Favorites of 2009

The year is drawing to a close and although I’m scrambling to finish my semester, I thought I’d pause to gather a list of some of my favorite poetry books of the year. I think it’s been a great year for poetry for young people with a tremendous variety of subject matter and format and heaps of quality and innovation. I wrote about trends I observed this year on David Harrison’s blog (featured last week), and about the organizing thread of TIME in many poetry books this year. Today, I’ll offer my list of 18 of my favorite poetry books for young people this year-- the most unique, most distinctive, most appealing books of poetry, in my opinion. As a group, they offer a mini-library of what’s new and great about poetry for kids: in form, in format, in look, in impact, in humor, in emotional power, etc. I’ve blogged about most of these previously, as well as many other terrific titles and I’d love to hear about other people’s favorites. Here you go…

Argueta, Jorge. 2009. Sopa de frijoles/ Bean Soup. Ill. by Rafael Yockteng. Toronto, ON: Groundwood.
*It’s bilingual (Spanish/English), it’s a recipe, it’s poetry plus cooking full of metaphors and similes and beans

Burg, Ann. 2009. All the Broken Pieces. Scholastic.
*Spare, moving verse novel about a boy wrestling with his identity as a Vietnamese child growing up in the US post war

Florian, Douglas. 2009. Dinothesaurus. New York: Simon & Schuster.
*Classic Florian wordplay and information-rich poems about dinosaurs and delectable dinosaur names

Franco, Betsy. 2009. Curious Collection of Cats. Ill. by Michael Wertz. San Francisco, CA: Tricycle Press.
*Clever concrete poems about cats and their idiosyncrasies envisioned in popsicle colored art

Frost, Helen. 2009. Crossing Stones. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
*Four teens’ lives interweave against a backdrop of WWI, influenza, and women’s emerging roles and rights

Hoberman, Mary Ann and Winston, Linda. 2009. The Tree That Time Built; A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks.
*Fascinating exploration of the parallel ways scientists and poets observe and understand the natural world

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 2009. City I Love. Ill. by Marcellus Hall. New York: Abrams.
*Poems can be about cities, too, and here is a playful cityscape of sights, sounds, and smells from cities around the world

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 2009. Sky Magic. Ill. by Mariusz Stawarski. New York: Dutton.
*Color-drenched collection of day-to-night poems perfect for breakfast table or bedtime sharing or in between

Hughes, Langston. 2009. My People. Ill. by Charles R Smith Jr. New York: Simon & Schuster.
*A nearly theatrical re-interpretation of the classic Langston Hughes poem through Smith’s bold sepia-toned photography

Katz, Bobbi. 2009. The Monsterologist; A Memoir in Rhyme. New York: Sterling.
*Ingenious scrapbook design and moveable art showcase clever poems about monsters and the evil genius who knows them best

Lewis, J. Patrick. 2009. The House. Illus. by Roberto Innocenti. Minneapolis, MN: Creative Editions.
*Brilliant combination of sensitive, insightful poetry and exquisite fine art tells the story of one house across the centuries

Mordhorst, Heidi. 2009. Pumpkin Butterfly; Poems from the Other Side of Nature. Honesdale PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.
*Subtle, lilting nature poems from Fall to Summer full of metaphor and imagery

Rosen, Michael J. 2009. The Cuckoo’s Haiku and Other Birding Poems. Ill. by Stan Fellows. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.
*Who knew haiku could be so gorgeous, informative and inspiring? Birds, seasons, and illustrations all come together beautifully.

Ruddell, Deborah. 2009. A Whiff of Pine, A Hint of Skunk. New York: Simon & Schuster.
*Forest life across the seasons in funny-to-contemplative poems

Salas, Laura. 2009. Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School! New York: Clarion.
*Life at school portrayed through children personified as wild animals, a perfect parallel

Schertle, Alice. 2009. Button Up! Wrinkled Rhymes. Ill. by Petra Mathers. New York: Harcourt.
*Smart, engaging “mask” poems personify articles of clothing

Sidman, Joyce. 2009. Red Sings From Treetops; A Year in Colors. Ill. by Pamela Zagarenski. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
*Personified colors and color words lead us through the seasons of nature in elegant, evocative poetry

Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn. 2009. Steady Hands: Poems About Work. New York: Clarion.
*Thoughtful, descriptive poems about jobs and careers, from the usual to the unique

As award committees deliberate about their choices, as teachers select books to read aloud with kids, as librarians develop their book collections, as parents and grandparents shop for their children, I hope they’ll all include POETRY on their wishlists. There are so many wonderful works worthy of consideration and sure to hold up in repeated readings over and over again. Just $200 (app.) would buy this entire collection of my recommended list (for example) of the best poetry of 2009, a fabulous year’s worth of reading for all ages—adults included!



Join the rest of the Poetry Friday crowd hosted by Random Noodling.

