library Association. My daughter (a budding librarian herself) is joining me and I am excited to share the conference experience with her. Plus, the fabulous Poetry Blast is Monday night and I will be there with bells on. Look for a future post about that event featuring Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, David Harrison, Bobbi Katz, Laura Purdie Salas, Jon Scieszka, Joyce Sidman, Marilyn Singer, Hope Anita Smith, Susan Marie Swanson, and Joyce Carol Thomas. Won’t that be a treat?! (Are you a Blast fan on Facebook?)

In the mean time, I would also like to plug Book Links magazine and it’s final “stand alone” issue which is chockablock full of poetry goodies. (Beginning in October, Book Links will be bundled with Booklist, another ALA publication.) This July issue of Book Links includes:

A Poetry Book of their Own by Denise B. Geier (on making handmade poetry books)
Talking with Carole Boston Weatherford by KaaVonia Hinton
Talking with Ashley Bryan by Dean Schneider
Biographies of Poets by Barbara A. Ward and Terrell A. Young
Connecting Picture Books and Poems by Susan Stern
and of course Everyday Poetry: The Art of Poetry by Yours Truly

Isn’t that an amazing line up?

Here’s an excerpt from my column including a wonderful pantomime-worthy original poem by Douglas Florian that appears alongside it.

Everyday Poetry: The Art of Poetry
We know that poets create pictures with words, but some even use pictures to prompt the words or they create the art that accompanies their own poetry. Art and poetry go hand in hand and it can be fun to explore poetry books based on art, poetry books illustrated by the poets themselves, and poem picture books that feature single poems reinterpreted through art.

Ekprhastic Poetry
Poems written in response to art are called “ekphrastic” poetry, the unifying thread in Jan Greenberg’s anthology, Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art and its recent companion, Side by Side: New Poems Inspired by Art from Around the World. Greenberg includes a helpful introduction and map locating poem sources, poems in multiple languages, biographies of poets and translators, and poetry from more than 30 different countries. Other anthologies that pair fine art and poetry are also cited along with follow up activities.

Poet Artists
There are many poets who also produce the illustrations for their own poetry collections. They are known for their art, as well as their writing…. Douglas Florian creates distinctive paintings+collages that are instantly recognizable (Dinothesaurus, Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars; Handsprings).

For more examples of paintings and poetry, check out the work of Calef Brown who employs wordplay alongside inventive acrylic and gouache (Polkabats and Octopus Slacks, Flamingos on the Roof, Soup For Breakfast), or Kurt Cyrus who creates nature poems and watercolor paintings (Oddhopper Opera, Hotel Deep), or Adam Rex who produces outrageous cartoon monsters and poem parodies (Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich; Frankenstein Takes a Cake)…. and the iconic photography of Charles R. Smith, Jr., (My People, If) or the cut-paper collages of Hope Anita Smith (Mother) or the textured quilts of Anna Grossnickle Hines (Winter Lights, Pieces) and Sue Van Wassenove (The Seldom-Ever-Shady Everglades).

Poem Picture Books
Many picture books have rhythmic and even rhyming text, but a true “poem picture book” features a single poem as the book’s complete text, a poem that can stand on its own without the illustrations. This gives us the opportunity to see the poem through new perspectives and can serve as a model for homemade picture books that kids can create for their favorite poems. It can also be helpful for older students who may be familiar with a classic poem, but haven’t found it moving or meaningful until they see it as a visually rich experience. Specific examples and activities are also provided.


Summer Sports
By Douglas Florian



Puddle hopping.
Watching waves.
Belly flopping.
Finding caves.

Chipmunk chasing.
Climbing trees.
Relay racing.
Skinning knees.

Picking daisies.
Swimming laps.
Feeling lazy.
Taking naps.

Sand handstanding.
Washing cars.
Summersaulting.
Counting stars.

[Thank you again, Douglas! Be sure and stop by his Floriancafe.]

This week's Poetry Friday celebration is hosted by Jama Rattigan at Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup. Go there now!

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2009. All rights reserved.

Image credit: search.barnesandnoble.com; ala

Traveling with Summer Poetry

I’d like to take a moment to thank you, reader, for keeping me going. I’m approaching the second anniversary of my blog which started July 14, 2006, and I’m tickled pink to still be at it—thanks to the many people who have posted, commented, and encouraged me. The world of poetry for young people is a small, but special community and I am honored to be part of it!

This week, I’d like to direct you to Book Links magazine once again, where my regular “Everyday Poetry” focuses on “Portable, Packable Summer Poetry” in the July issue, including an original poem, “The License Plate Game” by the always generous Janet S. Wong. You may remember that she posted versions of that poem here (April 25) and revised the final version that appears in Book Links based on that input. Cool to see the blog and print worlds intersect like that.

