In Celebration of Poetry
This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on March 29, 2007 Sign up now!
by Joy Bean, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 3/29/2007
Children's poetry has been getting more exposure recently, making headlines at the end of last year when Jack Prelutsky was named the first-ever Children's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. The first of two official readings will take place on April 10 at the Latin School of Chicago. At the event, Prelutsky will read selections from his more than 35 books of poetry. Earlier this month, Random House published his most recent collection of poems, Good Sports: Rhymes About Running, Jumping, Throwing, illustrated by Chris Raschka.
HarperCollins has created a dedicated Web site devoted to Shel Silverstein's poetry. The site has games, eCards, printable posters and activities, screensavers and more. The publisher will promote the Web site with banner ads on a number of child-friendly Web sites, including bonus.com. The publisher is also releasing a number of poetry titles this season, including Green as a Bean by Karla Kuskin, illustrated by Melissa Iwai; and Bronzeville Boys and Girls by Gwendolyn Brooks, illustrated by Faith Ringgold.
Charlesbridge is celebrating poetry by running a contest for elementary school students in grades four through six around the release of I Must Go Down to the Beach Again by Karen Jo Shapiro, illustrated by Judy Love. The judges are looking for any kind of poem, from a twist on a Shakespearean sonnet to an original funny haiku. The winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to his or her local independent bookstore, a subscription to Stone Soup magazine and a signed copy of Shapiro's book. For more details, click here.
FSG has created a poetry activity guide, which is posted on its Web site. They have two poetry books coming out in April: Animal Poems by Valerie Worth, illustrated by Steve Jenkins, containing new and never-before-published material (except for "The Owl," which was published in a 1990 volume that is now out of print); and Collected Poems for Children by Ted Hughes, illustrated by Raymond Briggs, the only book which contains Hughes's entire body of children's poetry.
Earlier this month, Scholastic published Today and Today, a collection of haiku by Kobayashi Issa, illustrated by G. Brian Karas, which will be featured in Modern Haiku magazine later this spring, and next month the company will issue Mother Goose's Storytime Nursery Rhymes by Axel Scheffler.
In April, Abrams will release Behind the Museum Door: Poems to Celebrate the Wonders of Museums by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Stacey Dressen-McQueen. The company will launch the book with Hopkins at IRA in May, and from there he'll visit museums in New York and Florida for signings.
Doug Florian has created a Practical Poetry Pointers sheet for teachers, which Harcourt is including in the classroom activity kit the company created for Florian's new book of poetry, Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars. Readers can download Florian’s pointers from Harcourt’s Web site.
This is just a sampling of events and published titles, not an exhaustive compilation. For a listing of new poetry books released in 2006 and 2007, visit the CBC's Web site.
