Mar/Apr 2008

April celebrates Poetry Month (including Young People's Poetry Week) in the United States, and PaperTigers is delighted to join the festive cadences.

Late poet James Dickey once said that “The beginning of your true encounter with poetry should be simple. It should surpass all classrooms, all textbooks, courses, examinations and go straight to the things that make your own existence exist.” We bear that in mind as we open the door to the experience of poetry for young people.

In this update you'll find plenty to encourage all forms of participation and to help you discover what rhymes with the joy of bringing poetry to life.

Personal Views:

In Waking Up on the Right Side of the Poetry Bed, Aline Pereira celebrates the idea that any time is the right time to share poems with young dreamers...

In The Many Possibilities of Poetry, poet Lara Saguisag speaks of her path to answering the pull of poetry and understanding its possibilities...

This reprint of Sylvia Vardell's Pairing Poems Across Cultures offers timely insights on the similarities and differences in poetry from parallel cultures. Sylvia's expertise can also be gleaned from Cynthia Leitich Smith's 2007 interview, reprinted here with permission.

And in a reprint from his series of "Teaching Poems for Children," teacher and poet Robert Hull suggests ways of exploring a particularly atmospheric Chinese poem in the classroom and recommends some accessible collections of Chinese poetry.

Interviews revisited:

In addition to our new interview with Janet S. Wong, be sure to check out our archived ones with poets Truong Tran, Pat Mora, Gary Soto and Jorge Argueta.

Book reviews:

Reviews of poetry books featured on PaperTigers through the years will give you much to (re)discover and be inspired by. Check out our celebratory list here.

And don't miss the new reviews from PaperTigers, CCBC and Books for Keeps.

Lists & Links:

These reading lists and links to online resources and articles should prove useful in painting the bigger picture of children's poetry.

Enjoy all your excursions and diversions... in April and all year long!