Boy Soup was her first picture book, followed by four others, all of them with rhyming narratives easy to recite right off the bat and plots full of surprises. Dirty Dog Boogie was her first collection of poems, a best seller that seems
to be enjoyed by adults
as much as kids, and, curiously enough, is often used in ESL classes.
Nothing Beats A Pizza and Cabbagehead followed, then Zigzag:
Zoems for Zindergarten. Loris took a break from illustrating her own
work and brilliant, funny illustrator Michael Martchenko took over for
the anthology of those poems of hers that kids and teachers had liked
best in I Did It Because... for which Loris wrote 20 pages for
kids about doing their own writing and How a Poem Happens. Next
Loris wrote a rollicking book for preschoolers, called Shoe Shakes,
and Michael did the outrageously giggly pictures.
Loris visits schools often, both elementary schools and teachers' colleges.
The "echo reading" and recitation work just as well with kids
and grownups, addressing our innate pleasure in singing or chanting together,
and demonstrating a love of the rhythm of language for children. She has
also been a speaker at many libraries, teacher's conferences, literary
festivals, and writers' events across Canada and in the United States.
She's currently working on a number of books. Only time will tell which
one gets finished first.
website: www.lorislesynski.com