Marilyn is now doing Zoom appearances.
Contact her at Marilyn@marilynsinger.net for details.
Marilyn Singer
Marilyn Singer Shares Writing Advice: ‘Read, read, read and write, write, write’
Happy National Poetry Month! All throughout April, we interviewed poets about working in this digital age. To end the month, we spoke with writer Marilyn Singer.
Throughout her publishing career, Singer has written more than ninety books (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry) for children and young-adults. Check out the highlights from our interview below…
Tallulah’s Toe Shoes
(excerpt)
Tallulah could stand like a ballerina. Tallulah could move like a ballerina, too. But Tallulah knew she’d never be a ballerina until she got a pair of pink satin toe shoes.
Ever since her ballet school’s performance of Sleeping Beauty, that was all she could think about. Some of the older girls at the school danced on pointe–up on their toes in pointe shoes. One of them got to be the beautiful Lilac Fairy. She wore a glittery tutu and a tiara.
Tallulah was a village girl. She wore a short brown dress and carried a hoop of fake flowers. She didn’t get to dance on her toes. She got to sway.
“When can I get toe shoes?” she asked her mother right after the performance. “When you’re a little older,” her mother replied.
That’s not fair, Tallulah huffed silently. The kids in tap class get their fancy shoes right away!
After class, she stomped into the dressing room. The older girls were there, tying on their pointe shoes. The Lilac Fairy was one of them. “Well, these are wrecked,” she said, studying her shoes. “Good thing I brought a new pair.” With a thud, she tossed the old ones into the wastebasket.
Tallulah’s mouth made an O. She put her clothes on over her leotard and tights very, very slowly.
Soon she was the only one left in the room. She darted over to the wastebasket and stared at the shoes. They didn’t look wrecked. They looked splendid. I’ll show everyone just how ready I am, Tallulah told herself. I will be the youngest dancer ever to dance on pointe.
Snatching the shoes, she stuffed them in her bag and ran out the door.
Five Questions for Marilyn Singer in the Horn Book
Marilyn Singer had already demonstrated considerable versatility of poetic talents when in 2010 she debuted a new verse form in Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse (6–10 years, Dutton). This year she is back with a companion, Follow Follow: A Book of Reverso Poems (6–10 years, Dial; both books illustrated by Josée Masse), in which another cast of folkloric characters get the “reverso” treatment.
Spicy Reads: An Interview with Marilyn Singer
At the Anderson Bookstore Children’s Literature breakfast extravaganza, I was able to steal Marilyn Singer away to speak with me about poetry and students and teachers and caterpillars (among others). Marilyn has published over 100 books for students of all ages. She is delightful. If this video captures even a fragment of her charm, viewers will run out and buy multiple copies of all her books!
Follow Follow: A Book of Reversos
(excerpt)
FAIRY TALES
Read my book.
And then
just imagine this,
me in my garret, working all alone,
how hard it was to write.
I need to tell the world
the truth,
so here goes:
I beg your pardon–
fairies helped.
***
Fairies helped?
I beg your pardon!
So, here goes
the truth:
I need to tell the world
how hard it was to write,
me in my garret, working all alone.
Just imagine this,
and then
read my book.
How to Read a Poem Aloud
Poetry began as an oral art and, with the exception perhaps of concrete poetry, it needs to be heard. But, whether it’s poetry for adults or for kids, it’s not always so easy to read poetry well aloud. Here are some tips on how to do it.
1) Familiarize yourself with the poem. Read it silently and aloud to yourself several times. If it’s written in a particular form, such as a haiku, a cinquain, a triolet, a sonnet, etc., get to know that form. Remember the old joke: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Answer: Practice, practice, practice!
2) Who’s the speaker of the poem? Is it the poet (or a version of the poet)? Is it a character? If so, what can you tell about this person, animal, creature? What kind of attitude and voice would he, she, or it have?
3) What does the poem mean? What does the title tell you? There may be shades and levels of meaning, but a poem isn’t open to any old interpretation you throw at it. However, don’t always expect to understand it immediately—take your time with it.
4) There may be unfamiliar words in the poem. Look them up. You can build your vocabulary at any age. Learn to pronounce unfamiliar (and occasionally familiar!) words properly.
5) How is the poem punctuated? That can be difficult when there is no punctuation, so you have to figure out the pauses and the stops that make the poem make sense.
6) Study the line breaks, but don’t necessarily pause at the end of every line—including poems in rhyme! Go with the flow.
7) What words need to be punched? On American Idol, Steven Tyler gave a contestant great advice—he said, when you sing, don’t sing everything on the same level. Figure out which words you want to emphasize and why.
8) Don’t read like a robot. What is the emotion behind the poem? How can you convey it?
9) Don’t overdo it either by declaiming or overacting.
10) It’s generally best to slow down when you read. You may think you’re already reading slowly, but you’re probably not. Occasionally, a humorous poem, such a list poem, may suggest speed and it might work to be more of a motormouth. But even then, you have to enunciate (listen to some Gilbert and Sullivan!). Remember to breathe!
11) When you’re reading any poem, timing is important, but perhaps especially in humorous poems. Don’t ever rush the punchline! And above all, have fun
A Deck of Children’s Poets
Fifty-Two Children’s Poets You Should Know
Besides the wonderful Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein, there are many other excellent children’s poets. Here’s a list of fifty-two of them. Look up their books!
| Arnold Adoff Francisco Alarcon Carmen T. Bernier-Grand Calef Brown Leslie Bullion Stephanie Calmenson Kate Coombs Rebecca Kai Dotlich Margarita Engle Douglas Florian Betsy Franco Helen Frost Kristine O’Connell George Nikki Giovanni Joan Bransfield Graham John Grandits Eloise Greenfield Nikki Grimes Monica Gunning David Harrison Juanita Havill Georgia Heard Lee Bennett Hopkins Mary Ann Hoberman Paul Janeczko Alan Katz
| Bobbi Katz X.J. Kennedy Karla Kuskin Julie Larios J. Patrick Lewis Tony Medina Pat Mora Heidi Mordhorst Walter Dean Myers Marilyn Nelson Naomi Shihab Nye Bob Raczka Laura Purdie Salas Alice Schertle Joyce Sidman Marilyn Singer Charles R. Smith, Jr. Hope Anita Smith Joyce Carol Thomas Lee Wardlaw Carole Boston Weatherford Robert Weinstock Allan Wolf Janet Wong Jane Yolen Tracie Vaughn Zimmer |
For more fine children’s poets to discover, go to Sylvia Vardell’s Poetry for Children Blog: http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com/
A Strange Place to Call Home
(excerpt)
ON THE ROCKS
limpets
In the intertidal zone,
where waves are prone
to be forceful,
where the waters rush
to batter, buffet, crush,
dislodge, displace, fling,
a limpet is resourceful.
It’s fine construction
employs suction.
In other words, its thing
is mightily to cling.
The Superheroes Employment Agency
(excerpt)
BLUNDER WOMAN
C.E.O. of the Superheroes Employment Agency
Wherever I worked,
assisted, or clerked,
without lifting a hand,
by a mental command,
I’d make hard drives expire
and planes go haywire.
I might flatten a tire
or ignite a small fire
to watch villains perspire
as I wrecked their empire
through each deliberate error
(my sly reign of terror).
I was never detected.
I was never respected.
I protected good folk–
but I nearly went broke.
So I began this agency
for superheroes just like me:
outclassed, outranked, unsung,
standing on the second rung.
Now we’re proud and confident
(and I can pay my monthly rent).