In Celebration of National Poetry Month
Poetry Matters is a “how to” book that is a joy to read, particularly if you like poetry. The author says, “Maybe you’ve heard before that poetry is magic, and it made you roll your eyes, but I believe it is true. Poetry matters.” He goes on to explain how important poetry is because it allows us to communicate during difficult times when no other form of expression will work. You can tell he truly feels the power of poetry.
This book is written for preteens, and Ralph Fletcher has obviously spent a lot of time working with young people. He knows what beginning poets need to learn and how to keep their attention. His recommendations are to the point and he’s included a lot of concrete, practical advice on how to get that poem onto paper and then polish it until it is the best it can be. He’s provided the inspiration needed to “light the spark,” and then sprinkled the text with examples of poetry from real kids.
When I picked this book to review I didn’t remember it, but one of the chapters is an interview with Kristine O’Connell George who wrote the wonderful Fold Me a Poem book that I reviewed in the previous post. Here she has a number of useful tips, including the suggestion to tape record yourself reading you poems and then listen carefully when you have time to concentrate. As she says, you can even hear where the commas need to go.
This book is a great resource for older children (and even beginning adults) who are interested in writing poetry. If every school used this book to teach poetry, I am positive that poetry would be everyone’s favorite subject.
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (February 19, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0380797038
ISBN-13: 978-0380797035
Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. For more information, stop by Picture Book of the Day. This week the celebration is at Abby (the) Librarian blogspot.