Read! Read! Read! Poems by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater

Read! Read! Read!
by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater; illus. by Ryan O'Rourke
32 pages; ages 5-10
WordSong, 2017

Real readers will read anything: cereal boxes, maps, field guides, comic books, the sports pages.... So many things to read! So little time!

Poems focus on the ways readers connect to the word and their world. For example - reading road signs while driving to the beach. Or pulling out a paper map - I love maps - and locating yourself in space.

My favorite is "Field Guide" in which a reader, nestled on the couch with a field guide "perched upon my lap" is learning the names of hawks. "I study hawks trapped flat in books so I will know hawks in 3-d," she writes. "...hawk by hawk my field guide teaches me to see." A fun book filled with poems that are perfect for ... reading. 

There is no Perfect Picture Book Friday today. But there is a holiday story contest - so head on over to Susanna Leonard Hill's site where you can find a selection of story entries and links to more. Review copy provided by publisher.

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 Books.  Review copy from the publisher.