HarperCollins

See what some of our reps have to say about the new thriller from Elizabeth Haynes:

“Great structure…like Before I Go to Sleep. Haynes has the reader coming and going.  Great having books like this to sell.”—Gabe Barillas, Field Sales Rep

“What a terrific can’t-put-it-down page turner. From the two concurrent timelines, you know from the outset that the lead character is going to encounter some pretty serious problems. Just watching those problems unfold in both the past and the present really hooks you.  And how well all the characters are portrayed. You really start to sympathize with the brave but conflicted heroine.” —Robin Smith, Field Sales Rep

“Reading through the chapters is kind of like the horror movies where the creepy music starts just as they go to open the closet door. Inside your head (or perhaps outside) you are screaming…don’t open it!!  Really addictive…I could not put it down. It’s fabulous.”  —Diane Jackson, National Accounts Rep

“Once you dive into this, you really can’t put it down.  At times I had to set it aside for a bit because the suspense in each of the storylines was so intense. It’s amazing that this is a debut!” —Cathy Schornstein, Field Sales Rep

“This book kept me up late and then kept me from falling asleep! The character is so compelling and the pace and format of the two stories keep you turning the pages (and locking your door).”  —Katherine Pereira, Senior Manager, Premium and Corporate Sales, National Accounts

Start reading Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes, before it goes on sale!

The Billy Bob Tapes

by Billy Bob Thornton and Kinky Friedman

Raised in small-town Arkansas, Billy Bob Thornton grew up amid a rich storytelling tradition. See, the South is just different than other places… . you can feel the ghosts there. As a kid, he would sit on the porch listening to his family or some old man down the road spinning yarns about colorful neighbors. These stories didn’t have to be made up. The characters were already there, so the stories just came out of the characters we knew. Thus was borne his Oscar®-winning masterpiece Sling Blade and now The Billy Bob Tapes—a narrative based on late-night conversations with Kinky Friedman and other friends who gathered ‘round to hear Billy mine a cave full of ghosts.

Billy grew up shooting squirrels, playing drums in VFW clubs, and dreaming of rock ‘n’ roll stardom or pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals. Then at sixteen he took a drama class to meet chicks—and met Mrs. Treadway, who noticed the young man’s talent and encouraged him as an actor and writer. “You don’t know what it’s like to be a drama teacher in a small town in Arkansas where nobody really cares,” she said, “but let me tell you something. You can do this.” These stories didn’t have to be made up. The Everything he’s accomplished since, he says, can trace back to this woman, Maudie Treadway.

The colorful characters, stories, and experiences of his youth would find their way into Billy’s work, in his films and music, and in his perspective and attitude. It’s like the old saying goes: you can take the boy out of the hills, but you can’t take the hills out of the boy. That boy did leave the hills—for Hollywood Hills. A true fish out of water, he recalls stories of miserable jobs, the cheapest accommodations, and physical hunger—but also a devoted writing partner named Tom Epperson, a life-changing acting teacher in L.A., and a compassionate nurse who snuck him milk shakes when he was near starvation. But there was always the dream of being an actor, and his fortunes turned when he served hors d’oeuvres as a catering waiter to legendary director Billy Wilder, who advised him, “Write about your interesting life.”

Billy’s long career in Hollywood yields stories of inspired collaborations and failed ones, true friendships with other actors and musicians, and good friends gone too soon. In The Billy Bob Tapes, he reflects on his critics, the culture around fame, and the challenges of conveying an artistic vision in film. Most striking is Billy’s clear-eyed perspective about the magic of entertainment, and how we perceive it in a rapidly changing world. With passion, unvarnished honesty, wry humor, and a little help from friends Angelina Jolie, Robert Duvall, Dwight Yoakam, Tom Epperson, and Daniel Lanois, Billy Bob finally talks.

Read an excerpt of the Billy Bob Tapes by Billy Bob Thornton and Kinky Friedman

Canada

by Richard Ford

“First, I’ll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later.”

Then fifteen-year-old Dell Parsons’ parents rob a bank, his sense of normal life is forever altered. In an instant, this private cataclysm drives his life into before and after, a threshold that can never be uncrossed.

