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Welcome
Add your name to the birthday chart.
Look--on Wednesdays we have Art.
Choose three books for your reading box.
Let's all get ready 'cause Second Grade Rocks!
Not my very best little ditty, but it conveys the message: I am no longer a kindergarten teacher. I loved kindergarten and I'm sorry to leave it...but now that it's real and the room is set up (just about) I'm getting excited about 2nd grade. The one thing I'm really grieving is that first-day-of-school
Swimmy-Makes-us-Mighty-Minnows tradition. I have some of the same kids I taught, and they are bigger and more grown up. I don't think they want to be Minnows any more.
So, I'm starting the year with
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble instead, because we have some rocks-and-soil science in the first few weeks to connect to, and we'll also be reading and working with
Roxaboxen and
If You Find a Rock, books I adore. But I haven't figured out yet what we will become as a group. "Magic Pebbles" doesn't capture the characteristics I want to emphasize, and "Mighty Magnets" is a bit of a stretch....I'm hoping it will come to me over the weekend, but if you have any suggestions, PoFolks, I'd welcome them.
The round-up today is hosted by Sylvester I mean Sylvia Vardel at
Poetry For Children--enjoy the welcome there too, from Sylvia and my geographic neighbor Linda Kulp!
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 4/17/2015
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Howdy, Campers! Happy Poetry Friday! (the PF link is at the end)
Authors-anthologists-publishers Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell have written an article well-worth reading (it's brief!) for National Poetry Month in the online magazine Bookology which begins:
"We are pressed for time, so we multitask. You might be eating breakfast while you’re reading Bookology, or doing laundry, or both. “Killing two birds with one stone” or “hatching two birds from the same egg”—integrated teaching—is the best way to fit everything in, especially in the K-5 classroom." (read the whole article
here)
Janet and Sylvia's
Poetry Friday Anthology series does a LOT of heavy lifting including:
1) helping pressed-for-time teachers and librarians teach poetry while meeting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and the Texas TEKS for English Language Arts (ELA)/Poetry and Science & Technology,
and
2) including a “Take 5!” mini-lesson with every poem in their collection for librarians, teachers, and parents with instructions for sharing, picture book pairings, and curriculum connections.
And in their NEW collection Janet and Sylvia have added another bonus
: each of the 156 poems in this newest book appears in both English and Spanish--WOWEE!JoAnne's recent post sang out about this book (which includes JoAnne's terrific Graduation Day poem), and
Esther's post continued, including
an interview of these two visionaries and Esther's very
green Saint Pat's Day poem.
As JoAnne writes:
I’m thrilled to be one of 115 poets (and 3 Teaching Authors!) whose poems are featured in the brand-new Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations! I'm thrilled that they've included two of my poems. This one's for National Thrift Shop Day (who knew?)
(Click to enlarge )
Have a fabulous Poetry Friday...and consider donating to a thrift shop today and then shopping in one, too ~
Remember to enter our
Book Giveaway to win an autographed copy of Paul Janeczko’s 50th book, DEATH OF A HAT, illustrated by Chris Raschka. You can enter between now and April 22 (which just happens to be our SIXTH
TeachingAuthors Blogiversary!).
And...please stop by
my poetry blog where all Poetry Month long I'm posting PPPs--Previously Published Poems--from anthologies, Cricket Magazine and
my novel in poems.
Yippee! I’m thrilled to be one of 115 poets (and 3 Teaching Authors!) whose poems are featured in the brand-new Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations! Each of the 156 poems appears in both English and Spanish.
Here’s mine! (Click to enlarge if your eyesight is like mine!)
The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations is the newest in a series of Poetry Friday anthologies compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. Watch this space for more details and poems by
Teaching Authors April Halprin Wayland and Esther Hershenhorn.
Look for more Poetry Celebrations fun at
PoetryCelebrations.com. Then you can order your own copy of
The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations from
Pomelo Books.
Don’t forget to
enter our Book Giveaway for an autographed copy of Paul B. Janeczko’s
The Death of the Hat: A Brief History of Poetry in 50 Objects, illustrated by Chris Raschka. You can also read about
Paul’s approach to writing poetry with young writers.
For
National Poetry Month, I’m posting a haiku each day on
Facebook and Twitter (@JoAnnEMacken). As soon as I catch my breath, I’ll gather them all up on
my blog.
Our friend Laura Purdie Salas is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup today at
Writing the World for Kids. And Jama Kim Rattigan has a
2015 National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events Roundup. Hooray! Celebrate! Enjoy!
JoAnn Early Macken
I so enjoyed April Halprin Wayland's interview with Paul B. Janeczko! Thank you, April!
And congratulations to Jone M, who won IN DEFENSE OF READ-ALOUD!
Continuing our celebration of poetry, here's another of my favorite poets.
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| morguefile.com |
Cynthia Cotten is a gentle writer. Her poetry sparkles like the water on a creek chanced upon during an early morning walk. Very gentle and soothing, and unexpected. Cynthia’s poetry, like all good poetry, is an emotional exchange. The language of the poem, as Mary Oliver taught us, is the language of the particulars. And Cynthia’s language incorporates images that are at once tender and sensuous. Her rhythm twinkles, as in her
Night Light, and sometimes the rhythm pops like a good smirk, as in her
Ack!
But sometimes, just like that early morning creek, Cynthia's poems sends shivers up our spine, as in her poem,
Missing.
