Reading Suggestion: E-Anthology Poetry Tag Time!

     I found out about a neat new anthology that was just launched this week entitled Poetry Tag Time. Author Janet Wong and professor/blogger Sylvia Vardell compiled an collection of poetry that is only available as an "e-anthology" for e-readers. On Amazon for the Kindle it's a reasonable 99 cents. You can also download a free sample to a Kindle as well. In addition, it's available to download to other devices such as a computer or iPhone through this free Kindle app on the website. 

    The format of this collection is unique because it is a total of 30 poems from 30 various well-known children's authors. It starts with a poem from Jack Prelutsky about the moon, which then served as the inspiration for the next poem from Joyce Sidman. In the book, Sidman explains that Prelutsky's poem on the moon led her to think of eggs, which then led her to wonder about where everything is born! The following poem from Nikki Grimes is inspired by Sidman's last word in her poem "sun" which led Grimes to write about sunflowers.  The whole book is a big writing version of "Tag, You're It!" Isn't that a cool way to teach a lesson in a classroom writing community? Since April is National Poetry Month, what a perfect independent writing project that can be passed from one student to another. The feeling that you can inspire another writer would inspire children to be creative and inspire subsequent classroom authors as well. Once edited and revised, the students can publish the poems on the computer, and then the teacher can print and bind the collection for an instant favorite class book!  

    Check out Poetry Tag Time's website! You can learn a bit about each one of the authors as well as read about the concept in the words of the authors. Poetry Tag also has started a neat blog to extend and inspire poetic writing. Even though it has just recently been started, there is already a great post about using Jack Prelutsky's poem for classroom instruction. The blog states that the 30 poems will be celebrated throughout the month of April, so bookmark the page or at it to your blog roll to be reminded of new posts for inspiration! Also, you can check out the blog of Professor Sylvia Vardell for fresh information about children's poetry.