Monday, March 11, 2019

With My Hands: Poems About Making Things by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

2018 Cybils Poetry Nominee 

26 poems explore all types of making from a child's point of view. 

Thoughts: I love this collection because I am a maker and it evokes wonderful memories from my elementary school art class.  Making is big right now with the makerspace movement in libraries and schools. This collection is timely. My favorite poems are "Card," "Tie-Dye Shirt," "Collage," "Fort," "Origami," and "Snowflakes." They bring back memories for me. For example, I am a card maker, but I remember cutting out holiday clipart from the local newspaper and gluing them on notebook paper to make cards as a child. 

I hope readers will find poems that resonate with them, but also poems that make them want to try a new kind of making. I want to give this collection to my elementary school art teacher and every crafty kid I know. I see myself using poems from this collection as intros to making programs. The illustrations are colorful yet soft and not overly stylized. They remind me of things a kid would actually create.

(Illustrated by Lou Fancher & Steve Johnson. Clarion, 2018. )

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