During summer, I’m counting the days until school begins again, but for most kids, it’s the opposite. Prolific, wonderful poet J. Patrick Lewis knows that and has created a new collection called Countdown to Summer: A Poem for Every Day of the School Year (Little, Brown 2009).
This fun collection (with its sometimes adult in-jokes, like the NCLB poem) doesn’t talk down to kids and offers an irreverent take on a ton of different topics. How fun to read one poem a day in any elementary or even middle school classroom. And a teacher could pair this with Days to Celebrate, a terrific anthology created by Lee Bennett Hopkins, for a double dose of daily fun!
For a few full reviews on this book, see Elaine Magliaro’s Wild Rose Reader , Kelly Fineman’s Writing and Ruminating (We both picked 143 to share–I swear I had Post-It noted that one long before reading your review, Kelly!), and Sylvia Vardell’s Poetry for Children.
And on a side note, SCHOOL STARTS TODAY! HALLELUJAH!!!