You know that wonderful feeling when you find a great book and you can’t wait to share it with someone else you know will love it, too? That’s exactly what I felt this weekend: JULIA GILLIAN book love.

I enjoyed every minute of the reading and I know there will soon be more JULIA GILLIAN fans in my classroom.

There are two more books in the series to keep the book love going : JULIA GILLIAN (and the Art of Knowing) and JULIA GILLIAN (and the Dream of the Dog).

POETRY LOVE: Last spring I was able to take a poetry workshop with amazing poet and teacher, Rebecca Kai Dotlich. I’ve long been a fan of Rebecca’s work, but I just discovered Kathi Appelt‘s recent interview with Rebecca about writing, poetry, picture books, and more. Rebecca shares a great poetry writing tip for teachers and Kathi and she talk a bit about BELLA AND BEAN, a beautiful picture about poetry and friendship.

I wrote a brief entry about BELLA AND BEAN earlier this year on ReaderKidZ. Check it out HERE.

Enjoy Kathi Appelt’s video interview : (Don’t you just *love* the background music, “Adieu False Heart”? I sure do!)

Somehow being reminded of how “tricky” they are, both to write and to sell makes me glad I’m a picture book writer.

Stearns writes, “A really great picture book is a difficult art to pull off… It is about grace and the right words in the right place—much more akin to poetry than mere storytelling.”

Reminds me of the quote by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “…poetry: the best words in the best order.”

Yes. Poetry and picture books. I love them both.

Today is one of those days when I…

1) *wish* I hadn’t updated to the latest version of WordPress and
2) wish I knew enough about HTML to be able to help myself.

The best I can figure out, after scouting around the internet, is that the WP 2.8 version has some bugs which impact how the rich text editor loads. Not being an expert by any stretch of the imagination, I am hoping this explains why the dashboard where I normally post is missing some of the things I like to use and why the “visual” tab is typing up things in a white font so that I can’t see them!

Suffice it to say, that if I had a WordPress/computer savy friend to help me over this glitch, I would be one happy camper. In the meantime, I’ll move onto…

Bugs of the Abecedarian Variety

Tricia’s Poetry Stretch this week was to write an abecedarian poem.

Now that school’s finally out, and because I’ve had an idea for an abecedarian about insects sitting on my computer for several months, I’ve given it a try.

I ended up going in a direction that was markedly different than my initial inspiration, so perhaps if there’s time later in the week, I’ll return to my original idea. For today, though, I’ve focused on the names of different insects – some more unusual, some, of the everyday variety.

photo credit: Opo Terser

Abecedarian: Insect Style

Aphid,
Bean weevil,
Crown Whitefly.

Doodlebug,
Earwig,
Flea,
Gadfly.

Honey Bee,
Ichneumonid,
Jezebel Nymph.

Katydid,
Lotis Blue,
Mould Mite,
Nit.

Oak Scale,
Psyllid,
Queen Butterfly.

Rosy Dart,
Sand Wasp,
Tapered Drone-fly.

Umber Skipper,
Veined White.
Wright’s Checkerspot.

Xylophagid,
Yellow Bear,
Zodiac Moth.

The thing about writing to the poetry stretch, is that it’s a bit uncomfortable for me to post a poem that’s still a work-in-progress.  The upside is that time is short, and I work better to deadline.  And truth be told, if I were to give myself the time needed to “make it perfect” I might never stretch.  So, even though I can’t get this to format properly on the page,  here goes:

One Bird, One Branch, One Song

Stand tall.  Arms wide.  Chin up.  Sing.
Let no one stop you. Dance.
Take a chance.  It’s your life.  Live.

Wild and free.  Or dangerously.  Live
quietly, too. If you do, you will hear that one bird sing.
You might see it wing its way to tree. One branch will dance

and then the leaves stir.  And the bird – the bird! – hop-dances
and in that one moment, the world becomes alive.
You and song and bird.  Bird and earth and sky.  Even I might sing.

Even she.  Even he.  Even we might, all together, the whole world. Sing, dance, live.

