THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK

You ever used this excuse? This is a book for kids of all ages. The poems are about school and the stuff that runs through your mind when you are supposed to be watching the board or doing your homework.

Sample first lines:
I can’t have cake for breakfast?
My pen took a walk...
A fight is like an infection, it just gets passed along
The popular crowd crams up like toe jam in the hall...
If my desk weren’t such a mess, I could find my organizer
Two more days of school...if it were three, I’d crack

WHICH WAY TO THE DRAGON

This book is for my friends in the first through third grades. It is also for kids who promised themselves they never would forget what it was like be short in height, but not short on things to say. And how hard it was to get tall people to listen. If you think you are too old for this book, just remember for a moment how scary it was to get stuck in the port-a-potty at a T Ball game and it will all come back to you.

Sample first lines:
There’s a ghost in our house, we call him Mr. Who
I can stomp like marching boots
Don’t copy me, (don’t copy me)
Not that mall, no way, not me
Wiggle-klutz and Giggle-guts like to spin around
Soccer is the greatest fun.

This book is for kids in about the third grade and up. Kids who are just starting to see how the world works and wonder where they fit into everything. Kids who are old enough to be questioning what they see on the news and young enough to know just how to drive the babysitter nuts.

Sample lines:
Will my ears grow long like Grandpa’s?
It was a joke! I put the cat in the dryer, but I only turned it to fluff
Maybe she’s not perfect and I’m not so bad
My mother has these sunglasses, they make her look like a bug
You have to listen to divorce because you know it’s real
You are not the boss of me and what I feel inside

The poems in this book are for kids in what teachers call the “middle ages,” what I call my “dark ages.” Basically, it is for kids oiling the wheels on their rollerblades at the top of the slope marked adolescence. The poems focus on relationships with friends, school and parents. It has poems about all kinds of emotions from happiness to anger and depression. It’s up and down and all over the place – kind of like the middle ages.

Sample lines:
Me? I rolled in like a storm, darkening the room
My self-conscious should keep quiet!
I hate my body, I’m not going out
Alone doesn’t have to be sad
Happy settles, an orange campfire in my chest
Insecure is a lace, untied
You can watch a storm and learn when you are feeling safe inside.

This book is for middle school kids and it contains poems about changes and choices kids are faced with as they try to keep their balance on the tightrope between youth and adulthood. This is life in the fast lane, fast changes, fast choices and fast consequences for kids in a world that seems to give out fewer and fewer second chances. For those looking for love, hope, friendship, peace, respect and truth.

Sample lines:
Sometimes I feel so different, a maple leaf turned red in June
If love is a go, trust is first gear
It was just for fun, a game of truth or dare
I’m smarter, stronger, faster – unless you have the gun.
Does anyone ever forget the ache of being ignored?
Garbage in, garbage out, the rumor input trail
Look inside this block of marble...a profile, trying to emerge.

This book is about life’s tragedies – from a teacher with good ears to the worst haircut in the world. It is a comic survival guide to childhood including such traumatic happenings as annoying brothers, being foot-stomping mad and saying gross things at the table. But every misery turns out – you guessed it – to be not the end of the world, and that even strip-mine wounds can heal. The book is hard covered and illustrated by J. J. Smith Moore.

Sample Lines:
I want to move across the street...
I’m a victim of the worst haircut that ever sat on a head
My teacher has good ears
I have to stand by Susan Todd?
I gotta find a union, where’s my brother anyway?
If misery loves company, then I could use a crowd

This is a picture book about my hometown. Many students have used it as a model for writing about their hometowns, so it might be of interest to you even if you don’t live in Cleveland.

The story is about ten-year-old Amanda, who has been everywhere and done everything. Or so she thinks. Her parents are photojournalists, and they’ve taken her all over the world: London, Paris, Marrakech, Hong Kong . . . you name it. So, when Amanda comes to Cleveland on a family visit, her reaction is probably no surprise:

B-o-o-o-o-ring!

“What’s so big about Cleveland, Ohio?” she sneers to her host, ten-year-old Alan (who’s mom is best friends with Amanda’s mom.).

What indeed. Nothing Alan can show her is as big, or as famous, or as fast, or as fun as something else she’s done somewhere else. Until, that is, Amanda discovers that there is something rather special about Cleveland, Ohio – something she didn’t expect at all.

WHAM! It's a Poetry Jam

Take a wild ride with poet Sara Holbrook as she guides young writers in performing poetry with style and pizzazz. With enthusiasm, encouragement, and a touch of irreverence, Ms. Holbrook, a performance poet herself, explains how to use voice, rhythm, attitude, movement, and other techniques to perform poetry solo or in a group. More than thirty poems are included for young readers to practice, as well as advice and instruction for putting on a poetry jam at school or in the community.

Acclaimed poets Sara Holbrook and Allan Wolf combine their considerable talents to explore these feelings and struggles by creating the voices of a girl and boy in the throes of affection. As they experience the giddiness of love, the poems’ two characters must also face obstacles (parents) and distractions (friends) and learn to respect each other’s interests and needs. Can this relationship survive? In sonnets, tankas, villanelles, and other poetic forms, Holbrook and Wolf examine the efforts of two young teenagers who dare to be more than friends

Love and lies, disappointment and doubt, truth and trust are tough issues to sort out at any time of life, but they are especially thorny when on the brink of teenagehood. These forty poems explore life's emotions and dilemmas and in the process offer empathy and encouragement to readers.

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