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If you’ve read my blog before, you know I’m a big fan of the work of economist-turned-poet J. Patrick Lewis. I featured his poem “First Men On The Moon” in July 06, and “Necessary Gardens” in honor of Library Week in 07, and “Chocolate-Covered Ants” last Halloween. The man has a gift for the quick quip as well as the thoughtful phrase. He experiments widely with poetic form and is prolific in authoring incredibly varied poetry collections. Here’s a brief excerpt about him from my recent book, Poetry People:

J. Patrick Lewis and his twin brother were born on May 5, 1942 in Gary, Indiana. Lewis earned his bachelor’s degree at St. Joseph's College in Indiana, his master’s degree from Indiana University, and his Ph.D. in economics from The Ohio State University. While working on his doctorate, he became an International Research and Exchanges Fellow, and he and his family spent a year in the former USSR. Later, he and his family participated in cultural exchanges, and they returned to Moscow and St. Petersburg for ten shorter visits. For over twenty years, Lewis taught Economics at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, retiring in 1998. While teaching, he published widely in academic journals, newspapers, and magazines on the topic of economics.

Lewis then turned to writing children’s poetry and took three years to study the craft of poetry on his own. His first book of poems for children, A Hippopotamusn’t, was published in 1990 and he has followed with nearly fifty more children’s books since then, most of which are poetry. Lewis’s poetry has been recognized by several American Library Association Notable Children’s Book citations, among other honors. Lewis is married and has five children. He is also a contributor of children's book reviews for the New York Times and a frequent speaker at schools and conferences.

I’m honored to share an original poem Pat wrote in celebration of FUN FACTS WITH NAMES DAY coming up next week on March 5. The poem will be featured in his upcoming collection, Countdown To Summer: A Poem for Every Day of the School Year (i.e., 180 poems), published by Little, Brown, 2009.

Fun Facts about Names Day March 5
“Old Names, New Names”
Used with permission

Alice Springs was once called Sturt,

Australia. New names never hurt.


Peking, China, then Beiping,

Changed one letter—now Beijing!


Paris (born Lutetia, France)

Could go back? Non, not a chance.


Delhi, India rightly claims

Half a dozen previous names.


In Turkey, Istanbul I hope’ll

Not be called Constantinople


Like before, or else become

Once again Byzantium.


Tokyo, Japan was Edo,

Which they took a vote to veto.


Used to call Regina (Sask.)

Pile o’ Bones (you had to ask?).


Names are like a brand new dress.

First you want it to impress,


When it wears out after while,

You can choose a different style.

What a fun poem to read aloud with kids-- with a map in hand, locating each place. And if you have OLD maps on hand, you may find some of these previous place names, too. Follow up with Dennis Lee’s classic poem, “A Home Like a Hiccup,” from The Ice Cream Store (HarperCollins, 1991) which begins

If I'd been born in a different place,
With a different body, a different face,
And different parents and kids to chase--
I might have a home like a hiccup:

Like Minsk! or Omsk! or Tomsk! or Bratsk!
Like Orsk or Kansk! like Kirsk or Murmansk!
Or Lutsk, Irkutsk, Yakutsk, Zadonsk,
Or even Pskov or Moskva!

Invite the children to locate the poem places on a map or mark the places that they were born or have lived. For more geography-based poems, look for Pat’s books, A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme (Dial Books 2002), Monumental Verses (National Geographic 2005), and Castles, Old Stone Poems (Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press 2006) co-authored with Rebecca Kai Dotlich. Then link these gems with Got Geography! selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins (Greenwillow 2006) or Diane Siebert’s Tour America : A Journey Through Poems And Art (Chronicle Books 2006). Post a world map and locate the settings for each poem. Encourage children to find or create poems for places on the map that are not yet in the books.

For more poetry, go to the Poetry Friday Round Up hosted by Kelly Fineman.

Picture credit: http://www.jpatricklewis.com/

At the SCBWI meeting held on Tuesday 20 November 2007 at UNISA Penny Hochfeld discussed the Exclusive Books IBBY SA Awards.

Exclusive Books, in association with IBBY S.A., has taken on the sponsorship of the award for the best original children's picture book or illustrated children's story book published in South Africa.

For the EXCLUSIVE BOOKS IBBY SA AWARD for 2007, they invited submissions of books published between 1 January 2006 and 30 June 2007. Fifty-six entries were received and evaluated by the jury.

The jury consisted of various people associated with publishing of children’s books as well as experts in Fine Art and book illustration. Other members comprised the Chairperson of IBBY SA, the IBBY SA Executive member responsible for the awards portfolio, and members co-opted from the areas of design, public and school libraries, academic librarianship, and book-selection for children.

The rules require that the award is for a picture book or illustrated children’s story book adjudged the best in the period of adjudication. The writer and illustrator must be South Africans, whether living in South Africa or not; or non-South Africans living and working in South Africa. The book must be an original work written in any of the official South African languages and it must have been published in South Africa.
Importantly, the award is given to a book that is recognisably South African in character.

