Monday Poetry Stretch - Acrostics

Last week when writing abecedarian poems Laura Purdie Salas mentioned she liked them because they reminded her of one big acrostic to solve. This sentiment resonated with me, so I thought it might be fun to write acrostic poems this week.

During the April Poetry Makers series a few folks weighed in on the acrostic form. Steven Schnur said "Though some have called my acrostic books poetry, I think of them as word play, as solutions to problems of verbal geometry." Avis Harley shared a number of acrostic poems. One example was from her new book African Acrostics: A Word in Edgeways.

ABOVE ALL

Celebrate these
Long-standing giraffes,
Opening
Up clouds and eaves-
Dropping on the wind!

Far
Removed
In airy
Elegance,
Nibbling on high, they
Decorate the
Sky.

Poem ©Avis Harley

This is a fine example, far removed from the school-assigned poems to write an acrostic using your first name, or some vocabulary word being studied. What kind of acrostic will you write this week? Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.

Book Review - What Cats Are Made Of

For quite a while now I've been crazy for posts that feature dogs, such as those from Susan Taylor Brown, Barbara O'Connor (Greetings From Nowhere), and Kirby Larson (Kirby's Lane). But what's an avowed dog lover to do when someone like Anna Alter (Painting Bunnies) begins a series of posts called Furball Friday? I am not a cat lover by any means, but for all my cat-loving friends and readers I offer this review of a book I never would have expected to so thoroughly enjoy.

What Cats are Made Of, written and illustrated by Hanoch Piven, is a cleverly crafted book that highlights a few of the known cat breeds while offering a bevy of feline facts. This is as much an "art" book as it is a nonfiction work on cats.

First, a disclaimer. If you are looking for a straight cat information book, this isn't the book for you. It is, however, the perfect introduction for those who don't know much about cats (like me). This is also not a book that provides photos or life-like drawings of the cats described. The illustrations are fabulously creative and are not meant in any way to be explanatory. They are, however, particularly entertaining and will offer readers a great deal to examine. Consider this, the cat depicted on the "cats are made of brains" page is constructed of a piece of circuit board, pencil sharpeners, wire, computer cords, glasses (yes, all us smart folk wear them), and a computer mouse (2 actually). The "cats are made of toughness" cat contains a sheriff's badge, nails and two miniature swords, while the "cats are made of softness" cat has a pillow for a head. The collages alone are worth spending time with, and I'll bet will make an excellent model for art teachers looking for some new ideas. Before you read on, take a minute to view a few of the illustrations at the Simon and Schuster site.

The text begins with the quote "There are no ordinary cats," and this introduction.

There are thirty-nine registered breeds of cats. Some are short, some are long, some are skinny, and some are fat. Some are playful and some are quiet, and some love people and some even act like dogs! Cats are made of all kinds of things. But there's one thing they have in common: The are special, and they know it. Because as Leonardo daVinci said, "The smallest feline is a masterpiece."

Following this introduction are 12 double-page spreads that each begin with the phrase "cats are made of ..." and end with words like energy, glamour, history, mutations, and more. A particular breed is used to illustrate the trait in detail. Breeds used include both common and lesser known varieties. Here's an example of what you'll find on the "cats are made of origami" page.

Scottish Fold cats have ears that are folded forward and down onto their heads, just like their origami versions! The folded ears are produced by an incomplete gene and are the result of a mutation. Not all Scottish Fold cats have folded ears, but all of them carry the gene for this characteristic. In fact, Scottish Fold kittens are born with normal ears. At about three to four weeks of age, their ears fold . . . or not!

After reading this I immediately thought of science teachers everywhere teaching about genetics using punnett squares and the same tired examples (fruit flies and pea plants). Wouldn't this be a fun trait to try?

Each double-page spread also includes a Feline Fact. These provide the kinds of tidbits that kids love to read about. More experienced folks may know these already, but here are some things this feline newbie learned.

