Friday, August 19, 2022

Celebrating the THINGS WE FEEL Anthology

I'm excited to finally be able to post today and talk about the latest Pomelo Books anthology Things We Feel, edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. The book just happens to include one of my poems! In honor of Poetry Friday, I share that poem at the end of this post along with a link to the Poetry Friday roundup.
 

Our current TeachingAuthors topic is "One Book I Learned from this Past Year." Things We Feel is especially appropriate to the topic because it was produced as part of a class I took from Sylvia and Janet: Anthologies 201, a four-part course on publishing an anthology for PreK-grade 2. 

My involvement with this book taught me a great deal. I learned not only from Sylvia and Janet's presentations, but also from the process of writing and selecting the poems. Not all the poems in the anthology were written by the students in our class, and we were allowed to participate in the selection of the poems written by outsiders. The project helped me better understand the variety of considerations when putting together a poetry anthology. As a result, I was able to look at my own poems more objectively. One of my biggest takeaways: An anthologist isn't only looking for the best poems, but poems that will be the best fit.

Things We Feel is the third in a series of alphabet anthologies. This book covers a variety of emotions, from A to Z, and is wonderfully illustrated with photographs of children dealing with each emotion. Things We Feel will be of great value to parents and teachers trying to help young children cope with and understand their feelings. Since my poem is "Amazed," it's the very first in the book. 😊  

As part of the Anthologies 201 class, we participated as a team in creating the following short video which could be used as a supplement to the book. (If the video doesn't play for some reason, you can also watch it here.) 

Things We Feel EMOTIONS promo from Pomelo Books on Vimeo.

As I mentioned, Things We Feel is the third in a series from Pomelo Books. Fellow TeachingAuthor April Halprin Wayland and former TeachingAuthor JoAnn Early Macken both contributed poems to Things We Eat, which came out earlier this year. See this blog post to read April's poem. And you can read JoAnn's poem on her website. The first book in the series, Things We Do, was released in 2021. All of the profits from sales of these books will be donated to the IBBY Children in Crisis Fund (IBBY.org). You can find buy links for all the books on the Pomelo Books website.

Now, as promised, I'll share my poem, "Amazed." Sylvia and Janet created a terrific graphic of the 2-page spread with the poem alongside the "amazing" photo that inspired it. However, I had to split the graphic into two for the poem to be legible here. So below you'll first see the photo, which appears on the left page of the spread, and then the poem. (If you'd like to see the whole graphic, check out my Tweet here.)

 

 

I encourage you to visit Marcie Flinchum Atkins's website to read the fun poem she wrote for the letter Z: "Zany."  You can also see Michelle Kogan's poem in the anthology on her blog post here. And Anastasia Suen shares not only her poem but a related downloadable activity on her website.

When you're done checking out the poems from Things We Feel, don't forget to visit the Poetry Friday roundup hosted by Dave on his blog, Leap of Dave
 
Happy writing!
Carmela

23 comments:

Susan T. said...

Oh, what a fun twist on the point of view in your poem! Congrats on the anthology; it looks like a good one for the second graders I read to.

Leanne Pankuch said...

Great post, Carmela! And congrats on the anthology pub - I love your poem (especially the twist!).

Carmela Martino said...

Thanks, Susan. I hope you will use it with your students.

Carmela Martino said...

Thanks, Leanne. It was fun to create.

Linda B said...

This will be a wonderful book for young children in a class. I hope many teachers will find and purchase, Carmela. "Amazed" shows it well. I often took students on trips & one year, one student had never seen the ocean. She wasn't behind a glass window but her gaze almost never stopped!

Carmela Martino said...

Thanks, Linda. I LOVE the photo that prompted the poem, and your wonderful experience with the student!

Margaret Simon said...

Congratulations for being included in this anthology. I love how you spin the perspective of the poem at the end. What a wonderful project to be a part of!

Janet Wong said...

"An anthologist isn't only looking for the best poems, but poems that will be the best fit." That's the essence of Antho 101, 201, 301, and 401 in a sentence! (And thank you for the perfect poem to open THINGS WE FEEL!!)

Carmela Martino said...

Thanks, Margaret. Yes, it's a wonderful project!

Carmela Martino said...

Many thanks to you, Janet, and to Sylvia, for the opportunity, and for a great class!

Linda Mitchell said...

I am absolutely loving seeing all the poets included in this book. How wonderful! We need this book so, so, so much. I'm seeing ES age students move up into MS with such a tangled mess of feelings that they do not understand how to manage.

Carmela Martino said...

Thanks, Linda. I hope the book is used far and wide.

Rose Cappelli said...

Love your poem, Carmela, with its perfect twist at the end. Happy to be a part of this book, too.

Vicki Wilke said...

Love this opening poem, Carmela, especially the surprise ending! I have also loved participating in this series, in THINGS WE EAT and THINGS WE FEEL. The photos and poets are “AMAZING!”

Carmela Martino said...

Thanks, Rose. I love your poem in the collection, too. Perfectly captures the tension and ultimate relief! :-)

Carmela Martino said...

Yes, Vicki, I agree! Your poem "Upset" is terrific and goes perfectly with the photo. Nicely done!

Esther Hershenhorn said...

YOU should be feeling PROUD, Carmela!
Consider all you did to learn your craft!
Consider your success in this project.
YOU are Amazing!
Thanks for sharing.
Your Fan Esther

April Halprin Wayland said...

Ditto what Your Fan Esther says!
🌞❤️🌞

Carmela Martino said...

Thanks so much, Esther and April!

Carol Varsalona said...

Carmelo, I am glad that I finally got a chance to read your post. The photo that is connected with your poem is a good companion. Iespecially like your last line with an unexpected point of view.

zeena said...

I love this so much!

Carmela Martino said...

Thanks, Carol. The photo came first--it was the prompt for the poem.

Carmela Martino said...

Thanks, Zeena!