For Teachers

Beyond Shel Silverstein: Silly Poetry for Kids

By on November 7, 2018   /   Book Lists, Fiction, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers  

I feel I must clarify. I adore Shel Silverstein. Who doesn’t love “Sarah Cynthia Silvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out”? Or “Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too”? Great stuff. But I fear that children’s poetry, particularly funny poetry, begins and ends with dear old Shel. There is a whole world out there of funny poetry for kids, and some of it even gives Shel a run for his money. These are poems that evoke giggles and guffaws, that insist on being read aloud, and that are perfect for these evenings as the weather gets colder and we want to snuggle by the fire. Check them out! And if you have other suggestions for me, please add them in the comments. I am eager for a few new titles to grab on the next snowy Sunday.

Polka Bats and Octopus Slacks by Calef Brown

Georgie Spider catches flies but never eats the little guys. Instead he cooks them up in pies. He doesn’t use the legs or eyes or any artificial dyes . . . Not far from a greenish town, the Bathtub Driver is selling cut-rate imported shampoo. Georgie Spider serves up award-winning pies, while overhead on Highwire 66 there’s a small problem causing an acrobat traffic jam. Ed’s funny smell, Eliza’s special jacket – they’re all part of the picture in Polkabats and Octopus Slacks, fourteen stories about pesky snails, sleeping fruit, and one funky snowman. In the tradition of Edward Lear, Calef Brown has fashioned fourteen nonsense poems so zany that both young and old will be unable to suppress their laughter. Brown’s invented words and sounds and their visual counterparts create both an audible and a visual feast. This is the kind of silliness children relish.

I’m Just No Good at Rhyming by Chris Harris, Illustrated by Lane Smith

Meet Chris Harris, the 21st-century Shel Silverstein! Already lauded by critics as a worthy heir to such greats as Silverstein, Seuss, Nash and Lear, Harris’s hilarious debut molds wit and wordplay, nonsense and oxymoron, and visual and verbal sleight-of-hand in masterful ways that make you look at the world in a whole new wonderfully upside-down way. With enthusiastic endorsements from bestselling luminaries such as Lemony Snicket, Judith Viorst, Andrea Beaty, and many others, this entirely unique collection offers a surprise around every corner: from the ongoing rivalry between the author and illustrator, to the mysteriously misnumbered pages that can only be deciphered by a certain code-cracking poem, to the rhyming fact-checker in the footnotes who points out when “poetic license” gets out of hand. Adding to the fun: Lane Smith, bestselling creator of beloved hits like It’s a Bookand The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, has spectacularly illustrated this extraordinary collection with nearly one hundred pieces of appropriately absurd art. It’s a mischievous match made in heaven!

What are You Glad About? What are you Mad About? by Judith Viorst

From the beloved and internationally bestselling author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Judith Viorst comes a collection of wry and witty poems that touch on every aspect of the roller-coaster ride that is childhood.

Did you wake up this morning all smiley inside?
Does life taste like ice cream and cake?
Or does it seem more like your goldfish just died
And your insides are one great big ache?

From school to family to friends, from Grrrr to Hooray!, Judith Viorst takes us on a tour of feelings of all kinds in this thoughtful, funny, and charming collection of poetry that’s perfect for young readers just learning to sort out their own emotions.

Scranimals by Jack Prelutsky, Illustrated by Peter Sis

We’re sailing to Scranimal Island,

It doesn’t appear on most maps….

Scranimal Island is where you will find the fragrant Rhinocerose, the cunning Broccolions, and if you are really, really lucky and very, very quiet, you will spot the gentle, shy Pandaffodil. (You may even hear it yawning if the morning’s just begun, watch its petals slowly open to embrace the rising sun.

So put on your pith helmet and prepare to explore a wilderness of puns and rhymes where birds, beasts, vegetables, and flowers have been mysteriously scrambled together to create creatures you’ve never seen before –– and are unlikely to meet again! Your guides –– Jack Prelutsky, poet laureate of the elementary school set, and two–time Caldecott Honor artist Peter Sis – invite you to join them on an adventure you will never forget!

The Popcorn Astronauts and Other Bite-able Rhymes by Deborah Ruddell, Illustrated by Joan Rankin

Take a bite out of the calendar with this cheerful collection of delicious seasonal poems, each one an ode to a favorite food

The daring popcorn astronauts
are brave beyond compare–
they scramble into puffy suits
and hurtle through the air.And when they land, we say hooray
and crowd around the spot
to salt the little astronauts
and eat them while they’re hot.

Dive into a watermelon lake and sing the praises of mac and cheese in this playful and poetic celebration of food. In spring, bow to the “Strawberry Queen” and eat “Only Guacamole.” In summer you’ll meet Bob the Ogre, who only eats corn on the cob, and in fall, you can learn “21 Things to Do with an Apple.” And then in winter, retreat from the cold at “The Cocoa Cabana ” Stellar team Deborah Ruddell and Joan Rankin deliver a whimsical celebration of the tastiest treats of life in this palatable poetry collection.

Ogden Nash’s Zoo by Ogden Nash, Illustrated by Etienne Delessert

A collection of verses about animals from the barnyard to the aquarium and the haunts of the lion and rhinoceros also includes verses about mythical animals.

Kate Hillyer is a middle grade writer and poetry lover who feeds her addiction by serving as a Cybils judge for poetry. She blogs here and at The Winged Pen. You can also find her at www.katehillyer.com and on Twitter as @SuperKate. 

Back to Top

Can Preschoolers Write Bestselling Books?

By on November 5, 2018   /   For Teachers  

How old were you when you first began to write? Some wonderkids began their publishing journey long before others of their age could read, let alone write.

