Cullinan, Bernice E. and Deborah Wooten, (Ed.) (2009) Another Tiny Jar of Stars. Portraits by Marc Nadel. Honesdale, Pennsylvania: Boyds Mills Press. ISBN-10: 1-59078-726-9 ISBN-13: 978-1-59078-726-7
Another Jar of Tiny Stars is the expanded edition of the popular anthology, A Jar of Tiny Stars published in 1995. This edition includes the original 10 winners of NCTE Award-Winning Poets (National Council of Teachers of English), their poems, the 5 newest winners and their poems. The poems featured in this book and the prior one were selected by children voting on their favorite poems by the featured authors. What a wonderful honor to be selected by children!
This is the emblem that depicts the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. Established in 1977 to honor a living American poet for his/her work with children ages 3-13. The award stemmed from the tragic death of Bernice E. Cullinan’s son Jonathan Paul Cullinan. The boy in the tree on the emblem is in honor of him. Karla Kuskin, poet, illustrator, and NCTE award winner in 1980, designed the emblem in 1977 for NCTE. This anthology began as a research project where Cullinan polled 3,500 children to rank their favorite poems by the 10 award winning poets. In 1977 David McCord received the first award. In 1978 - Aileen Fisher, 1979 - Karla Kuskin, 1980 - Myra Chon Livingston, 1981 - Eve Merriam, 1982 - John Ciardi, 1985 - Lilian Moore, 1988 - Arnold Adoff, 1991 - Valerie Worth, 1994 - Barbara Esbensen are the first 10 award recipients and in this sequel there have been 5 more winning poets included starting with 1997 - Eloise Greenfield, 2000 - X.J. Kennedy, 2003 - Mary Ann Hoberman, 2006 - Nikki Grimes and 2009 - Lee Bennett Hopkins. Bernice E. Cullinan and Deborah Wooten , editors, have taken the beloved anthology A Tiny Jar of Stars and created an updated expanded anthology sequel, Another Tiny Jar of Stars, which will be just as loved as the first one. A black and white portrait by Marc Nadel of each poet is accompanied with a personal quote followed by their selected poems. This anthology is a nice addition to any library, especially since children voted on the selections. These are poems that children will understand and enjoy. Since there are no pictures accompanying the poems it allows the reader and listener to use their imagination.
The text of this book is set in 13-point Adobe Caslon. The portraits are done in watercolor washes.
To Catch a Firefly
If you catch a firefly
and keep it in a jar,
You may find that
you have lost
A tiny star.
If you let it go then,
back into the night,
You may see it
once again
Star bright.
(Moore, pg. 50)
I would ask the children close their eyes and use their imagination while listening to this poem. I would remind them that each person will see their own pictures in their minds and will see it differently than their classmates. After reading it the first time we would discuss whether anyone knew what a firefly was and then explain to the ones who did not know by showing a picture. I would expand this discussion by asking how they are able to produce light at night. Then we could tie this into a science lesson. I would then re-read the poem to allow everyone to have the example of what a firefly is. We would then discuss what an anthology is and how they could start their own anthology of poems by copying ones that were their favorites and then including their own poetry. I would then pass out a large piece of paper and ask them to copy the poem and then illustrate it however they would like with their own artwork. These will look great displayed in our room, library and around the school.
"NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children." National Council of Teachers of English - Homepage. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. http://www.ncte.org/awards/poetry
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