• Cats can independently rotate their ears 180 degrees. (I'm going to do some serious cat observation to see this one for myself!)
• A cat's brain is biologically more similar to a human brain than it is to a dog's.
• Domestic cats can sprint thirty-one miles an hour.
• A cat's jaw moves only up and down, not side to side. (Another fact I wish to observe.)

The book ends with a double-page spread devoted to superstitions about cats.

I found this to be an entertaining and educational read. It will make a terrific introduction to the world of domestic cats, as well as a good example/idea text for art classes.

Now if only Mr. Piven will turn his sights and talents to dog breeds . . .

Book: What Cats are Made Of
Author/Illustrator: Hanoch Piven
Publisher: Ginee Seo Books
Publication Date: March, 2009
Pages: 40 pages
Grades: 1-5
ISBN: 978-1416915317
Source of Book: Personal copy purchased at a local independent bookstore.

Poetry Friday - Sunflower

Now that summer is really and truly here, I've been wandering through some local gardens and enjoying my favorite summer blooms. One is the sunflower.

Sunflower
by Frank Steele

You’re expected to see

only the top, where sky

scrambles bloom, and not

the spindly leg, hairy, fending off

tall, green darkness beneath.

Read the entire poem.

The round up is being hosted by Kelly Herold at Crossover. Do stop by and take in all the great poetry being shared this week. Before you go, be sure to check out this week's poetry stretch results. Happy poetry Friday all.

Poetry Stretch Results - Abecedarian Poems

The challenge this week was to write in the abecedarian form. Here are the results.

Jane Yolen left this poem in the comments.

Changes

A
Bunched
Caterpillar
Dozes
Exhausted,
Forming
Green
Hairpins
In
Jellied
Kingdoms.
Lying
Motionless,
Not
Overplaying
Pupa-ness,
Quite
Ready
(Sort of)
To
Unfold
Varicose
Wings with an
eXacting
Yellow
Zipper.

© 2009 Jane Yolen

Julie Larios from The Drift Record shares two double abecedarians.

Tiel Aisha Ansari from Knocking From Inside shares a poem entitled A Few Short Lines.

Dianne White shares Abecedarian: Insect Style.

sister AE at Having Writ shares a poem entitled Still Cloudy.

Laura Purdie Salas gets acrobatic with her poem Shooting Star.

Andi from a wrung sponge shares a poem entitled Blessed Are the Broken-Hearted.

Mary Lee from A Year of Reading gives us An Abecedarian Love Song to My Hometown.

Here is one of the poems I've been working on this week.

August comes with
blazing sun, no
cooling breezes for the
dog days where
evenings are still fiery with
flitting fireflies and star-
gazing.
Incandescent days and
jeweled nights
keep children
laughing,
moving
nonstop through
open fields
pools and puddles,
quick stepping,
rain dancing,
singing and shouting
to the world.
Until … the
very last day
when the calendar
eXclaims that the golden,
yellow days are done, and summer
zooms away.

It's not too late if you still want to play. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll add it to the list.

A Poetry Stretch Comment

If you're working on your abecedarian poem, there is no need to restrict it to single words. That was the example used, but there are many fine poems that do not do this. Take for example these two double abecedarians by Julie Larios over at The Drift Record.

I'm thinking summer, so my poem is shaping up this way.

August comes with
blazing sun, no
cooling breezes in these
dog days of summer.
Evening gives way to
flitting fireflies and star-
gazing on clear nights.
Hopeful skywatchers

I have no clue where it's going. I'll just have to follow where it leads. I hope you'll consider joining us for this week's stretch.

Thinking Summer

I'm hard at work on my abecedarian poem and it's turning on the theme of summer. Fortunately for me, there's some great inspiration over at the KR blog. Cody Walker has written a fine piece called Sun Break. Head on over and soak up some literary summer.

Nonfiction Monday - A Mathematical Trio

Since I'm in the midst of teaching a course on the teaching and learning of math, I have math books on the brain. Here are three I like that cover numbers, time and money.