His parents’ arrest and imprisonment mean a threatening and uncertain future for Dell and his twin sister, Berner. Willful and burning with resentment, Berner flees their home in Montana, abandoning her brother and her life. But Dell is not completely alone. A family friend intervenes, spiriting him across the Canadian border, in hopes of delivering him to a better life. There, afloat on the prairie of Saskatchewan, Dell is taken in by Arthur Remlinger, an enigmatic and charismatic American whose cool reserve masks a dark and violent nature.

Undone by the calamity of his parents’ robbery and arrest, Dell struggles under the vast prairie sky to remake himself and define the adults he thought he knew. But his search for grace and peace only moves him nearer to a harrowing and murderous collision with Remlinger, an elemental force of darkness.

A true masterwork of haunting and spectacular vision from one of our greatest writers, Canada is a profound novel of boundaries traversed, innocence lost and reconciled, and the mysterious and consoling bonds of family. Told in spare, elegant prose, both resonant and luminous, it is destined to become a classic.

Read an excerpt of Canada by Richard Ford

The Laws of the Ring

by Urijah Faber (with Tim Keown)

What’s your passion?

For Urijah “The California Kid” Faber, fighting is not just a thrill but an act of self-expression. From his first fight in the outlaw MMA days of 2003, Urijah recognized his passion for the sport—and since then the former WEC World Featherweight Champion, now fighting as a top bantamweight in the UFC, has been living his dream. As one of the most exciting, charismatic fighters today, with a loyal following in the MMA community, Urijah is well known for his inventive fight style, cutting-edge approach to fitness, and California swag.

In The Laws of the Ring, Urijah relates the full story of how he has made a career out of a highly demanding sport. Even outside the ring, his passion for fighting has motivated him to do so much more—to open his own fitness center, create a sports clothing line, lead a fight team and coach up-and-coming fighters in the television show The Ultimate Fighter. But even the California Kid couldn’t do it all without constant hard work, healthy habits, and a whole lot of positive thinking. With his thirty-six “Laws of Power,” Urijah shares the life lessons he’s learned along his unconventional path, drawing from personal experience to give readers a sense of life inside the ring—and to show how to take those lessons into their own worlds.

Part manifesto for success, personal journey, and meditation on a well-lived life, The Laws of the Ring is filled with funny, provocative, and inspirational stories for a colorful glimpse into the rise of a young superstar, and the philosophy behind his accomplishments. With clear-eyed perspective and down-to-earth advice, Urijah zeroes in on getting the life you want—and living it to the fullest.

Read an excerpt of The Laws of the Ring by Urijah Faber (with Tim Keown)

It Worked for Me

by Colin Powell (with Tony Koltz)

It Worked for Me is filled with vivid experiences and lessons learned that have shaped the legendary public service career of the four-star general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. At its heart are Powell’s “Thirteen Rules”—notes he gathered over the years and that now form the basis of his leadership presentations given throughout the world. Powell’s short but sweet rules—among them, “Get mad, then get over it” and “Share credit”—are illustrated by revealing personal stories that introduce and expand upon his principles for effective leadership: conviction, hard work, and, above all, respect for others. In work and in life, Powell writes, “it’s about how we touch and are touched by the people we meet. It’s all about the people.”

A natural storyteller, Powell offers warm and engaging parables with wise advice on succeeding in the workplace and beyond. “Trust your people,” he counsels as he delegates presidential briefing responsibilities to two junior State Department desk officers. “Do your best—someone is watching,” he advises those just starting out, recalling his own teenage summer job mopping floors in a soda-bottling factory.

Powell combines the insights he has gained serving in the top ranks of the military and in four presidential administrations with the lessons he’s learned from his immigrant-family upbringing in the Bronx, his training in the ROTC, and his growth as an Army officer. The result is a powerful portrait of a leader who is reflective, self-effacing, and grateful for the contributions of everyone he works with.

Colin Powell’s It Worked for Me is bound to inspire, move, and surprise readers. Thoughtful and revealing, it is a brilliant and original blueprint for leadership.

Read an excerpt of It Worked for Me by Colin Powell (with Tony Koltz)

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate is a beautiful novel of hope, friendship, love, and family. The story is told through the eyes of Ivan, a silverback gorilla who lives in a mall circus. Ivan has a few good friends: Rob, a stray dog; Stella, an elephant; and Julia, the custodian’s daughter, but he still misses the family he lost when he was taken by poachers. 

