Picture Books V

Ten Penny Players first used color xerography in 1978, when Barbara designed and printed Little Poems for the Greenwich Village elementary school PS 41.

Little Poems

Since 1980, Barbara has done all of our printing on leased Minolta copiers, which produced high resolution black and white images. In 1989 she experimented with a two-color copier.

Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream Vol 10 No 1

Our picture book curriculum, as we developed it with teaching artist, Molly Barker, grew out of Ten Penny Players’ chapbook series, In Search of a Song. We combined visual art with expressive writing, literary magazines and chapbooks. It became a part of our work with New York City’s Alternative High Schools and Programs; especially with NYC Vocational Training Center, which produced many individual picture books for example, “One Last Time” by Ghnea George, a student in Paul Rotondo’s VTC class at Maimonides Hospital.

In 2004-5, Barbara, Thomas and I began implementing our picture book curriculum at Staten Island elementary schools. In conjunction with PS 53 and the Richmondtown Branch of the New York Public Library we held a book party and exhibit, First Editions, at the end of the year.

By 2008-9, we had leased a color printer and brought picture books to local after school programs, like the Staten Island Children’s Aid Society at Goodhue.

Anthology of Acrostics and More: Fun with the Sounds of Words and Other Things

Picture books bridge the gap between communities of race, language, class, ability, and disability. Creating poetry chapbooks and picture books helps students in the inclusive classroom bridge new bonds of friendship through sharing their published expressions.