Used Any Numbers Lately?, written by Susan Allen and Jane Lindaman and illustrated by Vicky Enright, is an alphabet book that examines where numbers are found in our daily lives. The text is minimal, but that doesn't detract from it's usefulness in acquainting young children numbers and their uses. Many of the numbers described in the book are nominal, meaning they are used for identification. Examples include apartment number, bus number, house number, jersey number, etc. A few ordinal numbers also make an appearance, as in floor number (sixth) and grade number (first). As to those letters that often make an alphabet book difficult to write, they were handled pretty well, with Q as question number (what kid won't related to question numbers on a quiz?) and X as x equals ? number (x as in a variable). I actually thought this was a relatively interesting way to introduce the notion of a variable. The illustrations are full of energy and do a fine job of demonstrating the use of each number. There were a few uses I was disappointed with, but that's par for the course in any alphabet book. The page for N says "We're number ONE!" I was so hoping for a weather report, a snowy day, a chilly thermometer, and negative numbers. Also, the page for U reads "Your number's up!" and shows a number being served at a deli counter. Despite these minor concerns, this is a nice book for developing number sense.

A Second is a Hiccup: A Child's Book of Time, written by Hazel Hutchins and illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton, looks at different quantities of time and provides some reasonable estimates. The book begins with the question "How long is a second?" The answer?

A second is a hiccup--
The time it takes to kiss your mom
Or jump a rope
Or turn around.

The text goes on to look at the length of a minute, hour, day, week, month, and year. The watercolor illustrations show a diverse cast of children and families engaged in the the activities described. I like everything about this book, particularly the lyrical text. My favorite section is about the length of a week.

How long is a week?

Seven days all in a line.
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday
Thursday Friday and the end day
Saturday--a favorite one!
Some are quiet, some are fun.

Work days, home days, play days, school days

Seven wake-ups, seven sleeps

This is a wonderful book that provides a terrific introduction to time in all its varied measures.

Making Cents, written by Elizabeth Keeler Robinson and illustrated by Bob McMahon, provides a kid-friendly look at money and equivalencies. On the first page readers meet a group of kids with a dream to build a clubhouse. It begins with one penny.

Penny!
There's a pretty perfect penny in my pocket--
a copper-colored penny, very
smooth around the edge.
With this one-cent penny
we can buy . . .
a perfect
penny nail.

What's nice about the text is that in a very thoughtful, concise description kids learn exactly what a penny looks like (copper color, smooth edge). The illustrations extend this knowledge by depicting the front and back of the penny and the object that can be purchased with it. The book continues "Look! We have five pennies./ We can trade them for a .../ Nickel!" Each successive page describes the coin, shows it, AND shows what can be purchased. In the case of the nickel, the purchase can be five penny nails or one wood screw. The illustrations depict the kids working to earn more money (lemonade stand, leaf raking, dog walking, window washing, etc.) and the accumulation of wealth continues. As the money amounts increase, there is quite a bit of multiplication going on with the items for purchase. For example, on the five-dollar bill page kids see 500x penny nails, 100x wood screws, 50x marking pencils, 20x squares of sandpaper, 5x hinges, and 1x tape measure. The book ends when the kids reach $100. The author's note at the end describes some of the denominations not used in the book (half-dollar and two-dollar bill) and provides information about how our money is always changing. Links to useful web sites are also included. A terrific introductory book.

Here's a bit more information on each book.

