Young People’s Poetry Week

CELEBRATE YOUNG PEOPLE'S POETRY WEEK (APRIL)

Young People's Poetry Week is your chance to encourage everyone to celebrate poetry--read it, enjoy it, write it--in their homes, childcare centers, classrooms, libraries, and bookstores. During the third week of April, the Children's Book Council sponsors Young People's Poetry Week, in collaboration with the Academy of American Poets, sponsor of National Poetry Month, and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

The Children's Book Council provides an extensive list of online resources for celebrating Young People's Poetry Week--including ideas for teachers, librarians, booksellers and parents. You'll find party ideas, poem starters, crossword puzzles, award certificates, lists of poetry books for kids, articles on sharing poetry with young people, and a Q&A with Jane Yolen, the official poet of Young People's Poetry Week 2004. You can also find advice at the poets.org exhibit "Serious Play: Reading Poetry to Kids."

To find out more, visit http://www.cbcbooks.org.

 NEW POEMS

Poets.org is excited to bring you more poems from new books of poetry being published this spring, including a selection of children's poems from HarperCollins Children's Books just in time for Young People's Poetry Week.

From HarperCollins Children's Books:

"A Nest Full of Stars" by James Berry
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C05040B72

"Footfalls" by Sharon Creech
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C05040B76

"To market, to market" by Nina Crews
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C05040B73

"In the Land of Words" by Eloise Greenfield
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C0504087B

"Gladdening" by Jessie Haas
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C05040874

"San Antonio" by Naomi Shihab Nye
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C0504087A

"A Sock Is a Pocket for Your Toes" by Elizabeth Garton Scanlon
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C05040B71

"Tales from Gizzard's Grill" (an excerpt) by Jeanne Steig
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C05040B70

"Mr. Grumpledump's Song" by Shel Silverstein
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C05040B77

"Coming Up Into the Light" by Julie Williams
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C05040875