Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write a Poem

by Jack Prelutsky

Have you ever tried to write a poem about a pizza? How about a pig? How about a pigeon, penguin, potato, Ping-Pong, parrot, puppy, pelican, porcupine, pie, pachyderm, or your parents? Jack Prelutsky has written more than one thousand poems about all of these things—and many others. In this book he gives you the inside scoop on writing poetry and shows you how you can turn your own experiences and stories about your family, your pets, and your friends into poems. He offers tips, advice, and secrets about writing and provides some fun exercises to help you get started (or unstuck). You'll also get a behind-the-scenes look at the ingredients of some of his most popular poems. If you are a poet, want to be a poet, or if you have to write a poem for homework and you just need some help, then this is the book for you!

Genres: Poetry, Writing, Nonfiction, Middle Grade, Childrens, Humor, Juvenile

208 pages, Hardcover

First published February 26, 2008

About the author

Jack Prelutsky is an American poet. He attended New York public schools, and later the High School of Music and Art and Hunter College. Prelutsky, who has also worked as a busboy, furniture mover, folk singer, and cab driver, claims that he hated poetry in grade school because of the way it was taught. He is the author of more than 30 poetry collections including Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep< and A Pizza the Size of the Sun. He has also compiled countless children's anthologies comprised of poems of others'. Jack Prelutsky was married to Von Tre Venefue, a woman he had met in France. They divorced in 1995, but Jack remarried. He currently lives in Washington state with his wife, Carolyn. He befriended a gay poet named Espiritu Salamanca in 1997 and both now work together in writing poems and stories for children and adults alike.

Reviews

[Janssen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very amusing and clever. I think the kids in my library will really enjoy it.

[Caleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caleb (age 4): "I love poetry. This book tells you mostly everything about making poems. It makes me feel happy:) I'm like Jack Prelutsky because we're both poetry makers."

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Prelutsky is the children's poet laureate and if you've ever read any of his poems, you know why. He uses rhyme and humor effortlessly to create poems that engage kids and get them reading something beyond prose:

My mother says I'm sickening,
my mother says I'm crude,
she says this when she sees me
playing Ping-Pong with my food
- from My Mother Says I'm Sickening

This book is a great introduction to how poets go about writing poems, with an emphasis on the process of generating ideas. For each poem included, Prelutsky tells a short story from his own life that shows the basis of that poem and how he came to write something silly or crazy from what really happened. For instance, his mother's bad cooking gives rise to a poem about a meatloaf so indestructible, it eventually becomes the prototype for construction blocks.

Along the way, Prelutsky also throws in simple definitions of various literary and poetic terms, like poetic license, meter, and rhythm. Each chapter ends with a writing tip and exercise, and at the back of the book is a list of poemstarts - beginning lines - to get the young writer going.

Kids will come away from this book with a good grasp of how poets use their own everyday experiences and observations as prompts for poems. I think many adults beginning their own journey into poetry would find this book helpful, as well. Most importantly, Prelutsky never loses sight of the pleasure of poetry, both in reading and writing it.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prelutsky writes of his muse
composing poems he hopes will amuse,
to his credit, no limericks,
just rhythm, rhymes, plus word-tricks,
with over 40 books, he's paid his dues.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really funny book that could motivate some adolescents to write poetry. Prelutsky show fun and amusing ways to write poetry and gives encouragement and advice to the budding poet.

[Myriale · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry" is not only a fun poetry book it also helps teach children to write good poems. After every poem there is a writing tip. By the author having all of the poems written in a fun manner it kept me engaged. Having the tips on writing teaches the children writing, while they are having fun reading the poems. Poetry can be tough for many students, this book will help students in writing great poems in a relax, and no pressure manner. Highly recommend for older children.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love children's poetry, or know a child who wants to learn more about writing poetry, or just trying to coax a child into the world of poetry, this would make a fabulous starting point. Prelutsky uses many of his wonderful poems to illustrate poetic concepts and specific writing tips to guide the future poet.

[Heather Pleier · Rating 4 out of 5]

laugh-out-loud antics, very accessible writing tips. Totally inspired my 7 year old to write poetry. We loved it!
The 1st half of the book is stronger than the 2nd, which is the only reason I give it 4 stars.

[C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun book with a lot of promise for young writer who are interested in learning how the author writes poetry. The poems were cute and his easy writing style is enjoyable. This is a book I’m recommending to the children in my life.

[Madison Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. Not only does this book have very cute poems, but the author also added instructions for kids to write their own poems. He uses a variety of poetic concepts and tips on ways you can create your own poetry.

[Jgramley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I have been a fan of Jack Prelutsky’s work it was a reading challenge that led me to this book. And I am glad it did. He really does help readers write poems while also entertaining us with the stories behind some of his poems. I loved it!

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Getting ready to do an author study in Sandy's classroom. This book is full of tips on writing poetry, very entertaining back stories about how he gets ideas for poems.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit autobiography, a bit instruction, a bit of poetry. This book may have me writing poetry again.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

The text is rather dull and mildly annoying. Poem? More like rhymes to better fit the parent's conception of how a children's book should look like.

[joseph szerletich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would be great to use with 4th thru 7th graders to work on writing poems

[Cheryl Meibos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of funny stories and great writing tips.