The shortlist of five titles was published some weeks before the final award was announced. The award was announced at an Exclusive Books event on 11 September in Johannesburg.

Robin Malan announced that the Exclusive Books IBBY SA Award was awarded jointly to:

The Cool Nguni (written by Maryanne Bester, illustrated by Shayle Bester, published by Jacana Media) to award and reward adventurousness and a quirky sense of fun in the jaunty image projected through both text and illustrations.

Fynbosfeetjies (written by Antjie Krog, illustrated by Fiona Moodie, published by Umuzi) to award and reward professional excellence and artistry in both the writing and the illustration of the funky fairies.

Ouma Ruby’s Secret (written by Chris van Wyk, illustrated by Anneliese Voigt-Peters, published by Giraffe Books Pan Macmillan) for the humanity and the homespun South African authenticity of both text and illustrations.

UTshepo mde / Tall enough (written by Mhlobo Jadezweni, illustrated by Hannah Morris, published by Electric Book Works) for the magic of its story and the sophistication of its illustrations.

Zanzibar Road (written and illustrated by Niki Daly, published in English by Pan Macmillan and in Afrikaans by LAPA Uitgewers) for the professionalism and experience of the writer and illustrator as much as for the fun he has and gives young readers.

Excerpt from presentation by Robin Malan (Chairman of IBBY SA) at Awards Event held on 11 September 2007.

The award will be made every second year, from 2007 onwards. Exclusive Books and IBBY SA hope that this new Award will encourage the publication of wonderful new South African children's books, as it rewards talented authors and illustrators.

Since National Chocolate Day is coming up this weekend (October 28) and Halloween is right around the corner, I thought it might be fun to feature some yummy chocolate poems. I’m honored to share an original poem by one of my favorites, J. Patrick Lewis:

Chocolate-Covered Ants
by J. Patrick Lewis
Used with permission

You start with that ant mandible—
Completely understandable—
A chocolate jaw has never tasted sweeter.

Then bite of bit of abdomen
Before you’ve finally grabbed a min-
i-leg, an itty-bitty centimeter.

But ants despise the holiday
That is their grand finale day
When you become The Chocolate Anteater.

For more chocolate poems, look for:
Arnold Adoff’s Chocolate Dreams (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1988) and Eats (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1979) and Lee Bennett Hopkins’s April Bubbles Chocolate (Simon & Schuster, 1994)

For more food poems:
Morrison, Lillian, comp. 1997. I Scream, You Scream: A Feast of Food Rhymes. Little Rock, AK: August House.
Rosen, Michael, J., ed. 1996. Food Fight: Poets Join the Fight Against Hunger with Poems about Their Favorite Foods. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace.
Stevenson, James. 1998. Popcorn: Poems. New York: Greenwillow.
Thomas, Joyce Carol. 1995. Gingerbread Days. New York: HarperCollins.
Westcott, Nadine Bernard, comp. 1994. Never Take a Pig to Lunch and Other Poems about the Fun of Eating. New York: Orchard.

And for some fun fall and Halloween poetry:
Alarcón, Francisco X. 1999. Angels Ride Bikes and Other Fall Poems. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.
Florian, Douglas. 2003. Autumnblings: Poems & Paintings. New York: Greenwillow.
Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 2006. Halloween Howls; Holiday Poetry. (An I Can Read Book.) New York: HarperCollins.
Livingston, Myra Cohn, comp. 1989. Halloween Poems. New York: Holiday House.
McNaughton, Colin. 2002. Making Friends with Frankenstein. Cambridge: Candlewick.
Merriam, Eve. 1995. Halloween ABC. New York: Aladdin; republished as SPOOKY A B C, 2002. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Prelutsky, Jack. 1977. It’s Halloween. New York: Greenwillow.
Prelutsky, Jack. 1976. Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep. New York: Greenwillow. Reprinted, New York: Mulberry Books, 1993.
Moore, Lilian. 1973. Spooky Rhymes and Riddles. New York: Scholastic.
Rex, Adam. 2005. Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich. San Diego: Harcourt.
Rogasky, Barbara, comp. 2001. Leaf by Leaf. New York: Scholastic.
Schnur, Steven. 1997. Autumn: An Alphabet Acrostic. New York: Clarion.
Singer, Marilyn. 2004. Creature Carnival. New York: Hyperion.
Singer, Marilyn. 2001. Monster Museum. New York: Hyperion.

Want more Poetry Friday gems? Check out the round up at Literary Safari this week.

Photo credit: shop.ghirardelli.com

By the time J. Patrick Lewis reached his fortieth birthday, Lady Poetry had "seized him by the nape of the neck and wouldn't let go." Since then Lewis (or Pat, as he prefers to be called by friends) has written more than sixty books, including The Tsar and the Amazing Cow, Heroes and She-roes: Poems of Amazing and Everyday Heroes, Once Upon A Tomb: Gravely Humorous Verses, The Underwear Salesman