Night Light Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
I know what you really are:
a blinking bug in flickering flight,
lighting up my yard tonight,
in the treetops, near the ground,
winking, flashing all around.
I watch you and I'm mystified--
how did you get that bulb inside?
(from Switching on the Moon: A Very First Book of Bedtime Poems, collected by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters. Illustrated by G.Brian Karras. Candlewick Press, 2010)
ACK! I always know just what to say.
The perfect words are there--
words that render others speechless,
uttered with such flair.
My comments are insightful,
my wit is unsurpassed.
Oh, yes, I know just what to say--
too bad the moment's passed.
(
from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School - compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. Pomelo Books, 2013)
Missing My brother is a soldier
in a hot, dry
sandy place.
He's missing--
missing things like
baseball, barbecues,
fishing, French fries,
chocolate sodas,
flame-red maple trees,
blue jays,
and snow.
I'm missing, too--
missing
his read-out-loud voice,
his super-special
banana pancakes,
his scuffed-up shoes
by the back door,
his big-bear
good night
hug.
There are people
with guns
in that land of sand
who want to shoot
my brother.
I hope
they miss him,
too.
(
from America at War - Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins. Illustrated by Stephen Alcorn. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2008)
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morguefile.com
|
“Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields...Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.” -- Mary Oliver And don't forget our giveaway! Enter here to win an autographed copy of Paul's newest anthology, his 50th book, Death of a Hat, illustrated by Chris Raschka. You can enter between now and 4/22/15 (which just happens to be TeachingAuthors' 5th Blogiversary!)Bobbi Miller
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 2/20/2015
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Howdy, Campers, and Happy Poetry Friday! (the link to this week's PF host is below.)
First: welcome, welcome to our newest TeachingAuthor, Carla! I am in awe of your writer's journey, Carla, because when I learned that we would be discussing non-fiction, my legs trembled and my palms grew cold and damp. Unlike you and Mary Ann, in her wonderful first salvo on this topic, I am not, by nature, a researcher. I am NOT a "Just the facts, M'am."
 |
| Jack Webb as Joe Friday in Dragnet, from Wikipedia |
But... is this really true?
Well...I DO tell my
students that real details bring fiction to life, and have them listen to the following
short audioclip from StoryCorps. Talk about bringing a subject to life! The details Laura Greenberg shares with her daughter are priceless--not to mention hilarious.
Still, I struggled to write poems for
The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science (
Pomelo Books). By "struggled" I mean I read science articles and wrote tons of stinky poems about rocks, astronauts, materials science, the expiration dates on seed packages,electricity, science experiments...and on and on and on.
But...I
dread gettting facts wrong--my worst nightmare. (Confession:
writing these blog posts scares the bejeebers out of me.)
In fiction, I can fly my fairy-self to Planet Bodiddley and make up all the materials science by myself. But if I have to convey facts? And then somehow bake them into a tasty poetry pie? I get tied up in knots. My writing becomes stiff as a board. I'm afraid of...
But finally I stumbled on this fascinating fact, in a review of
The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman:"The water coming out of your kitchen tap is four billion years old and might well have been sipped by a Tyrannosaurus rex."
Wow. Think of the water you drink. Think of the water you
take a BATH in!!!! Ten versions of "Space Bathtub" later (with considerable coaching from the ever-patient anthologists,
Janet Wong and
Sylvia Vardell) this fact became a poem for kindergartners:
OLD WATER
by April Halprin Wayland
I am having a soak in the tub.
Mom is giving my neck a strong scrub.
Water sloshes against the sides.
H2O's seeping into my eyes.
The wet stuff running down my face?
She says it came from outer space!
The water washing between my toes
was born a billion years ago.
from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science(c) 2014 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved
If you're a K-5th grade teacher, this book is so immediately useful, you'll cry with relief when you open it. Trust me. For details, and to watch under-two minute videos of poets (Bobbi Katz, Kristy Dempsey, Mary Lee Hahn, Susan Blackaby, Buffy Silverman, Linda Sue Park and me) reciting our science poems from this anthology, go to Renee LaTulippe's
No Water River. Again, trust me. (A little foreshadowing: Pomelo Books' newest anthology,
Celebrations! comes just in time for Poetry Month this year--stay tuned!)
Here's a terrific vimeo of "Old Water" produced by
Christopher Alello:
posted safely and scientifically by April Halprin Wayland wearing safety goggles
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 4/25/2014
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Our
Carmela is out to make trouble. I swear...she's a full-blown cyclone blowing through Poetry Month!
(Actually, she's not. I'm just playin' with you. I've been on the look-out for metaphors all month
on my website, and that was a metaphor, blowing by...
the poem on my site today compares writing to a challenging walk...)
Carmela has
posted (and reads aloud) two versions of one of my poems, and she suggested I talk about the process of writing and revising it.
So...here's the story behind HOW TO READ A POEM ALOUD:
I was asked to help organize a poetry coffee house night for teens, and I wanted to teach them how to read aloud. Could I smush all the information into a poem, I wondered? My teacher
Myra Cohn Livingston always read poems aloud twice; I knew I wanted to include that in my instructions.
I've found nine versions of this poem; there may be more. But don't panic--I won't make you read every draft! Here's the very first version:
2/8/07
READ ALOUD HOWS
Take a sip of water.
Read the title to your daughter.
Pause.
Read the poet’s name.
Read the poem.
Read it once again
Take your time.
