Teachers kept asking me
Loris, would you —poems just right for those children, not too old for them and not babyish either. The poems must invite listening, looking, reciting together, and lots of actions—a combination of the aural, visual and kinetic. (Ask a class to do zigzags with their noses, or the Scissors Dance).
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The love of reading begins with the pleasure of sound. Reading by yourself with ease comes from enjoying the rhythm of language. So every line in Zigzag: Zoems for Zindergarten is meant to sound delicious and interesting. As young as possible, children need to hear sentences, stories and poems that have the music of language right inside them—fun to hear even if they don’t know exactly what each word means. I wanted the book to appeal to all listeners, even unschooled, shy, or non-English-speaking kindergarteners, as well as the grownups who would be reading them aloud. Kids respond immediately Zigzag’s jazzy rhythms and get moving to the beat.
P.S. The poem "Mozza Mozza" from Dirty Dog Boogie always made kindergarten kids fall to the floor laughing. So did any other zzzz words I said to them. That’s why I called the book Zigzag. Parents tell me that the subtitle, Zoems for Zindergarten, immediately gets kids saying “I like this zook” or “Come zit on this zair with me, Zaddy.”