©Kate O’Neil
The launch of the Australian Children’s Poetry website is an important event. It will be a rich resource for students, teachers and poets and a meeting place for everyone with an interest in any aspect of children’s poetry – readers, writers, teachers, parents, performers, academics, illustrators. In recent years children’s poetry has received renewed attention in many quarters – schools, media, academia, publishing – with a growing recognition of just how valuable it can be in a child’s development.
This new website will enable Australian children and their guiding influences to learn about contemporary Australian writers as well as the Australian tradition from which they have grown.
That tradition has, of course, a world-wide heritage as well, and a number of websites in both the UK and US are testimony to an exciting spirit of revival in this important literature.
Many of them include articles or features which have value for readers or writers everywhere and browsers who have enjoyed some time on the home pasture might be interested to explore further.
Children’s poetry sites UK.
This is run by Roger Stevens who has been publishing children’s poems online since 1998. The site also has interviews with a number of well-known children’s poets.
Website of The Poetry Book Society founded by T S Eliot and Friends in 1953. Use search facility for material related to children’s poetry. eg Poetry Books for …Tiny Terrors”
Type ‘children’s poetry’ into the search bar for some great articles on children’s poetry.
www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/the-case-for-children’s-poetry
In 2011 Morag Styles became the first “Professor of Children’s Poetry (Cambridge). This is the wonderful essay she wrote to mark the occasion of her appointment.
National Centre for Primary Schools @ CLPE
This is a free poetry website for primary schools. It features well-known poets, children’s poems, Themes, Poetic devices, Resources, Courses and events.The resources include many well-known poets speaking about their craft.
Centre for Literacy in Primary Education – type ‘poetry’ into the search facility.
Included here is a list of winners of the CLPE Poetry Award since 2003
Blog of Poetry Advocates for Children & Young Adults ( PACYA )
This is a grassroots, not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting poetry for every age group founded by poet Steven Withrow in 2011.
Children’s Poetry Sites US
http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com.au/
Run by Sylvia Vardell, a professor of children’s and young adult literature at Texas Woman’s University.
http://www.ncte.org/awards/poetry
The National Council of Teachers of English gives awards to American books of children’s poetry based on criteria listed on the site. There is also a list of winners since 1977 and links to their individual websites and to related articles.
Australian Children’s Poetry 