When you judge a book by its cover, usually you are going to be mostly right, with of course, exceptions. You see a book that looks like You’re a Poet: Ways to Start Writing Poems by Sean Taylor and Sam Usher (illustrated by) and you assume it is going to be terribly cute, silly, maybe even overly saccharine. And in this case you are not wrong. But you are also not completely right.
Yes it is cute, and yes it is a little silly and honestly, yes it is sweet. Yet, even for this old grump it was just the right amount of sweet at the time of reading. Our little pig friend is happy and most things work out well, you know there will be no problem that can’t be solved or events that you won’t be able to enjoy, and you will have fun stories too. But what you might not expect is that the poetry of the story is not just a poem stuck on the page and boom! That’s it. The poems come naturally to the pig, friends and family. They come out of the feelings and events that happen, they are not other or separate but they are all part of things.
At the end of each chapter you get a little information about the type of poem created and tips on how to write them, and how to make yourself better with your own writing. Even adults could learn some things. I admit that I did skip those parts as I was getting into the classically feeling stories of Pig and Squirrel and Pigs parents. But I will be going back to borrow those ideas.
I wasn’t thinking I would like this book as I was expecting something too modern and too over the top sticky sweet, but it worked out in the end. I will be finding copies to give as gifts as the book is available, but I read via an online reader copy. Will be great for Poetry Month, or anytime.
