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This book, My Interactive Book of Poems, is unique, practical, useful and universal in its presentation and content. The book is divided into 9 sections with over 50 original poems of varying lengths and level of difficulty all written by the author. It introduces children to six types of poems: Shape, Haiku, Acrostic, Rhyming, Free Verse and Narrative. Children are encouraged to read the poem aloud at least three times, as they listen to the words the poem comes alive.

It is important to note that children do not have to like all the poems. They may begin in any section, with any poem and work backwards or forward. There are no restrictions. The activities which follow will further test children’s understanding of the poem. The 8th section contains additional activities. Answers to all questions are in the 9th section.

This book is compact, will hold in your child’s bag, and easy to read. Your child needs nothing more than a pencil or pen, crayons and a willingness to embark on a very pleasant journey with a friend, parent/adult, teacher, older sibling or alone. My Interactive Book of Poems will soon become your child’s companion on a plane, a train, a road trip, the car or bus and at home. The possibilities are endless. Parents then can rest at ease knowing that My Interactive Book of Poems will be a positive, rewarding learning experience.

Parents are you searching for a book that will:

Keep your child/children engaged
Expose them to a missing learning experience
Awaken their interest in the world around them
Develop a love for reading
Increase creativity
Improve critical thinking skills
Help children for whom English is a second language

This book “My Interactive Book of Poems” is the answer. It will satisfy all the above and it is affordable. It may be used in schools or at home.

Very often children may spend only a few minutes at an activity and lose interest. This can be frustrating to parents. They’ll voice the age-old complaint, “I’m bored”. With this book, children will look forward to resuming or tackling a new project, usually without prompting, coaxing or bribing.
After teaching children of all ages and abilities for many years, I have become a proponent of teaching poetry at every level in schools. For me, poetry became a teaching tool, a way of adding fun, excitement and even sobriety to a lesson in any subject. Teachers can use poetry to inject interest, cooperation and sometimes a little light-heartedness to even the most difficult group, whether the subject is music, language arts, science and even math.
Children can be awakened to view the world around them from their vision and see and feel the beauty of even a raindrop or a snowflake. We and our children have the poetic license to see, feel and touch the deeper things of life, to enjoy our Earth with our neighbors.
As we expose our children to poetry, they become more aware of themselves and others and realize that words are important to help them communicate. They may not realize it then but they are being propelled to do more for themselves, be better readers and strengthen their ability to communicate. I have heard parents say “I don’t have a creative bone in me and I don’t think my child has either”. What a burden to place on them?- limitation- that will remain with him/her for life. That is far from the truth. We are all creative, but we have placed limitations on our creativity. Poetry breaks that spell and sets us free to be who we truly are.

Poetry creates critical thinking in the classroom. Through analysis of available facts, evidence, observation and arguments, children are able to form a judgment. I’ll use this original poem which I have written to explain the point.

Snowstorm by Patsy Dunstan

I can remember clearly

The first Snowstorm of 2022

My sibling said it happens yearly

But to me, that was too few

We couldn’t wait for it to stop

As we gathered shovel, broom and pail

And crept in unison like a cop

Careful P.J no noise or we’ll fail

As I stepped outside with glee

A volley of snowballs hit my face

In spite of this, I was free

To be an angel and win the race

Alas our freedom didn’t last

A shout from dad wrecked our fun

We started shoveling very fast

Wet and cold, we bragged about the work we’d done

Examination of poem

Notice that the poem is written, within a child’s experience. Even if they haven’t done that, many have dreamed of playing in the snow with abandonment and no adult supervision.

One question could be

“What would you like to do in the snow?”
“Why do you think the boys were wet when they went inside?”

The child would analyze the facts to arrive at an answer.

For a child who has never experienced snow, the question could be any other weather-related question.

With the advancement in technology, children can experience snow. One question could be “Create a diorama of a hurricane/tornado or volcanic eruption.”

The child will need to read the poem, alone or with an adult until he understands the story, think about the facts, and form a judgment within himself. Poetry, therefore, prepares children for the real world and makes them more independent thinkers.

Let’s place a copy of this look in your child’s hands, give him /her the chance to enjoy a new experience, a new way of communicating their feelings through verse, a few words may take him to worlds hitherto unknown and there they may connect with the past, present and future.

One may ask; “why did you write this book?” The short answer is the COVID-19 Pandemic. You see this forced us to close our after-school program and for the first time I was afforded the luxury of “free time.”

I decided to write more poems to add to the list I keep in secret folders. Over the years I have written many poems. Most were written at the spur of the moment for a specific purpose. Therefore, many of them were not saved, even though, from a young age, my daughter would often say to me, “Mommy, why don’t you write a book of poems?” I didn’t listen to her advice but continued as I had before.

Then, to my dismay the precious folder was nowhere to be found. After feeling sorry for myself, piqued with condemnation and loss, I decided to start afresh- The Birth of “My Interactive Book of Poems”.

As the number of poems grew, I began to wonder what to do with them. Why not share them with kids? But how? A cool idea came to me. Why not make it interactive with poems and questions?

“My Interactive Book of Poems” is a compact workbook divided into 9 sections. Section 1-6 introduces children to 6 types of poems: Shape, Haiku, Acrostic, Rhyming, Free Verse and Narrative. You will find over 50 poems (all original) written by the author of this book. The poems vary in length and levels of difficulty. Children will be able to read the words and understand the story of the poem. There are activities as well for each poem. The 8^th section contains additional activities and the answers to all questions can be found in Section 9. You may meet some questions where the answers are the child’s opinion. These answers cannot be right or wrong, so no answers are given for them. The answer sheet will state “answers will vary”.

You will have at your fingertips a book you should add to your child’s collection, a valuable addition to your child’s library.

“My Interactive Book of Poems” is a book that your child will treasure for a long time.