Soccer Stuff
Photo by Amy LV
from YOU JUST WAIT
and
THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL
Both Books Created and Edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong
Students - Many of us have been new before: to a school, to a neighborhood or family or team or friend group. And while being new is exciting, it can also be a little bit scary. Today's poem is from a brand new book I'm celebrating for Poetry Friday today. The title of the book is YOU JUST WAIT, and it was created by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell. I was honored that they chose this poem of mine (from THE POETRY ANTHOLOGY FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL) to be part of the story.
YOU JUST WAIT is different from most other books as it threads together poems by many poets to make one complete story. And interspersed between the poems are various writing exercises to try out yourself.
This is a neat idea, this taking poems by many people, writing some new ones, and stitching them together to make a new and complete whole. Poems that never knew each other before are now woven together into a book, telling a story. You could try this too - tie connections between others' poems that have never been connected before, and write some of your own new poems to fill in between the cracks. It's like a verse novel marrying an anthology marrying a book of writing ideas!
Many of you may know about the Poetry Friday Anthology Series, published by Pomelo Books, and today I am happy to welcome creators and editors Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell to The Poem Farm.
While YOU JUST WAIT - Pomelo's latest book - is for reading...it is also for writing. Janet joins us today to share thoughts about this newest book. And she is also offering five copies to one winner who comments on today's post. Welcome, Janet...take it away!
Sylvia and Janet Hugging some Poetry Friday Anthologies
Photo by Emily Vardell
While YOU JUST WAIT - Pomelo's latest book - is for reading...it is also for writing. Janet joins us today to share thoughts about this newest book. And she is also offering five copies to one winner who comments on today's post. Welcome, Janet...take it away!
We wanted to try something really different with YOU JUST WAIT: A POETRY FRIDAY POWER BOOK. Last spring I revisited a great post on Lee Bennett Hopkins by Renée M. LaTulippe at her No Water River blog and was reminded by how Lee has always pushed for something new and original with each book.
For instance, his HarperCollins I Can Read Books were groundbreaking in the way they used quality literature as instructional text. Lee was also one of the first to combine nonfiction informational text with poetry—now a standard element in poetry books with a social studies or science connection.
With YOU JUST WAIT and hopefully with forthcoming books in a Poetry Friday Power Book series, we’re also happy to defy categorization. YOU JUST WAIT is a verse novel made for tweens and teens, yes. But it is also a journal for young writers. And a creativity book that encourages kids to doodle and explore their thoughts on life. And a book on poetry instruction, with mentor texts for teachers. All that, rolled into one.
(from page 7 of YOU JUST WAIT): This book offers you several choices for reading, thinking, writing, and responding. Overall, it’s a story in poems, but all of this is also organized in PowerPack groups that help you get a “behind the scenes” look at how poems work and how poets write and think. In each of these PowerPack groups, you’ll find five things:
• PowerPlay activity
• Outside poem (from another poetry book)
• Response poem
• Mentor text
• Power2You poem writing prompt
Below, you can take a look at Powerpack10 from the book. Each Powerpack is organized in the same way, with these same five sections.
(from page 7 of YOU JUST WAIT): This book offers you several choices for reading, thinking, writing, and responding. Overall, it’s a story in poems, but all of this is also organized in PowerPack groups that help you get a “behind the scenes” look at how poems work and how poets write and think. In each of these PowerPack groups, you’ll find five things:
• PowerPlay activity
• Outside poem (from another poetry book)
• Response poem
• Mentor text
• Power2You poem writing prompt
Below, you can take a look at Powerpack10 from the book. Each Powerpack is organized in the same way, with these same five sections.
(Please click to enlarge any images that are too small for you to read.)
From YOU JUST WAIT
Created and Edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell
From YOU JUST WAIT
Created and Edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell
From YOU JUST WAIT
Created and Edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell
From YOU JUST WAIT
Created and Edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell
From YOU JUST WAIT
Created and Edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell
From YOU JUST WAIT
Created and Edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell
What do I want kids to do with the book? I say: “You can write in your book, draw in it, follow the writing prompts to write poems, whatever you want. The book is YOURS. My hope is that kids will really enjoy taking ownership of their books. I want the books to look ragged and well-worn 12 weeks after students receive them. (There are 12 PowerPacks in the book.)
It is a treat to offer not one or two or three or four, but five copies of YOU JUST WAIT to one commenter on this post, enough for a little group to have a lot of fun with this latest addition to the Poetry Friday Anthology Series. Please simply leave a comment on this post by next Thursday, September 15, to be entered into the drawing. I will announce the winner next Poetry Friday, September 16. Thank you to Janet and Sylvia for such generosity. If you win, you'll have five of the first copies...hot off the press.
If you would like to read more about YOU JUST WAIT, Sylvia Vardell is celebrating this book birthday over at Poetry for Children!
It is a treat to offer not one or two or three or four, but five copies of YOU JUST WAIT to one commenter on this post, enough for a little group to have a lot of fun with this latest addition to the Poetry Friday Anthology Series. Please simply leave a comment on this post by next Thursday, September 15, to be entered into the drawing. I will announce the winner next Poetry Friday, September 16. Thank you to Janet and Sylvia for such generosity. If you win, you'll have five of the first copies...hot off the press.
If you would like to read more about YOU JUST WAIT, Sylvia Vardell is celebrating this book birthday over at Poetry for Children!
If you have a link you'd like to share for this week's Poetry Friday roundup, please do so below! I will be out and about commenting through the early part of next week as I'm off on a road trip to Vermont. It's my sweet nephew Luke's first birthday! xo
Please share a comment below if you wish.
