Hip! Hip!
Hooray!
Today’s the
day – I – post to celebrate
As JoAnn
noted in her Friday post, the anthology, which offers 156 bilingual
(English/Spanish) poems celebrating 156 holidays, is the newest in a series of
Poetry Friday anthologies compiled by award-winning poet Janet Wong and children’s
poetry expert Dr. Sylvia Vardell, Professor in the School of Library and
Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University.
The “transmedia” project offers its
intended audience of K-5 readers and intended users of teachers and librarians
a bounty of opportunities, including:
- a book version in paperback
- collectible trading cards, postcards and posters with poems on them, distributed or in sets as “Pocket Poems cards” or a “Book in a Box
- an e-book version, website and/or app featuring additional materials such as songs, audio readings, poem movies and video versions.
And Good News! Readers can find and print their own cards
for free at the PomeloBooks and PoetryCelebrations websites – as well
as – on Pinterest.
I am so honored
Janet and Sylvia included my March 17 St. Patrick’s Day poem, which appears at the
end of this celebratory post, in their original, child-friendly anthology.
(Check my November 3, 2014 post as to the writing of this poem.)
How terrific of these talented anthologizing
women to answer the following questions asked on behalf of our TeachingAuthors
readers and honestly? – to satisfy my own curiosity as a participating poet.
With
each title in The Poetry Friday Anthology series, you continue to mine new
opportunities that invite young readers to embrace poetry and language. How did The Poetry Friday Anthology for
Celebrations come to be?
JW: Sylvia
is FANATIC when it comes to holidays. Several years ago she loved creating our
ebook holiday anthology, Gift Tag. I think she’s wanted to do a
larger-scale holiday book ever since.
SV:
Yes, it’s true. I do love the preparation and celebration that comes with
birthdays and other special occasions. But I also know that children find
something to celebrate in lots of new moments they are experiencing and I love
that energy and freshness. I’m hoping our book will introduce new ways to look
at some of those familiar celebrations, as well as present brand new holidays
and events that get kids thinking and trying new things.
You invited an august
body of poets to select an occasion and create a relevant poem. What were
some of the challenges of the selection process?
JW: The
hardest part of the selection process: having to say no to terrific poets and
poems. We received triple the poems that we could accept. The 156 poems in both
Spanish and English plus resources plus teaching tips makes the
Teacher/Librarian Edition 372 pages and 1.8 pounds! We fit in as much as we
could.
SV: An
additional challenge was selecting the celebrations themselves. There are so
many more holidays that we would’ve loved to feature. Janet and I went back and
forth over which days to include. She wanted to omit Dewey Decimal Day—but
there was no way that I’d let her do that!
Which celebrations were
most poet-popular/poet-unpopular?
JW: We tried
to limit the number of poems that we would receive for any particular holiday
by steering poets toward unselected (or less-selected) holidays, but many poets
sent us poems for a half dozen or more holidays, including ones that we already
had “covered”—so we had multiple poems to choose from for just about every
celebration. Pizza Day, Pasta Day, Sandwich Day, and Cookie Day were among the
favorites. We poets apparently love our carbs!
Can you share with our
readers your vision for the “trading card” aspect of the experience?
JW: Most
kids love “stuff” more than they love books. A librarian once told me that the
biggest sellers at her book fair were the little necklaces (that happened to
come with a book). Making Pocket Poems® cards is a way to make poetry more
accessible and inviting to everyone. People can find and print their own cards
for free at our websites, PomeloBooks.com and PoetryCelebrations.com.
What has been most
gratifying for you in creating these singular collections?
JW: For me,
the most gratifying thing is that we've been able to inspire lots of educators
(and whole school districts) to integrate poetry PLUS another content
area—poetry plus science, for instance.
SV:
Personally, it’s been so fun to get to know so many poets who write for young
people and sift through hundreds of poems—just a pleasure to read and read and
read poetry. And professionally, I’ve been so gratified at the responses of
teachers and librarians who learn about our anthologies, try the “Take 5”
activities and say with surprise, “I can DO this!” For people who have never
really been comfortable with poetry, that is the best compliment we could get!
Happy St. Patrick's Day, belatedly!
And Happy Poetry Month!
Esther
Hershenhorn
p.s.
Don’t forget
to enter our Book Giveaway to win an autographed copy of Paul Janeczko’s 50th
book, DEATH OF A HAT, illustrated by Chris Raschka. You can enter between now and April 22 (which
just happens to be our SIXTH TeachingAuthors Blogiversary!).
Love your green poem, Esther (and wish I could have written that word in green!)
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Esther - thanks for sharing! Sylvia and Janet are just forces - of poetry, of nature, to be reckoned with, etc. etc. ;0) Your "green" poem is such fun, and I know it will be a big hit with kids.
ReplyDeleteWonderful St Paddy's Day poem, Esther! And I love that it pays homage to Chicago's greening of the river, too.
ReplyDeleteI am so enjoying everyone's celebrations on this book. What a lovely "Green" poem!!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Robyn: Janet and Sylvia are true "forces of nature."
ReplyDeleteThis particular CELEBRATIONS anthology, though, is pure fun.
Creating Poem Cards to share - and carry in your pocket - was pure genius.
Interesting and energetic interview questions inspire interesting and energetic responses. Wonderful, Esther!
ReplyDeleteLove the poem and love the sound of this anthology.
ReplyDeleteFun poem, Esther, and a pot o' gold interview. Loved Janet's comment about poets' love of carbs– guilty as charged!
ReplyDelete