Read What Is Poetry? The Essential Guide to Reading and Writing Poems Michael Rosen Jill Calder 9781536201598 Books

Product details Age Range 8 - 12 years Grade Level 3 - 7 Hardcover 208 pages Publisher Candlewick (January 8, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1536201596

What Is Poetry? The Essential Guide to Reading and Writing Poems Michael Rosen Jill Calder 9781536201598 Books Reviews

• Michael Rosen, at one time the British Children's Laureate, is a wise old man (and was, a long time ago, a very clever and funny young man) who has spent decades writing FOR children, and exploring ways of HELPING children do their OWN writing.
  
  His own poetry is often funny, sometimes wry, sometimes profoundly sad -- but isn't life like that?
  
  His suggestions about how teachers and parents can help school students and children develop skills in creative writing, especially poetry, and a passion for thoughtful self-expression, in previous books such as "Did I Hear You Write?" (1989 -- the pun in the title is typical of Rosen's rollicking sense of humour -- and wit!), and in this new and definitive book, are a goldmine for teachers!
  This book is easy to engage with, extremely practical, and highly infectious.
  
  Rosen is a writer-educator with a wide range of interests, and a fluent ability to grapple with complex topics, shedding fresh light, and helping people be BETTER people, even if it is, as in this book, "merely" by writing poetry -- but writing it very well.
  
  ANY book by Michael Rosen can be VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
  This book joins the Michael Rosen Pantheon.
  Do yourself a favour and read it, and then start using it, with your children, with your students, or just for yourself!
  
  (I confess that, like Rosen, I have worked, for about forty years, trying to help teachers, parents, students, children and adults write poetry, and have published my own articles on this. I have found myself, for much of those forty years, returning again and again to Rosen for ideas, and pleasure!)
  John Gough -- Deakin University (retired) -- jagough49@gmail.com
• I have a confession to make. I am a slush reader for two online magazines and used to be a slush reader for a beautiful poetry magazine called Quarterday Review. As a slush reader, or first reader, my job is to read submissions when they are first sent to the magazines. The two magazines I read for now and the poetry magazine all get poetry submissions by the hundreds. Most magazines allow four or five poems per submission, so the poetry queue is always longer than the prose. Plus, almost every slush reader hates to read and review poetry because not many understand it or feel qualified to judge poetry since it seems such a nebulous thing. A story is great or is stinks. A poem? Hard to tell.
  
  Sometimes, the first readers aren’t even sure if the submission is a poem or not. What is a poem? What is the difference between a poem and prose? It is confusing at times. I decided to read and review this book since I was hoping Mr. Rosen could clarify what is poetry, even though this is reportedly a book for children. He did! Thank you Mr. Rosen! I have a better idea what poetry is now. I will use this information to better be able to read poetry submissions with a clearer view.
  
  The book is written for children, but I recommend it for all would be poets. It start with the question What is Poetry? Other chapters include what you can do with a poem, his thoughts when he was writing some poems, ways to start a poem, actually writing the poems, technical points of writing poetry and finally circles around to the question –What is Poetry?
  
  The first chapter is gold. I always wondered what makes a poem. Is it is poem just because the writer says it is? I have rejected several poems because it was clear it was just a story broken up into lines pretending to be poetry. The author tells us don’t ask what a poem is but what does a poem DO? Ah! The answer to my question. He tells us poems suggest things, can give us impressions, play with words, be symbolic, be personal, can borrow voices and capture a moment in time, be ironic, make new sense, and make the unfamiliar familiar and the familiar strange.
  
  What can I do with this information? Besides the usual scanning of the poem (looking for rhyme and rhythm, following the form if a formal form poem) I will check for these questions in other’s poems and in my own.
  
  Throughout the book are great children’s illustrations and of course, poems to read as examples. He does get into basic scansion of a poem but uses easy to understand terminology along with the traditional ones. I love how he gives poets ideas of how to use poetry like reading it aloud in a group or poetry groups and submissions.
  
  All in all, I highly recommend this book for children, teachers, beginning poets and experienced ones. I learned something. Maybe you will too!
  
  I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.
• Michael Rosen has created a marvelous tool to make poetry (the reading and writing of it) accessible to people of all ages (but young people in particular will enjoy his book). Poetry is a marvelous form of self expression and a way to explore thoughts, feelings and ideas in a creative manner. Rosen writes in a very engaging, kid-friendly manner--no boring lectures here! The first part of the book convinces the reader of the awesome things that poetry can do such as Suggest things, Play with words, Be personal, Borrow voices, Capture a moment, Be ironic, Flip reality, Give an impresssion, or Be symbolic.
  
  I LOVE how Rosen makes poetry come alive by sharing examples and giving insight into what a poem can communicate and relay through words. Rosen goes on to discuss what people can do with a poem (other than the obvious--read it). He teachers his audience to ask questions, look for connections, commit it to memory or use poetry with other forms of art like putting a poem to music or painting a picture to go with a poem.
  
  Rosen then helps the reader get started writing poems by offering suggestions on how to get creative juices flowing and also ideas for topics to write about. I would recommend this book to any classroom teacher--from elementary through high school. This would be also be a great resource in a school or home library to serve as a continued reference for poetic exploration. There are so many ways I could recommend using this book Start a poetry club at school or the local library, programming for seniors in independent living, summer activity to keep language skills sharp, family guide to enjoying and creating poetry, special activity for a parent and child or a parent and grandchild
  Grab a copy of What is Poetry? and experience the mystery and wonder of poetry! Whether you read or write it, poetry is an important part of our history and culture.