Congratulations to J. Patrick Lewis on being named the new Children's Poet Laureate. We've been fans for years!
See Chicken Spaghetti posts "An Original Poem by J. Patrick Lewis!"; "Poetry Friday: The Snowflake Sisters"; and "Poetry Friday: Pirate Book." I mentioned Lewis's poem "Mosquito" in an entry about Paul B. Janeczko's anthology The Place My Words Are Looking For, and listed the picture book Once Upon a Tomb among our favorite reads when Junior was a second grader.
Lewis has a great sense of humor. Here's an excerpt from an interview by Sylvia Vardell, at the Poetry Foundation, sponsors of the children's poet laureateship.
SV: How did you come to the writing of poetry for children when you’re also a scholar of economics and Russian history?
JPL: My usual answer (a joke) is that an economist can become a children’s poet only after a very delicate operation. Actually, I wanted to be a writer first, and so I wrote for nearly 30 years in economics. But very few people read economics unless they are roped to a chair. Happily, when I was still a pup (but almost 40!), I discovered poetry— “the road not taken . . . and that has made all the difference.”
Oh, Lewis is a great choice! I am a big fan as well.
Posted by: adrienne | May 13, 2011 at 07:59 AM