Articles

Showing 1-20 of 26 articles
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Fears, Truths, and Waking Life

    By Jordan Davis
    To use Kenneth Koch’s work with children as a model for your own teach­ing, you have to take children seriously—their feelings, their ideas of beauty, their ways of using language.First, this means...
    Image a Kenneth Koch smiling in front of a classroom.
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Children’s Poetry

    By Eileen Myles
    One of the really good gigs for a poet in the ‘70s was teaching poetry to kids. There seemed to be a lot of public funding for poetry in the schools back then and there were two organizations in ...
    Image of wooden Scrabble tiles spelling the word "POETRY"
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Poetry is an Egg with a Horse Inside

    By Matthea Harvey
    Our concerns as adults and as children are not so different. We want to be surprised, transformed, challenged, delighted, understood. For me, since an early age, poetry has been a place for all these...
    Image of colorful children's drawing, featuring several houses and a park.
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Lift Every Voice

    By Jacqueline Woodson
    I used to be afraid of poetry. I thought it was some secret code only certain people were supposed to understand… But I know now that poetry belongs to all of us.I struggled to read as a child. Sometimes...
    Writer Jacqueline Woodson sitting on a bench outdoors, cropped from the chest up.
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Lullabies for Maniacs

    By Kevin Canfield
    Photo: Mark SeligerAs the voice of the enormously successful pop band 10,000 Maniacs and, more recently, a solo artist with a series of eclectic albums to her credit, Natalie Merchant has written...
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Mary Ann Hoberman: Children's Poet Laureate (2008-2010)

    By Michael Atkinson

                                                  Mary Ann Hoberman. Photo by Lois Dreyer.


    The best children’s poets look at the subjects most parents are...

  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Home Appreciation

    By Susan Thomsen
    When she was a tiny girl, one of Karen Edmisten’s daughters took a shine to Emily Dickinson. Edmisten, a freelance writer and homeschooling mom in the Midwest, recently recalled what it was like ...
    Image of colorful houses on a street in Quebec, Canada.
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    More than Mother Goose

    By Julie Danielson
    For the holidays, we asked the experts at the center of the kidlitosphere—the bloggers of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast—to browse our Essential Collection (compiled by Sylvia Vardell and...
    Image of second-hand children's books on a bookshelf.
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Lunchbox Poems

    By Julie Danielson
    Poetry can be a great way to connect with children. Why not, as Kenn Nesbitt suggests, slip some verses into your children’s lunchboxes to share a giggle or remind them that you’re thinking of them...
    Image of a lunchbox with assorted food and snacks on a wooden table.
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Thank Goodness It’s (Poetry) Friday

    By Susan Thomsen
    It’s an online literary happy hour, without the quaffs (or perhaps with—we’ll know for sure if an entry ever turns up on YouTube): every week, children’s book lovers and bloggers gather in cyberspace...
    Image of the words "It's Friday" in lights on a wooden background.
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Dragons Pulling Wagons

    By Jack Prelutsky
    When the Poetry Foundation named me the first Children’s Poet Laureate, I was delighted and astounded. I’d never expected anything like this. I was delighted because of the recognition for my work...
    Black and white image of the children's poet Karla Kuskin in a scarf, leaning against a pole outside.
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    No Nightmares, Please

    By Jeff Gordinier
    One day it dawns on you that your kid has watched too many episodes of Dora the Explorer. Every time the Dora character known as “Map” shows up on screen and sings, “I’m the Map I’m the Map I’m the...
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    “Never Poke Your Uncle With a Fork”

    By Karen Glenn
    Five Poems NOT to Read before EatingJack Prelutsky’s poems can be frightening or funny. Sometimes they can be both. But these particular poems come with a caution: Don’t read them before breakfast...
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    A Children’s What?

    By The Editors
    The Poetry Foundation inaugurated Jack Prelutsky as the nation’s first “Children’s Poet Laureate” in 2006 at the Pegasus Awards ceremony in Chicago. The award is given to a living poet for a career...
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    A Highly Subjective Guide to Kids’ Poetry

    By Bruce Lansky
    When most people think of children’s poetry, Shel Silverstein, Judith Viorst, Jeff Moss, Jack Prelutsky spring to mind. The poetry I read as a kid predates those poets’ work, so what fun it was for...
    Image of a kid's library
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Listen to This

    By Susan Hutton
    “When I was eight,” says poet and anthologist Elise Paschen, “my parents gave me a poetry anthology. There was a magician on its cover, a raven, a cauldron swirling with stars and smoke, and,” she...
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Again! Again!

    By Sonia Levitin
    When I was child in grammar school, we memorized and recited certain poems every year. Each of us stood and recited them in front of the entire class, and these poems have remained imprinted on my...
    Illustration of a pattern of origami folded animals.
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Mother Goose Makeover: A Sign of the Times

    By Bruce Lansky

    I remember the day I received a copy of The Real Mother Goose after the birth of my son in 1970. I thought, Oh, I remember reading Mother Goose when I was a boy. What a thoughtful gift! Then I...

  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    The New Workhorse of Children’s Literature

    By Joseph T. Thomas Jr.
    The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature, edited by Jack Zipes, Lissa Paul, Lynne Vallone, Gillian Avery, and Peter Hunt.W.W. Norton. $65.00 (Slipcase Edition), $67.50 (Textbook)Last year W.W. Norton ...
  • Essay on Children's Poetry

    Essential Children's Collection: Research

    By The Editors
    RESEARCHFerguson, Margaret, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy, ed. The Norton Anthology of Poetry, Fifth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004.Vardell, Sylvia M. Poetry Aloud Here!: Sharing Poetry With Children...
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