Friday, April 8, 2016

Jumping Off Library Shelves



It's National Poetry Month, so I'm featuring poetry on my blogs. Last week it was about animals hiding. Now it's about books that are...

Jumping Off Library Shelves    
by Lee Bennett Hopkins; illus. by Jane Manning
32 pages; ages 5 & up
WordSong, 2015

Theme: libraries, reading, imagination

Morning pours spoons of sun through tall windows…. hovers over crumbs, small supper scraps left by those who opened books last night…

Libraries are wonderful places – you never know what you might find jumping off the shelves. In this anthology of fifteen poems, you’ll find everything from breakfast to adventure.

What I like about this book:

A library can be a refuge, a treasure-house, a portal to adventure. And all you need is a plain, pocket-sized piece of plastic to access its riches. A library card can be …more powerful than a hundred apps. There’s a poem about magic, one about reading with a dog, and one about the secret life that goes on in libraries after midnight. I also love the poets included in this anthology: Jane Yolen, J. Patrick Lewis, Nikki Grimes, X.J. Kennedy, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater and more.

Beyond the book: Visit the nearest library. What does it look like? How big is it? How many steps does it take to walk all the way around the outside? What is the door like?

If you don’t have a library card, get one. It is a ticket to the universe. You’ll probably need a photo ID and proof of where you live.

Take a field trip through the library. Make a map of what you discover. What do the ceilings look like? What about the floors? (our library has glass floors in the stacks so light can travel from one level to the next)

Have a library adventure. Here are 25 things you can do in a library besides check out books.
http://mamascouts.blogspot.com/2012/12/25-mini-adventures-in-library.html

Do a library scavenger hunt – but make sure you let the library staff know what you are doing. You can download a list here.

Today is PPBF (perfect picture book Friday) over at  Susanna Leonard Hill's site. She keeps an ever-growing list of Perfect Picture BooksReview copy from the publisher.


10 comments:

  1. I absolutely love the cover and title of this book! This is a winner. Great to encourage children to visit libraries. Great activities!

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  2. I want to read this one! I don't read enough poetry.

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  3. I love Lee Bennett Hopkins! Happy Poetry Month! Thanks.

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  4. Yay for libraries! Couldn't live without one. Great title!! Thanks for sharing.

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  5. The library is my second home! I'll be looking for this one - thanks!

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  6. Thanks for the recommendation, new one to me. Can't wait to read it.

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  7. I love Lee Bennett Hopkins' poetry anthologies. I have not read this one yet though. Thanks for telling us about it.

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  8. I need to link to this in my interview with Lee this week!

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  9. I <3 the library. Always have. And when I was a child, a children's poetry book was my favorite. I'll have to check this one out. :)

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  10. The word choices in these poems is fantastic!

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