As Stella’s health begins to decline, Mack, the circus owner, brings in a baby elephant named Ruby. Ivan watches as Stella and Ruby are trained to perform, and they each remember how different life was for them before the circus. The longer Ivan watches Ruby and Stella, the more he longs for the days when he lived outside among other gorillas — and especially his own family. Ivan vows that he will make a better life for himself and his friends. Julia gives him paint and paper and Ivan begins to express himself through his finger paints. The paintings become a popular attraction and draw much-needed attention to the group of friends. 

While this is also a story about animal cruelty, the author describes only the animals’ reactions, not the abuse. And the book never preaches. It gently leads the reader to his or her own conclusions.

I’ve given this book to three people, ranging in age from 8 years old to 73. I’ve recommended it to a middle school librarian as this generation’s Charlotte’s Web.

Like all classic books, The One and Only Ivan doesn’t leave you when you read the last page.

—Vicky Abate, Manager, Publishing Operations

Start reading The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate online! 

I Suck at Girls

by Justin Halpern

From the #1 New York Times bestseller author of Sh*t My Dad Says, Justin Halpern, comes a laugh-out-loud funny and deeply touching collection of personal stories about relationships with the opposite sex, from a first kiss to getting engaged and all the awkward moments in between. With Sh*t My Dad Says, Halpern brought his brand of talented comedic writing to the world. Now, with this equally poignant, hilarious, and provocative memoir, he establishes himself as one of popular writing’s great humorists alongside David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, and David Rakoff. Fans of biting, honor-infused memoirs such as Me Talk Pretty One Day and Assassination Vacation will find Halpern’s I Suck at Girls an unforgettable journey into the best and worst moments of one man’s adventures in romance.

Learn more about I Suck at Girls by Justin Halpern

“No. Aliens exist, I just don’t think they came millions of light years just to see earth. Be like driving 1000 miles to go to an Arby’s”

“I didn’t say you were ugly. I said your girlfriend is better looking than you, and standing next to her, you look ugly.”

“A parent’s only as good as their dumbest kid. If one wins a Nobel Prize but the other gets robbed by a hooker, you failed.”

“Pressure? Get married when you want. Your wedding’s just one more day in my life I can’t wear sweat pants.”

“I didn’t live to be 73 years old so I could eat kale. Don’t fix me your breakfast and pretend you’re fixing mine.”

Read about Justin Halpern’s new book, I Suck at Girls

Women can be identified by the various roles they’ve performed in life: wife, mother, career woman, widow. In one sense, this preoccupation with roles can be seen as limiting. For example, if you’re a mother, can you really be anything else? Which role is the most important one? Seen another way, these different roles can be liberating and refreshing.

Take Jackie O. The ultimate icon performed her earliest, most visible roles to perfection in the public eye: first, the glamorous First Lady, then the tragic young widow. As her life unfolded after JFK’s assassination, Jackie had other roles to play. Tina Cassidy’s book Jackie After O turns this whole notion of women’s roles on its head by taking a close look at one pivotal year in Jackie Onassis’s life and examining what was happening to the woman behind her public personae.

The book is structured on these various roles, with such chapter titles as “The Wife,” “The Preservationist,” “The Widow,” and “The Empty Nester.” It succeeds in presenting the real woman behind all the history, the glamour, the hype, the status, the fame—and avoiding hagiography (which, let’s face it, is such a temptation when writing about Jackie!).

We see that she was human and capable of making mistakes (read about how mismatched she and Aristotle Onassis were as a married couple). We see a woman facing middle age as her kids are growing up and leaving home, and wondering what she was going to do with the rest of her life. We see someone contemplating a career in publishing, after being away from the workforce for more than twenty years.

It’s true that Jackie had extraordinary advantages through her wealth and connections, but she still had to look inside herself and decide how to live a meaningful life. And 1975, the year she became a widow for the second time, was the year to do it.

Jackie’s most visible achievement that year was her work in the campaign to preserve Grand Central Station in New York City. But the book also highlights another triumph, one that was more personal and more profound, and one that resonates with women everywhere. She discovered how best to live her life—not as a widow or mother or book editor or preservationist, but as herself.