Say each word slowly
Let each word shine.
Take a breath and sigh.
Then think of how the poet put her hand to pen
and why.
=========================
and here are the next several versions mashed together so you can see the ideas I tried and discarded...
HOW TO READ A POEM ALOUD
[Sit down in a meadow with a friend.
Tell the poet’s name and the title—
Now begin.]
[Stand up in your kitchen with your friend.
Tell the poet’s name and the title—
Now begin.]
[Walk home from the bus stop with your friend.
Tell the poet’s name and the title—
Now begin.]
[Take a sip of tea.
Tell the poet’s name to your friend.]
[Take a sip of tea.
Read the poet’s name
and say its title deliciously
to me.]
[To begin,
say the title
and the poet’s name
with a small smile.]
[To begin,
announce the title of the poem
and the poet’s name.
Make sure to pronounce it clearly]
[To begin,
read the title of the poem
and the poet’s name.
Be clear.]
Now—[your job is to] completely disappear
Say [taste] its title
deliciously.
Tell the poet’s name to me.
[Tell the poet’s name to me.
Taste her title deliciously.]
Pause.
[Be sure you’re heard
so I can savour every word.]
Now:
savour [polish]
every
word.
Let
each
shine.
Then—read it one more time.
Next, take a breath
and sigh.
Then think about the poet
at her desk
late at night
picking up her pen to write—
and why.
* * * * *
And here some of my moods as I write
and rewrite and write and rewrite (can you relate?):
...confused...
...determined...
...patient...
At some point on this journey, I read Marilyn Singer's prose,"
How to Read a Poem Aloud"...and though it's a terrific list, it made my head spin, so I decided to stick with just the few points I'd been working with.
* * * * *
And finally, here are the two versions Carmela posted (they've been floating around the internet, passing each other in the night, for years)...which do you like best?
Version #1
HOW TO READ A POEM ALOUD
First, read the title of the poem
and the poet’s name.
Be clear.
Now completely
disappear.
Let each line
shine.
Then read it
one more time.
When the poem
ends, sigh.
Think about the poet at her desk,
late at night, picking up her pen to write--
and why.
* * * * *
HOW TO READ A POEM ALOUD
To begin,
tell the poet’s name
and the title
to your friend.
Savor every word—
let
each
line
shine.
Then—
read it one more time.
Now, take a breath—
and sigh.
Then think about the poet,
at her desk,
late at night,
picking up her pen to write—
and why.
© April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.
Do I like one version better than the other? Depends on what day you catch me. That's the trick in creating something, isn't it: sometimes I know, I just know when it's finished: there's that satisfying click of the lasts puzzle piece...
 |
| from morguefile.com |
But just as often, I just...get...(yawn) t i r e d...so...I stop.
And that, dear campers, is the story behind HOW TO READ A POEM ALOUD!
Now, go outside and play.
posted with a glue gun by April Halprin Wayland.
(p.s: I've just been interviewed by author
and Seminar on Jewish Story organizer Barbara Krasner here.)
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 4/4/2014
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Howdy Campers ~ Happy Poetry Month! Happy Poetry Friday! And...
Happy 5th Blogiversary to us!
Details of our Book Bundles Giveaway below
On April 22, 2009, powered by the
dazzlingly bright solar power of Carmela Martino, we started this blog.
Five years--what a fabulous ride it's been!
Five candles. And when there are candles, someone makes a wish and blows them out. So you could say that this image represents the six active
TeachingAuthors. (We're celebrating
all TeachingAuthors who have been part of our blog biography.)
Campers, thank you from the bottom of our candles for reading, following, commenting and encouraging us. You're why we do this. You're why I'm terrified everytime a post is due. We want to add something meaningful
and merry to the party! In celebration of
You, this month's drawing is for one of FIVE "blogiversary book bundles." Each bundle is a set of five books hand-selected by a
TeachingAuthor and contains at least one autographed TA book. Yay You! (Details below.)
* * *
This month, inspired by the Chicago Favorite Poem Project, each of us will share a favorite poem. One of mine is "Liberty" by
Janet Wong, from her book,
The Declaration of Interdependence--Poems for an Election Year and also included in Caroline Kennedy's
Poems to Learn by Heart) read (and reproduced below) with Janet's kind permission:
LIBERTY by Janet Wong from DECLARATION OF INTERDEPENDENCE – Poems for an Election Year
I pledge acceptanceof the viewsso different,that make us America
To listen, to look,to think, and to learn
One peoplesharing the earthresponsiblefor libertyand justicefor all.Wow, right? So much substance packed into 12 lines.
* * *
This month is overflowing with poetry! Three TeachingAuthors are celebrating in three ways:
Also, Sylvia Vardell's Texas Women University students chose poems from the
The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science: Poems for the School Year Integrating Science, Reading, and Language Arts and have made "poem movies" of them. They'll appear on
Sylvia's blog all this month. My poem "Old Water" will be featured on April 6.
And thank you, Amy, of
The Poem Farm, for hosting Poetry Friday today!
* * *
By now you're asking: "How can I enter to win a Book Bundle?
Our giveaway starts at midnight on Friday, 4/3 and ends at midnight of the day after our blogiversary, 4/23.
--You have a chance to win one of FIVE "blogiversary book bundles." Each bundle is a set of five books hand-selected by a TeachingAuthor and contains at least one autographed TA book.
--Books will be mailed directly to the winner, so winners must have a US mailing address.
