Poetry collection - Friends & Anemones: Ocean Poems for Children - 11.22.2020

 Poetry collections are so fun to have in libraries.  Young readers enjoy them because they can read them in a multitude of ways - whether they sit down and read them cover to cover, or flip through and read what catches their eye, or take their time reading just a few poems a day - poetry anthologies can be appreciated for years in a young reader's life.  Educators enjoy them too - they share them with readers and can pick and choose poems that work with their lessons.  Sometimes it's content related, other times to show different literary devices!  Here's a new collection for your libraries!

Friends & Anemones: Ocean Poems for Children

by The Writers' Loft Authors and Illustrators

Today, writer and poet Matt Forrest Esenwine stops by to talk with the editors of Friends & Anemones: Ocean Poems for Children, Kristen Wixted and Heather Kelly.  They let us in on how this book came about and the collaboration behind the project.

Thanks for inviting me back to the "Nook," Michele!  Author/poet Kip Wilson and I were asked to be judges for the poems submitted for this book, so I thought it would be interesting to learn a little more about the book from the editors themselves, Kristen Wixted and Heather Kelly!

Matt: Kristen and Heather, thanks for joining me here at the Book Nook!  First, tell me about the genesis for this book - why did you choose oceans as the subject, and how did it first start coming together?

Kristen:  Our first poetry anthology, An Assortment of Animals, was a bigger hit than we'd expected.  The collaboration brought the Writers' Loft community together and gave us something to celebrate, and it brought the Loft community into bookstores.  So right away we decided to do a second, and when we were discussing the subject I said, "Well, we're New Englanders.  How about the ocean?"  It just sort of clicked.  We had a lot of enthusiasm from people who hadn't participated the first time, and we were able to incorporate an environmentalist theme, which is a passion for both Heather and me.  It's hard to argue that keeping trash out of the oceans isn't important!

Matt: This is the third anthology published by The Writers' Loft - what have you learned from the previous two, and what surprised you with this one?

Heather:  We learn something new every time! (And make new mistakes, which is funny!)  We learned from previous anthologies to have soft deadlines we give everyone and secret later hard deadlines.  This was incredibly valuable as the pandemic raged and illustrators needed extensions on their artwork.  Kristen wrote about this in her Editor's note, in the book, take a look!

A bit of a brag: we hit publish one week past our expected finish date, within all the chaos of 2020.  This is a testament to Kristen's enthusiastic and kind managerial skills with all the collaborators!

Matt:  So what should parents, educators, and other book-buyers know about this book?  That is, if you could speak to each one, what would you say?

Heather:  We wrote this book for you!  We're passionate about being Ocean Protectors, and we designed this book with lots of deep dives (pun intended) for children to discover lots of things to love about the ocean, and we have a call to action for everyone to become an Ocean Protector!  We also showcase different artist techniques and types of poems for teaching purposes.  You can utilize our teacher's guide at www.thewritersloft.org for bonus activities!

Matt:  What was your favorite part about putting this together?

Kristen:  I love reading the poems before anyone else does.  I sit at my desk and read them aloud to my dog and my cat, and just listen to how each one sounds.  When I find one I love, it's like finding a treasure in the sand at the beach.

My other favorite part is after we've paired the artists with poems, seeing how each artist interprets each poem.  A great example from Friends & Anemones is Heidi Stemple's "The Giant Larvacean" poem paired with Julia Young Cuffe's art.  You have to see it to believe it!  And I found out long after it was finished that it had been a team effort - a lot of artists working on the book had helped Julia with ideas, including her critique partners Priscilla Alpaugh and Marlo Garnsworthy as well as our book designer, Bob Thibeault.  If you know what a larvacean is, you'll understand why it would be hard to illustrate!

I loved the pairing of Amanda Davis (poet) with Leanne Leutkemeyer (artist) as well.  Through words, Amanda conveyed such movement in her "Stingray" poem, and then Leanne's watercolor looks like it's moving as well.  It's such a wonder to me.  I could go on for so long about all the collaborators' work...

Matt:  I wish we could!  But I do have to ask if you'd mind sharing a little bit about The Writers' Loft itself.