—Senior Production Manager Lelia Mander

Read excerpts from Tina Cassidy’s Jackie After O:One Remarkable Year When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Defied Expectations and Rediscovered Her Dreams

The Other Side of Normal

by Jordan Smoller

Psychiatry has ignored the normal. The focus on defining abnormal behavior has obscured what turns out to be a more fundamental question—how does the biology of the brain give rise to the mind, which in turn gives rise to everything we care about: thoughts, feelings, desires, and relationships?

In The Other Side of Normal, Harvard psychiatrist Jordan Smoller shows us that understanding what the mind was designed to do in the first place demystifies mental illness and builds a new foundation for defining psychiatric disorders—from autism to depression. Smoller argues there are no bright lines between normal and abnormal. Psychiatric disorders are variations of the same brain systems that evolved to help us solve the challenges of everyday life.

How do we become who we are? Smoller explains where our personalities come from, and how the temperaments we had as infants actually stay with us into adulthood. Why do we choose to date, love, and marry the people we do? Why do some of us form healthy relationships while others form unstable ones? Our relationships are shaped by the biology that drives two imperatives: maternal-child bonding and child-parent attachment.

Along the way, Smoller tackles an even greater question—what do we mean by “normal”?—as he explores the puzzles behind the epidemics of multiple personalities and koro, the shocking phobia that one’s penis is shrinking. He also looks at the controversial history of psychiatric classification and the explosive debates over how much early experiences influence our minds and to what degree genetics affect our temperaments, personalities, and emotional lives. Throughout this examination, Smoller explores the hidden sides of such questions as: How are trust and love rooted in biology? How much does sexual attraction stem from biology rather than culture? And what can the scientific study of normal behavior tell us about what it means to be human?

Based on the author’s groundbreaking research and personal experiences treating psychological disorders, The Other Side of Normal changes the way we think about the human condition.

Read an excerpt of The Other Side of Normal by Jordan Smoller

“Both hilarious and heartbreaking.”
—Pat Conroy

“[An] inspired, blistering war novel…Though it covers only a few hours, the book is a gripping, eloquent provocation. Class, privilege, power, politics, sex, commerce and the life-or-death dynamics of battle all figure in Billy Lynn’s surreal game day experience.”

— New York Times

“A masterful echo of Catch-22, with war in Iraq at the center. …a gut-punch of a debut novel…There’s hardly a false note, or even a slightly off-pitch one, in Fountain’s sympathetic, damning and structurally ambitious novel.”

— Washington Post

“[T]he shell-shocked humor will likely conjure comparisons with Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse Five…War is hell in this novel of inspired absurdity.”

— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“So much of Fountain’s work…reads with an easy grace…. [S]ometimes genius is anything but rarefied; sometimes it’s just the thing that emerges after twenty years of working at your kitchen table.”

— Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker         

Start reading Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and see what this great buzz is all about.

@neilhimself: Remembering the first Maurice Sendak book I read - In the Night Kitchen. Remembering reading Outside Over There to @hollyherself every night

@heroinebook: Sad about Maurice Sendak’s passing this morning, but so glad he gave us all he did.

@RL_Stine: A sad day in children’s books and for the world. I just learned that Maurice Sendak has died.

@Chuck_Hogan: Sendak on loved ones dying: “They leave me and I love them more.” That’s it right there.

@MercerMayer: To a great man, Maurice Sendak, who has had such influence on children’s literature. Let us honor him and his wonderful works.

@maureenjohnson: Just joining in on the many messages that have said the sad words: RIP Maurice Sendak. You, sir, were awesome.

@krisriggle: RIP Maurice Sendak. The first word my son could read was “Max” because of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

@gayleforman: My #sendak memory is a plate of warm food, left for me, under any circumstances, always seemed more inviting after a return from the wild.

@mental_floss: ”I don’t write for children,” Maurice Sendak told Stephen Colbert. “I write. And somebody says, that’s for children.”

@JacksonPearce: I am sad about Maurice Sendak. I do not know how to express my sad. #sad

@LindseyKelk: Maurice Sendak died? That’s pretty effing sad. Someone has alerted Stephen Colbert, yes?

@ate_did: Maurice Sendak. A great.

@JocelynnDrake: Sleep deep, Maurice Sendak. Thank you for the Wild Things, Little Bear, and so much more.

@krissygasbarre: Rest in peace, Maurice Sendak :( Thank you for the adventures.

@dallasclayton: Maurice Sendak. Magical human.

