Hickory Creek Middle School students create book spine poems

For the past five years, Hickory Creek Middle School students have been challenged to use their creativity to produce poems using titles on book spines. Turning the books on their sides, the various book titles are read in stacking order to reveal the poems.

April is Poetry Month and teachers bring their classes to the library to participate in this fun, no pressure activity that sparks creativity. School Librarian Marybeth Raynes begins by creating a poem and then teaches the students how to make their own. She begins by telling the students that the poem must tell a story. She finds a book title or two that she likes and looks for a theme. Then she can either browse the shelves for titles that fit the theme or use the school’s Destiny database and search the theme for more titles.

Mrs. Raynes learned about the idea from an article in “School Library Journal” a few years ago by Travis Jonker, a school librarian in Michigan. Tips in the article suggest to start looking at titles and see what strikes you, arrange and rearrange in your head, write down titles that stand out to refer back to later and don’t be afraid to use the library catalog to look up titles with specific words or phrases that fit.

At the end of the month, Hickory Creek will vote for their favorite book spine poems and prizes will be awarded to the poets of the best-liked poems.

Shown are book spine poems by Mrs. Raynes and 7th and 8th grade students in the English Language Arts classes of Tania Wilson and Diane Haas.