Cousins of Clouds

In my summer classes, my students tried creating a variety of interesting assignments and agreed to let me share some of them here. So for the next few weeks, I'm posting readers' guides and digital trailers they created for nearly 20 new poetry books published for young people this year. We hope it will make it that much easier to share these wonderful new titles with the children and teens in your lives!

First up, Lynette Varassi created this digital trailer for Tracie Vaughn Zimmer's elephant poetry book, Cousins of Clouds. Enjoy!





Used with permission of Lynette Varassi.

TWOSOMES by Marilyn Singer

Poetry Tag continues with a book review of a new book of poetry connected to yesterday's book review.

Today’s tagline: Poems about animals in pairs

Guest Reviewer: Sarah Razer

Featured Book: Singer, Marilyn. Ills. by Lee Wildish. Twosomes. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 9780375867101

Sarah writes: These fifteen poems may be only two lines long each, but they are sweet and specific to the animal the poem describes. Whether adding an animal trait, such as chameleons changing color, or a word pun ("Come leap with me and be my wife. You're the porpoise of my life" in "Dolphins"), these short poems are fun for children and adults alike, so the book appeals to all ages. While younger audiences will enjoy the funny rhymes that focus on love, the adults will catch the wittiness and puns. Poems have a natural flow with short, simple rhymes that are still clever. It evokes silliness and happiness in what appears as childlike rhymes, but are actually clever and knowledgeable rhymes. These love poems are consistent for each animal from around the animal kingdom and it will certainly put anyone in a loving mood, and possibly lead someone to spend some extra time with a pet.



The illustrations are cute and colorful, small and comical. It's a sweet little book that could be given to anyone of any age as a Valentine's present or simply for the love of poetry. 



Sample Poem
 


Porcupines

by Marilyn Singer

"Hugging you takes some practice.

So I'll start out with a cactus."



Connections

The poems are only two lines long which provides young children an example of poetry on a level that they can grasp. It also offers examples a child could mimic. Five year olds can think of rhyming words and would possibly be able to take a trait from an animal they like and create a brief poem. It centers on the emotion of love, but also on the popular topic of animals. Both of these are elements a child can understand. Sometimes the explanations can be short and direct and the poems in Twosomes are short and clear examples of a type of poetry that all ages can understand.

Tomorrow’s tagline: Poems about a pair of sisters

[You can still purchase your own copy of PoetryTagTime, an e-book with 30 poems, all connected, by 30 poets, all connected and downloadable right now at Amazon for your Kindle or Kindle app for your computer, iPad or phone. Just 99 cents. Don’t miss it.]

Image credit: Knopf, PoetryTagTime

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell and students © 2011. All rights reserved.

COUSINS OF CLOUDS by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

Poetry Tag continues with a book review of a new book of poetry connected to yesterday's book review.

Today’s tagline: Poems about gigantic animals

Featured Book: Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn. 2011. Cousins of Clouds; Elephant Poems. Houghton Mifflin.

Zimmer's new collection is another that did not reach my class in time for students to participate, so I am reviewing this one. Lucky me!

This collection is already one of my favorites this year! It's a fairly unusual theme for a picture book poetry collection: ELEPHANTS-- and the combined poetry, informative paragraphs, and evocative illustrations create a wonderful package. It's fascinating and absorbing with a wonderful variety of poem forms (haiku, free verse, rhyming quatrain, shape poem, mask poem, blues, letter, sonnet, riddle, and even a "this is just to say" poem). For form alone, this books is an excellent teaching tool. But Zimmer has also done her homework on elephant facts and the poetry (and factual boxes) hone in on fascinating details about elephants (both African and Asian and clear distinctions are made) that take us well beyond the usual.

For example, I didn't know homeless elephants were a growing problem, that elephants' memories were so strong they could plan revenge on a cruel trainer, that scientists are studying elephant communication (through "infrasound" and sensitive feet) or that elephants naturally migrate 30-50 miles per day in the wild. Cool! Kids will love the many images of elephants -- their size, their fascinating trunks-- that are revealed through elegant poetry and full color illustrations. With 25 poems, many in double-page spreads, this is a book kids will pore over and nudge each other to read, share, discuss-- and dramatize!

Here's just one sample-- the poem that concludes the anthology and offers a nod to the many cultures that have acknowledged the power and myth of the world's largest land animal:

Inspiration
by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

An elephant's image,

carved on tombs
interred with pharaohs,

hewn in stone,
guarding India's palaces,

laid in tile
for Istanbul's king,

sculpted to size
on China's Avenue of Spirits,

illustrated in texts
for medieval scholars,

woven into masks
for Africa's secret societies,

etched in the imagination
of all mankind,

a behemoth of hope.

p. 30

And the brief accompanying prose paragraph offers this nugget:

No matter where you might travel in the world, you're likely to encounter art that features elephants. Even where they have never been native to the landscape, they have inspired artists and poets for millennia.

p. 30

Isn't that a beautiful use of language in both instances? Truly builds in momentum and doesn't shy away from using the right word or reference-- even when the vocabulary may be challenging:

"a behemoth of hope" indeed-- kids will LOVE that line. I know I do!

Connections
Certainly kids will want to read more about elephants after sharing this book. Gather nonfiction or informational titles, search the web, investigate area zoos that may house elephants (and study those conditions). Look for ways to contribute to elephant survival, including procuring a painting BY an elephant. And of course many of these poems will lend themselves to dramatization or pantomime. For example, "Trunk" can involve multiple volunteers acting out each of the metaphorical objects cited in the poem (finger, fork, arm, nose, straw, megaphone, telescope, rope) as the rest of the class reads the poem out loud.

Tomorrow’s tagline: Poems about animals in pairs

[You can still purchase your own copy of PoetryTagTime, an e-book with 30 poems, all connected, by 30 poets, all connected and downloadable right now at Amazon for your Kindle or Kindle app for your computer, iPad or phone. Just 99 cents. Don’t miss it.]

Image credit: Houghton Mifflin; PoetryTagTime

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell and students © 2011. All rights reserved.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER by Jane Yolen

Poetry Tag continues with a book review of a new book of poetry connected to yesterday's book review.