Book: Used Any Numbers Lately?, written by Susan Allen and Jane Lindaman and illustrated by Vicky Enright
Publisher: Millbrook Press
Publication Date: September, 2008
Pages: 31 pages
Grades: K-2
ISBN: 978-0822586586

Book: A Second is a Hiccup: A Child's Book of Time, written by Hazel Hutchins and illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Publication Date: March, 2007
Pages: 40 pages
Grades: K-2
ISBN: 978-0439831062

Book: Making Cents, written by Elizabeth Keeler Robinson and illustrated by Bob McMahon
Publisher: Tricycle Press
Publication Date: June, 2008
Pages: 32 pages
Grades: K-3
ISBN: 978-1582462141

This post was written for Nonfiction Monday. This week our host is Tina at Tales from the Rushmore Kid. Do stop by and see what others are sharing in the world of nonfiction today.

Houdini and the Land of the Pharoahs

I know I've mentioned this before, but I am hooked on The Classic Tales Podcast. This week's installment is Imprisoned with the Pharaohs by H.P. Lovecraft. Here is the description.

Legends abound in the land of Egypt. Legends of mysterious ancient powers that sleep beneath the man made monuments of death, known as the pyramids. When the great escape artist Harry Houdini visits the land of the Pharaohs, he is forced to perform an escape from terrors unknown to those who breathe the earthly air.

As someone who loves Amelia Peabody and Theodosia Throckmorton, I can't deny my affection for this tale. If you have some time, do give a listen. (This is Part 1 of 2 in a series.)

Monday Poetry Stretch - Abecedarian Poems

It's time this week to revisit and old (i.e. - one we've already played with) form. An abecedarian poem is one in which the verses or words begin with successive letters of the alphabet. Here is an excerpt from a poem found in The Monarch's Progress: Poems With Wings by Avis Harley.

Wintering Over
by Avis Harley

Amazing
Blazing
Clusters
Decorate
Entire
Forest
Groves.

Hanging
In
Jeweled
Kingdoms
...

Psalm 119 (King James numbering) is also an abecedarian poem.
Poets.org has more information about the abecedarian form.

So, the challenge this week is to write in the abecedarian form. Leave me a comment about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.

Poetry Friday - This Morning in a Morning Voice

I get a great deal of poetry in my mailbox, which is always a lovely treat each morning. These are the e-mails I save for last, savoring each one. I get messages from Daily Lit, where I've read volumes by Walt Whitman and Paul Laurence Dunbar in daily installments. During April, May and June I received daily poems from the American Academy of Poets Poem-A-Day service. There are also the poems I receive every so often through my e-mail subscription to Gotta Book.

In addition to these delights in my inbox, I am always thrilled to receive the latest column from American Life in Poetry. A project of Ted Kooser's, American Life in Poetry is dedicated solely to promoting poetry. It does this by providing newspapers and online publications with a FREE weekly column featuring contemporary American poems.

My poem this week from that column and is dedicated to father's everywhere.

This Morning in a Morning Voice
by Todd Boss

to beat the froggiest
of morning voices,
my son gets out of bed
and takes a lumpish song
along--a little lyric

Read the entire poem. When you follow this link you'll also be able to hear Boss read his poem.

The round up is being hosted by Carol at Carol's Corner. Do stop by and take in all the great poetry being shared this week. Before you go, be sure to check out this week's poetry stretch results. Happy poetry Friday all!

Blogging Lite

I have a stack of books a mile high just begging to be reviewed. I have two thematic book lists waiting to be polished. There is much I wish to do here.

BUT...
I am teaching two intensive summer school classes. I teach for 6 hours (back-to-back classes) on Monday and Wednesday evenings.
I have three grant projects gearing up for the summer.
I am being swallowed by work.

AND YET...
I am worried about neglecting my blog.

I promise to return to a more regular schedule in a week or so. Until then, hang in there with me. I'll be back.

Poetry Stretch Results - A Rhyming Adventure

The challenge this week was to generate a list of rhyming words inspired by your surroundings and then write a poem inspired by them. Here are the results.

Tiel Aisha Ansari from Knocking From Inside shares a poem entitled Mallow.

Jane Yolen left this poem in the comments.

