My Underwear's Inside Out: The Care and Feeding of Younger Poets

Adиle Ashby, a library consultant, is the former editor of Canadian Materials for Schools and Libraries.

Dawber is a well-known author/educator whose own poems have been
anthologized (’Till All the Stars Have Fallen) and who has also
written guides to poetry writing and given workshops for adults who work
with children. My Underwear’s Inside Out is designed for children and
for those same adults, to help them learn both to appreciate and to
produce their own poetry. Each section contains a number of poems on
every imaginable subject: jigsaw puzzles (“Into the bear’s
mouth”), eating popsicles (“My tongue is orange”), swallowing a
bug while riding a bicycle (“Bikes need bug screens”), harmonicas
(“Harmonica howls”), little sisters (“Shaking my shadow”),
riding the subway (“Sitting up front”), and so on. At the end is a
set of simple directions on the techniques used to produce the poems:
using a mental camera (“The human video”), exploring similarities
and differences (“Exploding comparisons”), and playing with words
(“Magic shapes”). There is a preface by David Booth, a foreword and
an afterword by the author, and an index. Wilkinson’s watercolor
illustrations complete a highly successful package. This title should be
in the hands of every elementary-school teacher in this country,
especially those who feel inhibited about poetry and for whom the
“how-to” is a mystery.