Josie Burd is an award-winning poet, and she’s only in the second grade. Last month her poems "Snow," "School" and "There is so much onomatopoeia in the city" took honors in a Writers Are Readers Celebration program sponsored by the Minnesota Reading Association. Burd, along with the rest of her second-grade class at Bendix Elementary School, and children from across the state submitted entries that were read and judged by a group of peer reviewers and adult volunteers. Reviewers said Burd’s poems "stood out" from among the other entries and she was invited to be honored at the MRA Celebrate Literacy Reception on Friday, March 19. She was one of only 11 kindergarten-through-eighth-grade poets chosen. "It’s pretty talented writing," her teacher, Pam Peterson, said. Judges felt the same way, commenting on her attention to detail, rhyming and her sense of humor. "You are starting to sound like a real poet who I have heard before," one reviewer said. One of Burd’s poems was inspired by a lesson Peterson gave one day on onomatopoeia, a term that refers to a word that imitates the sound it represents. She came up with "There is so much onomatopoeia in the city," which starts out "Vrroooooom/Ding ding/Dong dong/Doorbells ring./And cars zoom by./Toot too/Yap yap," and ends with "I’m so glad I live in the country!" "I thought of different sounds and came up with the poem first, then the ending and title," the second-grader said. She thought up her poem "Snow" one winter’s day while enjoying the view of falling snow from her kitchen window at home. "I thought of a snowflake and what a snowflake would think when it was falling to the ground," she said. Her third poem "School" emulates a poem she had recently read about a lollipop. "It kept saying ‘lick, lick lick’ and at the end it said ‘stick,’" she said. "I thought I could make one up about school." The result was a humorous piece that repeats the word "learn" 18 times. One critic called it "a lot like school" and congratulated her on a job well done. Burd’s parents, Sandy and David, attended the ceremony in March when she was invited up on stage to accept her certificate. She also received four poetry books for her classroom. Josie likes to write poems and short stories even when it’s not homework, she said. She also likes to read but she doesn’t have a favorite book, "because they are all so good."
