We're off this morning to spend a few days with friends up in "the wilds" of Maine. I'm not sure if I'll be able to post from there. Maybe...I'll be able to focus my attentions once more to working on some poetry manuscripts that need a little "tweaking" and to getting some serious reading done.
I hope the gorgeous weather we've been having here lately will follow us north.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
The Small Graces July Auction Is On!!!
This lovely Small Graces painting is on auction NOW!!!
Wouldn't you love to own an original painting by children's author and illustrator Grace Lin? All the proceeds from the Small Graces auctions will benefit The Foundation for Children's Books, a small non-profit organization in Boston that is making a big difference in the lives of young readers by bringing children's book authors and illustrators into under-served schools in the Greater Boston area for visits and residencies..
Click here to bid on the Small Graces painting that Grace Lin created for the July auction.
NOTE: Bidding closes July 17, 2009 at 14:21:45 PDT
Click here to learn more about the Small Graces auctions.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Summer Acrostics
Here are two of my original acrostic poems about summer—both acrostics begin with the letter C.
Claw-handed critter
Races sideways, skitters
Across the sea-washed land…
Beachcombing in the sand.
Chirping in the dark, their song
Resonates
In the still air. A
Chorus of summer night strummers in concert with
Katydids
Entertaining warm evenings with
Their
Symphony of wings.
For more summer acrostics, get a copy of Stephen Schnur’s Summer: An Alphabet Acrostic. The book is beautifully illustrated with hand-colored linoleum block prints by Leslie Evans. Art and text make a perfect pair in this poetry book that would be great to share with a child/children on a hot summer day--or a warm summer evening.
Summer: An Alphabet Acrostic
Written by Steven Schnur
Illustrated by Leslie Evans
Clarion, 2001
Here is Schnur’s acrostic poem for the letter C:
Close by
A glittering
Blue lake, high
In the mountains,
Nestles a fishing lodge.
Other acrostics in this collection include the following: awning, beach, daisy, hike, idle, mosquitos, picnic, tide, vegetables, and zodiac.
Click here to view some of the book’s interior pages.
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At Political Verses, I have a poem about the resignation speech of Alaska’s Governor entitled Sarah Palin’s Swan/Duck/Goose Song.
At Blue Rose Girls, I have a poem entitled Anniversary by Cecilia Woloch.
Jama Rattigan has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
A Poem about Sarah Palin's Resignation Speech
I haven't been writing snarky poems for my blog Political Verses much lately. But--thanks to Sarah Palin and her resignation speech--I felt a grand inspiration to take to my computer and write another Palinoem.
Here's an excerpt from my newest political verse:
Sarah Palin’s Swan/Duck/Goose Song
by Elaine Magliaro
Hithery dithery dock,
I’m list’ning to Sarah P. talk.
Her thinking is muddled.
The geese are befuddled.
They’ve started to gather and squawk.
You can read the rest of the poem here.
Here's an excerpt from my newest political verse:
Sarah Palin’s Swan/Duck/Goose Song
by Elaine Magliaro
Hithery dithery dock,
I’m list’ning to Sarah P. talk.
Her thinking is muddled.
The geese are befuddled.
They’ve started to gather and squawk.
You can read the rest of the poem here.
Friday, July 3, 2009
A Tortoise Acrostic & Fables in Verse
Check out Tricia’s Monday Poetry Stretch - Acrostics at the Miss Rumphius Effect. Here is my “Aesop’s Fable” acrostic, TORTOISE. I’ve also included a couple of recommendations for two children’s pictures books that have fables written in verse. You can read the Poetry Stretch Results here.
TORTOISE
by Elaine Magliaro
Take it easy,
Old One. Hare is
Resting beneath a willow
Tree dreaming
Of the finish line—dreaming he is champion.
It is not to be, Old One. You are wise and know
Slow and steady wins the race
Every time.
FABLES IN VERSE
Yolen retells thirteen fables in verse in this book that provides us with just a “sip” of the more than two hundred moralistic tales attributed to Aesop. The morals of the fables—which include The Hare and the Tortoise, The Lion and the Mouse, The Fox and the Grapes, and The Grasshopper and the Ants—are also written in rhyme. Yolen’s verses scan well and are fun to read aloud to children—especially those who are familiar with fables.