Heather:  The Writers' Loft is a supportive and professional community of writers learning together how to do all this writing stuff!  As you can see from our anthologies, our members are of amazing caliber.  We moved all our critique groups, classes, workshops, craft chats, and conferences online when the pandemic hit, and we're so proud we can support writers and illustrators beyond our normal reach of New England.  Our motto is:  Writing doesn't have to be a solitary pursuit.  And there is magic in that idea!  This anthology is a showcase of that magic.

Take a look at these fantastic spreads featuring poems by editors Kristen Wixted and Heather Kelly.

Avid readers will recognize many contributors to this anthology - Jane Yolen, Peter H. Reynolds, Josh Funk, Lynda Mullaly-Hunt, Kip Wilson, and many others.  Congratulations to all the creators who contributed to this anthology!  The book is now available for purchase through this link.

Thank you for stopping by Matt, Kristen, and Heather!  Looking forward to going under the sea with everyone!

Spotlight Friday - A Hatful of Dragons blog tour - 4.24.2020

April is National Poetry Month

Join me on Fridays as I share a new poetry book for your collections.  Some may be a book that is a poem, others may be collections of poetry.  All books you'll want to add for {future} readers!


One of the best ways to keep kids reading is to keep them laughing.  They mostly look for humorous books so when you add laughter to poetry... you keep the readers turning the page for more!  And poet Vikram Madan knows that - just look at the title of his most recent collection of poems!

A Hatful of Dragons: 

And More Than 13.8 Billion Other Funny Poems

by Vikram Madan

published by WordSong an imprint of Boyds Mills & Kane

Full of poems that make you laugh out loud, many poems even make you turn the page before you get to the punchline of the poem.  That little bit of a pause gets readers thinking about what direction Madan is going to take with his jokes, but they always leave you with the same ending - laughter.  And I'm thinking that's what we may need even more lately, pages with stories and ideas and possibilities that make us laugh!

While the poems in the collection can be read and enjoyed individually, readers will notice certain plot lines and characters are often woven throughout the collection.  The ending of a poem might not be the ending of that particular poetic story!  Readers will enjoy going back to these quick little stories and seeing there is actually more to read.

Poet Vikram Madan stopped by to tell our readers more about writing poetry.  Thanks, Vikram!

How do you approach writing for a young audience?

With my prior two books (The Bubble Collector and Lord of the Bubbles) I was very intentional in making sure the books had a lot of poetic diversity, from really simple to complex/nuanced, so they would be easy to get into for younger kids, and have some lasting value for older ones. And I also wanted the books to expose kids to how varied poetry could be and how much fun you could have playing with words. This Bubble Collector discussion guide will give you some idea: https://www.vikrammadan.com/uploads/2/0/3/8/20386603/bubblecollector_teachersguide.pdf  I do need to create something similar for ‘Hatful of Dragons’.

In general when writing poetry I prefer to write poetry kids can grow into over time, rather than outgrow quickly. For example, somewhat like Jack Prelutsky (this is a comparison my editor made), I’m not artificially limiting my vocabulary to specific age ranges, but I am keeping in mind that the poems still make sense to the young reader. Humor really helps engage the kids, as do the illustrations. That way they have words to read, pictures to enjoy looking at, and fun with the whole experience. 

When I do school visits, I am often surprised by which poems the kids seem to like the most. I’ve found I’m not a good predictor of what they will like so the more variety I can provide, the more the likelihood kids will find something they favor. Incidentally, by not keeping the vocabulary too simple, the books are also enjoyable for older readers.

What can readers expect when diving into your newest collection?

Hatful of Dragons has a lot of visual variance among the poems (Including some comic-strip formats), recurring characters and interweaving plots. So I am hopeful kids will find it enough of a fun experience to come back to it again and again. And in that process read some poetry. :) 

I know you have a visual background.  How do you incorporate that into your poetry?

I used to do a lot of cartooning in my college years so I’m naturally attuned to visual humor and punch-lines. When I’m gestating a poem, a part of my brain is exploring visual ideas in parallel, so that words and visuals start emerging together. Sometimes the visuals play a supporting role and let the words lead the dance. Other times, I’ll be enamored with a visual gag and then I have to mold the words to get to the visual endpoint.  The book has a lot of visual variety mostly because I give each poem space to evolve into whatever form suits it best, whether it’s a rebus or a comic strip or a concrete poem or something more traditional.

