The poems in this collection are about mothers and their children, both from the child's perspective and the mother's. Ranging in subject from a child walking in her mother's comforting, protective shadow to a ten-year-old girl wondering if her mother was a freak when she was ten years old to a mother holding her infant son, these poems touch on all aspects of the mother/child relationship. Here is "Mother's Heart": My mother's heart is a bottle I want to fill with warm milk to soothe her hurts with honey to trap her bitterness with a squirt of Tabasco -- Shake her up! Inspired by her memories of her mother and her own role as a mother of a young son, these poems, skillfully illustrated in full color by Jennifer Hewitson, create an honest portrait of timeless human connections. Sometimes funny, sometimes sarcastic, always sensitive, the poems will find a ready audience among young people.
Janet S. Wong (www.janetwong.com) is an award-winning author of 23 books for young readers and teens. One of the most distinctive things about her body of work is its variety: from picture books about family (THE TRIP BACK HOME, BUZZ) to poetry books about yoga and driving (TWIST and BEHIND THE WHEEL) to chapter books about friendship (ME AND ROLLY MALOO, MINN AND JAKE) to a "Meet the Author" book about writing (BEFORE IT WRIGGLES AWAY). Her fans span the entire age range, from toddler to adult.
Janet Wong's latest projects are eBooks designed specifically for the Kindle. Janet is particularly excited about eBooks because of their affordability and also because they make poetry easy to find. "Poetry is buried in the 811 section of the library," Janet says, "where you're not likely to stumble on it. But you can type 'poetry' into your Kindle and dozens of titles (with free samples, even) will magically appear." Her first eBook is ONCE UPON A TIGER: New Beginnings for Endangered Animals, which features illustrated poems and nonfiction notes about familiar animals such as the tiger and also unusual creatures such as the axolotl. Her second eBook is a group effort, a forthcoming anthology called POETRY TAG TIME (to be available in April 2011) which she compiled with children's literature professor Sylvia Vardell. It features a connected chain of 30 poems by 30 of the best poets in the world.
When Janet Wong is not writing, speaking at teacher conferences, or sharing writing tips with children in schools, she spends most of her time trying to grow blueberries at her home in Princeton, NJ.