As a kindergartener, Easton V. was reading novels and already had an impressive stack of books he’d written and illustrated. That year, an essay he wrote won an award, was published in a book, and garnered him a Barnes & Noble gift card, which he considered his first royalties.

His prodigious output led to me to search for young authors who’d made the leap to being traditionally published. Because many adult authors struggle to get a commercial house to accept their books, some parents help their children along by publishing their books for them. It’s rare for major publishing houses to accept books by young authors; however, some teens have managed it, and so have some preschool and elementary-aged writers.

Dorothy Straight may be the youngest female author to be commercially published in the United States. Born in 1958 in Washington, DC, Dorothy penned her first book at age four. Her account of creation, How the World Began, came out in August 1964 from Pantheon Books, when she was six years old. Kirkus Reviews praised Dorothy’s artwork for its “refreshing use of color and wild approximation of shape.”

Another four-year-old writer, Daisy Ashford, was born in England in 1881. She began her writing career by dictating a story to her father. That tale, “The Life of Father McSwiney,” wasn’t published until almost one hundred years later. At age nine, Daisy wrote what would become her most famous book, The Young Visiters. When it was finally printed in 1919, Daisy kept her original childish misspellings, even though she was in her thirties.

Third-grader Alec Greven spent a week writing a book of tips for his buddies called How to Talk to Girls. After HarperCollins published it in 2008, the self-help book went on to become a New York Times bestseller. The nine-year-old Colorado author followed up with four other bestselling how-to books.

Nancy Yi Fan was born in China in 1993, but moved to New York state when she was seven. By age eleven, she had begun her first book. Harper Collins accepted her middle-grade fantasy novel, Swordbird, which she completed when she was twelve. Her story went on to become a New York Times bestseller, and Nancy wrote two more books in the trilogy.

Twin brothers from India, Jyoti and Suresh Guptara, learned to read and write when they were three. Together they worked on a 700-page novel, Conspiracy of Calaspia, when they were eleven. After multiple rounds of revisions, the book was published when they were seventeen. It became a bestseller in their country, and the rights were sold to Italy and German for five- and six-figure advances.

Jake Marcionette, of Maryland, finished a diary-type book called Just Jake when he was twelve. Picked up by Grosset & Dunlap, the humorous, colorfully illustrated middle-grade story went on to become a New York Times bestseller in 2014 when Jake was thirteen. He has since added two more books to his comedy adventure series.

Born in Romania in 1988, Flavia Bujor moved with her family to France when she was two. There, Flavia wrote her first book, The Prophecy of the Gems, at age twelve, and HarperCollins released it when she was fourteen. Successful in France, the novel was translated into twenty-three languages.

Canadian author Gordon Corman was twelve when his track-and-field coach became his English teacher. Given the freedom to write whatever he wanted, Gordon set to work on a novel that eventually became This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall. After his mother typed up the manuscript, Gordon sent it to Scholastic, and they published it in 1978, when he was fourteen. He went on to write many books that sold more than 30 million copies.

These are only a few of the many authors who published books when they were elementary students. One trait all these young writers have in common is that they were voracious readers before they became writers. Encourage the young writers you know to read widely and keep putting words down on paper. Soon they might be the next bestselling young author on this list.

Back to Top

Celebrating Little Free Libraries and Their Founder

By on October 29, 2018   /   Articles, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, For Writers, News  

You’ve seen them, right? Little boxes on poles, filled with books, and standing in the most unexpected places.

Brunswick, ME has a Little Free Library down the street from the Brunswick Inn.

The Little Free Library movement began just nine years ago in Hudson, Wisconsin when founder Todd Bol crafted the first book box from an old door. Less than a decade later, there are more than 75, 000 Little Free Libraries in 88 countries.

Of course, Bol’s vision had everything to do with books and reading, but what many don’t know is that building a sense of community was Bol’s ultimate goal. Connecting people to books is one thing. Connecting people to people through books is what makes each Little Free Library so very special.

Ashlyn doesn’t wait to get home to start reading. The Little Free Library in Monroe, Indiana is one of her favorite places to visit.

Last week, Todd Bol died following a very brief illness. He leaves behind a successful non-profit organization that employs 13 people and has more than 75,000 volunteer stewards who maintain the Little Free Libraries around the world.  Author Miranda Paul and illustrator John Parra have been working on a picture book about Bol and his Little Free Library movement. The book is titled “Little Libraries, Big Heroes,” and will be released in 2019.

Listen to Miranda discuss the upcoming book and Bol’s legacy on NPR’s All Things Considered.

 

Little Free Libraries have sprouted up everywhere. They can be found in parks, neighborhoods, outside of businesses and on country roads. Authors Sherri Duskey Rinker and Jane Yolen have placed them in front of their homes.

One day, Sherri’s neighbor called and told her to grab her camera and look at what was happening outside. Sherri snapped this picture.

THIS is exactly what Todd Bol envisioned. Not book boxes on sticks. Hubs of community, sharing, reading, memory-making.

 

This Little Free Library stands outside the Exploration Station at Perry Farm Park in Bourbonnais, Illinois.

 

Recently, my daughter discovered a Little Free Library near her college campus in Illinois. On a rainy day, she placed copies of my books inside, snuggled next to Sharon Creech’s Heartbeat. Knowing that a young reader could wander by and find a story to enjoy there made my day.

 

The Little Free Library at Phoenix Farm, the home of author Jane Yolen.

At some time, I’d like to place a Little Free Library myself. I live on a sprawling, working farm, so my own property would only attract cattle and hogs. I will think of the perfect spot and I’ll carry on Todd Bol’s amazing legacy by signing up to become a Little Free Library steward. You can, as well, by clicking here.

Until then, I’ve resolved to keeping a box of books in my trunk. I won’t pass a Little Free Library without adding my contribution, in memory of and in celebration of Todd Bol.

Back to Top