Writing rhyming poetry isn't just coming up with the many rhymes, you also have to think of the rhythm and beats of the lines.  How do you do that?

I find every word has a physical aspect to it, in how we say it, hear it, and feel it. And when you string words together, they have a natural in-built rhythm that can’t be controlled, only harnessed. As I assemble words, I am listening to how they sound and then I might build a structure around their cadence - or if they don’t fit into the structure I am trying to create, well then I have to find different words or a different structure. A few examples:

* The first poem in my book is titled ‘The Panda and the Pangolin’ (page 4). Looking back at my notes, it apparently started as a poem about pangolins:

    ‘A band of banded pangolins’. 

And following the sound of that sentence, I then wrote:

    ‘The panda and the pangolin’

which seemed to offer more possibilities. What if it was the other way around: ‘The pangolin and the panda’ ?

I tried 

    ‘At the edge of my veranda / sat a pangolin and panda’

But ‘The Pangolin and the Panda’ didn’t have the same natural rhythm as ‘The Panda and the Pangolin’ so I went back to the original

    ‘Said the panda to the pangolin / I like your little mandolin’ 

Better. But I needed to drop the extra ‘Said’ syllable:  

    ‘The panda and the pangolin / between them have a mandolin / a clarinet, a violin / a drum made from some beaten tin’

And the rest of the poem unfolded from there, with active guiding to make sure it ended where I needed it to. 

(Note that, when I started, I had no idea what the poem was going to be about. I just followed the words home).

* Another example is the poem ‘The Flippy, Floppy Flappers’ (page 13), which was inspired by a painting of energetic, bouncy creatures with big flapping ears. For this poem, I had a concrete subject and I just needed to find the right words to express their energy. I consciously used a lot of alliteration hoping that repetitive tongue movements would make the poem feel like it too was bouncing and flapping when read aloud. 

A first version, a rough sketch trying to get the idea down, went like this:

    ‘They keep lapping they keep looping as they vault and spring and leap / They can barely bear to stand still and they rarely stop to sleep’

My tongue kept tripping on ‘vault and spring’ and on ‘stand still’ and ‘stop to sleep’, so after experimenting with many variations, I finally arrived at:

    ‘ They keep leaping, lapping, looping as they flop and flip and flap / They can barely bare to idle and they rarely nab a nap ‘

Says the same thing, but flows so much better and I really like how the words feel in my mouth.

Here’s a video of me reading ‘The Flippy, Floppy, Flappers’: https://youtu.be/hiOkWkdLmwY?t=72s

Thank you to Vikram for stopping by today!

Be sure to find A Hatful of Dragons and check out the other stops on the blog tour:

More about Vikram Madan:

Vikram Madan grew up in India where, despite spending his childhood rhyming and doodling, he ended up an engineer. After many years of working in the tech industry, he finally came to his senses and took a leap of faith to leave his tech career behind and reboot himself as a professional visual artist. When not making whimsical paintings and public art, Vikram writes and illustrates humorous poetry. His first self-illustrated book of funny poems, The Bubble Collector, won a 2013 Moonbeam Silver Award for Children’s Poetry. A follow-up collection, Lord of the Bubbles, was released in 2018. Vikram’s third collection, A Hatful of Dragons, was released by Boyds Mills & Kane in Spring 2020. Vikram currently lives near Seattle, Washington with his family, two guitars, and a few pet peeves. Somewhere along the way he has also won editorial cartooning awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Press Association. Visit him at vikrammadan.com.

Spotlight Friday: Celebrating Poetry - 4.17.2020

April is National Poetry Month

Join me on Fridays as I share a new poetry book for your collections.  Some may be a book that is a poem, others may be collections of poetry.  All books you'll want to add for {future} readers!




