Mary Ann Hoberman is the 13th winner of the presti- gious NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children.

While some might not consider the number 13 to be auspicious, when we called to tell Mary Ann of her se-lection as the 2003 award winner, she was delighted to become part of such an august group of poets. Mary Ann has published over 30 children’s books, mostly in rhyme. Some are collections of verse while others are picture books or picture book editions of single rhymes. Her poems ring with the sounds and rhythms of children’s everyday lives while also giving fresh insights into the world. She draws from her per-sonal childhood memories as well as the experiences of her own children to inform her work and to ensure that her images are truly from children’s perspectives. One of Mary Ann’s most well-known and well-loved books is A House Is a House for Me (1978). Winner of the National Book Award, this book uses repetitive rhythm and phrasing along with a consistent rhyme scheme to describe all kinds of houses in creative ways, including “a glove is a home for a hand, ” “a husk is a home for an ear of corn ” and “a pen is a house for ink. ” The book contin-ues to be quite popular with young children, generating much talk as they listen to the musical text and pour over the pictures, often inventing new homes. Parents tell how the book was so loved in their families that it was one of the few they didn’t discard when their children grew up. Young readers love to hear the descriptions of different kinds of houses for a variety of animal inhabitants (1978, excerpt): A hill is a house for an ant, an ant. A hive is a house for a bee. A hole is a house for a mole or a mouse. And a house is a house for me! We might think, however, of adding a line to this poem describing another kind of house. Mary Ann, after all, builds poems, and a very fitting addition to her list of houses might be “a poem is a house for a thought and for playing with words. ” Playing with words is, indeed, what she does, and it is her skill and ability at wordplay that led to her selection by the Committee for the NCT