@KathleenBolton: I break twitter silence to mourn Maurice Sendak. RIP to one of my inspirations.

@thunderchikin: Good sailing, Mr. Sendak. May your dinner still be warm when you reach the other shore.

@kennethcdavis: A great loss. Maurice Sendak dies at 83. 

@SideshowAmi: Dear Maurice, may you always dwell where the wild things are. Thanks for the rumpus Mr. Sendak. #RIP

@abstractsunday: Terrible news: the wonderful Maurice Sendak, illustration and story telling hero has died.

@bengreenman: Anyone who is or was a child should spend a few minutes today thinking about Maurice Sendak. 

@TessaDare: I’m just heartbroken to hear that Maurice Sendak has died.

@DeliaEphron: Maurice Sendak RIP. “There must be more to life than having everything.” Jennie the dog in Higglety Pigglety Pop!

@SaraJBenincasa: Maurice Sendak Maurice Sendak Maurice Sendak Maurice Sendak.

@ElissaSchappell: MS’ “Nutshell Library” still dwells in the bookshelf by my bed. RIP Wild Thing hope you’re supping on Chicken soup w/rice #MauriceSendak

@V_Rossibooks: “And Max, the king of all wild things, was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.” #ripmauricesendak

@DerektheGhost: RIP Maurice Sendak - thank you for making us all love not only monsters, but also monster dancing.

Photo by John Dugdale

Revisit the visionary and haunting works of Maurice Sendak. 

Dear Photograph

by Taylor Jones

We all have moments we wish we could relive. We’d give anything to skid down the toboggan hills of our youth, to breathe in the smell of our children as babies, or to spend just one more minute with someone we’ve lost. Dear Photograph provides a way to link these memories from the past to the present, overlapping them to see how the daydreams of our memories collide with our current realities.

The idea is simple: hold up a photograph from the past in front of the place where it was originally taken, take a second photograph, and add a sentence of dedication about what the photograph means to you. The results, however, are astounding, which is why millions have flocked to dearphotograph.com and thousands have submitted their own Dear Photographs.

This stunning visual compilation includes more than 140 never-before-seen Dear Photographs, as well as a space for you to attach your own cherished photo. By turns nostalgic, charming, and poignant, Dear Photograph evokes childhood memories, laments difficult losses, and, above all, celebrates the universal nature of love.

Read an excerpt of Dear Photograph by Taylor Jones

my-mauve-colored-soul:

Pretty please?? :)

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

by Ben Fountain

A ferocious firefight with Iraqi insurgents at “the battle of Al-Ansakar Canal”—three minutes and forty-three seconds of intense warfare caught on tape by an embedded Fox News crew—has transformed the eight surviving men of Bravo Squad into America’s most sought-after heroes. For the past two weeks, the Bush administration has sent them on a media-intensive nationwide Victory Tour to reinvigorate public support for the war. Now, on this chilly and rainy Thanksgiving, the Bravos are guests of America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys, slated to be part of the halftime show alongside the superstar pop group Destiny’s Child.

Among the Bravos is the Silver Star–winning hero of Al-Ansakar Canal, Specialist William Lynn, a nineteen-year-old Texas native. Amid clamoring patriots sporting flag pins on their lapels and Support Our Troops bumper stickers on their cars, the Bravos are thrust into the company of the Cowboys’ hard-nosed businessman/owner and his coterie of wealthy colleagues; a luscious born-again Cowboys cheerleader; a veteran Hollywood producer; and supersized pro players eager for a vicarious taste of war. Among these faces Billy sees those of his family—his worried sisters and broken father—and Shroom, the philosophical sergeant who opened Billy’s mind and died in his arms at Al-Ansakar.

Over the course of this day, Billy will begin to understand difficult truths about himself, his country, his struggling family, and his brothers-in-arms—soldiers both dead and alive. In the final few hours before returning to Iraq, Billy will drink and brawl, yearn for home and mourn those missing, face a heart-wrenching decision, and discover pure love and a bitter wisdom far beyond his years.

Poignant, riotously funny, and exquisitely heartbreaking, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is a devastating portrait of our time, a searing and powerful novel that cements Ben Fountain’s reputation as one of the finest writers of his generation.