Follow the Recipe: Poems About Imagination, Celebration & Cake
written by Marilyn Singer
illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
This book of poetry surprised me.  I loved the way Singer (and I guess I shouldn't be surprised, Singer is a master of clever poems) used the central theme of recipes but wrote about a variety of subjects.  There are some cooking poems - the one that spoke to me was "recipe for disaster"!  Whether in the kitchen or if it's going to go wrong, it will... this poem was pretty close to my life!  There are some fun cooking poems - like "recipe for adventure" for the foodies out there.  I liked "recipe for memories" about how a scent or taste or sound of a food can bring back memories.  And there are poems that make great metaphors like "recipe for measurement" which is about how after cooking things enough times you can start doing it by taste... or how sometimes in life we have to follow directions, but eventually we get by on our memories of things.  
I enjoyed the whimsical illustrations by Marjorie Priceman, they were reminiscent of Chris Raschka's.
Wonderful poetry book to add to your collection!


Flash and Gleam: Light in Our World
written by Sue Fliess
illustrated by Khoa Le
This book is beautiful!  I was fortunate to host the premiere of the book trailer here.
While I could see how wonderful the illustrations were going to be in the book trailer, it wasn't until I held the book that I was able to pour and linger over them.  If Le lived in the United States, this book would have gone on my Mock Caldecott.
Love how Fliess weaves a celebration of the way light plays an important and playful part in our lives through the rhyming verses.  Included in the backmatter is the science information behind light and how light is included in many celebrations around the world.
Important representation of many cultures included in the story.
Another must have!


Happy poetic reading!


* Looking to find one of the books in this post?  Click on the book title and you will be taken to an online link for Brain Lair Books.  The books will stay on the link for approx. three weeks before making room for new reads.  Please support independent bookstores.*

Spotlight Friday: celebrating poetry - Tag Your Dreams 4.10.2020

April is National Poetry Month

Join me on Fridays as I share a new poetry book for your collections.  Some may be a book that is a poem, others may be collections of poetry.  All books you'll want to add for {future} readers!

Tag Your Dreams: Poems of Play and Persistence

written by Jacqueline Jules

illustrated by Iris Deppe

published by Albert Whitman & Co.

I remember years ago when former First Lady Michelle Obama started her Let's Move! campaign that encouraged 60 minutes of play each day.  Not necessarily organized play - although it could include organized sports - but it's also just get out and move and play with each other!  This poetry book would be perfect companions for some of those forms of play.

When you read these poems, you just want to get up and move!  I love that it celebrates all kinds of play, such as playing clapping games, doing cartwheels in the grass, hiking on trails, playing mini golf, and flying kites.

This book also celebrates persistence.  There are poems about having to try over and over and over again before you can get it right.  There are poems about falling, getting hurt, but getting back up again.  It's great to show young readers that many of us have to repeatedly try something before we can get it right.  If we want something badly enough, we usually have to work at it!

In this day and time when the backyard is our entire playground, this book gives wonderful ideas how to keep moving and playing.  Want a copy to read with your children, your {now} homeschoolers??  Enter the giveaway found below!

Thank you to Barbara at Blue Slip Media for the review copy!

Praise for Tag Your Dreams:

“Jules presents a plethora of possibilities as the theme of children at play provides the structure for a collection of poems that encourage and applaud. . . . Fun and games, with something deeper to think about.” —Kirkus

“If you are looking for lighthearted, joyous, and youthful poems about childhood, this is the perfect selection for your bookshelves.” —Booklist

More about author Jacqueline Jules:
Jacqueline Jules has been writing poems since middle school. Her poetry has been published in over a hundred publications. She is also the author of more than forty books for young readers, including the Zapato Power series, the Sofia Martinez series, and Duck for Turkey Day. She lives in northern Virginia and enjoys giving poetry workshops to students, teachers, and anyone else who loves poetry as much as she does. Visit her online at jacquelinejules.com.


* Looking to find one of the books in this post?  Click on the book title and you will be taken to an online link for Brain Lair Books.  The books will stay on the link for approx. three weeks before making room for new reads.  Please support independent bookstores.*

Spotlight Friday: new poetry books 2.14.2020

Spotlight:  Poetry!

Just a few new poetry books you may want to add to your collections!

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Mister Rogers

Lyrics by Fred Rogers

Illustrated by Luke Flowers

This collection has 137 pages of the songs Mister Rogers brought to his show.  Presented here in poetry format, these beautiful lyrics remind young readers it’s ok to have feelings and express themselves.  

I really appreciate there being an index at the end of the book.  Educators can refer to it and find different social emotional learning topics and the corresponding poems.