Today’s tagline: Poems about animals of the air

Featured Book: Yolen, Jane. 2011. Birds of a Feather. Ill. by Jason Stemple. Boyds Mills Press.

FYI: I'm reviewing this one myself, since we did not obtain a copy in time to share it with my students.

It's another in the developing collection of photo-nature-poetry picture books that Yolen has created, particularly focusing on BIRDS:

• Wild Wings: Poems for Young People (2002)
• Fine Feathered Friends: Poems for Young People (2004)
• An Egret’s Day (2010)

In her new anthology, she features 14 different birds including the eagle, chickadee, kingfisher, wood duck, great horned owl, tern, northern mockingbird, oystercatcher, eastern kingbird, hooded merganser, cedar waxwing, sandpiper, rufous-sided towhee, and marbled godwit-- what great names, right? These are almost as fun to say as dinosaur names! And Yolen's poems make good use of the sounds of the bird names, their unique attributes, and key vocabulary. In addition, she includes brief prose passages to accompany and parallel each poem. Plus, she includes several different poetic forms including haiku, free verse, rhyming quatrains, and even a question poem-- a nice variety to model poetry writing, too. Let's look at one poem and prose pair example:

Cedar Waxings Unmasked
by Jane Yolen

Who are these masked birds?
Not Robin Hoods,
for they live in
the open woods.
They only deal
in stolen goods
like berry futures,
cedar cones,
and sweet, sweet fruit
(but leave the stones).
Insects they catch
on the fly
when swarms of them
go buzzing by.
No need to worry,
moan, or fret.
Your valuables
they will
not
get.

(p. 26)

And the accompanying prose passage:

Cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum), with their rakish black masks, gather in large flocks to eat insects in the spring and berries and other fruit in the fall. They do not live in the deep woods, like Robin Hood but in the more open woodlands and nearby farms and orchards. (p. 27)

See how the two (poem and prose) work together? I like that!

And I must mention the photographs by Yolen's son, Jason Stemple, gorgeous in their close up capture of the birds in the wild (to scale in most instances, I'm guessing) and placed strategically against color blocks featuring the poem and prose paragraph. Well designed, accessible, and browse-worthy!

Connections
Sharing this book absolutely must include some birdwatching! Do a bit of group research about this worldwide hobby and about what kinds of birds might be present in your community at this time of year. Invite a "birder" to come talk to the kids. Learn a few bird calls, too!

Tomorrow’s tagline: Poems about gigantic animals

[You can still purchase your own copy of PoetryTagTime, an e-book with 30 poems, all connected, by 30 poets, all connected and downloadable right now at Amazon for your Kindle or Kindle app for your computer, iPad or phone. Just 99 cents. Don’t miss it.]

Image credit: BoydsMills Press;PoetryTagTime

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell and students © 2011. All rights reserved.

AT THE SEA FLOOR CAFE by Leslie Bulion

Poetry Tag continues with a book review of a new book of poetry connected to yesterday's book review.

Today’s tagline: Poems about animals of the sea

Guest Reviewer: Laura Jackson

Featured Book: Bulion, Leslie. 2011. At the Sea Floor Café; Odd Ocean Critter Poems. Atlanta: Peachtree. ISBN: 978-1- 56145-5652.

Laura writes: The ocean and its creatures have always been a fascination for humans. Explorers have only investigated a small per cent of the oceans, and human curiosity begs for more information. This compilation of poems by Leslie Bulion takes a look at the odd creatures that live under the sea. The eighteen poems explore fish, octopus, squid and other animals, focusing on the obscure and the different like the sea spiders and the coconut octopus. Next to each poem there is a paragraph or two giving interesting information about the creature in the poem. Some of the paragraphs include the pronunciation of the more scientific words which is helpful. The glossary in the back also helps readers understand words they may not have read before. The illustrations support the theme of ocean life, but they do little to reinforce the idea of the odd creatures. The typical drawings do support the idea of the critters described as being different or unique.

What makes this book special is its eclectic style. Each poem is told in a different way: a triolet (eight-lined poem with just two rhyming sounds), free verse, lyrics, and a cinquain. The different rhythms and designs give the reader a broad range of poetry to read and, in the case of beginner writers, to imitate. In the back of the book each poem’s style is explained which gives a young writer an idea of how to write a similar poem.

One of the poems that embodies the idea of the book (odd critters) with diverse poetry is “Dolphin Fashion,” a limerick.

A bottlenose counseled her daughter:
“Put this sponge on your beak underwater.
You can scare out more fish,
Poke sharp stones as you wish,
And your skin’ll stay smooth like it oughter”
(Bulion 19).

The additional paragraph explains how some dolphins near Australia have sponges on their noses. Researchers believe one mother started using the sponge to protect her nose while feeding on the ocean floor. Her babies imitated her, and a tradition began. The unique behavior of these dolphins is told lightheartedly in this limerick while exposing children to a new format for a poem.

Connections
To demonstrate how poetry can be fun, a teacher or librarian can use the poem “Upside Down and All-Around” which is about a snail. The words curve around in a circle, creating the image of a snail. After reading the poem and discussing how the set-up adds to the feel of the poem, students can pair up to write a poem about a favorite animal, twisting the words into the shape of the animal. Students who may not enjoy poetry may like putting the words into a shape, thus engaging them in poetry.



FYI: The publishers have launched a contest to promote this book. Here’s the deal:

***Poetry Drawing!***
Teachers: From March 21st to April 30th
Post your students' best springtime, ocean critter or your class's best poems this year on our Facebook page at Facebook. (You must have a Facebook account in order to post on our wall.)

Step 1: Look for Peachtree Publishers on Facebook
Step 2: Like us on Facebook.
Step 3: Find the Wall and look for the box to Share.
Step 4: Type your student's poem in the Share box and hit Enter to Post.

All poems should have a title and the type of poem in parenthesis. Ex: (cinquain, haiku, free verse...)

Also, please give the student's first name and grade level at the end of each poem. Ex: -John (3rd Grade).

