Stephanie Calmenson<\/a> started the afternoon by sharing poems for the very young. She captures the voice and thoughts of youngsters perfectly, reading with enthusiasm and pure joy. Her poems for babies, toddlers and preschoolers are filled with irresistible energy, and hearing Stephanie read them woke me up and spread a smile across my face as she made me remember reading to my own children when they were very young.<\/p>\n A shining moment in my memory of #ALA11 was the pure pleasure of the ALSC Poetry Blast. Although I was tired and spent after a long weekend, listening to these poets renewed me with energy and enthusiasm for sharing poetry with children of all ages. As Joyce Sidman says, we all need time to ponder, \u201cTime alone, without noise and distraction.\u00a0 This is when ideas come–when things sort themselves out, when you see visions and solutions.\u00a0 Not just for writing, but for life.\u201d\u009d The ALSC Poetry Blast brought a bit of this pondering time to me on Monday afternoon. I was able to listen and be transported to place within myself that has room for just this sort of pondering. Stephanie Calmenson started the afternoon by sharing poems for the very young. She captures the voice and thoughts of youngsters perfectly, reading with enthusiasm and pure joy. Her poems for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[114,151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ala-annual-2011","category-live-blogging"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/coverart.oclc.org\/ImageWebSvc\/oclc\/+-+487721652_140.jpg?SearchOrder=+-+OT,OS,TN,FA,GO\")
<\/a>I have long admired Nikki Grimes<\/a>, and so it was a special honor to hear her read a selection of her poems, especially ones inspired by her own parents. She read from Dark Sons<\/a>, from A Dime a Dozen<\/a>, from her upcoming Planet Middle School<\/a>, and more. I am continually amazed how she is able to capture the voice of tweens and teens, whether it\u2019s the young tween smiling secretly as her mother whispers mushy Puerto Rican on the subway, or the confusion of middle school as friendships seem to change on a daily basis.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/facebook-logo.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/a>I made sure to go to this event because I had been receiving weekly updates on Facebook through the Fans of the ALSC Poetry Blast<\/a> page – yes, social marketing in this new age really has an impact! Make sure to check into Sylvia Vardell\u2019s wonderful blog Poetry for Children<\/a>; over the next several weeks, she will be sharing videos and more from this wonderful event. Even from home, you too will be inspired to share the pure pleasure of poetry with children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"