Poetry Friday: Celebrating Hop to It!

Happy book birthday to HOP TO IT: POEMS TO GET YOU MOVING, by the creators of the Poetry Friday anthology series, Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong!There are 90 children's poets with work in this collection. I'm excited to be one of them. You can read the full list of contributors here. (High five to the Poetry Friday regulars in the group.)My poem (p. 23) in HOP TO IT has an interesting back story, and it goes like this...Back in January, my friend Michael Rothenberg was drawing and sharing abstract illustrations. One day, he posted what looked to me like a monster! I decided to write a monster poem to go with it. I shared that poem and Michael's illustration at this post.Michael and I had so much fun with our collaboration, that we went on to do sixteen monster and poem pairings.One of Michael's monsters looks like this:I saw this monster, with its spiky, blocky head, and what came to mind was the "crown-like spikes" (according to CDC.gov) on the surface of the coronavirus.Micro MonsterBy Laura ShovanIt flies through the airwith the greatest of easeon a jet stream of goowhen your friend has to sneeze.This monster is small,miniscule, microscopic.Its devious plansare quite misanthropic.From the spikes of its crownto the plugs on its fingers,it sticks to the airwhere it hovers and lingers.It flies up your nose.It is stealthy and quick.Now you have the virus.Now you’re feeling sick.Invisible foesare not easy to conquer,but it helps when you sneeze,if you cover your honker.***What a joy to have this poem shared in Sylvia and Janet's new book. Here is what it looks like on the page:I had to laugh when I told Michael that his illustration inspired my poem, which inspired the dancing monster cartoon on this page, which inspired...Many of the poems in HOP TO IT have some kind of movement or activity to go with them. If you do not wish to sing "Micro Monster" as suggested, I have another option.Make your own Micro Monster finger puppet/bookmark. (This one was made for me by my friend, children's author Casey Lyall.) You can fly this easy-to-craft Monster through the air while you read the poem out loud! Instructions to make your own Micro Monster are here.