In the fall of 2015 the Toronto Blue Jays made the playoffs for the first time in over 20 years, and with this came possibly the most famous (definitely the most publicized) examples of Book Spine Poetry. The Toronto Public Library and the Kansas City Public Library exchanged baseball chirps, over twitter, in the form of Book Spine Poetry.
Book Spine Poetry isn’t just a type of poetry to be explored by baseball loving librarians; it can be a fun activity for a class to take part in over poetry month, as well. This is how I’d go about creating Book Spine Poetry with my class.
I would start with introducing Book Spine Poetry to the class. Explain what it is and how the poems are composed. I would show lots of examples and even show the students the CBC News interview with the librarians that tweeted the baseball book spine poems, as it contains a bunch of fun examples.
Then I would take the class to the library (or stay in class if you have a good supply of books in your class library). Let students work in pairs or small groups and find books that they can build Book Spine Poems out of. Students can then share their poems with the rest of the class.
Take photos of the book spine poems the students create. If possible, post them back in your classroom (or even in the library) to celebrate the students’ learning.
* As an extension you could split the class into two or more groups and have a back and forth friendly competition, somewhat like Toronto and KC had with their baseball poems. Allow the groups to respond to the other poems with ones of their own…either way, have fun with it!
If your class gives this a try, please share your poems with me as well! I'd love to see what the students come up with. Email them to me at bskene@kerc.ca or tweet them to me @BrookeKERC #bookspinepoetry I hope to see some fun creations!