All winners will be randomly drawn from all posted poems. Good Luck!
Tomorrow’s tagline: Poems about animals of the air

[You can still purchase your own copy of PoetryTagTime, an e-book with 30 poems, all connected, by 30 poets, all connected and downloadable right now at Amazon for your Kindle or Kindle app for your computer, iPad or phone. Just 99 cents. Don’t miss it.]

Image credit: Peachtree; PoetryTagTime

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell and students © 2011. All rights reserved.

WHAT’S FOR DINNER by Katherine Hauth

Poetry Tag continues with a book review of a new book of poetry connected to yesterday's book review.

Today’s tagline: Poems about animals and what they eat

Guest Reviewer: Latoya Williams

Featured Book: Hauth, Katherine B. 2011. What's for Dinner?: Quirky, Squirmy Poems from the Animal World. Ill. by David Clark. Massachusetts: Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-1570914713.

We have a new digital trailer for this book (and I reviewed it previously on Feb. 4, 2011)

Here’s Latoya’s book trailer.

Tomorrow’s tagline: Poems about animals of the sea

PoetryTagTime
I hope you'll also allow me to plug my new book again, PoetryTagTime, an e-book with 30 poems, by 30 poets, all connected and downloadable right now at Amazon for your Kindle or Kindle app for your computer, iPad or phone. Just 99 cents. Don’t miss it.

This collection of 30 new, unpublished connected poems range from the humorous to serious, about tongues, turtles and toenails, in acrostics, quatrains, and free verse written by 30 of our best children's poets. And the “connections” between poems as the poets voice how their poems are interconnected in this game of poetry tag adds another layer of fun and meaning. You'll be able to share brand-new poems and poetry tips with children all month long for pennies a day!

Even if you don’t own a Kindle, you can download the free Kindle app for a number of devices, including your Windows or Apple computer, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android-powered phone. Put the poems on your cell phone and you're ready with a "poem in your pocket," too!

Also, be sure to check out our web site (PoetryTagTime.com) and companion blog (PoetryTagTime.Blogspot) for strategies for sharing each of the 30 poems in the book, rolling out one per day throughout the month of April.

Poetry Friday
And don't forget to join the fun at the Poetry Friday gathering at Madigan Reads!


Image credit: PoetryTagTime;Charlesbridge


Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell and students © 2011. All rights reserved.

AROUND THE WORLD ON 80 LEGS by Amy Gibson

Poetry Tag continues with a book review of a new book of poetry connected to yesterday's book review.

Today’s tagline: More poems about all kinds of animals

Guest Reviewers: Mary Pharaoh and Melisa O’Rear

Featured Book: Gibson, Amy. 2011. Around the world on eighty legs: Animal poems. Ill. by Daniel Salmieri. New York: Scholastic. ISBN 9780439587556

Mary writes: Finally, after much technical difficulty...recorded and edited, added the images and loaded it to a faulty flash drive... twice... the camera battery died on me... this was a challenging assignment. I hope you like it. I am pretty proud of it. Here's my digital trailer.

Melisa writes: In Amy Gibson’s first book of poetry, she takes us skipping across the continents to explore five regions as we learn of the animal inhabitants, when added together, have a total of eighty legs. Gibson’s witty use of wordplay is impressive as she weaves bits of information about each animal throughout the short verses. The watercolor, gouache and colored-pencil illustrations by Daniel Salmieri continue the humor found throughout the brightly colored pages. In addition to the sixty poems featuring popular and lesser-known animals, there is a fantastic “Menagerie of Facts” located in the back. Here readers will find a list of animals in alphabetical order, a small picture of each animal along with one or two interesting facts. This would be a fun and entertaining book for young elementary age children. Here’s a sample poem:

Macaque
(muh-KAK)
by Amy Gibson

Most monkeys
like it hot, but not
the Japanese
macaque.
He lives in snow
where cold winds blow,
for fur runs
down his back.
But coats of fluff
are not enough
when winter is
a doozy.
And so he hurries
when it flurries
into the
Jacuzzi.

Connections
This 2011 poetry book is a great one for cross-curricular connections. I would use this book as an introduction for a science lesson on animals. Prior to beginning the research process on specific animals, this would allow students to see where many animals live as it cleverly categorizes the animals in their native habitats within geographic regions shown on the maps on the end pages. Sharing poems from the book might entice students to research animals that are lesser known. What a fun and fabulous way to broaden students’ learning. After students complete their research, have them write a poem about the animal they studied and display their poems in the library.

Tomorrow’s tagline: Poems about animals and what they eat

[And don’t forget to get your own copy of PoetryTagTime, an e-book with 30 poems, all connected, by 30 poets, and downloadable right now at Amazon for your Kindle or Kindle app for your computer, iPad or phone. Just 99 cents. Spread the word.]

Image credit: PoetryTagTime;AmyGibson

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell and students © 2011. All rights reserved.

What’s for Dinner?

New this week is a poetry book destined to be a sure-fire hit with both kids and science teachers! It's What’s for Dinner? Quirky, Squirmy Poems from the Animal World by new poet Katherine Hauth (published by Charlesbridge).

The organizing theme of the book is so appealing: which animals eat which animals (and plants) and how. Delve into more than two dozen animal examples told in short, generally free verse poems accompanied by clever cartoon portraits (by illustrator David Clark) that manage to be both helpful and zany. The collection is bookended by theme poems, “What’s for Dinner” and “Eating Words” with 29 clever, succinct, and highly visual poems in a variety of formats in between. The occasional consonance and rhyme are spot on and scan nicely and unexpected syncopations mix up the rhythms here and there to nice effect.

Seldom has the food chain received such red carpet poetical treatment with unexpected examples of the relationships between predator and prey. Consider the hawk couple whose courtship includes tossing a snake between them or the brown bat that forms a bowl by curving its tail to eat insects like popcorn. Some poems even reveal the connections between multiple participants in the “Food Chain”:















[BTW: This is NOT the illustration for this poem, but I needed to capture the alignment for the poem, so I resorted to making the slide above.]

