Linda Winston: Well, at one point, also quite late in the game, we were redoing the introduction to the whole book. And I think I said to you Mary Ann, “Gee, whiz. What anthologists do when they put together an anthology of various poets’ work is a lot like what naturalists do when they sort through their collections of specimens.” And I think maybe curating has that museum quality to it.
Mary Ann Hoberman: We make a parallel in our introduction between Charles Darwin and collectors in general, but naturalists are great collectors and Charles speaks of himself as I was always a very passionate collector. From the time he was a boy he collected everything. And that can relate to so many kids. We’ve gone into this
we’ve had more fun.
So we were up at Falmouth, Mass., and we had I guess our first seventh and eight grade audience because usually I’m used to younger children, but this book is perfect for middle schools, as well. And spontaneously, I asked, “How many of you have collections,” because we had been talking about it and every hand went up. And they have collections from bottle caps to pieces of soap to what did they have?
Linda Winston: Shell
beach glass.
Mary Ann Hoberman: Beach glass and shells. But there were all kinds of other sorts of more off beat collections. And many of them had many, multiple collections. But it got the children so enthusiastic. I think they really ought to have a collections club. In junior high, I remember clubs were so wonderful. We had all kinds of clubs. And oh, we should write to the library. A collections club would be really wonderful.
Linda Winston: And then we suggest that readers might want to make collections of their own of an anthology of poetry even of their own.