Cynsations

Guest Post: Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong on P*TAG: an eBook for Teen Read Week

By Sylvia Vardell and Janet S. Wong
Photos by Sylvia Vardell

Who did we make P*TAG for?
P*TAG is for a girl who, like Marilyn Singer, sees a pier and hears “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”;
Or for a boy like Betsy Franco’s Ovid, who might drive on the beach some night thinking about a girl with piercings;

for Allan Wolf, who burps up kittens;
for Naomi Shihab Nye, who says:
            What if, instead of war,
            we shared our buckets
            of wind and worry?
P*TAG is for you if you are tired of aunts and uncles forever asking what you want to be when you grow up (David L. Harrison);
and for you if you can look at a crowd and see “spirits…being extracted from their bodies” (Lorie Ann Grover).

What are your wishes? Heidi Mordhorst asks: “What if there were a Come-True Tree somewhere?”

Do you have secrets?
           
            Random Buddhist manifestos.
            Tattoo designs.
            Erotic poetry.
                        (Tracie Vaughn Zimmer has mystery in her blood.)
P*TAG wants you to fall in love with a guitar player. (Kathi Appelt)
And:
           
            If some night you walk down a street
            so deep inside a chorus of sad voices
            that you cannot–simply can’t–look up,
            and it all seems impossible,
            . . .
            Take another step,
                 a slow step, another,
                        another,
                                    and another.

                                           (Helen Frost)

Play along with p*tag:
http://teenpoetrytagtime.blogspot.com
Read more about it:
www.PoetryTagTime.com
Buy it here:
Nook version: http://bit.ly/ncGiqo
Kindle version:http://amzn.to/nNsWPs
(also in the iTunes store)

6 thoughts on “Guest Post: Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong on P*TAG: an eBook for Teen Read Week”

  3. Thank you for thinking of our post as a "poem," Jeannine! I'm excited about Teen Read Week!

    –Janet (who wants to be known as a "Cynsations Champion" from now on)

  4. Thank you for allowing Sylvia and Janet to post on your blog Cynthia! It seems like your talk w/ Greg and Ed at SCBWI/Orlando was only yesterday instead of last year.

    –Charles (Who will now only be addressed as "Cynsations Celebration" from this day forward.

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