American Children’s Poet – Poetry Roundabout

A to Z Blog Challenge 2018

C is for American Children’s Poet Cynthia Cotten, #AtoZChallenge #ZtoA

Posted on April 27, 2018April 5, 2018 by Liz Brownlee

Cynthia Cotten

Cynthia Cotten has been writing fiction and poetry for young people for more than 30 years. She has published several critically-praised picture books, including Snow Ponies, This Is The Stable, and The Book Boat’s In, and has poems included in numerous collections, including America at War, Jumping Off the Library Shelves, illustrated by Jane Manning, here in the US, here in the UK, and World Make Way, here in the US, here in the UK, all edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins. She lives in Lockport, New York (not far from Niagara Falls), in a house on the banks of the historic Erie Canal. Her website is here.

Here is one of Cynthia’s poems:

MY CARD

This may look

like a plain,

pocket-sized

piece of plastic

but it’s really a

super-card.

More powerful than

the smartest phone,

more powerful than

a tv remote,

more powerful than

a hundred apps,

my library card

unlocks the world

and more

with a single

scan.

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You can hear more about children’s poets and poetry, if you follow The Children’s Poetry Summit, @kidspoetsummit on Twitter

A to Z Blog Challenge 2018

G is for American Children’s Poet Charles Ghigna, #AtoZChallenge #ZtoA

Posted on April 23, 2018April 22, 2018 by Liz Brownlee

Charles Ghigna

Charles Ghigna – or Father Goose® as he is often known, lives in a treehouse in the middle of Alabama and is the author of more than one hundred books. He has written more than five thousand poems for children and adults that have appeared in anthologies, newspapers and magazines. Not only does he speak at schools, conferences, libraries, and literary events throughout the U.S. and overseas, he has read his poems all over the world. More information can be read in the spotlight on Charles Ghigna, here. His website is here, and this is a link to his latest book, The Night the Forest Came to Town, illustrated by Annie Wilkinson.

Charles is a wonderful supporter of children’s poetry and poets. Here is one of his lovely poems:

The Cold Gray Days of Winter

In the cold gray days of winter

When the sky turns iron blue

And the leafless trees stand silent

With nothing left to do,

There comes a cry across the land

That carries seeds of spring,

The echo of the distant hawk,

The sun upon his wing.

Click on the title of the post if you are on the home page to be taken to the post’s page where you will be able to comment! Thank you!

You can hear more about children’s poets and poetry, if you follow The Children’s Poetry Summit, @kidspoetsummit on Twitter

A to Z Blog Challenge 2018

L is for American Children’s poet B. J. Lee, #AtoZChallenge #ZtoA

Posted on April 17, 2018April 18, 2018 by Liz Brownlee

B. J. Lee

B. J. Lee lives in Florida. Her poems appear in anthologies, including Construction People (ed. Lee Bennett Hopkins), The National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry and The Poetry of US (ed. J. Patrick Lewis), One Minute Till Bedtime, illustrated by Christoph Niemann (ed. Kenn Nesbitt), available here in the US and here in the UK, and many others. Her debut picture book is coming soon.Here are B. J.’s Website and Poetry blog

This is her lovely poem and photo illustration, first published by Renée LaTulippe on her website, No Water River.

Click on the title of the post if you are on the home page to be taken to the post’s page where you will be able to comment. Thank you!

You can hear more about children’s poets and poetry, if you follow The Children’s Poetry Summit, @kidspoetsummit on Twitter

A to Z Blog Challenge 2018

L is for American Children’s Poet J. Patrick Lewis, #AtoZ Challenge #ZtoA

Posted on April 17, 2018April 15, 2018 by Liz Brownlee

J. Patrick Lewis

After a wild and rugged youth as a bronco rider, lobster fisherman, opera singer, confidential police informant, Economics professor, and Russian spy—he has been to Moscow thirteen times (shhh!)—J. Patrick Lewis is now in the Federal Witness Protection Program in XXXX, Ohio, USA with XXXX, his wife, and two vicious K-9 guard toy poodles. Please do not ask to see his secret tattoos. His alter ego, J. Patrick Lewis poet, has published 110 children’s picture and poetry books to date with Knopf, Atheneum, Dial, Harcourt, Little, Brown, National Geographic, Creative Editions, Chronicle, Scholastic, and others. The Poetry Foundation named him the third U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate (2011-2013). Recent books include the series Let’s Celebrate Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving and Halloween, and Everything is a Poem: The Best of J. Patrick Lewis. His website is here.

Here is one of his lovely poems;

How the Yellow Jacket

Lost her Shyness

The King of England

Once was stung

Upon his royal bottom,

And you could hear

A yellow jacket

Yell, “Oh, boy, I got ‘im!”

And that is how

The yellow jacket

Finally lost her shyness,

And how the English

Came to call the King

“His Royal Highness!”

Click on the title of the post if you are on the home page to be taken to the post’s page where you will be able to comment. Thank you!

You can hear more about children’s poets and poetry, if you follow The Children’s Poetry Summit, @kidspoetsummit on Twitter