The tears are still flowing in Uruguay. Of this, I am sure. With the death of great Latin American writer Mario Benedetti over the weekend, the people of Uruguay have lost their hero and their muse.
"His literature has been a part of my blood, of my insides, and has been like the air that I breathed in order to grow. And it has always been my compass." Gaba, blogger in Uruguay
Our poetry in a suitcase
I've long suspected my kids think I'm a little crazy when I read poetry to them. Whenever I pull out a children's poetry book, my 22-month-old takes off running to find a toy. My three-year-old indulges me by sitting with me and looking at the pictures in the book, typically requesting I repeat a poem if the visuals and story are particularly appealing, say if the poem is about a school bus. Typically, we spend no more than 15 minutes at a time reading poetry.
Why even bother? After all, most kids this age don't spend 15 minutes on any one activity. Well, because I've got this idea that if they learn to love poetry and the way words sound as they meld together rhythmically, they will learn to love words. More importantly, I believe reading poetry stokes the imagination and helps us to look at the world with more creative eyes.
The problem is that many children's poetry books lack the kind of illustrations that would want to make my three-year-old stick around reading poetry. This means I'm usually reluctant to shell out money for even a great book of children's poetry.
Then I heard about "poetry in a suitcase" from children's author Janet S. Wong, who says it's an easy way to introduce kids to poetry. She talks about it in our interview, as well as here and here. Basically, you fill a suitcase with items that each relate to a poem. The item and the poem are then tied or somehow attached to each other. For example, a poem about dinosaurs could be represented by a plastic dinosaur.
I was fascinated by the idea and decided to try it. Here's what happened:
I started out with this cardboard suitcase.
I think anything around the house could work, but I had something special in mind. First, I went to Ross and found a pink suitcase for $10. I was more interested in the shape and size than the color on the outside so I went for a shabby chic-style pink suitcase that's about 14 inches long and 10 inches deep and about as tall.
I decoupaged it with my children's artwork on the outside, and on the inside with leftover newspaper advertisements from the Los Angeles Times Book Festival, which featured art by children's illustrator Eric Carle.
The whole process took me a lot longer than I anticipated, about several hours altogether. I basically worked on it about an hour at a time, sometimes with my kids helping glue the paper on.
This is what we came up with:
Recognizing their artwork, my kids immediately loved the suitcase and asked everyday if they could play with it. But I had more work to do.
First, I collected all our children's poetry books, including some I had checked out from the library. I went through each one, choosing those I thought would appeal to my children based on the subject matter and those that I knew I could tie to a toy or other item around the house. It was liberating to be able to choose poems based on their merit and not on the accompanying artwork.
I photocopied about 25 poems, then went around our house collecting the items that went with them. Finally, I tied each poem with its matching item using twine, then placed everything in our "suitcase."
Voilá! Our poetry in a suitcase is ready
It was time to face reality. Would all this work on our "suitcase" really entice my kids to be more interested in reading poems? I nervously called them out to the backyard, which I'd chosen because it was a beautiful day and I'll use any excuse to be outdoors.
As soon as they got outside, my kids immediately reached inside the suitcase to check out the goodies.
My daughter took her time choosing
My son reached for the snake, as I knew he would
He immediately took to the idea that each item had a poem attached to it that we would then read.
"Read the poem again, mama," he repeated several times, prompting me to read the poem I'd attached to the plastic snake we bought long ago at a Rainforest Cafe.
I walk behind Mother
through the woods
careful
not to touch the poison oak
she points to with her stick.
She sees snakes before
they move.
She finds her way
by the smell of the trees.
She stops to rest
the very moment
my shoes grow
heavy
and gives me water,
gives me shade
in her steady
shadow.
– In Mother's Shadow from The Rainbow Hand: Poems about Mothers and Children
We talked about the poem. I asked him whether he liked it.
"I like the mother that passed by my snake before my snake moved," he said.
Ah, he was listening!
"Why did you like her?" I asked.
"Huh? Why did I like her? Look at my snake. I really like it."
