AnnickPress

High praise for Loris Lesynski: 
“You’ll be joining the ranks of Lee, Prelutsky, and Silverstein. You are much needed!”
—Sam Sebesta, author and Professor Emeritus, Children’s Literature, University of Washington

In the last five years, while working on her other books, author/illustrator Loris Lesynski kept dropping in on kindergartens—all kinds of classes in all kinds of schools, soaking up Kindergarten Culture and finding out what kinds of sounds and rhythms the kids liked best. Shoe Shakes (2007) sets its sights on preschoolers who get a kick out of wacky sounds and off-the-wall ideas. Ten new poems in all are guaranteed to set toes a-tappin' and funny bones a-laughin'. "I Did It Because ...": How a Poem Happens (2006) is a unique collection blending the "best of" with "how to" for passionate poets is Loris's most recent book. Zigzag: Zoems for Zindergarten (2004) combines pictures, sounds, and movements, appealing even to children who don’t speak English yet or those without books at home, as well as to the grown-ups who will be reading them aloud. Loris strongly believes that pleasure in the sound of language is the undercoat for a love of reading, and has seen thousands of children respond with delight to good rhythms and funny words.

Once Loris Lesynski’s first book, the wildly popular Boy Soup, was published in 1996, she turned full-time to writing, illustrating, and giving her inventive and enthusiastic presentations. Boy Soup was reprinted within six months of publication. The classroom activities that teachers have invented to go along with it have been amazing. Many of them will be on her website, ready within the next few months.

In the rollicking rhyme of the next book, Ogre Fun (1997), an ogre-boy tries to cure a contagious case of yawning. Catmagic (1998), another rhyming picture book, tells the story of Izzy the splotchy cat, who decides to find a way to live on the ceiling in the cluttered and colorful Witches’ Retirement Home. In Night School (2001), Eddie finds a school for kids who like to stay up late, read books with nighttime titles, and spend recess in a pitch black playground at 3 a.m. Rocksy (2002) is the hilarious tale of a girl named Roxanne who fatefully wishes she were made of stone to avoid scrapes and scratches in the playground. Imagine what happens when she gets on her twig bicycle. Imagine what happens when she starts to cry!

Loris’s first book of lively, humorous poems, Dirty Dog Boogie (1999), was praised by School Library Journal as being “a collection that will appeal to fans of Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein.” The response to Loris’s jazzy, juicy rhymes helped to establish her as one of North America’s pre-eminent poets for young people. Dirty Dog Boogie was revised in 2002 with full-color illustrations. A second zesty collection of poetry, Nothing Beats a Pizza, followed this success in 2001. Kids in classrooms often write variations of these poems, or get together in groups to put them to their own doo-wah arrangements. Cabbagehead (2003) is full of poems about ideas—the getting and keeping of them—for kids in a world too full of kits and products instead of their own projects. With her characteristic wit and word wizardry, Loris explores good ideas, bad ideas, and downright cabbagehead ideas in over 28 poems, and draws some pictures so ridiculous (Cabbage Planet Earth? cabbage yoyo?) that the reader’s imagination can’t help but loosen up. Loris loves it to bits when kids get inspired to write their own poems, songs, or stories after one of her visits.

Loris greatly enjoys speaking at teachers’ and librarians’ conferences to share insights on selecting, enjoying, and performing rhythm and rhyme from the author’s point of view. She also does occasional school visits, preferably to a maximum of two or three classes, in a library setting, with lots of time for questions (children’s and teachers’) about writing, drawing, publishing, design, or other authors. Handouts of classroom activities are made available, full of ideas gathered from many different schools and their unbelievably creative teachers, and she sends a poster to the school in advance so the kids have a good sense of who is coming (this is because, she says, she spent most of her own childhood quite lost in her thoughts and often wondered after an event, “Who was that?”).

In 1999, Loris recorded her books on tape for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and they’ve all been converted into Braille.

Loris loves playing with words. They bounce, they wiggle. In Zigzag: Zoems for Zindergarten, each poem plays with words, sounds, and actions. Ask a roomful of kindergarten kids to do a zigzag with their hands, their shoulders, or their noses, then launch them into the delightful verses. Loris’s illustrations are bright and funny without crowding the pages, and this special book is both lively and gentle, revealing her great affection and respect for this amazing age.

Loris lives in Toronto.

School, Library, and Conference Presentations
Delicious English: The Beat Goes On: Loris encourages kids and teachers to toy with variations of her poems and to write their own. She demonstrates the great fun of “Rebound Reading”—reciting poems as a group, particularly funny ones—as an excellent way for kids to get used to reading out loud. Lots of hamming up and sound effects are inevitable, though always with nimble use of language and satisfying rhythms.
Presentation format: A humorous, interactive presentation
Maximum: 2–3 classes, library setting, no gyms
Recommended age group: Kindergarten to Grade 6
Length: 1 hour
Recommended for conference presentations and workshops for teachers.