Category: News

Video Interview and Poem

Now that National Poetry Month 2012 is officially underway, there are a lot of great new resource being published on the web. At No Water River, Renee LaTulippe’s will be interviewing a number of poets this month, and posting videos of them reciting their poems. The first interview is with yours truly, and you can also see a video of me reciting my poem “My Hamster Has a Skateboard.”

Be sure to check back regularly at No Water River to see all of the videos and interviews that Renee has planned for this month.

Kids Hummingbird Poetry Contest

Do you like hummingbirds? Do you like writing poems? Would you like to win a prize? Hummingbird-guide.com is hosting their second annual Kids Hummingbird Poetry Contest here.

The contest is open to kids ages 6-12. Winners will receive a free hummingbird feeder. The deadline for submissions is September 30, 2012 and winners will be announced October 31, 2012.

But there’s no need to wait. You can submit your own original hummingbird poem now. Good luck to you!

Madness! 2012

Update: Round Two poems are now open for voting! You can see (and vote on) my Round Two entry here.

There is some serious madness going on this month at ThinkKidThink.com. Ed DeCaria has masterminded a tournament involving 64 writers who are going head-to-head in a children’s poetry showdown. Over the next few weeks there will be several rounds of competitions that include well-known children’s poets as well as relative newcomers, all battling to see who will ultimately be crowned the champ.

So who’s the judge? You are! That’s right. Voting is open to the public. All you have to do is read each pair of poems and decide which one you like best. The poets with the most votes move on the next round and the madness continues until there is only one poet left standing.

If you’d like to see my first entry in the tournament, you’ll find it here.

So what are you waiting for? Head over to ThinkKidThink.com and cast your votes for the best kids poems in the tournament.

Free Poetry4kids Android App

If you have an Android smart phone or tablet, you can now take Poetry4kids.com with you wherever you go using the new Poetry4kids Android app.

With this fun new app you can:

Read the latest poems posted to Poetry4kids.com
Watch the newest poetry videos
Listen to the Poetry4kids podcast
Read the latest news from Poetry4kids.com
Follow the Poetry4kids Twitter feed

This kid-friendly poetry app is guaranteed to keep you laughing while you read, listen, and watch.

And, best of all, it’s free! Click here for more information.

TIME for Kids 2012 Poetry Contest

Calling all poets! TIME For Kids has a challenge for you: Write a funny, rhyming poem. It must be an original poem that does not copy another poet’s work. Enter it in the TIME For Kids Poetry Contest. The grand-prize winner will receive an online class visit from poet Kenn Nesbitt. The grand-prize winner and four finalists will each get a signed copy of one of Nesbitt’s books of poetry, and their poems will be published at timeforkids.com.

The deadline is March 1, 2012, so what are you waiting for? Send in your funny poem today!

New Video – My Brother’s Not a Werewolf

It’s time once again for a new animated video. This one is of my poem “My Brother’s Not a Werewolf.” With fun, bouncy music by Sergei Stern and awesome animation by Stephan Krosecz, I hope you’ll enjoy watching this one over and over. If you like, you can even click on the “CC” (closed captioning) button to read along as you listen to the poem.

New Videos Created by Readers

While poking around on YouTube this morning, I came across three new videos that readers had made of my poems. What struck me as most interested about these three videos is how different they all are from one another. I am always impressed at the creativity kids put into creating videos. Watch these and you’ll see what I mean.

This first one, using my poem Today I Wrote this Poem (from My Hippo Has the Hiccups), displays the poem one line at a time, while also showing lines from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to demonstrate the particular poetic technique mentioned in my poem.

The second video is a young girl rapping my poem Beavers in the Bathroom from my book The Tighty-Whitey Spider. She has apparently practiced quite a bit with this poem, as she recites it quickly and with no mistakes.

The final poem is an animation of the poem Gerbil, Gerbil, On the Run, also from The Tighty-Whitey Spider. I was so impressed with this animation. I’d love to find out how it was created because it has such fun text animation effects.

There are so many different ways to create videos from poems. If you happen to create a video of one of my poems, please drop me a line and let me know about it. I would love to see what you have done.

An Early Christmas Present for Poetry4kids Readers

This year, as my holiday gift to you, I have made a change to the website that I think you are going to like. Not only have I doubled the number of poems on the Poems page — giving you now over 100 funny poems for kids — but I have also brought back all of the most popular poems ever.

If you haven’t visited the Poems page of Poetry4kids.com lately, drop by to discover some old favorites, including My Teacher Took My iPod, My Puppy Punched Me in the Eye, All My Great Excuses, and many, many more.

Click here to visit the Poetry4kids.com Poems Page:

Kenn Nesbitt’s Poetry4kids.com – Poems

Happy Holidays!

Poetry Time is Quality Time

Poetry Time is Quality time Even when the holidays arrive, it can be difficult to switch off the busy lifestyle that we’ve all become so used to. How do we learn to slow down, and really experience this special time of year?

I’m a firm believer in the power of poetry and prose, read aloud, to change the rhythm of our interactions with the children we teach, as well as the kids we live with. Good writing comes with its own built-in rhythm, and it just doesn’t work if you rush it. If you’re looking for a way to bring some of that holiday spirit into your world, and you’re not quite sure where to start, then look up some of these great resources. Take a few moments – heck, take a few hours! – and open up a classic holiday poem, or a short story.

Whether you’re sharing with little children who want you to repeat the funniest lines over and over again, or with older kids who can take turns being the ‘storyteller’, reading portions out loud, you’ll find your day has slowed down, and some of the magic of the holidays has come alive.

An Interview with Janet Wong

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Children’s Author Janet Wong

Last week I had the opportunity to speak with children’s author and poet Janet Wong about her writing, her books, and her current projects, including her new eBook project with Sylvia Vardell, the Poetry Tag Time series. The third book in the series, Gift Tag, is out just in time for the holidays, and is already one of the best-selling children’s poetry eBooks on Amazon.com.