April means many things to many people: spring has finally arrived, Easter and Passover are around the corner, but in the publishing world, April means poetry.

For the past seven years, the Academy of American Poets has sponsored National Poetry Month, which has grown to become the largest celebration of the arts in America. Together with the Children's Book Council, which has sponsored Young People's Poetry Week since 1999, they aim to increase the awareness of reading, writing and enjoying children's poetry.

This year Young People's Poetry Week will be celebrated April 14-20. The CBC has produced a variety of materials to help teachers, librarians, booksellers and others spread the word. Among the selections available are a poster illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher, a bookmark featuring a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye, as well as an audiotape spotlighting various children's poets. The CBC has also put together an online bibliography of poetry books for young readers published by its members in 2002. Information about programs across the country is available online at www.poets.org.

Publishers are also getting in on the act by releasing new poetry titles to tie into the celebration. Some of the new books have universal themes such as nature, family and issues affecting teens.

New nature picture books include The Sun in Me by Judith Nicholls, illustrated by Beth Krommes (Barefoot), containing poems from around the world about our planet and the environment; A Snowflake Fell: Poems About Winter, compiled by Laura Whipple and illustrated by Hatsuki Hori (Barefoot), featuring poems that explore winter in its myriad forms; Dear World by Takayo Noda (Dial), containing poems told with a child's voice to the earth and its inhabitants; and Fireflies at Midnight by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Ken Robbins (Atheneum), which encourages children to take a closer look at their surrounding world.

Books with family as the core theme include Grandad'sTree, compiled by Jill Bennett and illustrated by Julia Cairns (Barefoot), a picture book with poems about the family unit; The Way a Door Closes by Hope Anita Smith, illustrated by Shane Evans (Holt), a novel in poems that tells the story of a young man's struggle to accept a father who has walked out on his family; At Grandma's by Rhonda Gowler Greene, illustrated by Karla Firehammer (Holt), a picture book about a youngster's visit to Grandma's house; The Perfect Thanksgiving by Eileen Spinelli, illustrated by Joann Adinolfi (Holt), a picture book that looks at two families (one perfect and the other not-so-perfect) and how each celebrates the holiday; and Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam), a novel in verse about a teacher who helps a student after the loss of his parents and separation from his sister.

Teen issues are also a popular theme this year, as illustrated in the following titles: After the Death of Anna Gonzales by Terri Fields (Holt), a novel in poems that explores the aftermath of suicide and how it affects those left behind; Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes (Dial), about teenagers and their difficulties growing up; Paint Me Like I Am -- Teen Poems from WritersCorps (HarperTempest), written by homeless and at-risk teenagers; and Keesha's House by Helen Frost (FSG), a debut YA novel written in transitional poetic forms that chronicles the lives of teens dealing with problems that are painful to acknowledge.

A variety of other themes are addressed, such as the affections of a parent for a child, as spotlighted in If Kisses Were Colors by Janet Lawler, illustrated by Alison Jay (Dial); Here's What You Do When You Can't Find Your Shoe (Ingenious Inventions for Pesky Problems) by Andrea Perry, illustrated by Alan Snow (Atheneum), a Seussian look at ways to solve daily problems; Lullaby Moons and a Silver Spoon: A Book of Bedtime Songs and Rhymes, illustrated by Brooke Dyer (Little, Brown); Mother Goose on the Loose, edited by Bobbye S. Goldstein (Abrams), illustrated with cartoons from the New Yorker; Plum by Tony Mitton, illustrated by Mary GrandPré (Scholastic/Levine), a collection of poetry about different moods; George Washington's Teeth by Deborah Chandra and Madeleine Comora, illustrated by Brock Cole (FSG), a picture book about what really happened to the first president's teeth, Blues Journey by Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers (Holiday House), which celebrates the African-American experience in America through blues poems; and Animal Sense by Diane Ackerman, illus. by Peter Sís (Knopf), which examines the five senses that shape the experiences of all living beings.

Getting the Word Out

In order to promote National Poetry Month and Young People's Poetry Week, publishers are trying a variety of different tactics. Barefoot Books is offering a sales promotion in its Cambridge, Mass., retail store during April, where customers who buy two Barefoot poetry books get one free. The store will also be adding a poetry component to its bi-weekly story hour in April.

Harcourt has developed a promotion, titled Make Poetry Your Pet Project, around the spring title bow wow meow meow, written and illustrated by Douglas Florian, the division's top-selling children's poet. Harcourt also did a publicity mailing featuring both bow wow meow meow and Judy Sierra's Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems, which is being released in paperback in April.

Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers is targeting teachers for its poetry month promotion by doing a mailing which includes a bookmark with an illustration from the new picture book Dear World by Takayo Noda. They are also showcasing poetry titles on the PPBFYR Web site.

Simon & Schuster is touring Alan Katz and David Catrow, the author and illustrator of I'm Still Here in the Bathtub: Brand New Silly Dilly Songs, which is the sequel to Take Me Out of the Bathtub: And Other Silly Dilly Songs. S&S is also offering a six-copy counter display of the book, and reproducible activities are available online at www.simonsayskids.com.

New in paperback, What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones, a YA novel told in verse, will be featured in S&S's teen lit magazine Simon Pulse.

Little, Brown will offer a feature on www.lb-kids.com, highlighting its new poetry books Lullaby Moons and a Silver Spoon, illustrated by Brooke Dyer; My Brothers' Flying Machine by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Jim Burke; and Thirsty Baby by Catherine Ann Cullen, illustrated by David McPhail.

Abrams has prepared a postcard for A Poem of Her Own: Voices of American Women Yesterday by Catherine Clinton, illustrated by Stephen Alcorn, which is part of a package of materials that not only went to stores for poetry month in April, but served double duty as a title for Women's History Month in March. For its book Mother Goose on the Loose, an email will be sent out to more than 90,000 subscribers of The Cartoon Bank, which houses all the New Yorker cartoons. Also, the book's compiler will be speaking about the book at the 2003 IRA and NCTE conferences.

Sterling is offering special discounts to retailers who order assorted books from its Poetry for Young People series, including its spring 2003 titles William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Scholastic is a corporate sponsor of National Poetry Month, and its logo appears on a poster that will be sent to 200,000 teachers and booksellers. The company will also be doing some advertising for its new titles Plum by Tony Mitton, illustrated by Mary GrandPré; and Desiderata: Words for Life by Max Ehrmann, with photographs by Marc Tauss.

HarperCollins will be releasing a previously unpublished Shel Silverstein poem and image, "The Romance," to celebrate National Poetry Month. The poem will appear on a 12-copy floor display featuring all of Silverstein's poetry titles. The poem and image will also be the focus of a retail event kit and classroom kit, which include poetry magnets and bookmarks. Harper will also cross-promote the poem with the Academy of American Poets, which is featuring the poem on its Web site, www.poets.org.

Reaching the Reader?

With this relatively new focus on making children aware of poetry, are children really reading and enjoying it? If growing sales figures are any indication, the answer is yes.

In recent years, a growing number of publishers have begun to publish novels for older readers told in verse, and several of those houses are seeing a fair amount of success in selling narrative poetry. Simon & Schuster did well in hardcover with True Believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff (a 2002 Newbery Honor title) as well as What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones. True Believer has sold more than 50,000 copies in hardcover and over 50,000 in paperback since it was released in spring 2001. What My Mother Doesn't Know is also selling briskly. S&S sold 24,000 copies in hardcover, and the paperback, which came out this February, has 30,000 copies in print.

David Gale, editorial director of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers and editor of What My Mother Doesn't Know, noted that this title, as well as the author's previous novel in verse [Stop Pretending], "work so well because she is taking on such emotional issues and they really lend themselves to poetry. The books are emotional rollercoasters."

Christy Ottaviano, executive editor at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, also recognizes this trend. "There is definitely a resurgence of interest in novels-in-poem," she said. "I think many writers are challenged by the form. Although the form itself is intriguing, I think it only works successfully when it is organic to the telling of the story, rather than a forced construction."

Ottaviano also noted that the authors she has worked with [including Hope Anita Smith and Terri Fields] who have written in this style "didn't initially set out to write a novel-in-poems. They found that the voices of their characters more or less dictated this style, and were best realized through this form."

In order to get older children to read poetry, exposure to it at a young age seems to be crucial. Not only is it a way of introducing children to a different style of writing, but as Sarah Shealy, associate director of publicity at Harcourt Children's Books, puts it, "Poetry is a wonderful genre for kids. They're completely open to it and respond to the rhythm so naturally."

Shealy found that when she taught English at the college level, her students were scared of poetry, and they thought there must be a secret to understanding it. "When kids are exposed to it at an early age," she said, "that fear simply isn't there, and the love of poetry stays with them."

With so many new offerings this season, there is likely a poetry book for every child, whatever his or her taste. And publishers and authors can only hope that children who get turned on to a poem during National Poetry Month and Young People's Poetry Week will start to enjoy poetry all year long.