Kids will love discovering how crows and wolves help each other eat, how slugs stop other creatures from eating them, four ways polar bears catch seals, and my personal favorite, how “hundreds of beetles and moths” live on the back of the sloth, jumping off his back “on the weekly occasion of Sloth’s defecation” to “lay their eggs on his dung/ with its sugar and starch/ that will nourish their young.” Then, they “jump back onto the back of the Sloth” for another week til the process is repeated. The poem ends, “Quite a menagerie,/feeding in harmony” an excellent summary for the entire book! The combination of true and fascinating facts, the focus on EATING, and occasional references to poop and its necessary place in the food chain are all sure to grab young readers.

As an added plus, teachers and librarians will be pleased to find that the poems are examples of symbiosis, mutualism, parasitism, and other science concepts, all briefly explained in a clear and helpful section, “More Words About the Poems.” Other useful backmatter includes an information-rich paragraph to accompany each poem in an extensive “More Words About the Animals,” plus a bibliography of “Where to Learn More About the Animals in This Book.”

As a former sixth grade teacher (where kids enjoy a bit of the macabre, especially based on fact), I would share a poem just before a snack or lunch break—kids would eat that up! :-) And they’ll definitely want to do more research to see “is that really true?” Follow up with more related poetry, such as:

• Bulion, Leslie. 2006. Hey There, Stink Bug! Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge.
• Florian, Douglas. 1998. Insectlopedia: Poems and Paintings. San Diego: Harcourt.
• Florian, Douglas. 1996. On the Wing: Bird Poems and Paintings. San Diego: Harcourt.
• George, Kristine O’Connell. 2004. Hummingbird Nest: A Journal of Poems. Orlando: Harcourt.
• Harley, Avis. 2001. Leap into Poetry: More ABCs of Poetry. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press.
• Lewis, J. Patrick, 1998. The Little Buggers. New York: Dial.
  
• Sidman, Joyce. 2006. Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
  
• Sidman, Joyce. 2005. Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems. Ill. By Beckie Prange. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Sidman, Joyce. 2010. Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature’s Survivors. Ill. by Becky Prange. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Singer, Marilyn. 1989. Turtle in July. New York: Macmillan.

P.S. I'm teaching my graduate course in poetry for children again this spring and one of my students is developing a digital trailer for this book-- which I hope to share soon. So stay tuned for more...

Don't forget to join the throng at Poetry Friday hosted by Dori Reads.

Image credit: 

Charlesbridge

Posting by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2011. All rights reserved.

Another p-trailer

Here's a clever "movie" trailer showcasing a poetry book. It features A Curious Collection of Cats by Betsy Franco (Tricycle Press, 2009) and incorporates music by Doris Day, voiceovers by children, and great cat images. Enjoy this creation by Diana Ellis, another awesome Texas librarian!

.

Posting (not project) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2010. All rights reserved.

Be thankful for poetry parties

It’s my last post to showcase our Dear One contest—inviting you to comment about your favorite NCTE Poetry Award winners and win a chance to receive a fee copy of the book of poems commissioned especially for poet and anthologist Lee Bennett Hopkins, the 2009 recipient of that award. In case you missed it, check out my postings from the last 5 days for more info on the award, Lee, and his tribute book. (And congrats to previous posters, Marilyn Hollinshead and Mary Lee Hahn who have won their very own free copies. Contact me please at svardell at twu dot edu.)



And while we’re celebrating his receiving the award at our fabulous Poetry Party at the NCTE conference on Nov. 20, I’ll plug a clever picture storybook all about performing poetry, Barnyard Slam by Dian Curtis Regan, illustrated in playful watercolor cartoons by Paul Meisel (Holiday House, 2009). For fans of Click Clack Moo (and all the sequels), here’s what happens when a barn full of talking animals get together to share poetry out loud at their very own Poetry Party. It’s full of groan-worthy puns, as well as heaps of dialogue that is perfect for readers theater performance. “Yo Mama” Goose is the host and Charley Horse, Bovina Cow, Hog, Duck, Lamb, and a reluctant Turkey all take their turns sharing riffs on classic poems and other nonsense. It’s sure to inspire classroom imitations with more kids creating more animal parodies or staging re-enactments of this animal slam.

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2009. All rights reserved.
Image credit: HolidayHouse

Capstone poetry

I feel like I must be the last person on the planet to discover that Capstone Press has a whole series of poetry books designed to feature subject matter content. Cool! I've long been a fan of linking poetry and nonfiction. Here's what I wrote in my book, Poetry Aloud Here,

"Pairing nonfiction and poetry may seem like an unlikely partnership at first, but these two different genres can complement one another by showing children how writers approach the same topic in very different and distinctive ways. In addition, children will see that you can learn a lot of information from BOTH a poem and a work of nonfiction.... Poems can also serve to initiate a topic or enrich and extend it. The length is less intimidating to children overwhelmed by longer prose and streams of new vocabulary. Although poetry may also present new words and concepts, this shorter appearance provides a motivating advantage.... Look for poetry anthologies organized by subject matter, when possible, since they help make the content connection obvious.

Poetry breaks across the curriculum can serve to:
• Jumpstart or introduce a lesson or topic
• Provide examples of terminology or concepts
• Provide a transition between activities
• Provide a stretching (poetry) break
• Provide closure
• Extend the topic further"

Capstone has collaborated with the up-and-coming poet Laura Purdie Salas to create an emerging series of poetry books that focus on a variety of appealing and curriculum-worthy topics for kids including these in 2009:

Always Got My Feet: Poems about Transportation
A Fuzzy-Fast Blur: Poems about Pets
Lettuce Introduce You: Poems about Food
and
Chatter, Sing, Roar, Buzz: Poems about the Rain Forest, the book I have in hand.

Two things grab you as soon as you open this picture book-- it's highly visual with full color, full page (sometimes double-page) photographs for every poem and secondly, the design showcases the poems equally effectively in a large, appealing font spread nicely across the page. Eye catching and easy to read. Add to that, the photos are well chosen and well matched to the poems (although the image focus could be a bit sharper IMO) and the poems manage to be both clearly descriptive and well written and representative of a variety of poetic forms.