--You have 3 entry options, and can enter via 1, 2, or all 3 options to increase their chances. (We DO verify that you've met all the criteria for each option. Incomplete entries will be disqualified.)
1) Tell us how you follow the blog (by "follow" we mean some sort of automated subscription service, such as via email, Facebook, Bloglovin', etc.) We have links in the sidebar to make it easy to start subscribing if you haven't already.
2) Leave a comment on THIS blog post. If you have difficulty commenting, you can submit comments via email to teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com. For this giveaway, you need to include in the comment either a) the title of a favorite poem OR b) the title of a favorite
TeachingAuthor blog post.
Please be also sure to include your name in the comment so we can verify you've fulfilled this option. [Some folks don't comment with their real name and we have no way of knowing who they are!]
3) Help spread the word. Share a link back to this blog post from your own blog, or from Twitter, Pinterest, or any other way we can verify online. You must include the URL of the link in the space provided.
And good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway posted with love by April Halprin Wayland. Monkey's on vacation.
Attention, fabulous teachers and poetry fans!
Sylvia Vardell and
Janet Wong have compiled poetry and written accompanying teaching aides for middle schoolers. I'm happy to say I was included in the collection. Yay! So check it out, recommend it, and enrich your Poetry Fridays with this beautiful release.
The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle Schoolby Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong
Pomelo Press, 2013
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 8/24/2012
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Author and educator Sylvia Vardell has just announced some exciting news on her blog Poetry for Children! She and her friend/author Janet Wong have collaborated on another wonderful project: The Poetry Friday Anthology.
The Poetry Friday Anthology is a new anthology of 218 original poems for children in kindergarten through 
fifth grade by 75 popular poets including J. Patrick Lewis, Jack Prelutsky, Jane Yolen, Margarita Engle, X. J. Kennedy, Kathi Appelt, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Georgia Heard and Nikki Grimes and many more.
The book includes a poem a week for the whole school year (K-5) with curriculum connections provided for each poem, each week, each grade level. Just five minutes every “Poetry Friday” will reinforce key skills in reading and language arts such as rhyme, repetition, rhythm, alliteration, etc.
Thanks to the lovely blog world of the “kidlitosphere,” I’ve been a fan of “Poetry Friday” since the beginning (in 2006). The idea of pausing for poetry every Friday is so appealing to me, maybe because Friday has always been my favorite day of the week. I think it is a natural fit for busy teachers and librarians who can build on that Poetry Friday tradition by incorporating a weekly poetry break into their regular routines. That’s the first “hook” in our book– the idea of sharing a poem every Friday! (More often is even better, but Friday is the hook!)
The other hook is the call for connecting with the new Common Core standards (and in Texas where the Common Core was not adopted– don’t get me started– connecting with the TEKS, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills). We’ve always had curricular standards of one kind or another, but poetry hasn’t always been an explicit component. It is now! Of course this worries me a bit as poetry may also be abused and butchered in the name of test preparation. But the challenge is to provide guidance in sharing poetry that respects the integrity of the poem, celebrating the pleasures of language, while reinforcing the necessary skills. That’s the second book “hook”– we’ve tied every poem in The Poetry Friday Anthology to the Common Core standards (and TEKS standards in Texas) for poetry.
This book is first and foremost a quality anthology of 218 original poems for children written by 75 of today’s most popular poets. Children in any state (or country) can enjoy, explore, and respond to these poems. However, we have also come to realize that educators, librarians, and parents are looking for guidance in how to share poetry with children and teach the skills within the curriculum as well. Thus, this book offers both. It’s part poetry collection and part professional resource guide– quality poetry plus curriculum-based suggestions for helping children enjoy and understand poetry more deeply.
You’ll find more information about the book at the PoetryFridayAnthology blog here. Our official launch date is Sept. 1 when we hope to offer an e-book version of the book as well– projectable and searchable! But the print version of the book is available NOW to help jumpstart the school year with poetry. I’ll also be posting a few nuggets from the book here in the near future– as well as more about our new joint publishing venture, Pomelo Books.
This week’s Poetry Friday is hosted by Dori Reads so head on over and see what treasures are in store.
The Poetry Friday Anthology:
Poems for the School Year
with Connections to the Common Core
compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong
This supremely practical anthology, which will be available in both soft-cover book and e-book versions, is the latest feat of magic worked by that Daring Duo of Poetry, Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.
It contains 218 new poems by 75 of the best poets now writing for children, but unlike other quality anthologies of literary poetry, this one is organized with the busy classroom teacher in mind (and I should know). In other words, it's the best of educational and literary publishing all rolled into one lively package!
It includes 36 poems for each grade level K-5, which is one for each week of a standard 180-day school year. Even better, the poems have been organized according to broad themes that repeat for each grade level, so that in Week 1, all grade levels enjoy a "School" poem, in Week 18 every kid K-5 gets a "Human Body" poem, and in Week 29 there are poems about...poetry! There are heartfelt and serious poems under themes like "A Kinder Place" and "Families," and hootingly playful poems under "Stuff We Love" and "Nonsense." By the end of the school year, when kids have had lots of poetry experience, the themes are related to poetic devices such as "Metaphor and Simile" and "Personification," addressed at accessible levels.
