Poetry, Play, and Wonderfuzz: A Conversation with Sylvia Vardell & Janet Wong
Truth: if you offered me the chance to meet the president of any country, an Oscar-winning Hollywood actor, a sports superstar, or Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong… I’d pick Sylvia and Janet.
So influential have they been on my poetry learning as a parent (and humble newsletter writer), I cannot imagine all the things I wouldn’t know if it weren’t for them.
It started with Sylvia’s five books on literature for children — written for educators and librarians but totally accessible to anyone who merely wants to know more about the world of children’s poetry and how to help children access it deeply, gladly, and often — extended to her blog, Poetry for Children, and, well, exploded from there.
One cannot delve very deeply into Sylvia’s work without encountering Janet — the two have collaborated for years in a variety of poetry-focused ways.
So I found Janet, and then fell in love with her work. My youngest was so obsessed with the quirky Dumpster Diver (which I reviewed in issue No. 47) she took it to bed with her, and then I realized I already knew and adored many of Janet’s books — poetry titles like Twist: Yoga Poems and Night Garden: Poems from the World of Dreams, as well as awesome holiday ones like Apple Pie for the 4th of July. I could go on.
Sylvia, now retired, was a professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Women’s University and taught graduate courses in children’s and young adult literature. She has published extensively, including five books on literature for children as well as over 25 book chapters and 100 journal articles. Her current work focuses on poetry for children. (Learn more about her at SylviaVardell.com.)
Janet is a graduate of Yale Law School and a former lawyer who switched careers to become a children’s author. She is the author of more than 30 books for children and teens on a wide variety of subjects, including writing and revision, diversity and community, peer pressure, cheese, and yoga. Her current focus is encouraging children to publish their own writing using affordable new technologies. (Learn more about her at JanetWong.com.)
In addition to all their books, in 2012, they started a publishing company together with the goal of making it easy for teachers and librarians to share poetry. Their emphasis has been to highlight diversity and inclusion through a wide variety of 21st-century topics and a multitude of original and distinctive voices, both established and new.
Clearly, I am a mega-fan of Sylvia’s, Janet’s, and especially Sylvia-and-Janet.
Below you’ll find a review of their latest book, which is so very fun (and perfect for elementary- to middle-school-aged kiddos in the summer!), as well as an interview with the two of them offering their thoughts and creative ideas for engaging kids of any age with poetry.
Micro review: MY Kooky Compendium of Thimblethoughts and Wonderfuzz by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, illustrated by Frank Ramspott (2025)
Last December I reviewed Clara’s Kooky Compendium of Thimblethoughts and Wonderfuzz by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, illustrated by Frank Ramspott, an absolutely delightful and equally impossible-to-categorize book that its authors describe as an “anthology meets junk journal fused with a graphic novel plus bonus weird and wonderful trivia!,” which is as accurate a description as one could write (and believe me, I’ve tried to top it, and cannot).
So when Sylvia and Janet told me they’d created a companion book — a guided journal that preserves all of the wildly appealing creativity and kookiness of the original while inviting readers to make this one their own — I was all in, not least because, GET THIS, on the back of MY Kooky Compendium, they’d included a blurb… from… ME.
(Though this isn’t the first time I’ve blurbed a book, it’s still a new enough experience for me that I basically lose my mind when it happens, and to be asked for this by none other than my poetry heroes? SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!)
I digress, but one should be allowed to digress in one’s own newsletter from time to time. The point is, if you have a late elementary- or middle-school-aged reader who likes to journal and/or write and/or create and make, this is an inventive, inviting, super fun book that you should get your hands on immediately.
Now, Janet and Sylvia…
Tell us a bit about what you two do, separately and together.
JANET WONG: Separately — although we very well COULD do it together — I play pickleball, and Sylvia travels. Actually, I have started traveling, too, and I particularly enjoy combining visits to schools with my travels. Earlier this year I spoke to third and fourth grade students in Strasbourg when I happened to be there on a river cruise, and later this year I’ll be speaking to teachers in Geneva about peace-themed poetry.
SYLVIA VARDELL: I think it makes Janet crazy that I refuse to learn pickleball, which I think is hilarious! And she’s right — I love traveling and just returned from Tokyo and am heading to Australia and New Zealand later this year. We continue to work together to promote poetry for young people, especially new books and new voices.
Why does poetry matter? Why should parents and caregivers, educators and librarians be reading poetry to kids?
JANET: Poetry is short. We are all busy and stressed; sharing a poem takes as little as thirty seconds. And you can find a poem about everything and anything, so you can find a poem that resonates with every single child.
SYLVIA: I agree that the brevity of poems is a big plus — for short attention spans and for busy parents and teachers. But, the best-kept secret is that poems can also give us something to think about for quite a while after reading or hearing them — and hold up well to repeated reading, too. That’s a lot of “bang for your buck,” so to speak!
You've created a beautiful series of books for kids ages 4-7, preschool to 1st grade — Things We Do, Things We Eat, Things We Feel, and Things We Wear.