Read an excerpt of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

In May 1969, the same year that N. Scott Momaday began his tenure as associate professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, he won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for House Made of Dawn, published in 1968 by Harper & Row.  The book was acquired and edited by Frances McCullough. When Frances McCullough was an English student at Stanford University and an editor of the Sequoia, the University’s literary magazine, a graduate student, N. Scott Momaday, submitted some poems for publication. Fran published them, and later, when she came to Harper & Row as a Trade editor, wrote Momaday asking if he might have a group of poems which might be published as a collection. He hadn’t pursued poetry, but Momaday, a Kiowa Indian, told Fran he had a novel in the back of his mind and maybe this was the time to write it. Eight months later, the manuscript for House Made of Dawn, Momaday’s first novel, was ready to go into production.

The book was met with some enthusiastic reviews, a few lukewarm ones and a lesser number of negative ones. The book sold moderately well for a first novel, but hardly had unanimous endorsement and could hardly be termed a best seller. However, as a result of the Pulitzer Prize, it stimulated public interest in Native American literary history as well as contemporary Native American writers in general. It continues to sell today in both trade paperback and e-book formats.

In 1989, twenty years after publishing House Made of Dawn, Momaday published his second novel, The Ancient Child. Originally published in hardcover by Doubleday, it was reprinted in paperback by Harper Perennial in 1990.

In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded him the National Medal of Arts for his legacy of writing works that embrace and celebrate Native American culture. He is also the Poet Laureate of Oklahoma. He is perhaps the central figure in Native American literature today, and House Made of Dawn is widely considered to be his central work. Because of this, the book is widely seen as a primary work of modern Native American literature.

N. Scott Momaday continues to teach at the University of Arizona, where he has been teaching since 1982.

—Tzofit Goldfarb, Info Center & Archives Director

Find more to read by N. Scott Momaday

Insurgent

by Veronica Roth

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris’s initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth’s much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature.

Read an excerpt of Insurgent by Veronica Roth

dauntlessfactionnews:

We first talked about Harry Potter twitter character @Lord_Voldemort7 after he reviewed Divergent and said that it “filled the void for Harry Potter fans.”  After that, we eagerly anticipating what Voldemort thought of book 2 in the series.  He just posted his review of Insurgent and called it “spellbinding.”  The dark Lord says more…

In 1996, the Academy of American Poets officially inaugurated April as National Poetry Month. Over the past month, you might have seen news about activities at local schools, libraries or bookstores.  Bookish communities on the internet are always abuzz with any excuse to celebrate the written word, so perhaps you’ve clicked through on links to poems or posted some of your own favorites.  Poetry lovers of all ages can use Poetry Month as a nice excuse to take the time out from a busy schedule to enjoy old favorites and discover new poems. And since today is April 30th, that means there’s still a whole day left to celebrate. 

If you ask me, though, one of the most important days in the mission established by Poetry Month does not actually occur in April.  May 1st is the first day after the official month of poetic revelry and the first opportunity to remind yourself that poetry is something that can be part of your life throughout the year.  I love Poetry Month because it reminds us of the impact a poem can have on our lives and it encourages us to share poetry with those who might not yet have discovered a poem to love, to cherish, and to connect with on a deep, emotional level. Each May 1st, I try to remind myself that the message of Poetry Month is not restricted to a month or an age group or a venue. Poetry is for life – for all aspects of it and for all seasons. So really, I think of Poetry Month as kicking off a new year of reading and it’s up to me to keep delighting in poetry all year long.

At HarperCollins Children’s Books, we have a tradition of celebrating poetry month with the brilliant and funny Shel Silverstein – and that’s particularly exciting this year because it’s the first time we have his new poetry collection Every Thing On It to help us SHELebrate! Every year, we create activities for poetry lovers of all ages to engage with Shel Silverstein’s poetry and this year is no different – so head on over to Silverstein’s page and download some fun, new activities to help you enjoy his poetry.  As a child, I loved Shel Silverstein’s poetry and as an adult, I might love it even more.  His funny and brilliant poems are a great way to get readers of all ages and interest levels to connect with poetry.  If you’re looking for some fun poetry to read in these final few Poetry Month hours, it’s not too late!  Just download and be delighted.

But remember… tomorrow might not be Poetry Month, but perhaps it could mark the start of your poetry year.  And that sounds like something worth celebrating for a long time to come.

— Alana Whitman, Senior Marketing Associate at HarperCollins Children’s Books