From Booklist
Gr. 5-7. "You need to find the right words and use them in the best order." Janeczko brings Coleridge's famous dictum right into the world of today's middle-graders and encourages youngsters to give poetry a try. As in his Poetspeak (1983) for older readers, Janeczko selects poems and has the poets talk about writing; but this time, it's his own commentary--warm, sunny, informal, enthusiastic, encouraging, rooted in ordinary things--that carries the narrative. "Try this" is a repeated subhead, and he applies it to everything from haiku to list poems, letter poems, and memory poems. The examples he chooses make up a fine anthology, with contributions by several children's poets as well as adult writers, nearly all of whom tell young poets to read and read as a way to find their own voices. Janeczko's suggestions clearly grow from his own teaching success, and the book will be a natural for creative-writing classes. It will show that although poetry isn't easy, it can be a lot of fun to write about what you imagine. Hazel Rochman
