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Maybe you've heard that Lee Bennett Hopkins, gifted poet and anthologist, was officially awarded NCTE's Excellence in Poetry for Children Award the weekend before Thanksgiving? I couldn't attend the Philadelphia conference because I was in Atlanta for a joyful family wedding, and it sounds like I missed a fantastic event. You can read Sylvia Vardell's post about it here.

Sylvia and poet Janet Wong did some anthologizing themselves, inviting children's poets (especially any who have worked with Lee) to submit a poem for a book in his honor. I was honored to be asked...and intimidated, too. I heard Harry Connick Jr. on the Graham Norton show talking about how he was so nervous performing at Frank Sinatra's 75th birthday party that he forgot the words. That's kind of how I felt. How do you write a poem for an iconic poet?

But over at The Miss Rumphius Effect, I had just done a few recipe poems for that week's Poetry Stretch. So I decided to do one for this anthology, too.

By the way, you still have a chance to win a copy of this anthology, Dear One, with everyone's tribute poems in it by visiting Sylvia's blog right now and leaving a comment!


Recipe for a Poetry Book

Last week Poetry Friday passed me by entirely as I attempted to plan for the next 3 months, during which I will be writing (not entirely by myself) an approximately 200-page charter school application--all in a revolving series of poetic forms, beginning with the following limerick:

AMAZING FACES, anth. by Lee Bennett Hopkins, ill. by Chris Soentpiet (Lee & Low 2010). In this lovely picture book anthology, Hopkins brings together sixteen poets and poems about brief flashes of time and instantaneous emotions resulting therefrom. Soentpiet's elegant illustrations evoke the feelings of the poems via environmental detail and the expressions on the people's faces.

The collection includes poems by Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Kam Mak, Carole Boston Weatherford, Jane Medina, Nikki Grimes, Jude Mandell, Jane Yolen, Tom Robert Shields, Pat Mora, Janet S. Wong, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Prince Redcloud, Mary E. Cronin, Joeseph Bruchac, J. Patrick Lewis, and Langston Hughes.

Sharing the Seasons: A Book of Poems
Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Illustrated by David Diaz
Margaret K. McElderry Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
$21.99
ISBN: 978-1-4169-0210-4
Ages 8-12
On shelves now

Yesterday I was frustrated. Very very frustrated. I’m a children’s librarian. Patrons tell me what they desire and I find just the right book for the right occasion. Recently a fellow walked into my children’s room with a simple request. He was going to read to a group of preschoolers and he wanted easy books on the seasons. This is one of those seemingly simple requests that can make your mind go blank faster than anything. After gaping like a fish for approximately a minute my brain started churning up a couple potential goodies from the depths. One such book was Sharing the Seasons: A Book of Poems. I figured that even if the kids were too young to hear all the poems, at least they’d like to hear some of them, and maybe get a little knocked out by the images. Alas, our copy was missing (grumble grumble grump) but at least I was able to conjure up a copy of Old Bear by Kevin Henkes instead. Just the same, I’ll be replacing our missing copy of Seasons and pronto. Here we have some of the finest minds working in children’s poetry today, selected for this magnificent collection of seasonal verse. It’s just the thing to welcome in a new time of year and say goodbye to the old. And the pretty pictures don’t hurt much either.

Four seasons. Twelve poems apiece. In this way, poet Lee Bennett Hopkins has culled a wide selection of poets and their poems, weaving their verses into a single book. Quotes from famous sources begin each season, as when we read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s lusty “Spring in the world! And all things are made new!” With great care and timing, a passel of poets tap into those elements in each season that speaks both to child and adult readers. “Suddenly Green” by James Hayford says that “Our trees have grown skin / And birds have moved in.” Meanwhile Rebecca Kai Dotlich admits that she is “Bewitched by Autumn”, conjuring up Halloween with its “bits of legend in a broth”. By the end, every season has had its say, the last by Sanderson Vanderbilt tying it all together, speaking of the boy who shovels the dirty snow, “helping spring come.” Backmatter includes Acknowledgments, an Index of Titles, and Index of Authors, and an Index of First Lines,

I think I got my copy of this book after a different reviewer. I say this because inside my copy was a note with individual poems listed, one by one. Poems like “August Heat” by Anonymous and “Summer Sun” by Elizabeth Upton. I’m not entirely certain what these poems have in common except that each one presents a pitch perfect tone to the season in question. But then, all the poems do that. In some kids will recognize the truth of what the poem says as when Rebecca Kai Dotlich writes that a wild rainstorm is “proud as a prank”. Othe

Lee & Me at NCTE

Is there anyone in the world of children’s poetry whom you consider to be your mentor?
Langston Hughes and Carl Sandburg were my silent mentors. Their work spoke to me loudly and clearly.

You’ve included the work of many “new” poets in your anthologies. How do you learn out about the poetry of writers whose work is not well-known?
Many ‘young’ poets seek me out. It’s not hard to find one these days!

When you were a teacher, you first began using poetry as an aid in the teaching of reading. Is that the reason you’ve compiled a series of I Can Read Poetry books for young children?
No. I began the I Can Read Poetry Series because I felt there was a need for such work nationwide.

What advice would you give to educators about how to approach the teaching of poetry in the classroom?
I’ve written extensively on this subject, particularly in my professional book, Pass the Poetry, Please! (HarperCollins).

I learned so much about poetry from reading Myra Cohn Livingston’s book Poem-Making: Ways to Begin Writing Poetry. Unfortunately, it is now out of print. Are there other books that you’d recommend to teachers as excellent poetry-writing resources?
I highly recommend Sylvia M. Vardell’s Poetry People: A Practical G