Celebrating Poetry: Margarita Engle

Celebrating Poetry: Margarita Engle

By Kate Hosford

Margarita Engle is a Cuban-American author of young adult novels in verse. Most recently, The Wild Book (Harcourt, 2012). The Surrender Tree: Poem’s of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom (Henry Holt, 2008) received many awards, including the first Newbery Honor granted to a Hispanic writer.

Margarita has received two American Library Association Pura Belpré Awards,

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Guest Post: Carolee Dean on Can I Write If I Can’t Read?: Famous Poets Who Overcame Reading Disabilities

Guest Post: Carolee Dean on Can I Write If I Can’t Read?: Famous Poets Who Overcame Reading Disabilities

By Carolee Dean

William Butler Yeats is considered one of the great poets of the 20th century, and yet he struggled with one of the most basic skill needed for his craft, the ability to read.

An article by Marylou Minder and Linda S. Siegel in the 1992 (Vol. 25,

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Celebrating Poetry: Sylvia Vardell on Teaching, Awards, Trends, Challenges & New Releases

Celebrating Poetry: Sylvia Vardell on Teaching, Awards, Trends, Challenges & New Releases

By Kate Hosford

Sylvia Vardell is a professor at Texas Woman’s University. She also is the author of Poetry Aloud Here! Sharing Poetry with Children in the Library (ALA, 2006), Poetry People: A Practical Guide to Children’s Poets (Libraries Unlimited, 2007), and Children’s Literature in Action: A Librarians Guide (Libraries Unlimited,

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Celebrating Poetry: Kate Hosford on A Place of Wonder

Celebrating Poetry: Kate Hosford on A Place of Wonder

By Kate Hosford

A couple years ago, my son came home from school and informed me that one of his teachers was “rusted from the inside”.

While another parent might have probed further into this state of affairs, I immediately lunged for my writing book and scribbled down the phrase.

“Rusted from the inside?”

That was too good to pass up.

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