This collection focuses on the rain forest with 16 poems about the wildlife, the landscape, the people, the crops, etc. It's teacher-friendly, while still having appeal for reading (and performing) out loud or sharing during poetry time-- as well as in science lessons. Kids will love reading about the stealth of the jaguar, the slow life of the sloth, the tired lemur and capybara mamas, the playfulness of chimps and bearded pigs, the "small can be powerful" message from the leaf-cutter ant, as well as encountering poison blue frogs and cuddly tent bats, among other topics. [Combine this book with Francisco X. Alarcón's Animals Poems of the Iguazú / Animalario del Iguazú (Children’s Book Press, 2008) for a double dose of rain forest perspectives.] The diversity of rain forests is enticingly introduced here-- I just wish they had included a map to locate the sites referenced in the poems. Overall, this example collection convinces me that Capstone and Laura are definitely on to something. Here's just a taste:

Treetop Scientist
by Laura Purdie Salas

My lab is high among the trees
I scramble up and down with ease
I climb to work, and this is why:
I'm doing science in the sky

Boots are sturdy, helmet's tough
I'm in the field, I'm living rough
I dangle free, enjoy the breeze
Because I'm high among the trees

Salas, Laura Purdie. 2009. Chatter, Sing, Roar, Buzz; Poems about the Rain Forest. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, p. 20.

Finally, I love how this book connects further with nonfiction by modeling the attributes of quality nonfiction in providing helpful backmatter: a section entitled "The Language of Poetry" that explains poetry terms and forms relevant in this collection (e.g., "diamonte"-- describing the form and noting which poems in this particular book are diamonte poems), a "Glossary" of unusual vocabulary found in the poems (e.g., "liana" [lee AHN uh]-- a thick vine of the rainforest), "Read More" with recommendations of related books, "Internet Sites" with a "Facthound" that will "fetch" the relevant sites from the Capstone site, an "Index of Poems," and in small print, photo credits and a note to parents, teachers, and librarians. I for one really appreciate the backmatter in books. These tools make the book even more versatile for a variety of purposes and audiences.

Each picture book is designed to be at a reading level for first-to-second graders. The Capstone brochure indicates the "interest level" at preK-2, but I would argue that these would be interesting to kids beyond second grade, too. That's the terrific thing about poetry, IMO, it is so much LESS age-bound than other genres, especially when you read a good poem aloud. Who can say what age a poem was intended for? It's for ME!

Capstone's backlist titles from this "A+ Series" include (from 2008):
And Then There Were Eight: Poems about Space
Do Buses Eat Kids?: Poems About School
Flashy, Clashy, and Oh-So-Splashy: Poems about Color
Seed Sower, Hat Thrower: Poems about Weather
Shrinking Days, Frosty Nights: Poems about Fall
Tiny Dreams, Sprouting Tall: Poems about the United States

I want to look for these titles next, don't you?

FYI: Laura blogged about the writing process for these 10 poetry collections. Check it out!

Join the rest of the Poetry Friday gathering hosted by Andromeda Jazmon today at A Wrung Sponge.

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

Image credit: search.barnesandnoble.com

Wild Animals from Britain

One of my favorite things about blogging has been the opportunity to connect with fellow poetry lovers and poets so easily. (Thanks, readers!) Recently, this has been particularly true on an international scale—as I “meet” people who live in other countries from Canada to New Zealand and beyond.

Graham Denton is one wonderful example. I have really come to appreciate this poet and anthologist’s work as well as his enthusiasm for young people and their poetry. I’ve just read his latest book, Wild! Rhymes That Roar, co-edited with poet James Carter, published this spring. It’s a fun, handy paperback anthology of animal poems by a great variety of British poets (and at least 2 Americans!) who are probably household names across the ocean. (You know how I enjoy discovering new poets and poets-new-to-me!)

The poets in this anthology include editors James Carter and Graham Denton as well as June Crebbin, Gerard Benson, Judith Nicholls, Joan Poulson, Marian Swinger, Libby Houston, Sue Cowling, Eric Finney, Tony Mitton, Pie Corbett, Robert Scotellaro, Coral Rumble, Nick Toczek, Ann Bonner, Moira Andrew, David Harmer, Patricia Leighton, Roger Stevens, Mary Green, Gina Douthwaite, Jan Dean, Celia Gentles, Cynthia Rider, Mike Johnson, Matt Simpson, Clare Bevan, John Rice, Carol Coiffait, Kate Williams, Wes Magee, Jean Kenward, and our very own Rebecca Kai Dotlich and Jack Prelutsky.

There are about 60 poems in 6 categories, including:

• Green Things
• Minibeasts
• Amazing Mammals
• Winged Things
• Wild ‘n’ Wet
• Reptiles and Amphibians

The poetry runs the gamut from silly to serious in short, descriptive rhymes that are ideal for reading aloud. There’s even a nice variety of forms including several concrete or shape poems, LOTS of haiku, and PLENTY of rhyming poems. I also enjoyed the Britishisms sprinkled throughout the poetry like “colour,” “pyjamas,” and “Mum” as well as references to “hedgerows” and less familiar trees and such. I think kids will have fun encountering these bits in the poem’s contexts, too.

The animals depicted also reflect appealing diversity from the exotic eel, oyster, axolotl, lobster, crocodile, komodo dragon to the more typical bear, monkey, elephant, bee, mosquito, cockroach, crow, and spider. Playful pen and ink sketches accompany some of the poems, but kids will certainly enjoy researching more images and information about many of these animals—and drawing their own pictures to go with the poems. With a rockin’ hamster (or guinea pig?) on a psychedelic red-yellow-blue starburst cover, it has immediate visual appeal that is matched by the potpourri of poetry inside. Here’s just one sampling from poet and co-anthologist, Graham Denton himself.

Mynah Problems
by Graham Denton

The mynah bird
has quite a gimmick-
you’ll find that there’s
no finer mimic.
I’ve heard, if taught,
one of these birds
can learn up to
a hundred words.
But, as it mocks the
things it hears,
be careful what goes
in its ears;
a mynah’s quick
to pick up speech
you likely didn’t
mean to teach,
which they then go
about repeating…
and make you wish they’d
stick to tweeting.

Carter, James and Denton, Graham. 2009. Wild! Rhymes That Roar. Ill. by Jane Eccles. London: Macmillan, p. 52.

