The Pencil Is Me

After forty years of writing poetry with young children, Evergreen Community School has compiled their favorite of their poems here. This collection, illustrated with children's drawings, provides poignant and delightful insight into the hearts and minds of our youngest citizens. Complete with over one hundred pages of poetry and several essays, The Pencil Is Me touches the hearts of adults, inspires children, and is an invaluable resource for educators.

The book, filled with whimsical drawings, kicks off with two inspiring essays contributed by the school and a parent alum. The poetry, written by two to five-year-old poets, is divided into user-friendly chapters: families and friends, imaginary beings, action, plants and landscapes, weather and sky, objects and the self. The manuscript wraps up with helpful tips and suggestions for facilitating poetry writing with young children.

Evergreen Community School is a hidden oasis in Santa Monica that provides joyful progressive early childhood education to sixty children. Leaders in constructivist education, this preschool has been educating children and other educators for forty years. They've also been writing poetry with young children for all these years and are pleased to present this collection.