Loved to Pieces . . . with Paul B. Janeczko -- plus a GIVEAWAY!*

Happy National Poetry Month! We're celebrating with our favorite poetry books and special guests--like today's visitor, beloved poet and anthologist Paul B. Janeczko!

Paul B. Janeczko's books include the award-winning A Poke in the I, A Kick in the Head, and A Foot in the Mouth, all illustrated by Chris Raschka. He's also the author of Requiem: Poems of the Terezín Ghetto and Worlds Afire.

Paul's most recent book, Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, received starred reviews from School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly!

Wowee! Congratulations, Paul, and welcome! We see you've brought some loved-to-pieces books with you. They have to be a poetry books, right?

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"I suspect that a lot of people would expect me to name a poetry book as one of my favorite reads as a kid. That came later, my love of poetry, launched when I was captivated by Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. But during my salad days when I was fumbling my way through grammar school, I was a sucker for a series of books that my brothers and I bought at a used bookstore. No colorful dust jackets—you only got those if you could afford new copies—just tan covers with bold brown lettering that hinted at the adventures and mayhem that awaited us: The Tower Treasure, The House on the Cliff, and The Secret of the Old Mill. The books were about two young sleuths, as they liked to refer to themselves, called Frank and Joe Hardy. 

We had a lot in common. They were brothers; I had brothers. Their father was a detective; my father was…well, my father repaired televisions. That didn’t matter. What did matter was that what the brothers did in their mysteries turned me from a student who was gifted only on his birthday and Christmas into a poster boy for reading-at-night-under-the-covers-with-a-flashlight and, over time, a writer, proving a truth about my trade: writers are readers. So, thank you Frank. Thank you, Joe. You hooked me on reading, and my life was never the same."

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 *WIN A SIGNED COPY OF FIREFLY JULY!  

The Crooked Cottagers are giving away a signed copy of FIREFLY JULY: A YEAR OF VERY SHORT POEMS to one lucky fan! Leave a comment in the comments section below, and we'll choose a random winner on Monday, April 27th!


FIREFLY JULY
A YEAR OF VERY SHORT POEMS
by Paul B. Janeczko
Illustrated by Melissa Sweet 
ISBN 978-07636-4842-8
(Candlewick Press, 2014)

"Choosing from works spanning three centuries, Janeczko artfully arranges 36 elegant poems among the four seasons. . . . Sweet’s effervescent mixed-media collages include signature elements like graph paper and saturated pinks. . . . Inventive details abound, too: The last spread shows a child asleep under a crazy quilt that incorporates motifs from all four seasons—a perfect visual ending. Scintillating!" --Kirkus (starred review)

From FIREFLY JULY: A YEAR OF VERY SHORT POEMS. Illustration copyright 2014 by Melissa Sweet.

Paul B. Janeczko is the celebrated poet and anthologist of more than fifty books, including the award-winning A Poke in the I, A Kick in the Head, and A Foot in the Mouth, all illustrated by Chris Raschka. He is also the author of Requiem: Poems of the Terezín Ghetto and Worlds Afire, a collection of poems about the 1944 circus fire in Hartford. Paul B. Janeczko lives in Hebron, Maine. To learn more about Paul, visit his website: www.paulbjaneczko.com.
From FIREFLY JULY: A YEAR OF VERY SHORT POEMS. Illustration copyright 2014 by Melissa Sweet.