For the few teachers who are truly poetry-phobic, this anthology is a gift. It says, "Take a few minutes just one day a week to make poetry your focus...we'll help you do it right, do it in community, and enjoy all the rewards!" To support the less confident, each poem comes with 5 quick tips for sharing, teaching, enjoying:
*a hook for introducing the poem,
*a developmentally appropriate way for students to join in reading and speaking the poem,
*ideas for discussion and teachable moments,
*and finally, a connection to another poem in the anthology or another poetry book to explore.
Of course, many more teachers will be doing as I'll do, dipping in here and there to select poems not by week but by theme, and looking beyond my own grade level to find other gems that I'll bring into our curriculum through content connections, writing and performance. I'll be highlighting some of my favorites in coming posts, and you can bet that those of us contributors who also participate in Poetry Friday in the Kidlitosphere will be sharing more tips and tricks and on their blogs, too!
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 8/3/2012
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Howdy, Campers! And...surprise! Following the success of our first Mystery Guest TeachingAuthor which Carmela Martino posted last Friday, here's our second ever Mystery Guest TeachingAuthor (MGTA)—complete with his/her Writing Workout and a fabulous Book Giveaway! OMG. I'll bet you can barely stand the excitement. The details about the giveaway are below, but DO NOT GO THERE YET. If you do, you'll find out who our MGTA is and blow the whole deal. Here's how we play the MGTA game: I'll share our MGTA's bio before giving you his/her Writing Workout [listen...this his/her thing is getting awkward...I'll give this to you: it's a her]. You try to guess who our guest author is before I reveal the MGTA's identity at the end of the post. (And even though it's going to kill you, no fair clicking on the MGTA's book links to find out the author's name!)
Then let us know if you figured out who this most amazing lady is, either by commenting below, or an email.
Ready? Okay, let's go!
Today's MGTA is a Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University and has taught graduate courses in children's and young adult literature at various universities since 1981. She has published extensively, including five books on literature for children [including—remember, no clicky-clicky—Poetry Aloud Here! Sharing Poetry with Children in the Library (ALA, 2006), Poetry People: A Practical Guide to Children's Poets (Libraries Unlimited, 2007), and Children'sLiterature in Action: A Librarians Guide (Libraries Unlimited, 2008)], as well as over 20 book chapters and 100 journal articles; she's recently co-edited several ground-breaking e-anthologies of poetry for children. In addition, she edits for Librarians' Choice. Is this woman is making you tired, just reading about her? And there's more: her blog is full of tips and news (and poems) that help spread enthusiasm for poetry, and it has become a touchstone—the go-to blog in the field of poetry for children.
Have you guessed our guest yet? No? Well,
Hey rgz!
Did you see the holiday e-poetry collection, Gift Tag? It was compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. I'm so happy to be in this work with other poets who write for children and young adults. Each entry was motivated by an image. You might click and purchase the book for yourself and gift it to others for just $2.99. It's spot on for little ones and older readers. Gift Tag is full of holiday memories, thoughts, and wishes you'll want to read again and again. You will love it! As a teaser, here's my entry. Happy Poetry Friday!
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 10/7/2011
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I’ve just bought my first e-book. I realise that might fill some people with horror at how long it’s taken me to jump on the bandwagon, but it was always going to have to be something special that would propel me into action. Perhaps if I spent more time on public transport, I might have succumbed to an e-reader by now, but as it is… Anyway, I’ve just downloaded the free Kindle for PC and have taken the leap, tempted as I was by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong‘s e-book p*tag. It’s an exciting anthology of 31 poems newly written and published to coincide with National Teen Read Week this month in the US: “the first ever electronic poetry anthology of new poems by top poets for teens” – and wow, what a roll of poets it is: check it out here.
Following on from the success of their PoetryTagTime project of children’s poetry in April during the US’s national poetry month, this game of poetry tag includes some simple rules to connect the poems – each one had to include three words from the previous person’s poems. And an added twist is that the poets chose an image from this selection of photographs taken by Sylvia Vardell, as the inspiration for their poem. Each poet then also provided a short introduction to their choice of photograph. All this makes for a very exciting, energetic mix of poetry that can be read and enjoyed in many ways. I loved the added dimension of the word tag used in the cover photograph and to good effect in Janet Wong’s own poem “p*tag” – it rounds off the collection beautifully.
What’s really great is that the conceit of the tagging in no way defines the quality of the individual poems. From Marilyn Singer’s opening reverso poem “Time and Water”, you know you’re in for a treat. The array of names included several I’ve “met” through Poetry Friday, and others who are new to me – what a wonderful way for teenagers to encounter poetry; and the interactive nature of the e-book invites readers to explore each poet’s work more deeply. I was intrigued by Arnold Adoff’s introduction (as much a poem as his actual poem): in it he invites readers to email him so he can send the “original” in its, well, I’d like to say real format, but I’m not sure he would allow the word “real” to slip by – and it’s already on shaky ground in a discussion of e-books. Hmmm! Let’s quote then:
“this poem is in a format to fit the machine you are using now…
but feel free to be in touch [...]
and i’ll send you the “original” and we can talk about:
style and substance an the poet’s hard(est) head….
I’d like to think there’ll be some young poets getting in touch…
With so many ways to find a route into the collection (photographs, the three linking words, each poet’s introduction), not to mention the variety of viewing possibilities for its e-format, these exciting poems touch on so many emotions. From humor to deep pondering, there’s something here for every teen – even the so-called “Reluctant Reader” (Jaime Adoff), and like the goose (or is it a swan?) in Julie Larios’ “Walking, Waiting”, there’s the possibility of ‘a wild honk or two / or three that might surprise y
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 10/7/2011
Blog:
Teaching Authors
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~
Howdy Campers and happy Poetry Friday! Today's poem and Writing Workout--a poetry prompt--are below.
Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Mary Ann Scheuer
over at
Great Kid Books. Thanks, Mary Ann!
(Yes, I have poems in both anthologies--but that's not why I'm jumping up and down about these two books--they are brilliant and original and poetry tag is a game you can play with other poets and your students!)
And now to today's
TeachingAuthors topic of the week. After five terrific posts on
First Drafts: Quieting the Internal Critic, it's my turn to wrap up this topic--for now. Just so you know, my internal critic is going nuts right this very minute because I am writing something that someone is going to actually read.
Like JoAnn, I enjoy first drafts. Mostly. First drafts aren't promising anyone anything. First drafts are splashing around, figuring stuff out. First drafts are swirling paint onto the page to see if I can convey what was dancing in my brain last night.
And like
Jeanne Marie, I am good at starting and not so good a
Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, pioneers of spreading kids' poetry via e-books, are at it again. Their last outing was Poetry Tag Time, which I posted about here and shared my poem from here. Their latest Kindle release is p*tag, another poetry anthology, this one aimed at teens.
From Amazon: In this second PoetryTagTime anthology, P*TAG, 31 poets speak to the complicated lives of today's teens, with quirky, reflective, and soulful poems about love and longing, war and worry, tattoos, piercings, watching people, being watched, broken lives, luck, burping up kittens, and more. The list of contributors is a "who's who" of the best poets for young people, including YA poets and verse novelists Naomi Shihab Nye, Margarita Engle, Allan Wolf, Betsy Franco, Paul Janeczko, and Helen Frost, Newbery Honor winner Joyce Sidman, current Children's Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis, and poetry legend Lee Bennett Hopkins. Readers can play P*TAG on their own by writing a poem about a photo from the photo library blog at http://teenpoetrytagtime.blogspot.com and comparing it to the P*TAG poem that was inspired by that same photo. More info at www.PoetryTagTime.com.
Here are two of my favorites.I've been reading the anthology this week, and it's a great one! I love (as you know) poems inspired by images, and the poetry here is top-notch. I don't share full poems from anthologies, but here are just a few brief excerpts that I've loved so far."even if we don't / speak the same language, / I'll sip your dream, / and then, and then, say /"
--from Blue Bucket, by Naomi Shihab Nye
"Rapunzel herself / Has NOTHING on me, / A whip of my hair / Could cover a sea /"
--from Hair, by Charles Waters
"I am pretty sure / the singer makes up the words / as he goes along /"
--from Don't You boys Know Any Nice Songs?, by Michael Salinger
"But some hearts are made of china /"--from Broken, by Jeannine Atkins
"Her energy pours down stairs / in slow motion, / rippling like a golden slinky /"
--from Perfect (for Clara), by Joyce Sidman
What a variety of voices and subjects! And at $2.99 for the Kindle e-book, you really can't beat the price. Poetry is one of the few things small enough for me to read on my phone, and I've read some great poems this week while standing in line at the post office, waiting for my daughter at a doctor's appointment, etc. I hope you'll give p*tag a try! And tell your teacher/librarian friends who are looking for poetry to share with teens.Mary Ann at Great Kid Books has the Poetry Friday Roundup today. Enjoy!
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By:
Lorie Ann Grover,
on 9/30/2011
Blog:
readergirlz
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Okay. 31 poets, 31 images and you have p*tag, 31 poems linked by tagging and repetition. It went like this: wait until you are tagged, pick an image, and then write a poem, using 3 of the words from the previous poet's poem. Ready, set, go! And we were off, under the guidance of Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. This ekphrastic approach to poetry, where poems are inspired by art, fueled the poets fully. While the resulting poetry collection is eclectic, the repeated words give a notable continuity to the stream. There's an organic pulse running from beginning to end as readers witness this captured Art Happening on their e-readers.
Personally, David L. Harrison tagged me, so I was able to read his wonderful poem "Family Reunion at the Beach." Then I was off to choose a photo from Sylvia's posted images given to inspire us. The photo of a crowd, blurred by the camera's movement, caught my eye. It seemed as if spirits were leaving bodies despite the people's focus locked on the stage. I then chose three of David's words from his poem: clasping, future, and eyes, for my own haiku "Crowd." Finally, I tagged the lovely poet, Julie Larios. I would later learn she used my words: trapped, eyes, away.
All other poems were hidden from the participants until the release of p*tag. So it was a delight to download and read the stream, read how images and poems and repeated words created a complete work of art. I love how one poet responded to another, and immediately offered another point of view. You can see this particularly between Julie Larios and Michele Krueger. One writes of rising above, the other finding "peace in place." Stephanie Hemphill's' "In Praise of Luck" lifted my spirit, although I'd call it providence. :~) And oh, the delight to see one I esteem so highly, Lee Bennett Hopkins, write with few words just like me.
So here is a poem a day for the month of October while we celebrate YALSA's Teen Read Week. How perfect for the theme "Picture it @ your library." Download p*tag onto your device. Visit the website to learn more, see photos, and try your own hand at the ekphrastic approach to poetry. Thanks, Janet and Sylvia! *standing ovation*
p*tag
compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong
available on e-readers
I didn't think a
tag game would ever be quite so exciting again, but I was wrong: I have been invited to participate in the second poetry tag project coordinated by
Sylvia Vardell and
Janet Wong, champions for the dissemination of poetry for young people. Titled
p*tag (
you can play along here), it's the "first electronic-only anthology for teens" and will be illustrated with photos taken by Sylvia herself.
