Explore Poetry with SINCE THE BABY CAME by Kathleen Long Bostrom

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  We are excited to have guest post by Kathleen Long Bostrom, author of Since the Baby Came: A Sibling’s Learning-to-Love Story in 16 Poems , talking about the process of writing the book and sharing some ideas for discussing and poetry writing! Read : Since the Baby Came: A Sibling’s Learning-to-Love Story in 16 Poems by Kathleen Long Bostrom, illustrated by Janet Samuel I love poetry and rhyme, and always have. I grew up with a mother who often recited poetry and I learned to read with Dr. Seuss books. It’s no wonder I turned to poetry when I began writing picture books for children.  At a children’s book conference one day about 12 years ago, I asked my friend, an editor for an educational publishing house, “What are the areas in early education where more good books are needed?”  Without hesitation, she replied, “Poetry.”  Many of my published books were written in poetry, but what could I write that was unique? Aha! I thought. What if I wrote a story using a variety of styles of
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Parent and Child Poetry Challenge: Acrostic Poems

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To jump start this year's Read, Discuss, Do Poetry Challenge, we're exploring acrostic poems! Acrostic poems are poems in which the first letters of each line spell out the poem's subject. Acrostics can be pretty easy to write because the lines can be long, short, or a mix of both, and they don't have to rhyme. They can be simple, with every line being a word to describe the topic. Or they can be complex, with lots of interesting language and rhyme and rhythm! Often, they are somewhere in between.

A wonderful book of acrostic poems is AFRICAN ACROSTICS: A WORD IN EDGEWAYS by Avis Harley. This book is full of creative acrostic poems, including a few variations that may surprise you. It also includes explanations of the different variations as well as tips on how to write them in the back of the book.

Acrostics are a great way to introduce poetry to budding poets. Try starting with a familiar subject, such as a pet or favorite animal. For example:

C

A

T

Once you've got your subject, encourage your child to think of a word or phrase for each letter of the subject. Example:

Cute and cuddly

Always napping

Tries to catch mice

Be sure to spend some time brainstorming. You don't have to use the first thing that comes to your mind. You could also write more than one poem on the same subject and compare them!

Acrostics can also be a way to challenge more seasoned poets. Encourage older writers to be more creative with their word choice and experiment with stringing each line together so that it reads more like a free verse poem than a list, such as in the graphic above. It can also be fun to challenge kiddos (and yourself) to be creatively concise, like in the example below:

Cute

And

Tyrannical

Remember: this challenge is about exploring and writing poetry together with your children. But we encourage you to let your child take the lead once he or she is comfortable. 

Need more help? Here is a video lesson on writing acrostic poems on poetry4kids.com.

If you're participating in this challenge (and you should be!) we'd love to see your poems! You can share them in the comments here or on social media using the hashtag #RDDPoetryChallenge.

Have fun writing acrostics!


Comments

Mindy Baker said…
Fantastic kick-off to the week!
April 3, 2023 at 10:37 AM
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