[Mae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prelutsky did a great job of attuning this book to developing writers, while still making it interesting for adults. As a songwriter, I found that a lot of these prompts stirred ideas in me.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still don't like poetry but this wasn't so bad

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a school librarian I read several of Jack's books to my students. He's a very funny and talented poet.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good tips!

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read with the kids.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun. The kids enjoyed the poems.

[Jil Craythorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this middle grade book because it was on a suggested summer reading list. I kept pushing it off because I didn’t think I’d like it. It was actually very fun!!

[Tpendleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun introduction to poetry for younger readers.

I recommend this as the Poetry Book for Scouts working on the Reading Merit Badge. Reactions to the zany poems by Scouts and their Parents are worth the price of the book!

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining and educational collection of personal stories, poems, writing lessons, and exercises from Children's Poet Laureate Jack Prelutsky. The book is perfectly tuned towards very young writers, but I think it's also potentially useful for adult writers who want to get back into that free-wheeling creative mindset.

Sidenote: It also gives glimpses into Prelutsky's childhood, and I just have to say wow do I feel bad for his mother.

[Dan Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This easy to read informational book is written by one of the most humorous children's poets I have ever read. This book is full of stories, poems, and advice, all related to poetry. In each chapter the author begins by telling a short story about something from his own life and how it was the inspiration for one of his poems. He then follows the story by giving the poem which came about as a result. Finally, he concludes each chapter with advice about how you can take what he has just shown and explained and apply it to your own writing.

When I originally picked this book up I had nothing more in mind than to be able to fill in one of the blanks on my 30 books list for an informational book. As I read, I found myself actually paying attention to the things he related as well as the advice he gave. As I did so I found myself thinking back over my own life and taking stock of experiences I had and how I might some day be able to turn them into published pieces. I'm not sure that they'll become poems, in fact I'm not sure if they'll ever even get written, but I can certainly begin by putting them in my writer's notebook for future consideration. This is one book that I think I'll need to reread, maybe more than once.

This book reminds me of another book I read with a similar theme, titled Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine. These two books, both written by children's authors, are, in my opinion, excellent reference books for aspiring authors looking for practical advice on how to work through the writer's craft. Although targeted to middle school students, adults can also take what is written here and use it to develop their skills. Far from being a boring read, I quite enjoyed the time spent. Next time I'll have to take it much more slowly, pausing after each chapter to try implementing some of the skills suggested.

[Eileen Binning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ideas

[Deanna Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great mentor text for teachers to use when teaching poetry or to share in writer's workshop. As I read this book I couldn't help but write in the margins my own poem ideas. Prelutsky gives numerous writing tips such as writing tip #2--Does your mother have little quirks? He then goes on to share his mother's quirks and the poems that he created. I immediately was inspired and made a list of my own mother's quirks---and I think I may have the beginning of a poem (My mom color coded everything in our house to keep us kids organized. My color was orange--so I used the orange cup, plate, napkin, towel, pillow case, etc. Amazingly I still like the color orange today. My brother was yellow and my sister was blue).

Probably the only thing I disliked about the book is that Prelutsky rhymes everything. He finally admits on page 102 that poems don't have to rhyme and that they are hard to write. Prelutsky has this amazing gift of rhyme, words, rhythm but most kids do not. He finally shares some other poetry ideas.

This is a great resource to add to Georgia Heard's poetry books. I definitely will be sharing portions of this book to students during WW.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I L-O-V-E this book! Jack Prelutsky discusses his writing processes in developing his poetry, and where he finds inspiration for topics. Each chapter focuses on varying aspects of writing poetry, and is laid out in a way that can be easily incorporated into lesson plans for poetry writing workshops. Each chapter is also highlighted with some of Prelutsky's famous works as examples showing the writing aspects he is covering in that chapter. He also invites the reader to exercise some of the techniques he covers at the end of each section. I especially enjoyed his example of observing something from nature, and writing as many things about it that you can and turn that information into a poem. This is perfect for integrating science with literature. The book also includes a glossary of terms of techniques for writing poetry which is very helpful as well. Even though I would find using this book useful as a teacher, it is written in a manner that kids that can read at about fifth grade level on up can understand, and includes text boxes of vocab definitions for the poetry techniques.

[Judy Lindow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a must have for anyone who wants to write their own children's poetry or who teaches children; especially if you like poetry, and even more so if you like Jack Prelutsky's work.

There are 20 useful tips that help to teach 'how to write a poem'. Each tip chapter, includes the author's brief presentation of the tip, some examples, and then a summary of the tip. I don't care for his narrative but it makes presenting his concepts on how to write easy. Once you have this nice piece of curriculum you can use the 'tips' for lessons, and the poems for inspiration and fun,

He also has some poem starters, frames, he calls 'poemstarts', that can used to help kids, or anyone, get started on a poem. The glossary and his suggestions of using a thesaurus and rhyming dictionary are all very helpful.

Jack Prelutsky has been the children's poet laureate; it's an award with a 2 year tenure.
Awarded by the Poetry Foundation for a two-year tenure, the children’s poet laureate aims to raise awareness that children have a natural receptivity to poetry and are its most appreciative audience, especially when poems are written specifically for them.