NPM Day 12: The Letter J - Paul B. Janeczko

My book spine poem for NPM 2017:

She walks in beauty

A jar of tiny stars

Awakening the heart

Open the door

House of light 

Pass the poetry, please!

I heard Paul Janeczko speak at NCTE 2014, my first and so-far only NCTE conference.  The session title was"The Lessons Poetry Teaches: A Doorway into Writing"  and included Georgia Heard, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and Paul Janeczko as presenters.  I actually found my notes from this session and this quote from Paul's part of the session:  "Unless we read poetry, we will never have our hearts broken by language."  

I pulled four books by Paul B. Janeczko from my shelf to share for today's post.

1.  Scholastic Guides:  How  to Write Poetry Things I love in this book include the sections on Poetcraft, Try This . . . invitations, and Writing Tip From A Poet which are scattered throughout the book.

2.  Poetry from A to Z:  A Guide for Young Writers  Originally I thought about using this book as a guide for my writing during NPM, so I've avoided looking at it once I settled on an alphabetic theme for my posts. The book includes 72 poems arranged alphabetically by subject or theme, 14 poetry writing exercises, and advice from 23 poets whose works are in the book.

3.  Seeing the Blue Between:  Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets  I checked this out from the library each year for my classroom.  This year I gifted myself a used copy from Amazon.  There are letters of advice from 32 poets written to student writers.   Each letter ends with the poet's signature and includes poems by the poet.  There's a poet in our after school book club that I plan to share this book with next week.  

4.  A Kick in the Head:  An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms  Illustrated by Chris Raschka, this book has 29 poetic forms for students to explore with additional notes on the forms at the back of the book.  Also don't miss A Poke in the I and A Foot in the Mouth.
I love that these titles are all marvelous ways to entice students to write and join us on the poetry playground.  

As I was working on this post, I discovered many other well-loved books of poetry that are anthologies compiled by Paul.  Here are just a few of those additional titles:  Firefly July, Dirty Laundry Pile, Strings:  A Gathering of Family Poems, Pocket Poems, and Hey You!   

Please leave a comment sharing your favorite title, an encounter with the poet, or how you've used Paul Janeczko's books in your classroom.  (Fighting with blogger this morning!  She absolutely refuses to allow me to switch back to black ink, in spite of repeated attempts to update.  I surrender.  She wins!)