Today’s review comes from Mindy, panel organizer for the Non-fiction (MG/YA) Cybil. Mindy is a librarian who writes excellent book reviews at propernoun.net. She keeps up with the best of the best each year and her blog is a wonderful resource when looking for new titles for children of all ages.
Mindy reviews a Non-fiction title for the poetry-addled teen in this post.
Immersed in Verse: An Informative, Slightly Irreverant & Totally Tremendous Guide to Living the Poet’s Life, by Allan Wolf
Okay, I admit it. I am a poetry nerd. Such a nerd, in fact, that at a recent party I had, with all of my
twenty-something friends, my party game was writing prompts for poems. We had a great time writing and sharing silly poems, doing madlibs, and playing the exquisite corpse poem game. I even had children’s poetry books around to browse (Scranimals by Jack Prelutsky was a crowd favorite.) I was just thinking, it’s too bad I didn’t have Immersed in Verse for my party! It would have been the perfect addition!
Immersed in Verse is full of poems, prompts, tips, and information about poetry worthy of an English class, but it actually manages to be fun. The illustrations give the book a cutesy feel, perhaps making it more appealing to girls. The content ranges from the frivolous/fun to the more informational about poetic devices, etc. I’d love to see this book in the hands of an enthusiastic middle school English teacher. The enthusiastic tone of the book combined with a great teacher would make for a fun class.