I love this series and use it to teach poetic forms during our sixth-grade poetry unit. While acrostics are familiar to my kids, they still enjoyed listening to Ana and Adam's story.

Ana and Adam Build an Acrostic is part of the Poetry Builders Series to teach kids about all sorts of poetry types. This one, by Victoria Peterson-Hilleque, focuses on acrostics. These poems take a word and use each letter of said word as the first letter of each new one of the poem. Ana and Adam are learning about these types of poems in school. Adam has also purloined a high-school diary of his mum’s which happens to have acrostic poetry in it. The two friends decide to write acrostics about their respective siblings, and the story takes us through their brainstorming process to the finished product.

My cubs and I read this together. The artwork is just lovely. I feel it did a good job teaching kids the basics of acrostics. As a poet myself, this isn't my favourite form. It is a great beginner form though, and I had fun creating acrostics with my cubs afterwards. The end of the book has more detailed instructions regarding this form. Highly recommended for any teacher with a poetic bent. A must for all school libraries.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Norwood Press for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

My daughter thoroughly enjoyed this book, and read it more than once. After reading it, she wrote her own acrostic poems.

There are many forms of poetry to choose from when creating a piece of poetry. Acrostic poems that are featured in our book today are one kind that kids love to create. Ana and Adam learn to implement this style and have lots of fun doing it.

The storyline is very relatable to the target audience and I am sure kids will be inspired to go off and practice writing Acrostics all on their own after reading the book. The duo showcases the process that bring success to both blossoming poets.

The kids use familiar subjects to compose their poems, such as Adam's mom pink notebook he found at the bottom of the closet, his uncle Darryl who is on his mother's side of the family, and friends that both they have, Stewart and Gloria. The kids learn to brainstorm words and phrases about their subjects. If they implement idea casting then this makes building an acrostic so much easier.

The back pages include information about writing your own acrostic poems and they cite books and websites to utilize if you want to go deeper into the process. The illustrations are colourful and vibrant and they enrich the story greatly. There are other books in the series to check out also. I recommend "Ana and Adam Build an Acrostic" and suggest that it would be a great addition to a classroom or in a school library.

Ana and Adam Build an Acrostic

by Victoria Peterson-Hilleque

Norwood House Press

Children’s Fiction , Poetry

Pub Date 01 Jul 2011

I am reviewing a copy of Ana and Adam Build an Acrostic through Norwood House Press and Netgalley:

In this book young readers will learn how to create an Acrostic form . This fun little book will not only teach young readers about the Acrostic poem but will also encourage them to create their own Acrostic, this book would be good for Second to fifth or sixth graders.

This series would be a great teaching tool for teachers to show their young charges the different types of poetry and how to write them. This series would also make a great gift for the kids in your life.

I give Ana and Adam Build an Acrostic five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

In a very child-friendly narrative, two kids gather in their den and make up acrostic poems about their siblings. By the end of the simple story the reader will have had all the basics they need, and met with easy instruction to do the same. It's a great primer for the young poet, with technical terms in bold ready for the end glossary, and enough encouragement to do free writing and get ideas down in an off-the-cuff manner. I've read three books in this series, and they've all been perfectly decent and very educational for the target audience. I'm left here, however, wondering if the mouse escaped – the painted artwork was a little too distracting this time round...