Welcome Poetry Friday! A Dazzling Display of Dogs, by Betsy Franco & Michael Wertz (ages 6 - 10)

Welcome to Poetry Friday! It's with pleasure that I share a treasure trove of goodies from around the internet. If you're here to leave a tidbit to share, please add a comment and I'll update throughout the day.


Late night treats:

Huge thanks goes to all Kidlitosphere members who served on the Cybils panels or helped promote the Cybils Awards in any way. These awards bring recognition to such a variety of books for children. The Cybils winner for poetry was Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse, by Marilyn Singer.It's a standout choice, full of inventiveness, humor and creativity. Hooray!

I must say that it's been a treat to hear from so many friends I met at the Kidlit Convention last fall. If you have a chance to go this fall in Seattle, it was a wonderful experience to meet and share our passion for children's literature and especially poetry. So this post is dedicated to my Poetry Friday pals.

My tasty treat to share is A Dazzling Display of Dogs, concrete poems by Betsy Franco and illustrations by Michael Wertz. If you're a dog loving family, or if you want to share colorful, creative poetry with your children, make sure you read my review below at the bottom of this post!

A great morning to share a poem

It's lovely to wake up with poems and messages from all my Poetry Friday friends. What a perfect way to start the day!

Tabatha Yeatts has a lovely offering of PoemArt. Absolutely beautiful!

At the Poem Farm, Amy is sharing a series of poems about reading to a cat. My daughters would adore these poems!

Toby Speed write about the full snow moon at The Writer's Armchair. We had a beautiful moon here last night, with the clouds racing across the sky. Thank you, Toby, for sharing!

At A Year of Reading, Mary Lee is Thinking Outside the Box. What a perfect thing to do, and to encourage our children to do!

Carol Rasco at Rasco from RIF is sharing one of my favorite poetry books: The Blacker the Berry, by Joyce Carol Thomas and Floyd Cooper.

At Carol's Corner, you'll find a new collection: Emma's Dilemma - Big Sister Poems, by Kristine O'Connell George. Perfect! I'll need to share this with my girls!


This week on The Stenhouse Blog we have "Astronomy Lesson" by Alan Shapiro. Thank you!

The weather has warmed up, so Irene Latham is thinking beach season. I'm in with an original "beach scene" poem that was inspired by a painting and appears in her new book, The Color of Lost Rooms. Congratulations on your new book, Irene!


Diane Mayr is checking in with lots of offerings! At Random Noodling, she has an original poem, "Oh, To Be a Squirrel." Kurious Kitty has "Alms" by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and, at Kurious K's Kwotes the P.F. quote is by Lindbergh. And, at The Write Sisters she also has a short weather poem by Anonymous.

David Elzey is back this week with more original "'nother goose" rhymes over at fomagrams. Perfect to add a twist to your morning, and a laugh to your day!

Laura Salas in with a poem called "Let Me Die A Young Man's Death" from J. Patrick Lewis' grown-up poetry collection. And check out this week's 15 Words or Less poems (come write one!).

Today, Jama Rattigan is sharing Barbara Crooker's "Ode to Olive Oil" and dreaming about summer.I'll be right over!

Dori Bennett is sharing Shipwreck by Luis Vaz de Camos. Reposted from My Daily Poem.

It's raining in Haiti, and Ruth has a poem called "Before the Rain".

Lunch break - more poems to feed your soul!

Over at Chicken Spaghetti, Susan is in with a post from the archives, which links John Updike's short poem "Saying Goodbye to Very Young Children."

Heidi Mordhorst is in today with a reflection on getting more poems published--bookable.

Hooray! Karen Edmisten is feeling in sync with our dog-loving theme, but and is in this week with a little haiku her daughter wrote about their dog. :) It's here.

Check It Out is sharing a Phillis Wheatley poem as a follow up to a review of the book Phillis Sings Out Freedom. See the poem "On Imagination" by Phillis Wheatley here, and the review here.

"The Days Are Growing Green Again!" at The FATHER GOOSE Blog.
Hooray! Signs of spring are definitely in the air. Thank you to Charles Ghigna, a.k.a. Father Goose.

Sara's Poetry Friday contribution today at Read Write Believe is The Civil Wars's "Poison and Wine" and a small rumination on love and being known.

At Wild Rose Reader, Elaine Magliaro has an original fairy tale poem titled "Apartment for Rent"--which is written in the form of a classified ad. Lots of fun! And over at Blue Rose Girls, Elaine is sharing a post titled "Let It Snow...Let It Snow...Let It Snow: Repetition in Poetry."

