Dancing Fingers

by Adora Svitak, Adrianna Svitak

About This Book Adora and Adrianna Svitak believe that age should not be a limiting factor when it comes to expressing creativity and imagination through writing and music. Since the publication of her first book, Flying Fingers: Master the Tools of Learning Through the Joy of Writing, when she was seven, Adora has been drumming up excitement about reading and writing. She has taught writing workshops to schoolchildren on three continents and made headlines fundraising for educational supplies in Vietnam. Despite these efforts, she still believes that the best way to get kids interested in reading and writing is to provide them with fun stuff to read and show them ideas they can try for themselves. To that end, Adora and Adrianna teamed up to create a collection of poems and poetry writing ideas for the entire class or family. With this book they hope to encourage other kids to explore their own writing potential. In order to share the sources of her inspiration, Adora s poems are divided into six sections. She introduces each section with an essay on one of her favorite sources of poetry inspiration and shares practical and inspirational writing tips. The writing ideas from each section appear in bold. Definitions of more advanced vocabulary words are included at the bottom of each page. A seventh section introduces a more modern style of poetry in the form of Adrianna s poems, which she wrote between the ages of eight and eleven. Adrianna is an award-winning pianist and violinist. She dedicates much of her time to music. Although her devotion to her music means that she has less time for writing than her sister, Adrianna s poems demonstrate that a good sense of rhythm can be useful in the realm of words. Diverse in style and content, Dancing Fingers speaks to readers of all ages. It is intended as a classroom resource, a teaching aid, a source of family entertainment, a conversation piece, and a vehicle for thoughts.

104 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2008

About the author

Adora Svitak is a Bay Area-based writer and public speaker who advocates for youth empowerment around the world. In 2010, she delivered the speech ‘What Adults Can Learn from Kids’ at TED. It has received over 5 million views on TED.com alone, and has been translated into more than 40 different languages.

Adora was named one of the ‘30 Top Thinkers Under 30’ by Pacific Standard Magazine and contributes to numerous publications including Huffington Post, Mashable, Women's Media Center, Bust, The Bold Italic, and the TED blog. She has spoken in front of audiences at Google, Mashable and the United Nations.

Reviews

[Jim Sibigtroth]

This is a collection of poems by Adora and her sister. They are written in various styles.