Bookspeak!: Poems About Books

Other writers have written memorable poems about books and about reading, but Laura's Bookspeak is full of poems in books' own voices. And, just as there are so many kinds of books, there are different kinds of bookish voices, like the first poem, obviously from one of those books that make one smile all the way through. The poem, Calling All Readers, has lilting lines like I'll tell you a story./I'll spin you a rhyme./I'll spill some ideas--/and we'll travel through time. Another poem, titled Top Secret, is a whisper of intrigue, starting with Describe your desires and they become mine. And quite a prickly, rather outraged voice is titled Index. It's filled with the right stuff about indexes, showing how many marvelous things one can learn if the index is NOT ignored. It starts with P s s s t! Hey, kid--yeah, you./So you want some facts, huh? Each page holds another bookish voice, introducing some aspect of one of our most favorite things--books! I just want to tell about each poem! There are books that tell certain uncomfortable things that happen to them, like when someone falls asleep on them, or the worst, when "wet" happens. There are those that speak of unhappiness, like being the book's middle, instead of first or last. Laura's words show well that she really has crawled INSIDE books in order to speak for them. Illustrator Josée Bisaillon uses collage and drawings that add to Laura's words, connecting well the beauty and excitement that books can bring to the reader. The book recently won the award for Children's Literature from the Annual Minnesota Book Awards.

I had heard many good things about "BookSpeak!" and looked for it at my library. Unfortunately, it does not yet have a copy. In the end I decided to order the book from Amazon, and I am so glad that I did! I am happy to have my very own copy that I don't have to return by a certain date ~ now I can reread it whenever I want.I am a huge fan of books and poetry, which makes "BookSpeak!" a perfect book for me! (My children love it, also.) By the time I finished reading through the book the first time, I was grinning from ear to ear. Author Laura Purdie Salas shares her own joy of books through her clever, delightful poems -- and her words are complemented nicely by Josee Bisaillon's whimsical illustrations.I love this book so much, I am planning to purchase another copy to give to my son's first grade teacher this Christmas. I think it would make a great addition to any classroom!

I think this is a book that you want your kids to love, but they actually prefer stories. I'll try to sneak this in as a bedtime story, in the hopes that they learn from it, and start to appreciate it more. I do like the idea of neat poems to teach literary concepts.

The rhyme, rhythm, and voice of each poem told from the point of view of a book will not only inspire children to read THIS book, but will inspire them to read period. Salas provides clever poems about book components as well as many varied forms for promoting poetry writing. This is one of my favorite books of poetry for children published in 2011!

This book is great for reinforcing lessons about parts of books and getting to teach part of poems. I love when I am able to get as much into a lesson as possible.

I love this book of poems about books. I will begin using this book on the first day of school. You can use the poems as hooks for lessons about books. Love it.

Love it

One of the most delightful & creative books I've seen! I especially enjoyed the poems written from a clever "point of view" and the artful play with words in both poetry & illustrations!