poetry Archives - Anastasia Suen

Toddler Two
by Anastasia Suen (Author) and Winnie Cheon (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Two adventurous toddlers take an afternoon’s romp through their backyard, blowing bubbles, digging in the sandbox, playing hide-and-seek, riding on swings, and playing with other toys.

As young readers follow along, they discover what comes in twos as the pictures under the flaps unfold – two hands, two feet, two eyes, two ears, two legs, two arms. Two is the number just for them!

After I wrote the small poem Baby Born about a baby’s first year, I wanted to write a book about turning two. The first book went month by month, but that didn’t feel right for the second book.

I tried all kinds of ideas, but nothing was working so I went for my morning walk. I was two blocks away, thinking about the toddler play group we went to when my children were young, and the words started coming . . .

Four miles later, I had a 50 word counting poem! I wrote it down when I came home and soon it was a book in English . . .

. . . and Spanish

. . . and both languages!

It’s #ThrowbackThursday!
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Road Work Ahead
by Anastasia Suen (Author) and Jannie Ho (Illustrator)

Booktalk: When a family sets out on a trip to Grandma’s, their journey proves to be more like a visit to a construction site. Sidewalks are being poured, streetlights repaired, roads resurfaced. The noise of jackhammers, whistles, and horns fills the air.

When my oldest was a toddler, he loved to look at all of the machines working along the road. I took photos and placed them in a tiny photo album for him. Then I wrote a small poem about it.

The small poem in Road Work Ahead is only 90 words long, but it took 15 years to become a picture book! Why did it take so long?

During the 15 years that this small poem waited to turn into a picture book, it was sold to a publisher #1 and soon afterwards, they were bought by publisher #2. But publisher #2 didn’t like the poem. Many revisions later, publisher #2 decided they wouldn’t publish it.

Why did the book sell to publisher #3 ten years later? I added 10 words to the original 80 word poem that the first publisher liked. Two years later, the art was completed. After 15 years, the road work was finally done! Now it’s available as an e-book.