Poet Spotlight: J. Patrick Lewis

Children's poet J. Patrick Lewis has enjoyed a prolific career. His poems are both humorous and thoughtful. And we, my dear friends and readers, are lucky enough to have several of his books in our libraries' collections.

A selection of poetry books by J. Patrick Lewis:

• Spot the Plot: A Riddle Book of Book Riddles
• Please Bury Me in the Library
• Riddle-icious
• Riddle-lightful
• Doodle Dandies: Poems that Take Shape

Spot the Plot is one of my favorites. I reviewed it back in January 2010. Here's what I thought: What a book of books! I look that Lewis mixes classics with newer books. I wonder how he chose the 13 titles he did. Munsinger's illustrations are great. I love the 2 detectives and their canine cohort. I hope we'll see a sequel to Spot the Plot.

Spot the Plot lends itself rather well to thematic story times or read aloud sessions. The possibilities are endless. A fairy tale theme is possible as Lewis mentions two (Cinderella & Rapunzel) . Children's classics is another theme (using Peter Rabbit, Madeline, and Ferdinand). New favorites is yet another theme (Tacky and Click, Clack, Moo). Older children can try their hands at writing riddles for their favorite books.

Click here to view our complete J. Patrick Lewis holdings, click here.
Visit Patrick's website here.