Image credit: www.jamescarterpoet.co.uk

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

Stampede to School Poetry

I’m a big, big fan of poetry about school. I’ve found that the topic is nearly irresistible to kids and that makes sense, since school is the “workplace” of childhood and they spend most of their waking hours there. So, I’m happy to announce there is a wonderful new addition to the school poetry oeuvre, Laura Purdie Salas’s Stampede, Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School, illustrated by Steven Salerno.

This is a large, riotous picture book collection of 18 poems, most appearing on vibrant double-page spreads with spot-on emotional truths for young children—such as the fear of getting lost, feeling too ugly for school pictures, too scared to answer questions, too angry for words, or being embarrassed in front of the class. There are also several energetic and playful poems that take us to the playground, the cafeteria, the jungle gym, the mud puddle, and home. It’s a satisfying whole worth reading and rereading aloud and LOUD.

Added to all this is the unique wrinkle that Salas brings to personifying the kid characters in each poem. Each is given an animal persona, as child-bees swarm, child-hogs stomp in mud, child-ducklings stay in line, and child-elephants stampede away. So clever and apt! Steven Salerno’s exuberant colors and caricatures take these characters and provide dynamic energy and humor.

Our very youngest listeners will enjoy guessing the animal and hearing the poem; while older readers will certainly want to create more kid caricatures incorporating animal attributes alongside child activities. A running gazelle-child? An ambling, book-absorbed snail-child? A distractible moth-child? This clever juxtaposition of child behaviors and animal attributes is a thoroughly engaging premise in every poem and a terrific springboard for drawing, pantomiming, word-coining, and more poetry writing.

Here’s my favorite since it captures a recurring dream that I have (and I think I share with many others).

New Mouse
by Laura Purdie Salas

Go left, then right.
Wrong turns, dead ends.
Can’t find my class.
I’ve got no friends.

Each hallway is
a hallway clone.
Can’t find my way
around alone.

A thousand halls,
a thousand ways,
I’m lost inside
this new-school maze.

Salas, Laura Purdie. 2009. Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School! Ill. by Steven Salerno. New York: Clarion, p. 4-5.

Isn’t that combination of mouse in a maze with feeling lost in a new school just perfect? Every way you turn, there’s an unfamiliar door or hallway and you feel like a helpless mouse lost in a maze! This one works with echo reading, where kids repeat each line, as you read each line, one at a time. Try accelerating the pace as you move toward the end of the poem for added frantic effect!

Salas experiments with a variety of forms and rhythms, ALL strong on regular rhyme schemes, although with creative word placements. She even includes a rhyming acrostic poem (D U C K L I N G S) that kids will enjoy and will enjoy imitating. Each poem begs for a dynamic read aloud and is ideal for choral reading in various groupings. Read them through once and I’m sure kids will suggest their own performance strategies. The poems are so rich in rhyme and rhythm, as well as visual and kinesthetic details, that performing them will happen naturally!

I’ve featured school poems and lists of school poetry books before (so feel free to search previous postings via the “school” label), and I think this is a fresh and unique addition to that body of work. Laura also held a virtual launch party for Stampede on Facebook-- which was a first for me-- and still has info there, FYI. And just to whet your appetite: Laura has written a totally wonderful new, unpublished school poem that will appear alongside my “Everyday Poetry” column in Book Links in September. Thank you, Laura!

Image credit: www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com

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

Earth Day poetry

Today is Earth Day, so I thought it would be appropriate to consider a collection of poetry that celebrates the earth and its creatures. It’s not hard to do, since so many poets have chosen this topic over the years. Poetry for children, in particular, celebrates the animal world over and over again.

One new poetry book worth sharing is Deborah Ruddell’s picture book poem collection, A Whiff of Pine, A Hint of Skunk, illustrated by Joan Rankin. It’s a playful look at the forest and its wildlife through the seasons of the year in 22 poems that run the gamut from light and punny to thoughtful and contemplative. A helpful table of contents lays it all out, from the opening, “Eau de Forest: A Woodsy Cologne” to “Woodchuck’s Wake-up Morning.” Many are from the point of view of the animal—an instant mini-lesson for young people—and the sense of SMELL (“a hint of skunk!”) is almost pungent throughout, another great opportunity to guide kids in sensory description.

The illustrations by South African artist Joan Rankin bring the book to life beginning with the end pages showing ALL the creatures from the poems gathered in a forest setting. Kids will love checking the scene for each animal before or after reading the poetry. The watercolor scenes are strategically positioned on each page and reflect a pleasing assortment of size and placement that adds visual variety. She also manages to add a lightness to the overall tone of the book, particularly in the facial expressions of the animals (and children) pictured.

The collection is strong on visual appeal, as well as in regular rhyme and inviting imagery. The poems lend themselves nicely to reading aloud and choral reading, too. Here’s just one sample poem. Three groups (or 3 pairs or 3 volunteers) could present this poem with each group reading two lines in succession. Group 1 reads the first two lines, Group 2 reads the third and fourth lines, and Group 3 reads the final two lines. Try it!

Spring Welcome
by Deborah Ruddell

A million arms in woody sleeves
wave a zillion brand-new leaves,
inviting wrens to be their guests,
the orioles to build their nests,
and calling all the chickadees
to stay and raise their families.

Ruddell, Deborah. 2009. A Whiff of Pine, A Hint of Skunk. Illustrated by Joan Rankin. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Check out Deborah’s Web site for more info, particularly for audio clips of poems from her last book, Today at the Bluebird Café, available for download. They’re particularly fun since they’re read aloud in children’s voices—by two of her granddaughters!

For another look at the seasons of the year through animals and wildlife, look for one of my all-time favorite poetry collections by Marilyn Singer, Turtle in July, illustrated by the incomparable Jerry Pinkney (Macmillan, 1989). Invite the kids to gather or write their own “calendar” of animal and nature poems to reflect their own eco-setting.

Here are just a handful of other collections of nature-themed poetry:
*Bruchac, Joseph. 1995. The Earth Under Sky Bear's Feet: Native American Poems of the Land. New York: Philomel Books.
*Brenner, Barbara. 1994. The Earth is Painted Green: A Garden of Poems about Our Planet. New York: Scholastic.
*Nicholls, Judith. 2003. The Sun in Me: Poems About the Planet. Barefoot Books.
*Yolen, Jane. 2000. Color Me a Rhyme: Nature Poems for Young People. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.

