From: Lbhcove at aol.com <Lbhcove>
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2008 10:31:11 EDT

Dear Mary:
  I want to let you know I forwarded your kind words to Ann Whitford Paul who was ecstatic!
  Know what? Poets do not receive a lot of mail. When we do we hoot and holler and climb walls and shout, "Somebody is using our work!"
  You made two of us happy today. Thank you.
  Lee
  AMERICA AT WAR (McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster)
_www.simonsays.com_ (http://www.simonsays.com/)

  In a message dated 4/3/2008 5:33:41 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, mary.clark at smusd.org writes:

  Lee,
  I've spent the day pulling poetry books for display, and searching each book for a poem to print and display above the book. Just after I had typed California Missions by Ann Whitford Paul, from your My America anthology, I stopped to take a break and read my email. When I read your email, with the line:
  "When it comes to poetry - pure poetry - I want them to see beauty in the world, feel emotion, compassion, to breathe deeply and utter, "Yes, this is how it is." ', I said aloud, "It's not only children that will react that way to this collection."

I love your anthologies, and I especially loved the serendipity of having one open at my left hand while reading an email from you (even if it was written to the group, and not me personally!) Thank you for your passion for sharing great poems with children. All the best, Mary



What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it thinks about education. Harold Howe, former U.S. Commissioner of Education



It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. Frederick Douglass
  Mary Clark Library Media Tech I La Costa Meadows Elementary School Carlsbad, CA USA 760-290-2128
_Mary.clark at smusd.org_ (mailto:Mary.clark at smusd.org)



 
____________________________________ From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu on behalf of Lbhcove at aol.com Sent: Thu 4/3/2008 1:09 PM To: ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Subject: [CCBC-Net] ON POETRY - LEE BENNETT HOPKINS



First, I would like to thank Megan for this opportunity. I am quite pleased and honored to take part in this discussion.

The first thing I think of when planning a collection is the child and what I want the child to reap. When it comes to poetry - pure poetry - I want them to see beauty in the world, feel emotion, compassion, to breathe deeply and utter,
"Yes, this is how it is."

I am a purist when it comes to the genre. There is a place for light verse
-- good light verse -- which few can write. And it is plentiful! But there is enough of it.

I want youth to read the best of the best.

I strongly object to bathroom humor -- bodily functions, farting, et. al. Our youth gets enough of the crass.

My role, even though it may not be popular, is to bring their levels up -- not stoop to what adults think will make them laugh.

I have been in education close to fifty years.

(On April l3, I shall be only 30 years away from being on a SMUCKER'S STRAWBERRY JAM jar!)


I have compiled more anthologies than any one else in the history of children's literature.

Through each, from the first to the forthcoming I shall continue to wave the poetic flag, bring our readers voices to lift them, wake them, shake them -- all with the beauty of words by masterful voices.

LBH

AMERICA AT WAR (McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster)
_www.simonsays.com_ (_http://www.simonsays.com/_ (http://www.simonsays.com/)
)



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Received on Sun 06 Apr 2008 09:31:11 AM CDT