Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry by Jack Prelutsky

How to Write a Poem

If your tweens (8- to 12-year-olds) are interested in writing poetry but don’t know what to write about, I’d suggest that they read Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry by poet Jack Prelutsky. Prelutsky is known for his amusing poems that incorporate lots of word play. How to Write A Poem is the subtitle of this entertaining book. Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write a Poem includes writing tips, examples of poetry for kids by Jack Prelutsky, poetry writing prompts (poemstarts), a glossary, and an index of the poems included in the book.

Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: Who Is It For?

Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry is for the tween looking for ideas to incorporate into poems rather than for kids looking for detailed information about poetic forms. As Prelutsky states in his introduction,

"Don’t ask me about dactyls, quatrains, or iambic pentameter. There are many fine books that define poetic forms, meters, and structures. In this book I’m letting you peek into my mind and see how I use my imagination to turn ideas into poems."

The Book's Format and Contents

Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry is a paperback book that is approximately 5"x7" and is 192 pages. It includes 40 chapters or sections, half of which are writing tips. The other half includes stories of Prelutsky’s life and some of the experiences that prompted ideas for poems and how he used those ideas to write poetry. The book includes 34 of Prelutsky’s poems, giving the reader lots of examples of poetry writing from the initial idea to the final poem.

Jack Prelutsky challenges young poets to think back to their own experiences, including those that were weird, gross, or funny. He emphasizes the importance of writing down ideas immediately and, when writing about an experience, stresses, "list everything you can remember about it: the sights, the sounds, the smells, and your feelings." Prelutsky also points out that the poet is not a reporter and does not need to stick to the facts. He encourages tweens to exaggerate and use puns and other word play.

The Author: Jack Prelutsky

Jack Prelutsky has written more than 1,000 poems for kids. In recognition of his work, in 2006, The Poetry Foundation named Jack Prelutsky to a two-year term as the nation’s first Children’s Poet Laureate. Prelutsky has written more than forty poetry books for kids and compiled numerous anthologies of poetry for children. His collections of his own poetry for kids and the anthologies he has compiled include: The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders, Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems, My Dog May Be a Genius, The Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom, Good Sports, Scranimals, Read a Rhyme, Write a Rhyme and The New Kid on the Block

Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: My Recommendation

Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write a Poem is an excellent book for the young poet who has trouble thinking of things to write about. Jack Prelutsky provides specific tips that cover the importance of using past experience, imagination, exaggeration, irony, puns, and other word play in writing poetry. In the last chapter, Prelutsky also provides 10 writing prompts, which he calls “poemstarts,” to get young poets started.

However, if you are looking for a book with a lot of information on creating poems, different poetic forms, rhythm, meter and rhyming, this is not the book. Jack Prelutsky only covers a very little of this, and very lightly and sometimes confusingly, at that. Most of what little there is of this type of information is found in the glossary.

I think the value of this book is in the way Prelutsky shares his own creative process with readers, beginning with where he finds ideas of things to write about, continuing with how he expands/refines/changes those ideas in writing poetry, and ending by sharing the completed poem with readers. Throughout these descriptions, Prelutsky continually relates them to his young readers’ poetry writing and suggests helpful writing tips based on his own experience in writing poetry for kids. Since a good portion of his tips would also apply to other forms of humorous writing, I recommend Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write a Poem for tweens (8- to 12-year-olds) who are interested in writing poetry or humorous stories. (Greenwillow Books, An Imprint of HarperCollins, 2008. ISBN: 9780061434488)