Happy Poetry Friday!
We’re falling big time for Janet S. Wong today with a special Autumn Giveaway. That’s right — one of you lucky munchkins will win the prize pack pictured above — paperback copies of The Rainbow Hand: Poems About Mothers and Children, Good Luck Gold, Declaration of Interdependence: Poems for an Election Year, and Behind the Wheel: Poems About Driving!
This bounty of goodness represents a wonderful cross section of Janet’s inspiring, funny, heartwarming, conversational, honest, always accessible verse. What I especially love about Janet’s poetry is how she’s able to extract meaning and relevance from almost anything — every situation, ordinary or extraordinary, and tell it true. When you hear the voices in her poems, you feel as though you’ve definitely met that person before, or that she’s talking about you, and you wonder, how did she know? has she been reading my mail? has she always lived in my back pocket?
I love the poems in Declaration of Interdependence — it is the perfect way to stimulate discussion about our very interesting why-isn’t-it-over-yet presidential election. In the back of the book, Janet includes some great discussion and writing ideas that really got me thinking, like, “Write a list of the most ridiculous (or scariest or most impractical) ideas you’ve heard from presidential candidates (official and unofficial).” Or, “What would you say to convince someone that his vote counts?” And yes, kids should get to vote!
Jama's Alphabet Soup 