* * * *

Today being “Poem in Your Pocket Day” (Thanks, Julie!) I shared one of Julie’s poems, “Like Bees Over Clover,” with the teachers and staff at my school.  If you haven’t already read it – or even if you have! – read it here.  It’s marvelous.  Here’s a peek:

Like Bees Over Clover by Julie Larios

Poems hum, they come
at you like bees over clover,
and Honey, they can even sting.
Poems ring…

photo credit: akk_rus

My first graders put the poem – “Good Books, Good Times” – another favorite by Lee Bennett Hopkins (from the book Good Rhymes, Good Times) in their pockets.  You can listen to a short audio clip of Lee reading his poem here.

“Window Sijo” was this week’s poetry stretch – a first attempt at sijo, as described by Linda Sue Park in Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo (Poems).

Heat was on my mind: a hot weekend in Death Valley and more hot weather at home.

This week also brought the audio of Peony in Love by Lisa See.

Both the heat and Peony’s voice were in my mind as I wrote.

photo credit: danorth1

WINDOW SIJO

Dear husband closes shutters
on days when temperatures soar.

All day.  Empty house.  Who worries
about dark shuttered windows?

Late afternoon.  I open blinds to: Light! And… a room with a view.

Here are my attempts at this week’s poetry stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect – a bite-sized sonnet.

I had no idea I would spend so much time on this tiny-sized version of a sonnet.  The truth is, it’s just not that easy.  At least for me… I did many many versions until I arrived at these two.  The beginning of the second, not surprisingly, came when I awoke last night. Apparently, the mini-sonnet was still haunting me.

I’ve used a near-rhyme, and “cheated” a bit, though I don’t really consider it that.  While I think writing to form is a wonderful challenge and a great exercise, I think it’s good, perhaps better, to break the form if you feel you must, as long as it works.  Since I ran out of time, that’s what I’ve done.

I’ve also rearranged the lines to suit myself (rather than one syllable per line, as Avis Harley suggests in Fly with Poetry: An ABC of Poetry.)

June
night.
Moon
bright.

Cat
purrs.
Rat
stirs.

Rat races.
Cat chases.
Prey fray.

photo credit: nafra cendrers

***

Late night.
Moon light.
Can’t sleep.
Count sheep.

Sigh.
Close eyes.
Doze.
Theme: Dream.

photo credit: audreyjm529

I’ve added a new page: PICTURE BOOKS:  ART AND CRAFT.  Click here or on the GREEN tab in the banner above and take a look!

I love many of Sidman’s collections (particularly Song of the Waterboatman and Other Pond Poems), her site, and the poetry challenges she offers there.

That led me to think about how I wish I had time to participate in the Poetry Fridays that several kid lit blogs host, or the Monday Poetry Stretch that Tricia of The Miss Rumphius Effect offers each week.

Much as I’d like to, I can’t.  There just aren’t enough hours after teaching all day to take on a “project” when so many others are calling my name…

But all that changed yesterday when poet extraordinaire, Julie Larios of The Drift Record offered up her P-oetry Friday post.

The goal, as Julie explains, is to make a list of things that begin with the letter you’ve been assigned.

Lists, I can do, so I signed up, and Julie’s given me the letter B.

Thanks, Julie!  I’ll post my “B’s” at the end of the weekend.

I discovered Marilyn Nelson’s powerful stories and amazing poetry - 

Carver: A Life in Poems , A Wreath for Emmett Till, and Fortune’s Bones - several years ago.

I’m so pleased to see Nelson’s work spotlighted on The Brown Bookshelf‘s:  28 Days Later, 2009 campaign (including her latest,  The Freedom Business, which I have yet to read) and to discover that she has numerous books forthcoming!

“It can take weeks to assemble and polish a single line of poetry… poems take time… they are to be lived with and endlessly revisited.”

Fry could easily be talking about picture books.  They take ages to polish and they absolutely benefit from what can sometimes feels like endless revision.

“Poetry,” Fry asserts,  “is an entirely different way of using words and I cannot emphasise enough how much more pleasure is to be derived from a slow, luxurious engagement with its language and rhythms.”

As both an aural and oral medium, picture books also presume this type of slow, careful engagement.

Fry proposes three Golden Rules if one is going to carry on reading The Ode Less Travelled. He likens his rules to the End User License Agreement that one encounters when installing computer software.

His rules:

1. Take your time

2. Don’t be afraid

3. Always have a notebook with you.

Great words for a picture book author to live by.