Contests

Print Publications

Novels in Poetry Form

Resources

Web Sites

Poeticpower.com
Founded in 1993, Creative Communication is devoted to the promotion of poetry. Their Poetic Power Web site includes information for teachers about using poetry in the classroom as well as poetry contests for students of all ages.

Teenwriters.net
Everything an aspiring teen writer needs: copyrighting services, writing tips, message boards, and more!

Youngpoets.ca
This Web site has a section for young poets and another for teachers. Find great resources on teaching poetry, list of contests for teens as well as interesting articles on poetry and pop music and different forms of poetry.

Online Poetry Classroom
Free curriculum units for high school teachers based on the reading and writing about poetry rather than creative writing.

Write Express
Write Express has created an online rhyming dictionary for poetry and song writing.

Poetry 180
Find tips on how to read a poem out loud.

Youngpoets.org
Creative Communications promotes the language arts in schools, through publications, a young poets poetry writing contest, and lesson plans.

Bibliomania.com
A free bibliography listing online literature, literature book notes, author biographies, book summaries, and access to reference books.

Virtual Classroom Glossary
The virtual classroom glossary of literary terms.

Poetry Links
An excellent Web site for finding poetry.

Language Use
An excellent page full of literary terms.

Dialogue Through Poetry
This Web site, Dialogue Through Poetry, is dedicated to building a culture of peace and nonviolence in the world through poetry.

Poetic License
The captivating power of youth poetry and spoken word.

Contests

Poetrytelevision.com
Send PoetryTelevision.com your poetry videotapes for a chance to be featured in their Open Mic.

Teen Writer’s Dream
Be one of twelve teen poets on Teen Writer’s Dream to be showcased in the next volume of Poetically Correct.

Teen Ink
Enter Teen Ink’s monthly poetry contest.

iam4teens.com
Enter a poetry contest for a chance to win an autographed copy of a book from the Chicken Soup for the Soul or the Teen Love series.

Librarian Lane
The Roth Web site has realized that librarians are poets, too! This contest is only for librarians!

Print Publications

Bladwin, Michael. Slam Poetry Manual. (ALA Grpahics, 2003). This easy-to-use manual helps you create a memorable poetry slam.

Janeczko, Paul B. Poetry from A to Z: A Guide for Young Writers. (Atheneum, November 1994).
This book, perfect for middle school students, encourages students to give poetry a try.

Janeczko, Paul B. How to Write Poetry (Scholastic Guides). (Scholastic Reference, April 2001).
A clear starting point for young writers wanting to become poets.

Higginson, William J. Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku. (Kodansha International; Reissue edition March 1992)
A source for everything you need to know to teach or write haiku.

Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry. (Manic D Press; September, 2000).
This book gives some history about poetry slams, showcases work of slam poets, and will give you a head start to creating your own slams or performing well at one.

Trelease, Jim. The Read-Aloud Handbook, 5th ed. (New York: Penguin, 2001).
This book explains the importance of reading aloud to children and teens, how to set up read-aloud programs, and examples of titles that are perfect for reading aloud.

Novels in Poetry Form

Fiction

Who Will Tell My Brother? Marlene Carvell, 2002 (hardcover, 0786808276, Hyperion Pr.)
During his lonely crusade to remove offensive mascots from his high school, a Native American teenager learns more about his heritage, his ancestors, and his place in the world.

Frenchtown Summer, Robert Cormier, 1999 (hardcover, 0385327048, Delacorte Pr.; paperback, 0440228549, Laureleaf)
A series of vignettes in free verse in which the writer reminisces about his life as a twelve-year-old boy living in a small town during the hot summer of 1938.

Love That Dog, Sharon Creech, 2001 (hardcover, 0060292873, Joanna Cotler; paperback, 00644009597, Harper Trophy)
A young student, who comes to love poetry through a personal understanding of what different famous poems mean to him, surprises himself by writing his own inspired poem.

After the Death of Anna Gonzales, Terri Fields, 2002 (hardcover, 080507127X, Henry Holt)
Poems written in the voices of forty-seven people, including students, teachers, and other school staff, record the aftermath of a high school student’s suicide and the preoccupations of teen life.

Foreign Exchange: A Mystery in Poems, Mel Glenn, 1999 (hardcover, 0688164722, Morrow Junior)
A series of poems reflect the thoughts of various people—town residents young and old, teachers, and some students visiting from the city—caught up in the events surrounding the murder of a beautiful high school student who had recently moved to the small lake-side community of Hudson Landing.

Jump Ball: A Basketball Season in Poems, Mel Glenn 1997 (hardcover, 052567554x, Lodestar Books)
Tells the story of a high school basketball team’s season through a series of poems reflecting the feelings of students, their families, teachers, and coaches.

