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You are here: Home / Poems for Kids / Poem of the Day: Selling Our House (by Ralph Fletcher)

Poem of the Day: Selling Our House (by Ralph Fletcher)

April 26, 2010 By Laura

I was a guest at Jama Rattigan’s Alphabet Soup on Saturday–hope you’ll stop by to check out my poem and recipe!


 

Moving Day (Wordsong, 2006, illustrated by Jennifer Emery), by Ralph Fletcher, is an unusual form. It’s kind of like an illustrated novel in verse for the elementary set. It’s only 23 poems or so, but it tells the story of 12-year-old Fletch, whose family is moving. The poems work best as a narrative set. But most of the poems also stand alone, which I love! Here’s one I really like from this collection.

Selling Our House

I go over to Freddy’s
whenever people come
to look at our house.

Freddy tells me
the average human
eats two spiders per year.

"They go in your mouth
while you’re sleeping
and you swallow them."

Which makes me sick.
I don’t want any spiders
climbing down my throat

or strangers crawling
through my bedroom
when I’m not around.

–Ralph Fletcher, all rights reserved

Moving Day

Tagged With: National Poetry Month 2010 (Poem a Day), poems, poetry books, Ralph Fletcher

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Related

« Poem of the Day: Scribbly Gum (by Douglas Florian)
Poem of the Day: Black spider (by Rebecca Kai Dotlich) »

JANUARY NEWS

I loved the holidays! And I'm so glad they're over. A quiet, snowy January is just what I need. This month, I'm working on two board book manuscripts, and I'm making materials to go with my 3 spring 2023 books.

I'm also busy prepping for upcoming author visits and setting my goals and priorities for 2023. Wishing you a lovely start to your own new year!

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