Fostering Imagination

Mural artist Yettie Frankel patiently prodded a collection of young children to write and illustrate their own five-page, accordion fold book Thursday afternoon in the Children’s Room at the

Frankel’s own vibrant work is on prominent display at the Children’s Room, a montage to reading and imagination that graces one long wall, and she passed on some of her creative secrets to the 11 children who attended the workshop, which was funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, through the .

Each child wrote his or her own cinquain, which is a five line poem. Frankel explained what the poem is: the first line is a noun; the second is two adjectives, the third is three verbs; the fourth Frankel calls “the magic part of the poem” is a metaphor or simile; and the fifth is a noun, but in Frankel’s version the fifth line embellishes the fourth line, finishing the metaphor.

Confusing? Not to the 7 year olds in attendance. Frankel and her charges set to work creating a poem as a group so that the children would have a better understanding of how to create their own.

Butterfly, called out one girl. They agreed that was a good topic, and Frankel wrote the word on the white board.

Antennae, colorful, agile were added next.

Some discussion followed about what agile meant, and they decided to cross antennae off the list.

Next came the verbs. Flying, suggested a boy. Frankel gently pushed them to think hard about what exactly a butterfly does. “How does a butterfly move?” she asked. “It flies, but what makes it fly like a butterfly?”

“Fluttering,” answered another child. “Fluttering” went on the board, followed by “drinking nectar.”

Next came the “magic part of the poem” and Frankel guided them to find just the right word, “floating between the flowers like a feather” was the resulting simile.

And, to complete the simile, they decided on the last line, “falling from a bird.”

The children then went on to create their own poems, with Frankel urging them to not jump on their first ideas, but to think about what they really wanted to say. A girl writing about a lion was asked to think about what a lion acts like, to try and compare the way a lion jumps to something that isn’t alive, like lightening.

A giraffe was the leading noun of one poem; a sailboat “jumping on the waves like a trampoline” was another.

The children then went on to illustrate their poems with five drawings, one for each line.

At the end of the two hours, each child went home with their individually created folded book.

Parent Jill Haman who had brought her three children to workshop commented, “My kids enjoy poetry. I’m a teacher and I know how much they can lose over the summer. This just gives them a little bit of thinking and independence.”

Children’s librarian Izzi Abrams said that this is the third time they’ve had Frankel at the library to do the program, and they welcome her every effort to share her creative process with the children.