Even as I write I'm in the midst of the challenge: I have just been tagged by Stephanie Hemphill, an accomplished verse novelist. My mission is to a) immerse myself in a photo I selected from Sylvia's
intriguing gallery, b) select three words from Stephanie's fine poem, and c) compose my own poem inspired by the photo using Stephanie's three words and an as-yet-undetermined number of my own. I have 24 hours in which to do this, and to write a piece that describes my process and how the resulting poem is linked to the photo and to Stephanie's.
Then I get to tag another of the 31 poets who are participating (with respect for who's on vacation this weekend and who's working!). The project will all be complete and available for download at an irresistable price by October. How cool IS this? I just hope I can pull off something worthy of the concept and of
the first Poetry Tag Time volume, which was e-published in April.
So, back to Stephanie Hemphill. Her latest book is
Wicked Girls, which I confess I thought might be another girls-telling-lies-and-being-mean-to-each-other-book despite its subtitle: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials. I took up HarperTeen's offer to "browse inside" and found myself reading way past my bedtime with fascination and admiration. Here's a selection called "Caught."
Caught
Margaret Walcott, 17
Past the crooked evergreen
and the brook what lost its water,
on my way home from playing
games on who'll make me husband,
I cross Ipswich Road.
I rub my eyes. His two blue ones
be looking straight on me.
My pulse starts to gallop
like a steed. But today I trip not.
I track on up to him and say,
"Be you following me?"
His arms be thick enough
to lift the axe of three men.
Isaac's laughter shakes
through him so fierce
it scatters the snow off his boots.
"Yea, Margaret Walcott,
betwixt tending the stables,
staking out the fields
and bringing wares to town,
I be scouting all the time after you."
He raises one brow.
"But where hast thou been?"
The color splashes over me,
drenching me red. I hold up my buckets.
"Fetching water," I say.
"Thou are far from any stream
I know of," Isaac says,
and shakes his head.
His eyes catch on me
like he be holding lightly
my face with his hand.
"I must then be lost," I say,
and I pick up my bucket
and my skirts and trot off.
And do so quite a bit like a lady.
~ Stephanie Hemphill
from Wicked Girls, Harper 2011
Remember playing Tag as a child? Someone would sneak up behind you or catch you without warning and shout, “Tag, you’re it!”It was a game of narrow escapes, near-misses, breathless dashes and sprints, and a chance to reach out and (sometimes) unfreeze a best friend.Two ardent lovers of poetry (and best-friends), Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell, have taken the pleasure and delight that each
In case you, like me, missed Sylvia Vardell's fantastic series of clips from the ALA Poetry Blast (organized and hosted by Marilyn Singer and Barbara Genco), I'm posting links here. She shared the text of Marilyn's lovely introduction for each poet along with a brief video clip to give you a taste of the work presented. Brilliant!
The first three poets featured are:
Stephanie Calmenson - reading from Rosie—A Visiting Dog’s Story
Kristine O'Connell George - reading from Emma Dilemma
Joyce Sidman - reading from Dark Emperor
What a treat to hear poets read their own work. If you haven't already, be sure to visit Sylvia's blog to read, watch, and listen. Enjoy!
Thank you, Marilyn and Barbara, for this wonderful event, and Sylvia, for highlighting it and sharing clips for those of us unable to attend.
P.S. I have no idea why I can't remove the italics from the text above that should not be italicized!
P.P.S. The Poetry Friday Roundup is with Mary Lee at A Year of Reading. Go! Read! Love!
By: J.R.Poulter,
on 7/13/2011
Blog:
Publishing a Picture Book - Getting it all together
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for all those who love children's poetry and believe in the ability of poetry to get kids hooked into reading and literary creativity!
Speaking from my current abode here in Japan, I’d like to introduce a short bilingual book of haiku I discovered recently at my local picture book library. Haiku no Ehon or A Picture Book of Haiku by Toshio Suzuki (Rin Rin Kikaku, 1993) is a wonderful book of haiku by well known poets Basho, Buson, Issa, Kyoshi and Kyorai. The illustrations of the poems are quite stunning — traditional images done in sumi-e ink with some very colorful embellishments. The book was produced post-humously; Suzuki was suffering with cancer when he worked on the paintings done for this book. Suzuki belonged to a group of painters who are referred to as ‘juvenile painters.’ Juvenile painting is a kind of illustration done for childrens’ stories and songs. Suzuki challenged himself as a juvenile painter by trying to illustrate classically known haiku in a way that he felt would be accessible to children. I think he succeeded admirably!
And speaking of Japanese poets, fellow PT blog contributor Corinne, sent me this link to a post with video by Sylvia Vardell on her blog, Poetry for Children, about a recent poetry book by Tanikawa Shuntaro whose work I wrote about a while back for Poetry Friday for PaperTigers. Check it out!
Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Andromeda at a wrung sponge.
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 4/7/2011
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National Poetry Month is held every April in Canada and the USA to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American and Canadian culture. Schools, literary organizations, communities, businesses and more celebrate National Poetry Month with a plethora of events including poetry readings, festivals, book displays, and workshops. The kidlitosphere is sure to be active with bloggers celebrating the month – and one blog that you definitely don’t want to miss out reading is Sylvia Vardell’s Poetry for Children!