Here is an excerpt from The Mice and the Council and its moral.
It begins:
The mice called a meeting
At which they all sat
Discussing the way
To get rid of their cat.
“Poison!” one cried.
(A real silly suggestion.)
Hanging and shooting
Were out of the question.
And it ends:
“Good plan,” said one old mouse,
A fine diplomat.
“But answer me—who will go
Bell that mean cat?”
The MORAL:
To make a good plan
Is but half a solution.
How close are the words
Execute—execution.
Yolen includes a bit of information about Aesop in the back matter of the book.
Barbour’s illustrations are bright and saturated with color. They provide a fine complement to Yolen’s “fabulous” verses.
TORTOISE
by Elaine Magliaro
Take it easy,
Old One. Hare is
Resting beneath a willow
Tree dreaming
Of the finish line—dreaming he is champion.
It is not to be, Old One. You are wise and know
Slow and steady wins the race
Every time.
FABLES IN VERSE
Yolen retells thirteen fables in verse in this book that provides us with just a “sip” of the more than two hundred moralistic tales attributed to Aesop. The morals of the fables—which include The Hare and the Tortoise, The Lion and the Mouse, The Fox and the Grapes, and The Grasshopper and the Ants—are also written in rhyme. Yolen’s verses scan well and are fun to read aloud to children—especially those who are familiar with fables.
Here is an excerpt from The Mice and the Council and its moral.
It begins:
The mice called a meeting
At which they all sat
Discussing the way
To get rid of their cat.
“Poison!” one cried.
(A real silly suggestion.)
Hanging and shooting
Were out of the question.
And it ends:
“Good plan,” said one old mouse,
A fine diplomat.
“But answer me—who will go
Bell that mean cat?”
The MORAL:
To make a good plan
Is but half a solution.
How close are the words
Execute—execution.
Yolen includes a bit of information about Aesop in the back matter of the book.
Barbour’s illustrations are bright and saturated with color. They provide a fine complement to Yolen’s “fabulous” verses.
The Hare and the Tortoise and Other Fables of La Fontaine
Translated by Ranjit Bolt
Illustrated by Giselle Potter
Barefoot Books, 2006
Jean La Fontaine was a French poet who lived from 1621-1695. He is best known for the fables he wrote in a series of twelve books. He adapted his poetic tales from fables by Aesop as well as fables from the Panchatantra.
This book includes a number of familiar fables: The Hare and the Tortoise, The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, and The Grasshopper and the Ant. It also contains some fables that are less well known: God and the Animals, The Pumpkin and the Acorn, and The Bat and the Weasels.
All the fables in the book are written in a series of rhyming couplets. Here is an excerpt from The Grasshopper and the Ant as an example:
The grasshopper had sung his song
All the delightful summer long
Instead of gathering in supplies.
Now only did he realize,
With winter coming on, that he
Could not have supper, lunch or tea!
He couldn’t find a scrap of food,
The cupboards in his larder showed
Not even one small worm or fly.
He had it, he was high and dry.
Giselle Potter’s spare, stylistic illustrations, done in gouache, serve as a fitting backdrop for the moralistic tales. They never intrude on the text; they enhance this fine compilation of translated fables in verse.
MORE FABLES
Aesop’s Fables from the University of Massachusetts
From the website: Since 1994 Professor Copper Giloth has assigned her students in Art 271, Introduction to Computing in the Fine Arts, the task of illustrating the traditional Aesop's fables alongside their own retellings of the fables in a modern setting. This collection gathers together artwork from several semesters.
Here are links to two different versions of The Hare and the Tortoise:
Animated Traditional Version of the Hare and the Tortoise (1999) Illustrated by Kit Lee
Animated Modern Version of The Hare and the Tortoise (1999) illustrated by Kit Lee
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At Political Verses, I have poems from Frances Richey’s book The Warrior: A Mother’s Story of a Son at War. The post includes a video of Richey and her son speaking with Jeffrey Brown on the Online NewsHour Poetry Series.
At Blue Rose Girls, I have a poem by Jack Spicer entitled Psychoanalysis: An Elegy.