Can you talk a bit about poetry for little kids? Do you think those of us who have babies, toddlers, and preschoolers in our lives need to approach poetry any differently than those of us with older children? If so, how?
SYLVIA: We had so much fun creating those books using an ABC approach (one poem per letter) and vivid photographs to make the topics and poems very relatable. They’re perfect for reading out loud — a must for our youngest kiddos. But we would also encourage incorporating movement in reading these poems aloud, acting out the motions and actions to maximize children’s kinesthetic and tactile learning.
JANET: I agree with Sylvia. She is, after all, the world’s foremost expert on children’s poetry!
In my experience, it's not hard to engage kids with poetry, but many adults find it intimidating, which can be a barrier to sharing it.
What tips or advice do you have for parents and caregivers to make poetry feel more accessible?
SYLVIA: The very word “poetry” is intimidating to so many adults and creates a roadblock of anxiety or distaste. But the rhythm and music of poetry is SO appealing to young people, that we keep advocating for adults to just give it a try. Start with something funny — kids nearly always respond to humor. Or maybe we just need to call poetry something different, like “short-form writing” or “text-like literature.”
JANET: I like to use my “Poetry Suitcase” technique to make poem-sharing fun. Find poems you like and then find props to go with them. If the poem is about a tree, find a little branch on the ground and put it in your suitcase. If the poem is about cupcakes, put a container of sprinkles in the suitcase. Ask a child to pick a prop, and then read the poem that goes with it. Kids might want you to share the whole suitcase in one sitting, but share only one or two poems at a time; make the Poetry Suitcase a treat!
What techniques do you recommend for helping children connect with and enjoy poetry?
JANET: Keep your Poetry Suitcase time fresh and fun by sharing (borrowing and lending) suitcases to friends. Or have kids write their own poems to go with props of their choosing.
SYLVIA: I love Janet’s Poetry Suitcase idea because it makes poems more concrete and tactile for children. It helps make an abstract idea very real with physical objects.
What advice would you give to educators who feel unsure about teaching poetry or incorporating it into their curriculum?
SYLVIA: One easy way to provide mass exposure to poetry is to have a poem read aloud during the morning announcements — by the principal, the librarian, a willing teacher, or even a student volunteer. That’s an easy way to infuse poetry into the routine and elevate school culture just a bit. And of course, we happen to have a perfect book for this that is nearly scripted for the novice reader: Great Morning: Poems for School Leaders to Read Aloud.
JANET: As I mentioned, there is a poem on everything and anything. So, whatever it is that you want your kids to learn today, you can find a poem that either introduces or reinforces vocabulary and concepts in an entertaining (and easy-to-share) way.
How do you encourage children to write their own poems, and what benefits do you see from that process?
JANET: The most important thing that I want kids to learn, when it comes to writing, is to write multiple drafts as a practice. Writers of any age often hesitate because we’re looking for “the right words” to form in our heads before we start. If we learn to put something, anything, down quickly — because we know that it will be just the first of several drafts that we will write — then it frees you up. It’s kind of like having two free throws in basketball instead of just one. Knowing that you will have a second shot helps to keep you loose and increases your chance of success.
And poetry makes it easy to revise if you remember that the goal is to give yourself choices, to make drafts that are different, not necessarily “better.” If you rhymed in the first draft, then you can use zero rhyme in the second draft. Or if Draft 1 was long, cut it in half for Draft 2. This will automatically make the second draft different. You can then choose your favorite parts of Draft 1 and 2, add a few words here and there, and — voilà! — a third draft that will likely be the best of all.
SYLVIA: Janet’s approach to creating different drafts, rather than strictly revising one specific draft, is just genius, in my opinion! The only thing that I would add is that writing poetry should always build upon reading and hearing poems. The more poetry that kids hear read aloud daily or explore in their own reading, the more they naturally turn to trying to write their own. IMO, one of the major difficulties in teaching the writing of poetry is the total lack of exposure to the genre overall. How can you write something that you’ve rarely read or heard? Luckily, this is easy to fix by just reading a short (30-second poem) aloud every day—to start or end the day, use in transition moments, or just for fun.
Enormous thanks to Sylvia and Janet for their continued generosity, for being so freaking amazing! and for doing such good poetry work in the world.
Not convinced about poetry (yet)?
I have a post for you:
Convinced about poetry, but need some book recommendations for all ages to get started?
I have posts for that, too:
I hope you’ve learned something today that will help you jumpstart — or keep going, or hit refresh on — reading poetry to the children in your life.
Happy poetry reading!
Sarah
The Poetry Suitcase is such a fun idea—love that and really enjoyed this interview. Funny enough my two year old happened to grab “Buzz” by Janet Wong in his crazed, pull every and any book in reach selection process at the library this morning!
Oh my gosh, this is amazing!!! I am about to hard core deep-dive into Sylvia and Janet's bibliography, and totally saving this interview to share later.