Jaime Adoff - Rock n Roll Dad

Rock n Roll Dad
by
Jaime Adoff

Rock n Roll Dad cooks
in the kitchen
radio blasts
always on ten!!
    It's so LOUD, I have to shout,
    "WHEN ARE WE GOING TO EAT!?"
Dad yells,
    "SOOOOOON!"
Dancing past me with his spoon.
Pots shake,
pans vibrate.
Mom screams:
    "It's an earthquake!"
    "What?" Dad yells back.
    I roll my eyes.
    Mom shakes her head.
Rock n Roll Dad is a little deaf.
    "A lot." Mom says.
    "Too many years playing drums." Rock n Roll Dad shouts, twirling his sticks and stirring the sauce.
    "Can I go to the club with you tonight?" I ask Dad.
    "You're not old enough yet." He answers back.
    "I want to go. I'm eight years old. I’m old enough to Rock n Roll."

    . . . One day I'm gonna play the drums too.
My hands will fly so fast
my sticks will break the speed of sound.
I'll be the best drummer in town.
     I play the plates with my carrot stick-sticks.
Splashing salsa cymbals with my rock n roll chips . . .

©2009 Jaime Adoff. All rights reserved.
Excerpt taken from "Rock n Roll Dad" to be published by Disney-Hyperion

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Jaime Adoff rocks. Seriously - he fronted his own band for eight years. And the thing is, his writing rocks, too. In his award winning debut, the poetry collection The Song Shoots Out of My Mouth, and moving to his novel-in-verse Jimi & Me then to his upcoming picture book, Rock n Roll Dad, music is both a part of what he writes and how he writes it: to me, his poetry begs to be performed not just read. And that's true no matter his subject matter....

In his work for teens, Jaime's tackled a range of complex issues, never shying away, as he says, from the good stuff, the bad stuff, the fun stuff, or the tough stuff. He brings that same attitude and vibrancy to his work for younger kids, too, and 30 Poets/30 Days is mighty happy to be bouncing along to his beat today.

Yesterday gave us Owl by Ann Whitford Paul. Tomorrow... In the Museum by Marilyn Singer.