by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong
Ages 3-8
ISBN 9781937057718
Item#479
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Calling all “pet people”! PET CRAZY: A Poetry Friday Power Book features twelve PowerPacks that use creative activities to get your children (K-3) thinking, drawing, reading, and writing about cats, dogs, lizards, rabbits, and more! Resources for children (as well as parents, teachers, and book club leaders) include “Hidden Language Skills” to sharpen language learning even further, recommended reading lists and websites, tips for reading aloud and writing, talking points, and places to publish.
The book features the work of the dynamic team of Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, illustrator Franzi Paetzold, and 12 poets: Kristy Dempsey, Helen Frost, Janice Harrington, Eric Ode, Laura Shovan, Eileen Spinelli, Elizabeth Steinglass, Don Tate, Padma Venkatraman, April Halprin Wayland, Carole Boston Weatherford, and Tamera Will Wissinger.
This book offers several choices for reading, thinking, writing, and responding. Overall, it’s a story in poems, but all of this is also organized in PowerPack groups that help children get a “behind the scenes” look at how poems work and how poets write and think. In each of these PowerPack groups, you’ll find five things:
- PowerPlay Prewriting Activity – Example Inside
- Anchor Poem (from an outside source) – Example Inside
- Response Poem – Example Inside
- Mentor Poem – Example Inside
- Power2You Writing Prompt – Example Inside
Children can have fun reading and thinking about poetry and learning about how poetry uses just a few words, but says so much and can inspire us to share our own thoughts and feelings.

About the Authors
Janet Wong is a graduate of Yale Law School and former lawyer who switched careers and became a children’s poet. Her dramatic career change has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN’s Paula Zahn Show, and Radical Sabbatical. She is the author of 30 books for children and teens on a wide variety of subjects, including writing and revision (You Have to Write), creative recycling (The Dumpster Diver), diversity and community (Apple Pie 4th of July), cheating on tests (Me and Rolly Maloo), and chess (Alex and the Wednesday Chess Club).
Janet Wong’s books include: Before It Wriggles Away (A Richard C. Owen “Meet the Author” Book), You Have to Write (2002), and A Suitcase of Seaweed (1996), Co-Author of ‘The Poetry Friday Anthologies”.
Books by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong are published by their company, pomelo books. We are honored to distribute The Poetry Friday Anthology series.
Sylvia Vardell is Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University and has taught graduate courses in children’s and young adult literature at various universities since 1981. Vardell has published extensively, including five books on literature for children, as well as over 20 book chapters and 100 journal articles. Her current work focuses on poetry for children, including a regular blog, PoetryforChildren, since 2006. She is also the regular “Everyday Poetry” columnist for ALA’s Book Links magazine. http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com/
Sylvia Vardell’s other professional books include: Poetry Aloud Here: Sharing Poetry with Children (2012) and The Poetry Teacher’s Book of Lists (2012), Co-Author of ‘The Poetry Friday Anthologies”.