Sylvia is a professor of children’s and young adult literature at Texas Woman’s University, author of Poetry Aloud Here! Sharing Poetry with Children in the Library (ALA Editions, 2006), Poetry 
People: A Practical Guide to Children’s Poets (Libraries Unlimited, 2007), and Children’s Literature in Action: A Librarian’s Guide (Libraries Unlimited, 2008). She is co-editor of Bookbird, the journal of international children’s literature, co-editor of the annual review guide Librarians Choices and is also the poetry columnist for the American Library Association’s Book Links magazine.
Our April 2008 PaperTigers’ Poetry issue featured a reprint of Sylvia’s article Pairing Poems Across Cultures (which offered insights on the similarities and differences in poetry from parallel cultures) as well as a reprint of an interview that Cynthia Leitich Smith did with Sylvia in 2007. In 2010 we were thrilled to meet up with Sylvia at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and had a great chat with her.
Last April, to celebrate National Poetry Month, Sylvia played a game of Poetry Tag on her blog. Poets shared original poems, tagged another poet who shared a poem connected with the previous poem, and on and on. It was such a success that it led her and author Janet S. Wong to compile an anthology of 30 e-poems by 30 e-poets called PoetryTagTime. This first ever electronic-only poetry anthology for children has new poems by many top poets writing for young people, and can be purchased for 99 cents here.
For this year’s National Poetry Month celebrations Sylvia says :
I’m sticking with my “tag” th
Just wanted to share a few pictures from my Texas Library Association trip in April. I had a fantastic time!
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The San Antonio Riverwalk ran right behind my hotel. I took this pic the first day I arrived, and then it rained the rest of the time. I never got to take a guided tourboat ride, but it was fun to wander along the Riverwalk anyway.
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I visited the Alamo--in downtown San Antonio. I thought it was out in the middle of nowhere! Not so.
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Enjoyed the cactus garden at the Alamo. Brought back painful childhood Florida memories, though. We had a huge cactus in our backyard.
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Walked to Conference Welcome Party at the Institute of Texan Cultures--and it started pouring. Wound up wet as a rat, with raccoon eyes to match. But the event was very cool.
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Had dinner one night at an Italian restaurant with jazz (not really) and a belly dancer (for 15 minutes) and bad decor. Went with my writer friend Dori Butler, whose new Buddy Files easy reader mysteries are fantastic!
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The hightlight of the trip was the Poetry Round Up, organized by Sylvia Vardell! I read four or five poems from Stampede, two from my forthcoming Bookspeak. And I was barely even nervous once I started reading (a miracle). Every one of the poets did such a great job! I wanted everyone's books (and have most of them:>) . Here are all we presenters: Pat Mora, Douglas Florian, Robert Weinstock, Leslie Bulion, me, and Jen Bryant. It was a wonderful event, and the audience was really enthusiastic.
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Here I am with Sylvia Vardell, blogger, professor, and poetry maven extraordinaire. We had a yummy Mexican lunch my last day in San Antonio.
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By: Aline Pereira,
on 4/14/2010
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After a busy day of presentations on Day 2, Day 3 of the Bologna Book Fair was spent meeting people and absorbing the different books on offer.
First up was a lovely chat with poet Jorge Luján, whom we’d caught up with on the Tuesday evening… He shared his brand new book with us and I will share some photos with you when I work out how to get them off the camera (as opposed to a storage disc)… but in the meantime, enjoy this gorgeous poster for the exhibition of Isol’s illustrations from his recently published Pantuflas de perrito which is on-going until 25th April, if you happen to be in Bologna…
Other highlights included:
 The presentation of the International Youth Library’s newly announced 2010 White Ravens Catalogue:
I had a great discussion with Janet Evans from Liverpool Hope University, UK, who is currently spending some time with the Library in Munich
while…
next door at the IBBY stand, Corinne and Aline had a good chat with Sylvia Vardell, editor of IBBY magazine Bookbird and host of the wonderful Poetry for Children blog (Don’t miss out on her current game of Poetry Tag for National Poetry Month in the US).
 .
Meeting Danilla Marii, an Australian writer based in Rome, who had come to the Fair to seek out a publisher for her beautiful and vibrant book The Rainbow Tree – it was a real privilege to be able to see the original draft that includes some intricate collage work. We lo
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So excited for this! Congrats on having your work in this phenomenal book, Heidi. Can't wait to read it!
Congratulations, Heidi! It'll be a fine addition to a public library's shelves, too.cptionr
This was such an amazing summary of all the best things about The Poetry Friday Anthology, Heidi. The way you looked at this book--with your teacher hat on, then your poet hat, then your poetry teacher hat--I'm so impressed. I've been "living with" this book in front of my face (and fingers) for months and could not have described it in a better way. THANK YOU.
Thanks, Heidi, for such an articulate and lovely review! We so appreciate your support-- and your poems. Your "Funday" is one of my favorites and it kicks off third grade beautifully!
Hi, Heidi. I love that so many people are highlighting the Poetry Friday Anthology this week. So happy to hear about it!
Agree, agree, agree.
And -- I am so lucky to have one of my poems living in the same book as yours!!
Terrific review, Heidi! So honored to share those pages with you. I've loved your "Funday" poem since the first time I saw it.
It will also be fun for us peeking in on how your students respond to the book!