Stone

“If the sky falls we shall catch larks”

There is a stone on my mantle,
Just the one, carved with a phrase
That stops the heart. I am alone,
My birder husband gone these three years,
Under a large stone in a garden of stones.
So the sky has fallen, I am undone,
No one to point out the larks.
But when I look at the bones
Of his face in photos, remember the tone of his voice,
honed to a whisper in his last days,
I am thrown into the maelstrom
Of wind, earth, sky, the unknown,
And there are larks, larks singing to the throne of God.

© 2009 Jane Yolen

Julie Larios from The Drift Record shares a poem entitled What Day Does.

I've had a really hard time writing since my dad died. I thought it would be easier than this, but I see a little bit of him in everything. My rhyming list was inspired by the items on my bookshelves and mantle. I finally settled on the jade monkey I bought him in Tibet a few years ago.

The jade monkey holding a peach
sits on the shelf, just within reach.
I pat his bald head and smile,
remembering the negotiation--
dueling calculators the mode of
communication.
Instead of words there were
head shakes,
double takes,
rolled eyes,
threatened goodbyes
and sighs of exasperation.
With determination came
celebration, and the purple
monkey was mine.

A gift for my father I
didn’t bother to wrap it,
placing it instead amongst
his growing menagerie.

Now it’s mine again,
this symbol of longevity
that failed to fulfill
it’s destiny.

It's not too late if you still want to play. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll add it to the list.

Monday Poetry Stretch - A Rhyming Adventure

I've been reading The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within by Stephen Fry. I find it in turns both hilarious and instructive. It is also very well written. In the Foreword he writes:

I cannot teach you how to be a great poet or even a good one. Dammit, I can't teach myself that. But I can show you how to have fun with the modes and forms of poetry as they have developed over the years.

I find writing in rhyme particularly difficult and so have been working my way through the samples and exercises on rhyme. Here's the one I want to try this week.

Take your notebook and wander about the house and garden, if you have one. If you are not reading this at home, then wander around your office, hospital ward, factory floor or prison cell. If you are outside or on a train, plane or bus, in a café, brothel or hotel lobby you can still do this. Simply note down as many things as you can see, hear or smell. They need not be nouns, you can jot down processes, actions, deeds. So, if you are in a café, you might write down: smoking, steam, raincoat, lover's tiff, cappuccino machine, sipping, flapjacks, cinnamon, jazz music, spilt tea, and so on -- whatever strikes the eye, ear or nose. Write a list of at least twenty words. When you've done that, settle down and one more see how many rhymes you can come up with for each word. You may find that this simple exercise gets your poetic saliva glands so juiced up that the temptation to turn words into poetry becomes irresistible. Yield to it. A random, accidental and arbitrary consonance of word sounds can bring inspiration where no amount of pacing, pencil chewing and looking out of the window can help.

So there's your challenge for the work. Come up with a series of rhyming words inspired by your surroundings and turn them into a poem. Leave me a comment about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.

Book Review - A Taste For Red

I will admit that I am rather shallow when it comes to book covers. I DO use them to judge a book. That's why I picked this one up as soon as I saw it on the shelf.

But ultimately, it was the sentence on the bottom that convinced me I had to have this book. Below the author's name it reads:

What happens when your sixth-grade science teacher might also be your immortal enemy?

Hello?! Former middle school science teacher here! So, on the outside we have a fabulous cover and a great hook. Inside we have a delicious, well-written tale that gleefully winds it way to an ending that simply begs for a sequel (or two or three). Did I mention that it's just plain fun?

Meet Stephanie, now calling herself Svetlana, a sixth grader who has recently moved from Texas to California and is entering public school (middle school no less) after being home-schooled by her mother. She has taken to eating only red foods (white too because they're "neutral"). The lunches she packs for herself are composed of things like cranberry juice, strawberries, a ham sandwich, and red velvet cake.

Svetlana's friends, Fumio Chen and Dwight Foote are nicely developed characters (and I do mean characters) and add quite a bit of charm to the story. You'll also find the typical popular girls, but it's when they disappear that things get interesting.