He moved on, but I didn't care. I knew we would read the poem again, many times. One day, I know he will be able to articulate why he likes the mother in the poem.
My kids explored the items in the suitcase for about half an hour more as I read the attached poems.
Then, their tricycles lured them away. I began to put things away, but about 15 minutes later, my son returned, helmet still on his head, and said, "OK, I'm ready now. I'm ready for more poems."
"Huh?" It was my turn to be speechless. I had thought 45 minutes of poetry had been more than enough, fed by the novelty of the suitcase. But my son was insistent and he sat down beside me.
"I want to read the trash truck poem," he said, fishing out the tiny plastic toy trash bin we got from our local waste management company.
And he sat down to "read" the poem. In all, we spent about 90 minutes with our poetry suitcase that afternoon. At my son's request, I read poems, sometimes the same one over and over, while he and his sister played with the items in the suitcase.
EDS NOTE: I'll update this post after we've taken out our poetry suitcase a few more times to report whether it continues to hold their interest.
Once, Janet S. Wong used to be a Yale-educated attorney, making "a ton of money" negotiating labor contracts for Universal Studios Hollywood. But she realized money wasn't making her happy and she wanted to do something "important" with her life. She ended up writing children's books and traveling the country, talking to kids about poetry. 
Richard C. Owen Publishers, Inc.
Please tell us how you were introduced to poetry, how old you were and how you felt about it. How did this influence your decision to write poetry?
Like most people, I was introduced to poetry in elementary school. Starting about fourth grade, I decided that I didn’t like it. In fairness to poetry, it was poetry homework that I didn’t like. I’m terrible at memorizing poems and I hated picking poems apart to analyze them.
I later came to poetry by accident. I was 29 years old and had just quit my job as a lawyer. I wanted to write picture books, but I heard the poet Myra Cohn Livingston speak at a UCLA Extension day-long seminar on writing for children. I was impressed: I knew I could learn something from her! I didn’t want to learn poetry at the time, but I signed up for Myra’s beginning poetry class with the goal of sharpening my prose. After studying with Myra for nine weeks, I was hooked on poetry.
I read that you obtained your law degree from Yale and were a practicing attorney for several years, including at Universal Studios Hollywood. Then, you decided to write books, specifically poems and stories, for children. Briefly, what happened that made you want to pursue such a different field?
After paying off my student loans, I felt a tremendous freedom. I had never really wanted to be a lawyer in the first place, and with my loans paid, I was eager to reshape my life and wanted to work with kids. In that frame of mind, I found myself browsing in a children’s bookstore, looking for a gift for my young cousin. Next thing I knew, I had an armload of picture books for two-year-olds that I wanted to buy…for myself! The thought hit me: Somebody wrote these books. Why not me?
Does your heritage play a role in your work as a poet and ambassador of children's poetry?
My early books, especially "Good Luck Gold" and "A Suitcase of Seaweed" contain a number of poems that reflect my Asian heritage. I also have several picture books with Asian themes, such as "The Trip Back Home" (about my trip to Korea when I was five years old) and "This Next New Year" (about the lunar new year as a time for hope, and a fresh start). But my books with non-Asian characters and themes are important to the “ambassador” role, too. I visit dozens of schools each year, and I’m happy that non-Asian kids can identify with me as an Asian-AMERICAN, someone permitted to write about non-ethnic topics such as hide-and-seek, Dumpster diving, and yoga.
I love that in your testimonials about your work, you include statements from a fifth-grader named Geoff and other young students, along with those of a university English professor and other educators. Why do you this?
I’m embarrassed now because my Web site is a bit out-of-date, and I don’t know if all of those testimonials are still valid! “Fifth grader Geoff” is probably in high school by now! To answer your question, though, I included comments from a variety of individuals because I’m really proud of being able to connect with readers of all ages. Teachers and librarians often rush to tell me how a certain poem or story reminded them of their own childhood memory, while kids will say, “Your poem is about something that happened to ME last week!”
You say that poetry is a great tool for teaching reading and writing. Would you please elaborate a little on this? How can the average parent do this?
