IRA Videos: Lewis, Singer & Yolen

I mentioned earlier that I made a quick trip to Chicago a few weeks ago for the annual convention of the International Reading Association to present along with three wonderful poets: J. Patrick Lewis, Marilyn Singer, and Jane Yolen. Our focus was on humorous poetry and we had such a good time together with a lovely audience. I also made some very short 30-second clips of each of them reading their poems aloud and would like to share them here.

Here is J. Patrick Lewis reading one of his very clever parodies from Edgar Allan Poe’s Pie: Math Puzzlers in Classic Poems.



He has several other new poetry works out this year, too:

• When Thunder Comes: Poems for Civil Rights Leaders
• If You Were a Chocolate Mustache
• An edited collection, The Book of Animal Poetry to be illustrated with National Geographic photos of animals

With Jane Yolen this year:

• Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs
• Take Two! A Celebration of Twins

[Note: Last spring my class created a “Poetry Toolbox” for him and his work featuring readers guides and digital trailers based on 40 of his books. Click here for the Toolbox.]


Marilyn Singer read a clever St. Patrick's Day poem (from the dog's point of view) from her new book, Every Day's a Dog's Day.



She also has several other new books coming out in 2012 (some poetry, some picture books) including:

• A Stick is an Excellent Thing
• Tallulah’s Solo
• The Boy Who Cried Alien
• The Superheroes Employment Agency
• A Strange Place to Call Home
• 2013 will see another Tallulah book and a new collection of reversos
  

Jane Yolen shared several short poems from her collaborative book of "epitaph" poems with J. Patrick Lewis. Here's the epitaph for a frog.



Jane's latest poetry collection is Bug Off! Creepy Crawly Poems and she shared a few from that new book, too.

Also look for Jane's new article, “A Children’s Books Poetics” in the May/June issue of Horn Book magazine—where she offers poem tributes to 7 legends of the children’s literature world.


That's just a tiny taste of our 3 hours of rhyme and repartee!