Amazon.com Launches Kids Poetry Contest

Posted on April 8, 1998

In honor of National Poetry Month, online bookseller Amazon.com is calling on all kids 12 and under to show the world their poetry skills. Amazon.com is looking for children who can think in rhymes, exaggerate, and make the ordinary extraordinary to enter and win Amazon.com Kids' "Be a Poet" contest. Celebrated children's poet Jack Prelutsky started two poems for the Amazon.com Kids' "Be a Poet" contest. Children can enter to win the contest by selecting a poem, activating their imaginations, and adding 8 to 16 new lines to finish the poem.

Prelutsky serves up some great advice on how to write a funny poem on the Amazon.com Kids' site to help get the creative energy flowing. Recently launched, Amazon.com Kids is a children's bookstore that provides quality recommendations, in-depth interviews, articles, and unique search-by-age capabilities that make it easy to find the best books for kids, teens, and parents.

The Grand Prize winner will receive a library of Dr. Seuss books -- 42 books, including Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! and The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham board games -- plus a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate, and a personalized, original poem written by Jack Prelutsky. Five runners-up will each receive a $20 Amazon.com gift certificate. The contest extends until midnight April 30, Pacific Standard Time. Amazon.com will notify the winners by e-mail on or before May 8, 1998. The winning poems will be posted on Amazon.com Kids.

Jack Prelutsky is one of the most playful and prolific poets writing for children today. He has written more than 40 books of verse, including The New Kid on the Block and A Pizza the Size of the Sun. Most recently, Prelutsky and Lane Smith worked together to shape 14 of Dr. Seuss's unpublished sketches into the fantastic new book Hooray for Diffendoofer Day.