From: Lbhcove at aol.com <Lbhcove>
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2006 16:05:50 EST

Let us not forget the power of poetry when it comes to our readers. As a teacher working in all grades from kindergarten through to post graduate courses I have found that poetry works on any grade, any age level.
  It meets interests and abilities of anyone, anywhere, from the most gifted to the most reluctant readers; it opens a world of feelings children never thought possible, it is a source of love and hope that they can carry with them the rest of their lives.
  Poems are usually short, vocabulary simple ... and, at times ... more can be said and heard and felt in 8 or l0 or l2 lines than often an entire novel can.
  Feed them Frost, savor Sandburg, heartbreak with Hughes; get them into the wondrous poets of today ... Grimes, Dotlich, Lewis, Nye; don't forget Kuskin, McCord, Kennedy, Livingston, Merriam, Moore ... on and on.
  Be it dinosaurs or dreams, there are poems out there to reach girls and boys. In short, as always, pass the poetry, please!
  Lee Bennett Hopkins
 
_www.leebennetthopkinsbooks.com_ (http://www.leebennetthopkinsbooks.com)
Received on Thu 02 Nov 2006 03:05:50 PM CST