Tabatha A. Yeats has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week
Thursday, July 2, 2009
New Class of Black Hole & A Poem by Walt Whitman
On July 20th, we’ll celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. The lunar landing took place on the day after my wedding. I’ll soon be celebrating those two events that happened four decades ago. I’m still happily married—and astronomy is one of my favorite sciences.
Below you’ll find an excerpt from and a link to a news article that was posted on the Internet yesterday.
New Class of Black Hole Could Explain Cosmic Leviathans
PARIS (AFP) – Astronomers on Wednesday said they had identified an intermediate class of black hole that could explain how supermassive, light-sucking monsters develop in the heart of galaxies.
Their find -- a black hole more than 500 times the mass of the Sun, on the fringe of galaxy ESO 243-249 -- is reported in the latest issue of Nature, the British-based science journal.
In terms of size, it lies between supermassive black holes, which can be billions of times the mass of the Sun, and relative tiddlers, which are between three and 20 solar masses.
You can read the rest of the article here.
Let’s celebrate space science with a poem by Walt Whitman!
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
by Walt Whitman
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
Below you’ll find an excerpt from and a link to a news article that was posted on the Internet yesterday.
New Class of Black Hole Could Explain Cosmic Leviathans
PARIS (AFP) – Astronomers on Wednesday said they had identified an intermediate class of black hole that could explain how supermassive, light-sucking monsters develop in the heart of galaxies.
Their find -- a black hole more than 500 times the mass of the Sun, on the fringe of galaxy ESO 243-249 -- is reported in the latest issue of Nature, the British-based science journal.
In terms of size, it lies between supermassive black holes, which can be billions of times the mass of the Sun, and relative tiddlers, which are between three and 20 solar masses.
You can read the rest of the article here.
********************
Let’s celebrate space science with a poem by Walt Whitman!
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
by Walt Whitman
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
********************
Introduce young children to this famous Whitman poem with Loren Long’s beautifully illustrated version of When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
Words by Walt Whitman
Pictures by Loren Long
Simon & Schuster, 2004
Click here to view sketches and paintings from Loren Long’s book.
Walt Whitman Resources: The Walt Whitman Archive
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Biographies for Kids
I did an extensive unit on biographies when I was teaching elementary school. One year, I had a second grade girl who got so hooked on the genre that she read eight biographies—even though she was only required to read one!
From my years working as an elementary teacher and later as a school librarian, I learned that some kids enjoy reading nonfiction more than fiction. With that in mind, I thought that I’d provide links to lists of biographies for children as well as links to reviews of some of the picture book biographies that I’ve posted previously at Wild Rose Reader and Blue Rose Girls.
Biography Book Lists & Reviews
From The PlanetEsme Plan (Januray 2009): THE ROAD TO OZ and OTHER INSPIRING BIOGRAPHIES (NONFICTION) Teacher’s Gazette (April 2003): Postcard from Planet Esme—Living La Vida Reading: Great Picture Book Biographies From Seven Impossible Things (January 2008): Good Picture Book Biographies Start Here From Reading Rockets: Ten Unforgettable Biographies From Perrot Memorial Library in Old Greenwich, CT (August 2007): Picture Book Sports Biographies Books by Don Brown: Most of the books listed on Don Brown’s main page are picture book biographies. Click on a specific title to read about that book. (Note: Don is my favorite author/illustrator of picture book biographies for young children.) Biographies by Kathleen Krull Biographies by Diane Stanley Biographies and Nonfiction Books by Doreen Rappaport
From my years working as an elementary teacher and later as a school librarian, I learned that some kids enjoy reading nonfiction more than fiction. With that in mind, I thought that I’d provide links to lists of biographies for children as well as links to reviews of some of the picture book biographies that I’ve posted previously at Wild Rose Reader and Blue Rose Girls.
Biography Book Lists & Reviews
Reviews of Picture Book Biographies from Wild Rose Reader & Blue Rose Girls
A Little Extra
- From Scholastic: Biography Writer’s Workshop with Patricia & Fredrick McKissack
- From Reading Rockets: A Video Interview with David Adler
Poetry from Iran at Political Verses
I have a new post over at Political Verses: Poetry from Iran. The post includes "poetic tweetings"--or "twitterverse"--by Parham Baghestani and an NPR video of Iran's national poet speaking out about recent events in her country.
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