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

Image credit: gh3dda

2009 Trends and More

Thanks to all of you who read and commented in my Dear One contest. Congratulations, Marilyn Hollinshead, Mary Lee Hahn, Susan Taylor Brown, Dianne White, Jo Ann Macken, Tricia Stohr-Hunt, Karla Schmidt, Linda Kulp, Steven Withrow, Kelly Fineman, Bruce Black, and Kristy Dempsey. (I need your mailing addresses, Mary Lee and Jo Ann. Just email me at svardell at twu dot edu) That project was such a labor of love. If you have a special person or occasion you want to celebrate, invite people to contribute a verse or poem and then compile them and “publish” them in a simple book. It is sure to be a hit-- I speak from experience!

I would also like to plug the organization that prompted this collection: the National Council of Teachers of English. You don’t have to be an English teacher to be a part of this group—it includes teachers at all levels and in many areas, as well as librarians, publishers, writers, and others. Literature is at the heart of this organization and I’ve found it a happy professional home for 30 years. I’ve had the opportunity to serve on many committees, including the NCTE Poetry Award committee and Orbis Pictus Award committee, and been involved in the Children’s Literature Assembly (a sub-group of NCTE) which decides the Notables list every year, hosts an author breakfast at every conference, and leads a post-conference workshop annually. So, there are many opportunities to serve and I urge you to seek them out. It’s one of the most accessible organizations I know. Come to the 100th NCTE anniversary conference next November in Orlando. It’s sure to be BIG! Consider submitting a proposal for a session—those proposals are due in January (2010).

Finally, I’m honored to be featured on poet David Harrison’s blog today. He invited me to write a short article for his blog, so I mused about the trends I observed looking back over this year’s poetry for young people. Check it out.

Perhaps the biggest trend that struck me this year was the notion of time passing as a unifying thread (or major focus) for many of this year’s poetry collections. In some books, like Joyce Sidman’s beautiful Red Sings From Treetops; A Year in Colors or J. Patrick Lewis's The House, it’s clearly explicit, day by day, season by season, as the poems are ABOUT the passing of time. In other collections, it’s the organizing framework, like the spring-to-winter motif of A Whiff of Pine, A Hint of Skunk by Deborah Ruddell or More Pocket Poems by Bobbi Katz or the day-to-night layout of Lee Bennett Hopkins’s Sky Magic or Laura Purdie Salas’s Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School.

Has this always been the case and I just missed it? I have a feeling that may be true… but whatever the case, I like it. It feels very satisfying to travel through time through poetry and I can imagine the school connections are very apparent to teachers and librarians who want a poem to fit the season or the moment. Very practical! And yet in each of these collections, it doesn’t feel obvious or pedantic. And what a great challenge for kids—to collaborate in creating their own anthology organized in some time-based way. Let’s see what they come up with! Meanwhile, here’s my list of the 2009 poetry for kids that is built upon the passing of time.

Time Passing Poems

• Fehler, Gene. 2009. Change-up; Baseball Poems. Ill. by Donald Wu. New York: Clarion.
• Harrison, David. 2009. Vacation, We’re Going to the Ocean! Ill. by Rob Shepperson. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.
• Hoberman, Mary Ann and Winston, Linda. 2009. The Tree That Time Built; A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks.
• Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 2009. City I Love. Ill. by Marcellus Hall. New York: Abrams.
• Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 2009. Sky Magic. Ill. by Mariusz Stawarski. New York: Dutton.
• Katz, Bobbi. 2009. More Pocket Poems. Ill. by Deborah Zemke. New York: Dutton.
• Lewis, J. Patrick. 2009. Countdown to Summer: A Poem for Every Day of the School Year. Ill. by Ethan Long. New York: Little Brown.
• Lewis, J. Patrick. 2009. The House. Illus. by Roberto Innocenti. Minneapolis, MN: Creative Editions.
• Mordhorst, Heidi. 2009. Pumpkin Butterfly; Poems from the Other Side of Nature. Honesdale PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.
• Ruddell, Deborah. 2009. A Whiff of Pine, A Hint of Skunk. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Salas, Laura. 2009. Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School. New York: Clarion.
• Shahan, Sherry. 2009. Fiesta!; A Celebration of Latino Festivals. Ill. by Paula Barragan. Atlanta, GA: August House.
• Sidman, Joyce. 2009. Red Sings From Treetops; A Year in Colors. Ill. by Pamela Zagarenski. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn. 2009. Steady Hands: Poems About Work. New York: Clarion.

Did I miss any?


Speaking of blog postings. Check out Susan Marie Swanson’s interview on a lovely parenting blog, The Artful Parent. It’s great to see poetry crossover into other places whenever possible. Enjoy!

Join the Poetry Friday crew hosted by Elaine Magliaro at Wild Rose Reader today.

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2009. All rights reserved.
Image credit: writerchick.wordpress.com; ncte.org;schoolofthinking.org