“A Pocketful of Poets”

Teachers will gather at West Chester University on Saturday, Oct. 20, for the fourth Annual Children's Literature Conference to enjoy the company of three renowned authors who share humor and life lessons with children through poetry.

“A Pocketful of Poets” brings to campus the first U.S. children's poet laureate, Jack Prelutsky, plus Newbery Medal winner Linda Sue Park and children's poet J. Patrick Lewis.

“I wonder why Dad is so thoroughly mad,
I can’t understand it at all,
Unless it’s the bee still afloat in his tea,
Or his underwear pinned to the wall.…”

This first stanza of Jack Prelutsky’s poem “I Wonder Why Dad Is So Thoroughly Mad” from The New Kid on the Block hints at why this prolific author was named the first U.S. Children's Poet Laureate in 2006 by the Poetry Foundation.

Prelutsky “accidentally” became a poet in the 1960s after he decided that his drawings of imaginary and improbable animals needed poems to accompany them. Editor Susan Hirschman encouraged him to keep writing poetry, but scrap the art. “She published my first book, and now, more than 35 years later, she's still my editor,” he says.

He has completed more than 40 popular collections of original verse and anthologies of children's poetry, including Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems and The Baby Uggs are Hatching. He lives in Washington state and spends much of his time presenting poetry to children in schools and libraries throughout the United States.

Riddles in rhyme, poems that celebrate significant women, and biographical poems are the bailiwick of J. Patrick Lewis. He has published 15 children's picture books, among them, Please Bury Me in the Library, Arithmetickle: An Even Number of Odd Riddle-Rhymes, and Once Upon a Tomb: Gravely Humorous Verses. He has another 12 children's books accepted and in production, 11 of which are children's poetry and nonsense verse. His work has also appeared in numerous children’s publications including Ranger Rick, Cricket and Highlights for Children, as well as more than 50 anthologies. He was commissioned to write the 1992 National Children's Book Week poem, which was printed on one million bookmarks and distributed nationally.

Lewis has a doctorate in economics from Ohio State University. In 1972-73 he and his family became the first family accepted on the largest cultural exchange program between the U.S. and the USSR when he was named an International Research and Exchanges (IREX) fellow. They spent the academic year in the former USSR, and Lewis has since returned to Moscow and other Soviet cities for shorter stays. He taught at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, until 1998.

The daughter of Korean immigrants, Linda Sue Park was born in 1960, grew up outside Chicago, and has been writing poems and stories since she was four years old. She had her first poem published when she was only nine. Then she took a break of nearly 30 years.

A late-comer to the world of children’s and young adult poetry, she finally found her voice in 1997, when she started writing her first book, Seesaw Girl. It was accepted that same year and published in 1999.

Her works, which explore her Korean roots, are often based on legends and punctuated with facts that share her cultural heritage with readers. Among her books are The Kite Fighters, for which Park’s father drew the chapter-heading illustrations; A Single Shard, which won the 2002 Newbery Medal, Project Mulberry, which won the 2005 Chicago Tribune Young Adult Fiction Prize; and Tap Dancing on the Roof. Five picture books are forthcoming.

Park now lives in upstate New York.

The conference begins with registration at 8 a.m. and concludes with an autographing session from 2:15 to 3:45 p.m. All three authors/illustrators will sign books, but only those bought at the conference.
All events will be held in Emilie K. Asplundh Concert Hall, Philips Memorial Building, at the corner of High Street and University Avenue.

Attendees are eligible for four hours of Act 48 credits. For additional information and registration, contact Conference Services: 610-436-6931.

For more conference information, click here.

For more information on the authors visit their websites.
Jack Prelutsky
J. Patrick Lewis 
Linda Sue Park