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April 30: Celebrating Children’s Day, Book Day
In just a few days, we’ll be celebrating El día de los niños, El día de los libros; Children’s Day, Book Day. It’s officially on April 30, but you can certainly celebrate books and children any day!...
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May 4-10, 2015 Celebrating Children’s Book Week
Another big celebration of children and books is coming up soon:National Children’s Book Week, May 4-10, 2015It used to be in November, but it’s been a May event for awhile now and I’m happy to report...
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Celebrating Poem in Your Pocket Day
Today is also "Poem in Your Pocket Day" and the perfect moment to encourage kids to find a new or favorite poem, copy it on an index card, and keep it in their pockets to enjoy and savor all day long...
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May 4-8, 2015 Celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week
Yes, April 2015 is over now, but that doesn’t mean we’re “done” with poetry! Not in my corner of the cybersphere! First, I have one more video created by my hard-working graduate students. This one is...
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Celebrating World Red Cross Day
Today, May 8, is World Red Cross Day and of course we have featured it in our new book, The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations. Our featured poem, "Look for the Helpers," is byMichelle Heidenrich...
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The Symbiosis of Science and Poetry
Janet and I were so thrilled to get an article published in the latest issue of ALSC's Children and Libraries. The focus is on science and poetry and begins like this:Sometimes unlikely partners can...
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Poet to Poet: Holly Thompson interviews Margarita Engle
I'm pleased to post another installment in my ongoing "Poet to Poet" series in which one poet interviews another poet about her/his new book. This time it's Holly Thompson and Margarita Engle who have...
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New Young People's Poet Laureate: Jacqueline Woodson
I'm so excited to announce that the next Young People's Poet Laureate has been selected. It's Jacqueline Woodson!Jacqueline is the multi-award winning author of approximately 30 books for children and...
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Poet to Poet: Amy Ludwig VanDerwater Interviews Lee Wardlaw
I'm pleased to post another installment in my ongoing "Poet to Poet" series in which one poet interviews another poet about her/his new book. This time it's Amy Ludwig VanDerwater and Lee Wardlaw who...
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YALSA at ALA in San Francisco
It's time for the annual conference of the American Library Association, this time in San Francisco, California! I'm lucky enough to be presenting alongside an amazing panel, thanks to YALSA. Here's...
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Poetry for young people in South Africa
I have been so lucky to be attending the IFLA conference (for libraries and librarians) in Cape Town, South Africa. It's been an opportunity to serve on the standing committee for the Literacy and...
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Welcome to the Poetry Friday Neighborhood
I just returned from Cape Town, South Africa, where I attended the IFLA conference (for librarians worldwide) and had the opportunity to do several talks about poetry in a variety of locales (including...
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BOOK LINKS: The Past through Poetry and Picture Books
You probably know that I'm a big fan of ALA's Book Links magazine and have been writing a poetry column for that publication for over a decade now. And now they're celebrating their 25th anniversary....
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Celebrate POET
In a wonderful confluence of variables, author and illustrator Don Tate was in Chapel Hill, North Carolina as part of his book tour for his new picture book, Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses...
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Reverse engineering: Picture book + poetry pairings
Eight years ago, I published an article in Book Links magazine that matched picture books with parallel poems, so that teachers and librarians who read the picture book aloud could have a poem on the...
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Let’s Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month
We’re devoting this post to National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - October 15) celebrated in the poem, "I Can Ask and I Can Learn" by Janet Wongfrom The Poetry Friday Anthology for...
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The Poetry of Place: Celebrating Geography in Poetry
I just got a copy of the new anthology, Amazing Places, selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and I was tickled pink to see that the State Fair of Texas was included in the 14 landmarks across the U.S....
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Celebrate Star Wars Reads Day with POETRY
I may have mentioned before that I'm a big Star Wars nerd! I have loved the movies, characters, and lore since 1977 and even attend the conventions or Star Wars "Celebrations" with my family. So I was...
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Audio Poetry
I'll be at the biennial IBBY regional conference hosted by USBBY this weekend-- in New York! I'm presenting along with the lovely Rose Brock on "Through the Looking and Listening Glass: How Audiobooks...
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Teen Read Week: Poem #1 "Restless" by Joyce Sidman
Teen Read Week starts today and in honor of this year's theme, "Get Away @ your library,"I'm posting a poem a day from The PFA for Middle School. Here's the first installment by the lovely Joyce...
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