Down the Water Slide

Come and join us for a trip down the water slide! On the way, you’ll see a dragon protecting a castle and a penguin waddling across an iceberg. Listen and you’ll hear the crazy rain cheering for the screaming wind, along with the fierce crackling of a bonfire as we roast gooey marshmallows for s’mores. Feel the scorching sand underfoot as you stroll across a tropical island in the sun and brush your fingers over tiny soft kitties in a basket. Inhale the savory aroma of onion bread in a Taiwan night market and the thick, rustic smell of a chicken coop. Your mouth will water at the taste of sweet and sour lemon pies and freshly-baked cookies from Grandma. So enjoy your trip down the water slide – but beware of monstrous bears, infamous wizards, and killer video game tanks. And whatever you do, watch out for that bull in the China shop!

Created by fifth-grade students, Down the Water Slide features poetry in a variety of styles, from free verse to diamond poetry, acrostics, and haiku. Proceeds from the sale of this anthology will benefit Taichung’s Pregnancy Support Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free services for women and babies in need. Learn more at http://pregnancysupport.tw/en/contact/.

Click here to buy Down the Water Slide on Amazon. 

My 5th grade class worked hard on these poems, and a number of them also spent time designing different covers for the anthology. The class voted on which one to use, and though the covers below were not chosen, I wanted to include them here to show what my students came up with:

Take a look at A Boom in the Room, Sunshine Leaking, What's That Noise? or Better than Cotton Candy, more anthologies of student poetry edited by Annie Douglass Lima.