Hop To It: Poems to Get You Moving!

The official National Poetry Month is April, but for me this year, Poetry Month came in October, with the release of 3 new poetry titles that contain my poems! I'll start by introducing you to this one, edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. 

Hop To It began pre-pandemic with a focus on physical movement. The editors decided to delay publishing and added poems about social movements and safety movements, making this a well-rounded book of 100 poems to get young people moving in all kinds of ways!

In addition to the poems by some of the top children's poets today, as well as lesser-knowns like myself, the editors included sidebars with extended activities, extra information about the topic or about poetry, and prose books that complement the poem with similar themes or topics.  This book is easy for teachers and parents to use to enrich a class session in a subject area or in language arts. It's aimed at grades K-5, but younger and older kids will enjoy the poems and action, too. 

For example, my poem, "Heartbeat" could be used in a science class talking about the circulatory system. In the sidebar, the editors included a fun fact about the number of human heartbeats per minute vs. the number of hamster heartbeats. But don't let me tell you; let these kids show you. Click the image for sound and action:

Get your own copy here or from your favorite online book seller. See other great Vardell & Wong poetry books for teachers and kids at Pomelo Books.