Split Image, Mel Glenn, 2000 (hardcover, 0688162495, William Morrow; paperback, 0060004819, Harper Tempest)
A series of poems reflect the thoughts and feelings of various people—students, the librarian, parents, the principal, and others—about the seemingly perfect Laura Li and her life inside and out of Tower High School.

The Taking of Room 114: A Hostage Drama in Poems, Mel Glenn, 1997 (hardcover, 0525675485, Lodestar Books)
A series of poems reflect the thoughts of school officials, parents, police, and especially a class of seniors who have been taken hostage by their high school history teacher.

Who Killed Mr. Chippendale? A Mystery in Poems, Mel Glenn, 1996 (hardcover, 0525675302, Lodestar Books; paperback, 0140385134, Puffin)
Free verse poems describe the reactions of students, colleagues, and others when a high school teacher is shot to death as the school day begins.

Bronx Masquerade, Nikki Grimes, 2002 (hardcover, 0803725698, Dial Books for Young Readers)
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they’ve written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.

Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse, 1997 (hardcover, 0590360809, Scholastic; paperback, 0590371258, Scholastic)
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family’s wheat farm in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl years of the Depression.

Witness, Karen Hesse, 2001 (hardcover, 0439271991, Scholastic; paperback, 0439272009, Scholastic)
A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.

Soul Moon Soup, Lindsay Lee Johnson, 2002 (hardcover, 1886910871, Front Street Press)
After her father leaves and Phoebe and her mother struggle to survive in the city, Phoebe finally goes to the country to live with her grandmother, where she learns family secrets and hopes her mother will return for her.

The Brimstone Journals, Ron Koertge, 2001 (hardcover, 0763613029, Candlewick Press)
In a series of short interconnected poems, students at a high school nicknamed Brimstone reveal the violence existing and growing in their lives.

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup, Ron Koertge, 2003 (hardcover, 0763621161, Candlewick Press) When 14-year-old baseball player catches mono, he discovers that keeping a journal and experimenting with poetry not only helps fill the time, it also helps him deal with life, love, and loss.

Seventeen, Liz Rosenberg, 2002 (hardcover, 081264915x, Cricket Books)
Seventeen-year-old Stephanie journeys from fall to spring and from childhood to womanhood as she experiences first love and deals with her fear of inheriting her mother’s mental illness.

Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy, Sonya Sones, 1999 (hardcover, 0060283874, HarperCollins; paperback, 0064462188, HarperCollins)
A younger sister has a difficult time adjusting to life after her older sister has a mental breakdown.

What My Mother Doesn’t Know, Sonya Sones, 2001 (hardcover, 0689841140, Simon & Schuster; paperback, 0689855532, Pulse)
Sophie describes her relationships with a series of boys as she searches for Mr. Right.

Becoming Joe DiMaggio, Maria Testa, 2002 (hardcover, 0763615374, Candlewick Press)
Joseph Paul was named after the baseball legend, holding all the promises for a better life that Joe DiMaggio held for baseball.

Girl Coming in for a Landing, April Halprin Wayland, 2002 (hardcover, 0375801588, Knopf)
A collection of more than one hundred poems recounting the ups and downs of one adolescent girl's school year.

Jinx, Margaret Wild, 2001 (hardcover, 0802788300, Walker)
With the help of her understanding mother and a close friend, Jen eventually outgrows her nickname, Jinx, and deals with the deaths of two boys with whom she had been involved.

Make Lemonade, Virginia Euwer Wolff, 1993 (hardcover, 0805022287, Henry Holt; paperback, 059048141x, Point)
In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old LaVaughn babysits for a teenage mother.

True Believer, Virginia Euwer Wolff, 2001 (hardcover, 0689828276, Atheneum; paperback, 0689852886, Pocket Books)
Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new friends, and inspiring mentors, that life is what you make it—an occasion to rise to.

Locomotion, Jacqueline Woodson, 2003 (hardcover, 0399231153, Putnam)
In a series of poems, Lonnie writes about his life, after the death of his parents, separated from his younger sister, living in a foster home, and finding his poetic voice at school.

Nonfiction

Learning to Swim, A Memoir, Ann Turner, 2000 (paperback, 0439297710, Scholastic)
A series of poems convey the feelings of a young girl whose sense of joy and security at the family’s summer house is shattered when an older boy who lives nearby sexually abuses her.

Carver: A Life in Poems, Marilyn Nelson, 2001 (hardcover, 1886910537, Front Street Press)
Award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson provides readers with a look into the complex life of George Washington Carver.

You Remind Me of You: A Poetry Memoir, Eireann Corrigan, 2002 (hardcover, 0439153093, Scholastic; paperback, 0439528313, Scholastic)
Eireann recounts her life-threatening struggle with anorexia and then her boyfriend’s suicide attempt through a series of intense poems.

Movies

The Outsiders

Dead Poets Society

Shakespeare in Love

So I Married An Ax Murderer

Il Postino

SLAM!