Poetry Friday Roundup is hosted today by The Stenhouse Blog.

I'm continuing my "Back-to-School" theme with Hamsters, Shells and Spelling bees: school poems, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins with illustrations by Sachiko Yoshikawa. This book is part of the I Can Read series for K-3. Hopkins has collected twenty poems by well-know poets such as Jane Yolen, Alice Schertle, and J. Patrick Lewis in easily accessible language for young readers. Poems are a variety of styles and range in subject from multiplying hamsters to backpacks, measles to show and tell, art class to the school bus driver. Bright, light-hearted illustrations are delicious.

Friday's Famous First: Can you identify the title and author of this first line? "Now don't y'all go touchin' nothin'," Stacey warned as we stepped onto the porch of the Wallace store.