Today Blythe Woolston offers a visual poem "It's the way they do ordinary things" by François-Marie Banier. Blythe, I love the idea of a visual poem. I was about to highlight Shadow, by Suzy Lee as a wordless poem because I think her wordless book is poetic in the way it plays with images and ideas. Banier's visual poem is amazing - thank you for sharing!

Janet Squires is sharing The Cuckoo's Haiku, by Michael Rosen. It looks like beautiful verse paired with amazing watercolors!

Carlie has an original poem about the winter woodpile today on her blog Twinkling Along.

Priya has posted Mary Oliver's "Breakage" on her blog Book Crumbs.

Melissa Wiley, at Here in the Bonny Glen, snapped a photo on her morning walk the other day that sort of begged a pairing with a favorite Emily Dickinson poem: "The Brain is Wider than the Sky". Wonderful pairing, indeed. I can feel the wind blowing and the clouds racing along.

Today Jill Corcoran shares some of Ralph Fletcher's early love poems, from Buried Alive, the Elements of Love. As Jill writes, Ralph Fletcher gives "young adults reassurance that  their feelings are important, universal, and necessary." Definitely worth checking out!

Late afternoon check-in:

Do you want to bring your poetry along with you? Check out Poetry of the Day app for the Android Market.

Phoebe is sharing her first Poetry Friday - head over to Fly, envious time, till thou run out thy race, to welcome her to our event! She has a poem by her husband, Sean, in honor of Faustine's Day.

After dinner treats:

MotherReader has three wonderful poetry books to share for African American History Month: My People, by Langston Hughes, with photographs by Charles R. Smith, Jr.; Stitchin' and Pullin': A Gees Bend Quilt, by Patricia McKissack; and Speak to Me (and I Will Listen Between the Lines), by Karen English.

More after dinner! Keep sharing these lovely poems and books! Remember to leave a link to your specific post if you'd like me to share.


A tasty sampling from Mary Ann at Great Kid Books:

Today I'd like to share A Dazzling Display of Dogs - a wonderfully fun collection of concrete poems by Betsy Franco, illustrated by Michael Wertz. So grab a cup of coffee and stay for a bit.

A Dazzling Display of Dogs
Concrete Poems by Betsy Franco
Illustrations by Michael Wertz
Berkeley, CA: Tricycle Press, 2011
ages 6 - 10
available on Amazon and at your local library

Betsy Franco and Michael Wertz team up again to celebrate the love we have for our pets: this time, they shed light on our lovable dogs. As in A Curious Collection of Cats, Franco and Wertz create playful, fun concrete poetry that is bursting with color. These poems arrange words within the illustrations, where the words gain meaning from where they are placed within the picture, and the words form part of the picture themselves.

The color leaps off the pages, and kids will love following the words, figuring out the jokes and inside meaning. Franco and Wertz share their love of dogs, whether it's a tiny Pekinese peaking out from a backpack as it travels everywhere with its owner, or it's a Bassett Hound that goes "in and out / in and out ... again and again / and again and again." In "Emmett's Ode to His Tennis Ball," the text is enclosed in a circle held firmly in the dog's mouth. It begins, "Slobbery, sloppy, slimy, sphere-oh, tennis ball, I hold you dear..."

This will delight kids (and teachers), inspiring them to combine words and images in a fun, new way. I plan on sharing them using our document camera, so the kids can see the poems projected on the screen. The visuals are exciting and draw them right into the poetry, as they figure out how to read each poem.

Michael Wertz is a local print maker and illustrator, here in Oakland, CA. His dynamic illustrations are full of action and color, but they are carefully created balancing colors, typeface and details that make reading the poems a joy to figure out; the overall effect is never confusing or crowded, but rather punchy and humorous. Head over to his website Wertzateria and his blog to find out more.

Betsy Franco is an accomplished poet, author and actress. Her work ranges from fun school poems like Messing Around on the Monkey Bars, to poems about the natural world around us as in Birdsongs and Pond Circle, to books that capture the voice of teens and young adults, as in Metamorphosis and Things I Have to Tell You.

A Dazzling Display of Dogs has been given a starred review in the School Library Journal. Also see reviews by Jen Robinson and Becky's Young Readers.

The review copy came from our local bookstore, Mrs. Dalloway's on College Ave in Berkeley, and will be part of our personal library. A Curious Collection of Cats was given the 2010 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award honor award - here's hoping the dogs get noticed too!

Review ©2011 Mary Ann Scheuer, Great Kid Books. All images ©2011 Michael Wertz; shared with permission by the illustrator.