Image credit: books.simonandschuster.com

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

Dinothesaurus by Douglas Florian

Dinothesaurus is getting reviewed everywhere (4 stars, so far!) because… well, because it’s by Douglas Florian and because IT’S ABOUT DINOSAURS! But it also happens to be truly terrific. First of all, the whole idea of poetry about dinosaur NAMES is so dead-on perfect (hurray Mike Shoulders!). Even kids who are not dinosaur fanatics, love the long, crazy, complicated names for dinosaurs. So, we end up with a great book about dinosaurs, as well as a fun book of wordplay poetry. (Even the bookflap blurb is a dinosaur poem!)

You learn about 18 different dinosaurs in 18 double-page spreads because Florian is so gifted at injecting facts into his fun and pun-filled poems, including a pronunciation guide for each dinosaur name, along with the name’s meaning. And there are unexpected dino-choices like the troodon, minim, and micropachycephalosaurus—see what I mean about those tongue-pleasing names? Opening and closing poems provide bookend context about dinosaur eras and possible causes for their demise.

One of my favorite components is the backmatter in this book, including the “Glossarysaurus” with an additional expository paragraph to accompany each poem, an annotated list of “Dinosaur Museums and Fossil Sites” and a “Selected Bibliography and Further Reading” list. These are usually features of a nonfiction book, so I am tickled to see these features in a (fact-filled) poetry book.

Florian’s poems are so rhythmic and regular that they are perfect for performing chorally with various groupings of kids. Here’s one example that is fun for echo reading. YOU read the first line, the kids echo the line, you read the next, they echo, line-by-line—an excellent strategy to use with young kids, non-readers, and English learners. Try it. It almost sounds like a chant or a yell for the playground.

Stegosaurus
steg-oh-SAW-rus (roof lizard)
by Douglas Florian

Ste-go-SAUR-us
Her-bi-VOR-ous
Dined on plants inside the forest.
Bony plates grew on its back,
Perhaps to guard it from attack.
Or to help identify
A Stegosaurus girl or guy.
Its brain was smaller than a plum.
Stegosaurus was quite DUMB.

Florian, Douglas. 2009. Dinothesaurus. New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 5.

And of course with Douglas Florian we get a double whammy with art that is distinctive and stands on its own (two or four) feet! (My “Everyday Poetry” column for Book Links magazine in July is about poets who are artists, namely DF!) He employs a wonderful variety of media, including watercolor, crayon, cut paper collage, and rubber stamps (and I am a rubber stamp FREAK, so I love that!). This combination of materials creates layered, textured illustrations that bear poring over for fun and tiny details. Kids may enjoy trying their own dino-collages to match.

For more details, check Florian’s own awesome blog, FlorianCafe.

Image credit: www.simonandschuster.net

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

TLA poet Betsy Franco: Curious Cats

Today is the day for the fifth annual Poetry Round Up at the annual convention of the Texas Library Association. This year, we’re featuring Georgia Heard, Betsy Franco, J. Patrick Lewis, Hope Anita Smith, and Tracie Vaughn Zimmer. I’ll be posting reviews of each of their new books bit by bit. Can you believe they ALL have new poetry books coming out this year? That’s a good sign!

Today I’m featuring the highly energetic Betsy Franco. She has had an impressive array of new books coming out over the last several years. This time, I’d like to focus on A Curious Collection of Cats, illustrated by Michael Wertz, an amazing debut for this illustrator-to-watch.

A Curious Collection of Cats features shape or concrete or visual poems that arrange the words in ways that suggest the poem’s subject. In this case, the subject is cats, in all their glory and foibles. I love how Franco grounds the poems in tiny details that ring true—like using cat names that are clearly based in personal history, such as Q-Tip, Prickles, Miss Book, Suki, and Binky. Kids will love that she included hairballs and cat pee, too, of course. :-)

Each page + poem is almost a stand alone mini-poster. Wertz’s art and design make the poems pop and his very graphic approach suggests retro 1960’s silk screen art in drenched pinks, blues, purples, and oranges.

In this case, however, I would argue that the poems also work on their own independently. Franco includes haiku, limericks, free verse, and rhyme—an impressive variety of poetic forms injected into the concrete poem context. The poetry is beautifully amplified and visualized by the amazing art—graphic and bold—showcasing both the poem and the cat attributes contained in the poem.

The poems even lend themselves to being read aloud—which is not always true of concrete poetry—and kids will surely want to share their own cat stories, or cut out cat shapes or create simple cat puppets to manipulate and accompany the reading aloud.

Here’s a fun sample poem that’s perfect for e-sharing:

TECHNO CAT
by Betsy Franco

SEND TO: TECHNO_CAT@CATMAIL.COM
FROM: ME@CATMAIL.COM

WHEN WRITING FRIENDS AN EMAIL
I SOMETIMES &p*&%>$# HAVE A FIT
IF MITCHELL WALKS ACROSS THE KEYS
k:j<$% AND ADDS A NOTE
vpq#peifgu3gy TO IT!

Franco, Betsy. 2009. A Curious Collection of Cats. Ill. by Michael Wertz. San Francisco, CA: Tricycle Press.

