Hoberman Picked as Poet Laureate

Mary Ann Hoberman, being appointed Children’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation’s John Barr. Photo: Gerber+Scarpelli.

As part of its fifth annual Pegasus Awards, the Poetry Foundation has selected Mary Ann Hoberman as Children’s Poet Laureate. Hoberman inherits the two-year position, which comes with a $25,000 prize, from Jack Prelutsky. The purpose of the award is to raise awareness of poetry among children.

Hoberman received the honor at an awards ceremony earlier this week in Chicago. “Generations of readers who first discovered poetry in the books of Mary Ann Hoberman remember it not as a dry textbook encounter but as a moment of joyous play,” said John Barr, president of the Poetry Foundation, in announcing Hoberman’s appointment. “Her poems tease young minds even as they please young ears with rhythm and rhyme.”

Hoberman is the author of 45 books (nearly all of which are written in verse), beginning with All My Shoes Come in Twos (1957), a collaboration with her husband, illustrator Norman Hoberman. She is also known for the You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You series; her National Book Award-winning A House Is a House for Me, illustrated by Betty Fraser; and The Seven Silly Eaters, illustrated by Marla Frazee. In August 2009, Little, Brown will release Hoberman’s next book of poetry, All Kinds of Families!