Fact Friday: Jabberwalking by Juan Felipe Herrera

Jabberwalking by Juan Felipe Herrera. 138 p. Candlewick Press, March, 2018. 978153620406. (Review of finished copy courtesy of publisher.)

Fact Friday features Jabberwalking by Juan Felipe Herrera. Using Louis Carroll as his muse, Herrera, the former Poet Laureate of the United States, exuberantly invites the reader/ budding poet to dive right in and write. Write anything! Just get it out onto the page first. Don't worry about spelling or even if your word is actually a word. His enthusiasm is infectious but his model ramblings are sometimes difficult to decipher. I can envision students either loving or hating this approach depending on their personal comfort with rules. Still, Herrera rocks the boat and it's an inviting approach.