Friday, October 14, 2016

Teen Read Week

It's Teen Read Week this week and a fun time to showcase poetry for young adults. October has been the month for celebrating Teen Read Week since 1988, a time to encourage teens to be regular readers and library users” according to the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). At YALSA you’ll find many great programs and strategies to try, as well as a list of Teens’ Top Ten “teen choice” books, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year.

I did a blog post about poetry for Teen Read Week for Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday this week, so you can find more info about poetry for YA there including recommended anthologies of poetry for YA, books of poetry BY teens, and suggested resource books on writing poetry with teens. Check it out. 

Of course, I'd also like to feature a few poems from my collaborations with Janet Wong, The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School and You Just Wait. I just love all the poems those 70+ poets created for us! I made a few new digital poem postcards featuring their poems to share with you here and you'll find them on Pinterest too. 

Here's "Black Ice" by Joseph Bruchac along with a "mentor text" poem by Janet Wong in response to Bruchac's poem (below) and a response activity for teen writers from You Just Wait.













Here's "Who Am I?" by Margarita Engle along with a "response poem" AND a "mentor text" poem both by Janet Wong in response to Engle's poem (below) and a response activity for teen writers-- all from You Just Wait.





And if you'd like to see how one poem connects with ALL of the activities in You Just Wait, here's one example with Robyn Hood Black's "Locker Ness Monster" as the featured poem at the heart of things. 






Now head on over to Live Your Dream, where the lovely poet Irene Latham is hosting Poetry Friday. See you there!

11 comments:

Linda B said...

I am one of Robyn's winners of Just You Wait, will look forward to reading more! As for Black Ice, I just discovered a picture book by Mireille Messier, a Canadian writer titled The Branch, about the perils of black ice, and the positive result as well. It's a lovely book!

Sylvia Vardell said...

Yahoo! So glad you've won a copy of YOU JUST WAIT. We'd love your feedback. And how cool to make that black ice connection!

Violet N. said...

I'm so glad I bought You Just Wait at Poetry Camp! It's such a fun, inviting format. What you two have put together in these Poetry Friday books for students and teachers is nothing short of amazing!

Sylvia Vardell said...

Thanks so much, Violet! Your praise means so much to us and we appreciate your help getting the word out to teachers and students too. SO GLAD we could finally meet face to face!

Anonymous said...

I'm loving the snippets I see from 'You Just Wait' around the interwebs. Mayhaps I should send some links to the various education departments in Australia - to shape future poetry curriculum, making it real and engaging.

Irene Latham said...

These postcards are fabulous! No surprise, of course... the Bruchac one gets me every time. Thank you! xo

Sylvia Vardell said...

Hey, thanks for the love from Australia-- and yes, please send links around down under! Let me know if you need some digital jpgs and flyers.

And thank you, Irene, for the postcard love. We really enjoy creating those and your "Backpack" poem and "Let's Celebrate the Elephant" are two of my favorites!

Janet Wong said...

katswhiskers: Thanks, as always, for your great comments & support! I think that our Poetry Friday books are available at Amazon.au; please check and let us know if they're available in paperback or only as ebooks, OK? (I tried accessing .au but it kept taking me to .com) Thanks, Janet

Linda Mitchell said...

Wonderful post! Love the ideas and inspiration every time I stop by. I love sharing your work with teachers at my middle school.

Brenda at FriendlyFairyTales said...

I was sad to not be a winner, because the book looks like fun. Luckily I have the phenomenal cosmic power (of my credit card). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfTfXLLJlzM LOL

Janet Wong said...

Brenda Harsham: HOORAY for the phenomenal cosmic powers of our credit cards!!! (AmEx = BOOKS!!!)