Happy April-Fool’s-First-Day-of-Poetry-Month! A Goofy Talk with Tom Angleberger About Dino Poet

Two things.

1. Today is April Fool’s Day. Historically, it is a day for pranks, silliness, and a general goofiness of the universe.
2. Today is also the first day of Poetry Month.

April Fool’s Day. Poetry Month. April Fool’s Day. Poetry Month. Put ’em both together and what do you get? If you said, “Why Betsy, you would definitely get a hilarious Tom Angleberger poetry/graphic novel called Dino Poet, wouldn’t you?” then you have just earned yourself a cookie, my darling.

Yes! Today it my very great honor to talk to an old friend of mine, one Mr. Tom Angleberger. You may recall him from such series as Origami Yoda and the like, but for me the man’s magnus opus will always be The Qwikpick Papers, in which three kids who don’t celebrate Christmas (for various reasons) try to find a poop fountain. Trust me, it makes sense in context. Now Tom’s turned his attentions to the graphic novel world, and this year he premieres Dino Poet. Put another way:

“Get writing or get eaten! Dino Poet is on a mission: to write the first great poem—ever!

His lunch, a prehistoric frog, is also on a mission: to not get eaten! So when Frog tells Dino Poet that his poems stink, he decides lunch can wait . . . for now. The two set off into the wide, wild world, chasing life! Chasing poetry! Until a T-Rex starts chasing them.

From the incomparable mind of New York Times bestselling author Tom Angleberger, Dino Poet kicks off a hilarious graphic-novel series that is a rollicking romp through the land of the dinosaurs and a celebration of the poets that live in all of us.”

You know what? We’re gonna talk to Tom about this. Oh yes we are.

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Betsy Bird: Tom! It’s been a minute! 

Tom Angleberger: IT CERTAINLY HAS!!! It’s about the 15^th anniversary of Cece and me visiting you at the NYPL! A lot has happened to all of us since then!

BB: Indubitably. Somehow we’ve all grown MORE attractive. Miraculous, no? Hey, congrats on DINO POET coming out. This puppy has everything. Laffs. Dinosaurs. Poetry. And that poetry is pretty dang good too. So where’d you get the idea for this book?

Tom: Wow, that is so nice of you to say! This book began in the first grade. Apparently we had a class assignment to write a letter to Santa from a dinosaur. Or maybe that was just what I wanted to be doing. Anyway, I wrote something like: “Dear Santa, I want meat.” This is that same dinosaur… still writing and still hungry.

BB: For what it’s worth, I will be disappointed if your memoir isn’t someday titled Dear Santa, I Want Meat. So one of the great advantages to the title is that you show this whole range of different kinds of poems, all worked into your storyline seamlessly. If I didn’t know better I’d swear you did this to teach or something. So how did you decide what kinds of poetry and poetic tropes to include? 

Tom: These are the sorts of poems I like to write for fun. Limericks, speed haiku, doggerel. It’s like doodling. I think a lot of people are afraid of poetry because they are thinking of the great stuff. But if you just set out to doodle with words, you can’t go wrong!

BB: And the book is that very rare younger graphic novel which libraries are always looking around for but can so rarely find! Did you always envision it at this length? For that matter, how much did this story change from your first inkling of an idea to the final product? 

Tom: The first inkling did not have the frog! Frog is one of those characters who shows up as an extra and then takes over the whole book! As for length, I originally had it a bit longer. And my editor suggested making it short AND adding more to it. So it is now crammed with dino action and poetry!

BB: Wise. So when I looked at this book on my distributor’s website I could not help but notice that it was listed as a series. Can we hope for more Dino Poet titles in the future? And, if so, will there be more kinds of poems in them? 

Tom: Oh yes! I am working on book two now. And it’s all about the joy of friends making poems together. And, yes, they’ll be tackling some new kinds of poetry including beat poetry!

BB: And now my gotcha question of the day. Favorite dinosaur: GO!

Tom: T-Rex and I’ll tell you why. They are so much fun to draw! As long as you remember the teeth and the tiny arms, you got it!

BB: Finally, what else are you working on these days? What’s next for Tom Angleberger? 

Tom: Another GN series from Abrams Fanfare that will be drawn by – I’m not sure if I’m allowed to tell you who. He’s awesome, I can tell you that much! We cooked this sci-fi idea up together and can’t wait for people to read it!

Plus, I will be teaming up with John Hendrix again! You remember McToad, right? He took my little story and made it into something absolutely incredible! And I have faith he’s about to do that again with this new book!

How lucky have you and I been getting to work with the best illustrators on the planet? We both love picture books so much and we actually got to make them and they turned out beautiful! Hooray!

BB: Hooray indeed, my friend! Hooray indeed.

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Did I fail to mention before that Dino Poet is out on shelves right this very minute? It is! High yourself hence and go grab it! Special thanks too to Tayla Monturio and the folks at Abrams for helping us put this conversation together!

Filed under: Conversations