Svetlana believes she's a vampire. When her new science teacher, Ms. Larch, talks to her without speaking (she whispers words in her mind without ever moving her lips), Svetlana wonders what she is and how they're connected. It's the sweet old lady next door, Lenora Bones, who tells Svetlana who Ms. Larch really is, while teaching Svetlana a bit about herself. Here's an excerpt.

How had the Bone Lady gotten in and out of my hideout so fast? There was more to that old woman than met the eye, even beyond the fact that she kept a knife in her boot. Ms. Bones obviously believed that the three girls had run afoul of the so-called Kensington Vampire. Now that she knew Ms. Larch was the woman she sought and that she was a teacher at Sunny Hill Middle School, Lenora Bones had connected the missing girls to her. But could it be true?

When Ms. Bones has an accident, it's up to Svetlana to deal with the Kensington Vampire.

I could say more, but I don't want to spoil the ending. There was one twist that I didn't see coming that was both stunning and hilarious. When things got to the nail biting stage I found myself cheering for Svetlana and her friends. You will too. This is an enchanting romp that middle school kids will thoroughly enjoy. I hope Mr. Harris is hard at work on a sequel, because I'm ready for one.

Book: A Taste for Red
Author: Lewis Harris
Publisher: Clarion Books
Publication Date: June, 2009
Pages: 176 pages
Grades: 4-8
ISBN: 978-0547144627
Source of Book: Copy purchased at a local independent bookstore.

Teaching Respect for Native Peoples

For several years now I've been teaching a class that integrates the teaching of science and social studies for pre-service elementary teachers. In it we tackle a variety of topics, one of which is how we treat the subject of Native Americans in the classroom. Reading children's books inevitably comes up as part of this. For all my experience teaching kids and this class, I simply come up short in this area. While there are many books, web sites and blogs to guide me, I am convinced that nothing short of first-hand experience will deepen my understanding.

That's why I'm so thrilled to report that Oyate will be coming to the University of Richmond to offer a workshop on Teaching Respect for Native Peoples. Even though I am coordinating the administrative aspects of the workshop, I will be enrolled as a student (since I have much to learn). If you are in the Richmond area and have an interest in attending, please contact me for more information. Here are just a few of the particulars.

The workshop will be held August 3-6, from 7:00 am – 6:00 pm, in the Richmond Room of the Heilman Dining Center. Breakfast and lunch will be provided Monday through Thursday. On Friday, August 7th, participants will meet in Richmond to view the “Beyond Jamestown” and “Family Portraits” exhibits which are sponsored by the Indian Heritage Program of the Virginia Foundations for the Humanities. They will also meet Virginia Indian educators and hear first-hand the experiences of contemporary Native people.

The cost for the week-long workshop is $650. All workshop materials, three books and two posters, and breakfast and lunch each day are included in the price. Participants who wish to enroll for graduate credit may do so at no additional cost.

You'll be hearing more about this as the time draws near. I also hope to blog each evening as I reflect on my experiences.

In My Dreams I Am Sexy

"In my dreams I am sexy. (That’s why they’re awesome.)"

No, I'm not the one who said it. That would be Gene Luen Yang in his interview in this month's Notes From The Horn Book. This issue is just chock-full of goodness. If you don't get this one in your mailbox (of the electronic variety) each month, you don't know what you're missing. Head on over and give it a gander.

Poetry Friday - Locks

I'm in again this week with a poem by Neil Gaiman.

Locks
by Neil Gaiman

We owe it to each other to tell stories,
as people simply, not as father and daughter.
I tell it to you for the hundredth time:

"There was a little girl, called Goldilocks,
for her hair was long and golden,
and she was walking in the Wood and she saw — "
"— cows." You say it with certainty,

remembering the strayed heifers we saw in the woods
behind the house, last month.

"Well, yes, perhaps she saw cows,
but also she saw a house."

Read the entire poem.

