It’s almost one of my favorite times of year: National Poetry month!  This is when two of my absolute loves collide: poetry and picture books!  All of April I will be sharing poetry picture books, but it will look a little different this year. 

Poetry is something I’ve been passionate about ever since I can remember and one of the first things I memorized, wrote, and published at a young age.

Poetry has the power to capture emotion in such a succinct way that it’s breath taking.  It can be a lover’s caress, a heart punch of grief, or a moment of wonder.  It can be fun word play or silly rhymes.  It’s a quill pen dipped in ink, the lap of the ocean on the shore, and the sun just peeking over a mountain.  I will never cease to be fascinated by poetry and it’s depth, width, and breadth.

And this year, the National Poetry Month poster is done by ANOTHER kidlit author-illustrator!  Did you hear?  It’s Jack Wong!  Yes, the same Jack Wong I’ve gotten to know better the last few years on my blog!  And the poem he picked for inspiration is beautiful.  I adore this image and concept, halfway between things.  This also feels like another perfect introduction to poetry picture books this year!

I hope you will enjoy all of the picture books I’ve read for these as much as I did.  I read quite a few books and culled them down, just for you dear readers.

Yet, I must admit that due to circumstances beyond my control, work has been incredibly overwhelming.  I’ve had to pull back on the full month of poetry a little bit this year.  I debated on canceling this tradition, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that.  I love poetry picture books TOO much!  Instead, I will post fresh material Monday-Friday, and use Saturday and Sunday to share some amazing poetry picture books I already talked about last year in interviews (but might’ve been missed by the poetry fans).  There are still some amazing things in store this month and I can’t wait to share them with you.

If you enjoy my posts, comment and let me know.  But more importantly, I ask you to support all the poets and book editors I post about.  These are small niche books and can be easily overlooked.  Check them out or request them from the library.  Buy them.  Review them on amazon, Goodreads, etc.  Share them.  Gift them.  Any way you can support the poets I will be sharing this next month would be greatly appreciated.

Keep in mind, these won’t be my only posts in April.  I will still have some Simply 7 interviews too.  BUT I do know that poetry isn’t everyone’s thing.  If you don’t want to read the poetry ones, ignore anything with NPM (aka National Poetry Month) in the title. And thank you for continuing to read my blog! <3