With illustrations from Luke Flowers (see if you can find some cameos, like Mobi Shinobi, within the illustrations), readers will enjoy picking out different poems to read.


I Remember: Poema and Pictures of Heritage
complied by Lee Bennett Hopkins
This collection of poetry - each poem written by a different poet and accompanied by an illustration from a different artist - is reflective of heritage, family, and moments of time.  Different cultures are represented, each one celebrating a different way of remembering.  
Each poem and illustration has the creator's name by it as well as a quote from the creator giving us a glimpse into their feelings about their art or words.
Backmatter includes a quick biography of each poet and artist.


Being Frog
by April Pulley Sayre
The title of this book is so important because Sayre is celebrating the frog as a "being", not a character.  So many of us are familiar with different frog characters, but Sayre wants you to get to know the actual frog, not the almost humanized characters of frogs.
In this book that is one lyrical poem, Sayre celebrates all that a frog does throughout their days - hunting, hiding, growing, communicating, and leaping!  With amazing photographs by Sayre, this book should be leaping into your collections :)

Happy poetic reading!

Spotlight on Poetry!

Spotlight:  Poetry!

Some recent poetry finds!


Soccerverse: Poems About Soccer
written by Elizabeth Steinglass
illustrated by Edson Ikê 
22 poems about varying parts of the game told in varying poems!  My favorite poem is "The Fans" which is about parents coming to watch a game but when they are near, you pretend you don't hear the instructions they are yelling!  Ha, that's true regardless of the sport :)  
Backmatter includes information about the different types of poetry with a key that lists the poem names and the type of poem it is.


I Am Someone Else: Poems About Pretending
collected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
illustrated by Chris Hsu
Hopkins, the great collector of poetry, put together a wonderful anthology of pretend and role playing for his readers.  A fun collection of poetry about stepping into someone else's shoes from being a pirate to a pilot, these poems will delight young readers who love to imagine.


Thanku: Poems of Gratitude
edited by Miranda Paul
illustrated by Marlena Myles
A book that should be read and shared cover to cover.  This collection of poetry that celebrates what true gratitude is and can be - something that is done throughout the year, the seasons, celebrating nature and family and animals and everything in between.  
Each poem is labeled with the type of poetry and the backmatter includes a guide to each poetry - with a note saying please try this at home!  
Also included in the backmatter is a quick biography of all the poets and some of their other work.  Paul also includes a note that reminds us that while this book will often be put with Thanksgiving books, it really is meant to be shared year round.
A portion of the proceeds will be going to We Need Diverse Books.  Another celebration about this book!


Snack, Snooze, Skedaddle: How Animals Get Ready for Winter
written by Laura Purdie Salas
illustrated by Claudine Gévry
Told in lyrical verses, young readers learn tricks of animals to stay warm in wintertime.  Like other Salas' books, she includes small facts about each animal in small print on the page for further information.  The backmatter includes more information about the ways animals stay warm as well as additional information about each animal. 
This pairs well with the nonfiction book Wait Rest Pause: Dormancy in Nature by Marcie Flinchum Atkins.


Who Named Their Pony Macaroni: Poems About White House Pets
poems by Marilyn Singer
illustrated by Ryan McAmis
This time Singer points the spotlight at some of the 4-legged creatures that lived at the White House.  Each animal is spotlighted for its interesting contributions to the presidency.  I'm pretty sure these pets had no idea how big of a deal their owners were, and as such definitely acted like the animals they were!  I liked reading the additional information about the pets in the back of the book.


Happy, poetic reading!

Spotlight Friday - new Poetry books, part 3 - 4.19.19

I've been celebrating National Poetry Month at the Book Nook.  If you've missed a post here's part 1 and part 2.  Today is the final post in the series.  Hope you've had a chance to read some books with your students.  Were you able to celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day yesterday?  If not, take some time and share some poetry the rest of the month!



Blooming Beneath the Sun
poems by Christina Rossetti
art by Ashley Bryan
Artist Ashley Bryan has chosen some of his favorite poems by Christina Rossetti and illustrates them with cut paper.  Loved reading the illustrator's note at the very beginning of the book where Bryan shares he used his mother's sewing scissors to create the cut paper artwork, saying "her hand in mine."  Beautiful. 


