Saturday, August 4, 2012

Dare to Dream: Poetry for everyone

Last week, we received our much-anticipated book of poetry, Dare to Dream...Change the World, edited by my fabulous agent Jill Corcoran.

I'd gotten a glimpse of the beautiful illustrations earlier, so we were pleased that the book is large (!), and the pictures fill the entire page.

Usborne books describes the collection like this: From Jonas Salk to Steven Spielberg, the subjects of these biographical-inspired poems invented something, said something, stood for something, did something, changed something. They dared to dream.

Thirty of our nation's most prestigious poets focus their creative vision on people who not only changed their own lives, but the lives of people all over the world.

Poets
Jill Corcoran   J. Patrick Lewis    Alice Schertle   David L. Harrison    Jane Yolen   Joan Bransfield Graham    Ellen Hopkins    Georgia Heard   Hope Anita Smith   Elaine Magliaro    Curtis L. Crisler   Janet S. Wong    Denise Lewis Patrick    Joyce Lee Wong    Jacqui Robbins    Julia Durango    Tracie Vaughn Zimmer    Lisa Wheeler    Hope Vestergaard    Carol M. Tanzman   Stephanie Hemphill    Alan Katz    Lee Bennett Hopkins   Marilyn Singer    Rebecca Kai Dotlich    Joyce Sidman    Rose Horowitz    Bruce Coville    Kelly Ramsdell Fineman   Laura Purdie Salas

My 9-year-old son is a bit crazy about YouTube videos and begs me to search for funny videos. (I always supervise, of course.) So it's no surprise to me that one of his favorite poems in Dare to Dream...Change the World is inspired by YouTube's co-founding geniuses Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim: "Just Like That," by Laura Purdie Salas.

Although he stumbled a little on "from Omaha to Seoul," you can tell he loves the rhythm of this poem:

It's a beautiful book. Congrats, Jill!

UPDATE: I can't believe I didn't mention in original post the illustrator: J. Beth Jepson. The poems are only half of this book. The other half, the illustrations, are gorgeous. We love the way the poems are placed ON the illustrations. (Had to share this wonderful and important detail!)