Pair this with Joan Bransfield Graham’s collections of shape or concrete poetry, also illustrated in bold, graphic art:
Graham, Joan Bransfield. 1994. Splish Splash. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Graham, Joan Bransfield. 1999. Flicker Flash. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

And for the cat lover, here are more cat poem collections:
Poetry Books about Cats
Crawley, Dave. 2005. Cat Poems. Honesdale, PaA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.
Creech, Sharon. 2008. Hate that Cat. New York: HarperCollins.
Lach, William. Ed. 1999. Curious Cats: in Art and Poetry for Children. 1999. New York: Atheneum Books.
Demi, comp. 1994. In the Eyes of the Cat: Japanese Poetry for All Seasons. Translated by Tze-Si Huang. New York: Henry Holt.
Farjeon, Eleanor. 1996. Cats Sleep Anywhere. New York: HarperCollins.
Field, Eugene. 1990. The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat. New York: Philomel.
Florian, Douglas. 2003. Bow Wow Meow Meow: It’s Rhyming Cats and Dogs. San Diego: Harcourt Brace.
Ghigna, Charles. 1992. Good Cats/Bad Cats. Ill. by David Catrow. New York: Hyperion.
Grindol, Diane. 2008. Catku: Cat Haiku Poems. CreateSpace.
Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ed. 1981. I am the Cat. New York: HarperCollins.
Isaacs, Anne. 1998. Cat up a Tree. Ill. by Stephen Mackey. New York: Dutton.
Kirk, Daniel. 2007. Cat Power. New York: Hyperion.
Kuskin, Karla. 2005. Toots the Cat. New York: Henry Holt.
Lear, Edward. 2007. The Owl and the Pussycat. Toronto: Kids Can Press. (There are MANY picture book versions of this poem.)
Leopold, Nikki Clark. 2002. K is for Kitten. New York: Putnam.
Livingston, Myra Cohn. 1994. Cat Poems. Ill. by Trina Schart Hyman. New York: Dutton.
Phinn, Gervase. 2002. Our Cat Cuddles. Swindon: Child’s Play.
Prelutsky, Jack. 2004. If Not for the Cat: Haiku. New York: Greenwillow.
Shertle, Alice. 1999. I am the Cat. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard.
Sidman, Joyce. 2006. Meow Ruff. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Tiller, Ruth. 1995. Cats Vanish Slowly. Atlanta: Peachtree.
Turner, Nancy Byrd. 2000. When it Rained Cats and Dogs. Marshfield Hills, MA: Meadow Geese Press.
Walsh, Caroline. 1996. The Little Book of Cats. New York: Kingfisher.
Yolen, Jane. 1993. Raining Cats and Dogs. San Diego: Harcourt Brace.

FYI: Betsy was a delightful presenter today and our TLA poetry panel was a big success with over 100 people in the audience, by my count. Betsy shared cat poems and math poems and selections from her new cumulative "pond" poem-- all well received and delivered with spirit and humor! Thank you, Betsy (and Pat, and Tracie, and Georgia, and Hope Anita)! More details to come...

Image credit: www.schoollibraryjournal.com

Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award + Love

I have exciting news to share—another award announcement, but this time it’s a POETRY award! The Pennsylvania Center for the Book, the University Libraries, and the Pennsylvania School Librarians' Association are pleased to announce the winner of the 2009 LEE BENNETT HOPKINS POETRY AWARD as well as the honor award winners.

This year celebrates the l5th Anniversary of the Award...the first of its kind for poetry in the history of children's literature. The Award comes with a $1,000 cash gift from Mr. Hopkins.

2009 WINNER
Diamond Willow by Helen Frost (Frances Foster Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

2009 HONOR BOOKS
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle (Henry Holt & Company)
Stitchin' and Pullin': A Gee's Bend Quilt by Patricia McKissack, illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera (Random House)

Congratulations to each of these wonderful poets! And in honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s another gem from Diamond Willow, a LOVE poem…






















Diamond Willow was one of my favorite books of the year and I wrote about it previously on May 16, and a week later, May 23, I reviewed The Surrender Tree, another favorite. I didn’t get Stitchin’ and Pullin’ til late in the year, thus a sad omission on my part because it's also a wonderful book.]

Join the Poetry Friday crew at Big A Little A-- thank you, Kelly!

Image credit: www.smartertravel.com

New Review: ANIMAL POEMS by Alarcón

I’m a big fan of Francisco X. Alarcón’s work—I love his succint language, in Spanish AND English, and the picture book format for his poetry that includes vivid and colorful mural-like illustrations. His latest is a wonderful addition, particularly for teachers and librarians who often feature ANIMAL poetry in their curricular units. His new book, Animal Poems of the Iguazú / Animalario del Iguazú published by Children’s Book Press, and illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez, is a bilingual poetry collection about the flora and fauna of the Iguazú rainforest and national park in South America.

When he read from the collection at this summer’s ALSC Poetry Blast (held in June at the ALA convention) he said the poems were based on his travels to a rainforest in South America where he “interviewed” the animals. Most of the 25 poems are in the persona of the subject, “following the Amerindian tradition… the animals of the Iguazú speak for themselves,” including the toucan, parrot, hummingbird, swift, lizard, mosquito, giant ant, monkey, turtle, and the falls and jungle themselves. Here’s my favorite poem (in Spanish and English) that reflects the very heart of the collection and the rainforest itself.

Jaguareté (Jaguar)
by Francisco X. Alarcón

dicen que ahora
estoy casi extinto
por este parque

pero la gente
que dice esto
no sabe

que al oler
las orquídeas
en los árboles

están percibiendo
la fragancia
de mis fauces

que al oír
el retumbo
de los saltos

están escuchando
el gran rugido
de mis ancestros

que al observar
las constelanciones
del firmamento

están mirando
las motas de estrellas
marcadas en mi piel

que yo soy
y siempre seré
el indomable

espíritu silvestre
vivo de esta
jungla

p. 18

Jaguareté (Jaguar)
by Francisco X. Alarcón

some say
I’m now almost
extinct in this park

but the people
who say this
don’t know

that by smelling
the orchids
in the trees

they’re sensing
the fragrance
of my chops

that by hearing
the rumbling
of the waterfalls

they’re listening
to my ancestors’
great roar

that by observing
the constellations
of the night sky

they’re gazing
at the star spots
on my fur

that I am and
always will be
the wild

untamed
living spirit
of this jungle

p. 19

Alarcón, Francisco X. 2008. Animals Poems of the Iguazú / Animalario del Iguazú. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.

Animal Poems is illustrated with mixed media art by Maya Christina Gonzalez, a 2008 Pura Belpré illustrator honor winner, in BOLD, vivid colors of thick deep green, turquoise and orange on thick pages of 100% recycled paper. It also includes a brief introduction and concluding information section. And for more information on Alarcón and his work, allow me to plug my book, Poetry People.

For more Poetry Friday connections, go to Biblio File.

Picture credit: www.deepdiscount.com