During this Open House event, the just-announced third Children's Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, joins the nation's second Children's Poet Laureate, Mary Ann Hoberman, as well as inaugural Children's Poet Laureate Jack Prelutsky. The three poets take turns regaling an audience of parents and children with their rollicking, rhyming tales, leaving children with a reinvigorated love of poetry. This event is designed for children to be accompanied by their parent or other appropriate caregiver. Because such will create a better environment, the Poetry Foundation requires that the parent/caregiver remain with the child throughout the entirety of the program. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis; some audience members will be seated on the floor.

Mary Ann Hoberman

Hoberman is the author of 45 books, all but one of which is in verse. Some of her best-known titles are A House is a House for Me, The Seven Silly Eaters, and The Llama Who Had No Pajama, a collection of one hundred of her favorite poems. Her poems have been widely anthologized and her books have been translated into several languages. She is the recipient of a National Book Award and the 2003 Poetry for Children Award of the National Council of Teachers of English.

J. Patrick Lewis

Lewis taught in the departments of business, accounting and economics at Otterbein College until 1998 when he became a full-time writer. Now the author of more than 50 books of poetry for children, his works find shape in both free and formal verse and engage a wide range of subjects from history to mathematics, Russian folklore to the animal kingdom. His books for children include Spot the Plot: A Riddle Book of Book Riddles; The Last Resort; The Shoe Tree of Chagrin; and A Hippopotamusn’t: And Other Animal Poems.

Lewis's contributions to children’s literature have been recognized with the 2011 Poetry Award from the National Council of Teachers of English and the Ohioana Awards’ 2004 Alice Louise Wood Memorial Prize.

Jack Prelutsky

When asked where his ideas come from, Prelutsky said, “Everywhere! Everything I see or hear can become a poem." Fabulous creatures and people inhabit his poems: the umbrellaphant, Uggs, and, in Scranimals (2002), banacondas, broccolions, and “the detested radishark.”

He has written more than 40 children’s books, often working with well-known illustrators such as Garth Williams, Arnold Lobel, and Marilyn Hafner. Prelutsky has also edited collections of poetry for children, including The 20th Century Children’s Poetry Treasury (1999).

Public transit:

CTA trains: Chicago Red line stop; Chicago Brown line stop

CTA buses: #66 Chicago Avenue bus; #22 Clark Street bus