The main reason that poetry is a great tool for teaching reading and writing is simple: most poems are short. A parent might not feel like reading a whole picture book at bedtime, but might be willing to spend the thirty seconds it takes to read one poem! Similarly, a teacher can easily slip in a poem at the end of the day, as I describe in my essay “Five Minutes Before the Bell.” Also, if a short poem becomes a favorite, a child might easily “happen” to memorize it, and this will make it easy to be read.
On writing: the same reason, the short length of a typical children’s poem, makes it easy to write one. (I’m not saying that all kids will be able to write a GOOD poem, but they will be able to write something that can legitimately be considered a poem.) It’s hard for a beginning writer to write a novel, or a short story, or an essay, but a two-line poem is quite manageable.
Any other ideas for ways that busy parents can easily add poetry to their lives?
In my “Meet the Author” book, "Before It Wriggles Away," I talk about how I write bits and pieces of poems in unlikely places (such as in the car, while waiting for my son at school, or in the dentist’s office, if I happen to arrive early). And in "Minn and Jake's Almost Terrible Summer," Jake keeps a notebook of ideas for video games (because he wants to be a millionaire video game developer by the time he is 13 years old). Parents can encourage kids to write by keeping little notebooks in the car – one for each child, and also one for the driver. When you notice something odd while driving, mention it, jot it down as soon as you can, and try to write a little poem about it later. Parents can model this behavior and inspire their children to follow their example!
Illustration from Minn and Jake's Almost Terrible Summer
I scour thrift shops for books for my kids. I find it's an affordable way to build up my kids' home library and have been fortunate to find at least a dozen books of poetry for children. Other parents might not be so fortunate to find books this way. Besides public libraries, are there other resources you would recommend for parents who don't have a lot of money?
Buying used books is a great way to build a library, and it’s pretty easy to find good used books of poetry. Poetry books are particularly good purchases; you might not re-read a novel more than once, but you’re likely to re-read your favorite poems ten or twenty times. One neat “game”—an easy way to liven up a reading session and get your money’s worth from a book of poems—is to tell a child to pick a number at random, “1-32.” If they pick 31, you can then read the poem on page 31. The surprise element makes things fun.
Another good resource for finding cheap books (besides the library): become friends with your local independent bookseller. Small stores sometimes receive unbound review copies that they use to make decisions about which new books to order. After they’re finished with them, they might be willing to give them away (or might at least let you borrow them). This way, you can read brand-new books that your library doesn’t even have yet.
Another idea: if you are passionate about books, start a blog, or offer to write book reviews for the local newspaper or your child’s school. After you’ve done a few great reviews, send them to publishers—and they might start sending you review copies.
How old is your son and does he enjoy poetry as much as you do?
My son is sixteen. To say that he “likes poetry” might be stretching the truth, but I can honestly say that he likes writing a short poem for homework much more than writing a long essay!
Anything else you would like us to know about your work or incorporating poetry into children's lives?
Poems are a great way to capture your favorite family memories. Think of poems as “word-photographs.” How many times have you wished that you had a memory stored on camera? Well, while you can’t go back and re-create video of a lost moment, you can write a poem about it, and preserve and relive the memory that way.
My Son's Room
Eds Note: I had no idea of the literary delights that would come my way when I first contacted Janet. She replied to my interview request right away and I planned to post about her weeks ago. Then, the books started arriving at my home, thanks to Janet's requests to her publishers. They were all children's books, but I was smitten anyway with the words and beautiful illustrations, and read the books so I could tell you a little about them.
"Poetry's all about imagination, about looking at the ordinary and transforming it; it almost has a Midas touch."
-- Carol Ann Duffy, Britain's newly named royal poet, first woman to hold the post in its 341-year history
The Guardian newspaper
It will be interesting to see how Carol, a poet acclaimed by critics and the public alike, handles her responsibilities to the monarchy in her new post. The inventive poet is known for using humor and satire in writing about everything from housewives to Elvis.
Posts
All Comments
