Small Reads for Brighters Days
My event yesterday was wonderful! And now it’s my last day in Texas–shoot, y’all. I’ve had a great time and hope to come back someday. Meanwhile, The Friends of the Saint Paul Library back home did a nice post about Stampede. They’ve been featuring a finalist book every day for the past month, leading up to […]
Forget fairy-tale pirates and dive into the real world of the pirate’s life. It’s not always pretty. David L. Harrison’s poetry collection Pirates (Wordsong, 2008), with beautiful oil paintings by Dan Burr, is that rare thing–a boy-friendly poetry collection that isn’t light verse. Check out this grim, but moving, poem about the common […]
It’s my first full day in Texas! I’m here for the Texas Library Association’s annual conference, and I’m so excited to be here. Tomorrow is when all my events are scheduled for–today is for working and exploring. So after a morning of work and a quick workout, I’ll be heading out to the Alamo […]
The funny and clever The Monsterologist (Sterling, 2009) is an adventure in poetry. It’s the memoir (ghostwritten, hehe, by Bobbi Katz) of a scientist who has spent his life studying monsters. Each monster gets his or her own poetic tribute, and here is the Cyclops I’ve been in sunny Sicilywhere the cranky Cyclops roamwith one […]
Spot the Plot (Chronicle, 2009), by J. Patrick Lewis, with lively illustrations by Lynn Munsinger, was one of my favorite poetry books of 2009. Each spread is a miniature rhymed book review of a children’s book, and kids use the textual and visual clues to guess which book it’s about. The fourth-graders I just […]
OK, the poem isn’t actually called The Belch of a Blowfish, because the poems in this amazing collection are untitled. But that’s how it starts out, and I had to put something in the title of this post! Hotel Deep: Light Verse from Dark Water (Harcourt, 2005), is one of my all-time favorite picture book […]
and Yesterday’s poem was just a little bit spooky, so today I’m moving on to totally creepy! The book is Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep, by Jack Prelutsky (illustrations by Arnold Lobel–Frog and Toad would be freaked out, I’ve gotta say!). It’s an out-of-print oldie, but a goodie to look for used or […]
I love the book keepers (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1996), by fantastic poet Alice Schertle (illustrated by Ted Rand). The connection between the poems is tenuous to me. Supposedly, the poems all represent special moments and feelings, or "keepers." It feels more like a marketing add-on than anything inherent in the poems to me. […]
I’m mouseless today (ack!), but hopefully this will all look OK. Today I’m sharing a poem from Jane Yolen’s wonderful Shape Me a Rhyme, a collection of poems about shapes found in nature. The gorgeous photos are by her son, Jason Stemple. Here’s one of my very favorites: Coil Tight as a spring, ready, set, […]
Today’s poem comes from On the Farm, by David Elliott. I love this collection of short, accessible poems about the animals of the family farm. The SheepBegan his woolly lifeas gentle as alamb. Too badhe turnedinto aram. BAM! –David Elliott, all rights reserved (Wish you could see the ram-bamming illo that goes with this poem!)