You can read other poems like this at The Journal of Mythic Arts: Fairy Tale Poems.

The round up is hosted at the blog Critique de Mr. Chompchomp. Do stop by and take in all the great poetry being shared this week. Before you go, be sure to check out the great fairy tale poems written for this week's poetry stretch. Happy poetry Friday all!

Poetry Stretch Results - Spinning Tales

This week's challenge was to write a poem based on a folktale, fairy tale or legend. Here are the results. What fun we had!

Jane Yolen left this poem in the comments.

Hoodie

Not for me the soft grey hood,
flanneled, drawstringed,to perfection.
Not for me the silken red hood
Sewn with motherly perfection.
a sop to wolves and woodcutters both;
Not for me these old school tropes,
I touch the now, the new, the never;
I live on chocolate and on hopes.

I go camouflaged into the forest,
sit under a low-hanging live oak.
Disguised by clothing and by silence
I watch all the fairy tale folk
walk, run, leap, fly by.
I would rather read their expressions
parse each fast-beating made-up heart.
This has become my chief obsession:
I do not want to be one of them,
but watch in simple silent laughter;
for none of them--not hero, not wolf
gets to live happy ever after.

@2009 Jane Yolen

Julie Larios from The Drift Record left this poem in the comments.

Three gold coins.
Three wishes wished.
Three magic seeds
and three magic fish.
Three bad guesses.
three real tears—
now the sea is salty
now the seeds are years,
now the threes are doubles,
now the doubles, one;
now the world is spinning
‘til it comes undone.
Now you are a changeling,
now you are a haunt,
now you're hardly here at all,
and now you're not.
Now you're just the wind
as it moves through leaves,
I can hear you whispering:
one, two, three.

Harriet from spynotes shares a poem called The Day the Sky Fell.

Laura Salas shares a poem called Obsession by Prince Charming.

Elaine from Wild Rose Reader has a Q and A poem.

Sara Lewis Holmes from Read*Write*Believe shares a cento for the frog princes entitled and we leap up to become.

Beloved Haiku Dreams shares a poem entitled She Came . . . As Fore Told.

I wrote several poems this week. Here's one of them.

A Prince’s Lament

I hate these clothes
this collar
these britches

They’re binding
and itch
I cannot breathe
or stretch
or hop

Thrown against a wall
and transformed
living a life
I despise
Don’t get me started
on the wife

I cannot eat or sleep
when I want
nor DO
what I want

How I long for the cool
of the pool
the song of the pond
my friends in the water

Each day I leave the castle
in search of a witch
(a real one)
longing to be cursed
and set free

It's not too late if you still want to play. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll include it in the results.

Top 10 SF/Fantasy for Youth: 2009

I mentioned I've been in a bit of fantasy/fairy tale mood as of late. While looking for titles I came across this list from Booklist. Have you seen it? (I was away when this came out, so forgive me if it's old news.) Published in the May 15th issue you'll find a list of Top 10 SF/Fantasy for Youth.

The books on this list were all published in the last 12 months and include a Newbery Medal winner and two Printz Honor Books. Several of the titles appeared in School Library Journal's Battle of the Books. Also included is Grace Lin's recently released book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. In addition to Grace's book, the one I really want to read is The Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia by Cindy Pon. Take a look at the trailer and tell me you're not just a little bit intrigued.

Frog and Toad Anew

Last year at an estate auction a set of bound pamphlets handwritten and illustrated by Arnold Lobel were discovered. These rhyming stories about frogs and toad are being published with color added to the black and white paintings in the manuscripts by his daughter, Adrianne Lobel.

You can hear the full story at NPR in the charming piece 'Frog and Toad' Leap Off the Page Again. You can also view a very cute audio slide show.

You can take a look inside the book at the Harper Collins web site. You can also view a nice video of Adrianne Lobel talking about the book and its creation.

And last but not least, Elaine gives us a fine review over at Wild Rose Reader.