Meanwhile, I’d like to expand a bit on the topic of poems for summertime. For many wonderful poems, the place is the key. We can set the stage with poems about geography, such as Lee Bennett Hopkins’ collection, Got Geography! (Greenwillow, 2006) or J. Patrick Lewis’ A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme (Dial, 2002). Or we can focus specifically on the U.S. with the poetry of Diane Siebert in Tour America: A Journey Through Poems and Art (Chronicle, 2006) or another compilation by Lee Bennett Hopkins, My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States (Simon & Schuster, 2000). Display a world or U.S. map and invite children to locate the places referenced in the poetry.

For a more specific emphasis, spotlight these collections below on unique and historic sites around the world. Children can research factual information about a favorite place to accompany the poem or attempt reconstructing the site out of clay, cardboard, or popsicle sticks to display alongside the “monumental” poem.

• Between Earth and Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places by Joseph Bruchac (Harcourt Brace, 1996)
• Castles: Old Stone Poems by Rebecca Kai Dotlich and J. Patrick Lewis (Wordsong/Boyds and Mills Press, 2006)
• Monumental Verses by J. Patrick Lewis (National Geographic, 2005)
• Sacred Places by Jane Yolen (Harcourt Brace, 1996)

Some children may be gone during the summers visiting extended family members or spending time with a divorced parent. Two poetry collections that capture some of the serious and silly moments of a summer away are Summerhouse Time by Eileen Spinelli (Knopf, 2007) and for older readers, My Father’s Summers: A Daughter’s Memoirs by Kathi Appelt (Henry Holt, 2004). Encourage kids to keep their own summer poetry journals, with doodles, drawings, and poems that they can share or keep private.

Before they hit the road, children can check out the National Poetry Map on the Internet to discover which were the most sought-out poems in 2007 in each individual state. Go to “Good Reads: State Favorites and Critics Picks.”

Janet Wong has also authored a collection of poems all set in the car: Behind the Wheel: Poems about Driving (Margaret K. McElderry, 1999). Some are about life in the car and some use driving as a metaphor. Kids can choose their favorite, copy it on special paper, and share it in the car with friends or family.

Families who spend hours on the road or in the air often enjoy audiobooks to help pass the time. Walter Dean Myers has two works of poetry that have been masterfully adapted to the audio format produced by Live Oak Media complete with original music: Blues Journey (2005) and Jazz (2007). Much of Shel Silverstein’s and Jack Prelutsky’s poetry is available on CD, too, read by the poets themselves. Kids can also make their own recordings of themselves or others reading favorite poems out loud.

Poetry Friday is hosted by Under the Covers this week. See you there!

Picture credit: ALA

Happy Birthday, Poet Rebecca Kai Dotlich

Happy birthday to my friend and poet, Rebecca Kai Dotlich who was born on July 10 in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is also a featured poet in my new book, Poetry People Here is an excerpt from my piece on her and her work.

She grew up in Indiana in the backyard of the Indy 500 and attended Indiana University. She began writing even as a young child on a toy typewriter and eventually published her first collection of poetry for children, Sweet Dreams of the Wild, in 1995. She is a mother and grandmother, as well as a frequent conference speaker and writer-in-residence in the schools. In addition, she has been a poetry advisor for Creative Classroom magazine. Rebecca Kai Dotlich has a particular talent for writing poetry for our youngest readers and listeners.

Dotlich has two collections that are full of movement, in their strong rhythms and in their content. Over in the Pink House: New Jump Rope Rhymes (Boyds Mills Press, 2004) includes 32 original rhymes for chanting aloud while jumping rope. With In the Spin of Things: Poetry of Motion (Boyds Mills Press, 2003), Dotlich finds movement in ordinary things like ice cubes, pencil sharpeners, etc. Both books are full of playfulness with words and actions. Combine them with Jane Yolen's Street Rhymes around the World (Wordsong, 2003) and Joanna Cole's Anna Banana: 101 Jump-Rope Rhymes (HarperTrophy, 1989) for more playtime rhymes. Other jump-rope resources include The Jump Rope Book by Elizabeth Loredo and Martha Cooper (Workman, 1996), Double Dutch: A Celebration of Jump Rope, Rhyme, and Sisterhood by Veronica Chambers (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun, 2002). And of course, be prepared for spinning, jumping among the children and have the jump ropes ready.

For … summer gatherings, share Dotlich’s Lemonade Sun: And Other Summer Poems (Boyds Mills Press, 1998). She captures childhood experiences with metaphorical language that focuses on natural pleasures like enjoying butterflies and ladybugs, as well as games of jacks and jump rope. Once again, children will enjoy DOING these summer activities or sharing about their favorite summertime pastimes. Brainstorm a group list of favorites and encourage children to try new ones. Other summer poetry can be found in July is a Mad Mosquito by J. Patrick Lewis (Atheneum, 1994), Turtle in July by Marilyn Singer (Macmillan, 1989), and From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems/ Del ombligo de la luna y otros poemas de verano by Francisco X. Alarcón (Children's Book Press, 1998).

Look for more from Rebecca Kai Dotlich, a gentle, thoughtful, playful poet to watch!

Picture credit: www.highlightsfoundation.org