LEMONADE AND OTHER POEMS SQUEEZED FROM A SINGLE WORD by Bob Raczka with illustrations by Nancy Doniger (Roaring Brook 2011) is a feast for the eyes. Raczka takes a single word such as "constellation" and creates poetry from those letters:
a
silent
lion
tells
an
ancient
tale
What fun it would be to have students use this as a model. <207>
Sara Holbrook offers readers WEIRD? ME, TOO! LET'S BE FRIENDS illustrated by Karen Sandstrom (Wordsong 2010). Friendship is fertile ground for poems especially for intermediate and middle grade students. Who else feels the sheer outcast-ness of the age? Some poems are funny' others are quite serious. All of the subject matter, though, will ring authentic with readers. <208>