The Day the Universe Exploded My Head
poems by Allan Wolf
illustrated by Anna Raff
I love books like these.  They have such a place within a curriculum.  The way it plays with words and plays with poetry.  And in case you're wondering more about the format, Wolf includes notes about the poems at the end of the book.  But then within each poem, there are nuggets of knowledge - full of information about space (of course, the reader will have to be a bit selective in understanding what is true and what may be some fictional information...), this collection would be so fun to use during a science unit.  I hope libraries purchase this one, I think it will be a fan favorite!


Lion of the Sky: Haiku for all Seasons
poems by Laura Purdie Salas
illustrated by Mercè López
This is the third poetry book of Salas this year and another one that is a must have for me (disclaimer, I own all three, but they are all so good!).  As she explains in the back of the book, these are Riddle-Kus - haikus that are riddles.  Separated by season, kids will love guessing the answer, and if you really have trouble, the answers are located in the back of the book!  With beautiful, soft illustrations from López, this book is one to share every year!


Like a Lizard
written by April Pulley Sayre
illustrated by Stephanie Laberis
This is a book for your language mentor text collection - put it with books you use when talking about similes or verbs.  Gorgeous language!  Another one that is full of knowledge within the poems.  Studying reptiles?  You'll want to read this one.  Not only is the poem fun, but you'll see lots of different lizards in the illustrations.  Each lizard is labeled and is featured in unique settings.  At the end of the book, Sayre includes information about each lizard.


if i was the sunshine
written by Julie Fogliano
illustrated by Loren Long
Oh, this book is just beautiful!  As I mentioned in an earlier post, sometimes a poem can be an entire book.  A book does not have to be a collection of poems, it can be one longer one that is stretched and illustrated as an entire story.  This is one of them.  Fogliano looks at connections between things in nature.  I think this is also a beautiful look at perspective.  Two things are compared (example, flower and nose) and then each say what they would call each other (sniff, rose).  Accompanies by Long's gorgeous artwork, this was a book I took my time with.


Home Run, Touchdown, Basket, Goal! Sports Poems for Little Athletes
by Leo Landry
This one will be a homerun with young readers.  Fun, rhyming poems that center around sports.  Geared for a younger reader, the rhymes are fun but perhaps a bit clunky in some areas.  I'm glad to have some sports poetry to share with readers.


I hope these posts have helped you find some new poetry books to share with readers!

Spotlight Friday - new Poetry books, part 2 4.05.19

I know a lot of classrooms and libraries celebrate poetry during the month of April.  Whether you celebrate it year round or at a particular time, finding new poetry books is always fun!  For the next few weeks I'll be sharing some new ones you might want to add to your collections.



I'm the Big One Now! Poems About Growing Up
written by Marilyn Singer
illustrated by Jana Christy
This will be so fun to read to kids who have some "experience" with life!  They will love looking back thinking of all the things they can do now, like riding a bike, holding a sibling for the first time, first cannonball, first "big kid" party (or as us parents refer to them, drop off parties!).  Told in rhymes that roll of your tongue, after all, it is Marilyn Singer's poetry, kids will love this collection!


Boom!   Bellow!  Bleat!  Animal Poems for Two or More Voices
written by Georgia Heard
illustrated by Aaron DeWitt
Perfect for the upcoming Poem in Your Pocket Day (April 18th this year).  All of the poems are centered around animals and the ways they communicate.  Some of the poems explain using animal sounds, others give explanations of the animals's communication through the poems.  But they all are meant to be read by multiple readers.  Using colors to explain which reader reads which part, kids will love the way these poems sound when the parts come together.  Some of the poems are meant to be read in a specific cadence mimicking the actual animal sounds.


Clackety Track: Poems About Trains
written by Skila Brown
illustrated by Jamey Christoph
Love this collection of train poems!  The theme is trains, but the poem subjects vary from passenger trains to working trains to parts like train tracks!  The illustrations are described as being "vintage style" and they compliment the poems beautifully! 
I'm looking forward to reading this one out loud - I know train aficionados will love this book, but I bet it will find some new readers too!

Hope you've enjoyed these poetry books!  

Looking for more poetry?  Here's part 1!