2017 April Reading Challenge

[Elizabeth]

April is National Poetry Month. Your challenge is to read a collection of poetry. It can be a collection all by one author, or a collection by lots of different authors. Let us know if you enjoyed one specific poem more than others.

[Linda]

Elizabeth wrote: "April is National Poetry Month. Your challenge is to read a collection of poetry. It can be a collection all by one author, or a collection by lots of different authors. Let us know if you enjoyed ..."

I will try this challenge, but poetry is the one genre I have a hard time reading

[Audrey]

Linda wrote: "I will try this challenge, but poetry is the one genre I have a hard time reading."

Same here. I read an Emily Dickinson collection a few months ago, and I think that's all I can handle for a while. Maybe Where the Sidewalk Ends will be a good fit.

[Elizabeth]

If you have trouble with poetry, read a kids poetry collection! They're usually funny and there's quite a few few that are pretty short. There's also a couple of National Geographic Poetry collections that are long, but the pictures are AMAZING.

[Linda]

Elizabeth wrote: "If you have trouble with poetry, read a kids poetry collection! They're usually funny and there's quite a few few that are pretty short. There's also a couple of National Geographic Poetry collecti..."

Thanks for the suggestion

[Carolyn]

Poetry, ugg! I will have to look and see if I can find something interesting.

[Debbie]

Last April when our challenge was reading poetry a lot of folks struggled. I offered the following:

If you don't care for poetry, try Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses. I loved it when I was a kid and still love it today. And I don't care for poetry. It's not terribly long and the poetry is not complex. For those of an older bent of mind, several of the poems that Bullwinkle (Bullwinkle and Rocky) quotes are from this book. "Oh how I love to go up in a swing. Up in a swing so high..." I can just hear Bullwinkle's voice.

Also, I read Stag's Leap: Poems by Sharon Olds. This work won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2013. Olds writes of the breakup of her 30 (?) year marriage in a way that promotes a sense of discovery and surprise but lacking the anger one would expect. I found the poetry more comforting than upsetting. I rarely read poetry, it often feeling like a chore but I found this small collection very readable. It took me less than a week to read. Highly recommended.

Thirdly: I read Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith, certainly an odd title for the 2012 winner of the Pulitzer for Poetry. It was an excellent collection and I enjoyed the poetry very much. I was especially touched by the allusions to David Bowie. His recent passing made those poems even more poignant. Not a long book, and highly recommended, especially if, like me, you generally don't care for poetry.

And finally, if you find a collection of several of Dr. Suess' stories, well, I'd argue that would count as a collection of poetry. Especially Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham.

[Jenny]

I read a fair amount of children's poetry but very little poetry written for adults. I appreciate the suggestions here to stretch me to try something that I probably wouldn't otherwise...that is why I enjoy these challenges because they often lead me to try a genre or topic I typically wouldn't try. I'm going to try Life on Mars and probably one of the National Geographic poetry books.

[Jenny]

Here's are a few recommendations of children's poetry books:

Books dealing with US history: Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan, Under the Freedom Tree, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer.

Poetry that puts a twist on fairy tales: Grumbles from the Forest: Fairy-Tale Voices with a Twist

Poetry and science combined: anything by Joyce Sidman including Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature's Survivors, Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems, or Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night.


And it seems to me that novels in verse should/would count for this challenge, such as: Inside Out & Back Again, Brown Girl Dreaming, Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir, Words with Wings, or The Crossover.

Of course, Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, Douglas Florian all have collections of humorous poetry.

[Britt, Book Habitue]

Won-Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku and the sequel Won-Ton and Chopstick: A Cat and Dog Tale Told in Haiku are great options. We haven't read those in a while so I think we'll check those out. :)

If verse novels count then Ronit and Jamil is a Romeo and Juliet retelling that just came out and is all in verse.

Are we counting verse novels, Elizabeth?

[Elizabeth]

Novels in verse count too!

Also, I love all the suggestions.

Jenny, if you want to read some adult poetry, to change it up a little, I recommend Pablo Neruda. He's my favorite.

[Debbie]

My selection for poetry collection is a work that is not considered poetry at all, and I'll defer to Elizabeth's decision if it actually counts. I'm reading The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. Throughout the book Tolkein sprinkles poetry. In The Shire, at Bree, at Weathertop, in Rivendell and in Lothlorien as well as on the road as the Fellowship travels. Either they are poems outright or the words to songs. My favorite is Frodo's telling of an ancient poem of which little today is remembered. As you read it, it might well be the base for what we know as the nonsense verse of Hey diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle.

So, will it count?

[Becky]

I read Brown Girl Dreaming and All the Broken Pieces. Both were excellent. I love novels told in verse.

[Elizabeth]

Debbie,

What an out of the box approach. If you think it counts, it counts.

Becky,

I love Brown Girl Dreaming. I'll have to try All the Broken Pieces.

[De]

I've enjoyed reading Garrison Keillor's Good Poems anthology series.
Good Poems Good Poems for Hard Times Good Poems: American Places
Also, Kay Ryan The Niagara River and Billy Collins Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems who were both Poets Laureate of the United States.

[De]

This picture book shows examples of the different poetic forms.
A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms These two charming books by Patricia MacLachlan I love just as much for the illustrations as for her knowledge of animals.Once I Ate a Pie and Cat Talk

[De]

After watching To Walk Invisible, the story of the Bronte family, I've decided to read some of their poetry starting with The Complete Poems by Emily Jane Bronte.

[Ashley]

Wow! So many good recommendations! I'm trying to read all of Shakespeare's works this year (although it may take longer) and I've avoided many of the sonnets, even though I like them enough. You've motivated me to jump in. And now I'm going to read some of these other suggestions! Plus read some Shel Silverstein to my kids! 😉

[Teresa]

I'm going to read Flower Fairies of the Spring. It's an old favorite of mine.

[Jackie]

I checked out a book of poetry, and it has sat in the exact same spot for two weeks. I am going to try to get to Brown Girl Dreaming, as I see here that it counts. :)

[Linda]

Elizabeth wrote: "If you have trouble with poetry, read a kids poetry collection! They're usually funny and there's quite a few few that are pretty short. There's also a couple of National Geographic Poetry collecti..."

I followed your suggestion and read
It was short and the pictures were amazing. I hope because it is a Kids book it will count.

[Elizabeth]

Jackie, oh no! (I do that all the time too, check out books, but then can't get into them and they just sit there.) But, Brown Girl Dreaming is a good book. You should definitely give it a try.

Linda, that's great! This particular challenge only specified that it be a poetry collection, and then I allowed novels in verse. There was no age description at all. I'm a big fan of kids poetry.

[Debbie]

I have finished The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. Poetry written by Tolkien and sprinkled through the book would make a nice small collection if gathered into one volume.

[Elizabeth]

Hey everyone, just a few more days to let me know what poetry collection you've read.

[Elizabeth]

I don't work on Mondays, so the challenge winner will be awarded on Tuesday. Get your reading challenge done and posted by Sunday night!

[Elizabeth]

Becky is our prize drawing winner for April’s reading challenge. She read Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson and All the Broken Pieces by Ann E. Burg.

Congratulations!

[Becky]

Thank you very much! :)

[Jackie]

YAY, BECKY!!!! I hope you get a fabby prize!!! :D