POETRY PROMPTS

Children’s Laureate Coelho encourages young readers to awaken “the poet within.”

The author offers 41 ways to get started…beginning with hard-to-follow directions for folding and tearing a sheet of paper to make a blank booklet but going on to more helpful demonstrations of one-word poems (“the trick is to have a long title”), rhyme and repetition, alliteration, onomatopoeia, concrete and found poetry, select poetic forms such as haiku and (for a special challenge) triolets, and poems for holidays or other occasions. If his examples set low bars for regular rhythms or heightened language—“In the middle of the NIGHT / two KNIGHTS had a thought / to head out for adventure, / to leave behind their boring fort”—they are at least easy to emulate, and for more ambitious writers he does add a “Poetry Power-Up” exercise for each prompt. Coelho also occasionally breaks from the generally jocular tone to suggest, for instance, crafting a poem about plastic waste or on the theme of “Home Is…” for World Refugee Day. Four illustrators working in closely similar styles depict a racially diverse cast of children in exuberant poses along with colorful figures of fanciful flora, fauna, and food to provide further inspiration. The message that poetry is “about having fun with words” comes through loud and clear.

Enticing suggestions and exercises for budding Byrons and hesitant Heaneys.