I don’t need your napkin.
I’m not your soup bowl’s mate.
I don’t want your peas or bread.
I’m not that kind of plate!
Write your name upon me.
I’m a paper love tattoo.
Paste me in your book to show
that I belong to you.
Copyright © 2011 Laura Purdie Salas. From the book BookSpeak: Poems About Books. Clarion Books. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Laura Purdie Salas is the author of more than 100 books for kids, including BookSpeak! Poems About Books, Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School, and A Leaf Can Be…. Her books’ honors include NCTE Notable, Bank Street Best Books, Eureka! Gold Medal, IRA
Teachers’ Choice, Minnesota Book Award, and more. She loves to introduce kids to poetry and help them find poems they can relate to. She has also written numerous nonfiction books. See more about Laura and her work at www.laurasalas.com.
I remember my first set of book plates. I even put them in the *typewriter* so that my name would look very grown-up and official. Once I had them, I hated to put them in my books because I was afraid of “wasting” them on something that might not be worthy of their presence. What a silly kid I was. ;-) Thanks for this fun poem that brought back so many memories!
Love this story, Keri. What’s funny, too, is that I bought a few packs of book plates to give away at school visits or other events, and I haven’t been able to bring myself to give them away! “What if they just throw them away?” I wonder. Of course, I know the pencils and postcards and other stuff I give out largely ends up in the trash. Somehow I can’t bear for that to happen to the bookplates!
That’s great that you typed your name on them. Look how much you valued books from the very beginning. You knew they were IMPORTANT!
A paper love tattoo — Love it, love it, love it.
And I, too, HOARDED my bookplates when I was a kid… I still *have them,* the very first ones I ever got – because they were too beautiful to use.
CRAZY.
Very cute, Laura! I used to have book plates for my books when I was a kid, a very proud owner!
She’s as sweet as she is talented! Love BOOKSPEAK! Long live LPS.