A reQuote

I don't often tweet or blog quotes. Enough others are already doing it really well. But I love a good quote and every now and then one hits me in the gut and it feels so good I have to share. This one I found in the latest NSW Writers Centre e-newsletter:

She is too fond of books and it has turned her brain.
- Louisa Alcott

Carnival of Children's Literature August 2010

Here in Australia, Children's Book Week has just ended. It's been a week long celebration of reading, writing and children's literature - and for me as an author, school visits and video conference hookups. I'm not in the mood to finish celebrating yet especially as this month also saw my first US release - White Crane (Samurai Kids Book 1) - and next week will see the Australian release of Fire Lizard, the fifth book in the series.

So today I have stepped out of the Kidlitosphere shadows, where for 12 months I have shyly listened and lurked, to join hands with a group of new friends, and continue celebrating children's books - across the ocean and throughout the year. Come see what my new friends are doing:-

LITERACY

Aaron Mead presents Children’s Books: How to Choose Them, Part 9 – Story Complexity posted at Children's Books and Reviews. Continuing his excellent series of posts on how to choose books children will enjoy that also have developmental value, Aaron looks at the role of story complexity and its connection to emotional and intellectual development.

Amanda Hartman presents Birthday Wishes: Put on a Play posted at The Literary Family. This post invites families to both enjoy children's literature as well as celebrate! What a great idea to choose your favorite story, practice and rehearse it as a play and then perform for an audience. Drama and theatre, costume and makeup, scripts and stars - and a whole lot of fun. As you read this blog you will see that there are not only great books to love and cherish with kids- but wonderful activities to spend with texts and kids as well.

Fiona Ingram presents Homeschooling Notes: Helping Kids Read Better 3 Boys And A Dog posted at Homeschooling Notes: Helping Kids Read Better. Home schooling is an option that can offer parents the opportunity to enhance the quality of their child's education. This post contains practical tips to help parents encourage their child's reading progress and enjoyment of books.

Susan Stephenson, the Book Chook presents Nurturing Readers and Writers posted at The Book Chook. I'm going to steal words directly from the Chook's mouth: As parents, we know the single most important thing we can do to help our children become literate is to read to them every day. We know that reading and writing in front of them is important too, sharing with them our enthusiasm for the written word, and our joy in story. But there's something else we can do to help them, and it's so powerful.

BOOK REVIEWS & READING SUGGESTIONS

Amitha Knight presents Book Review: Feed by M. T. Anderson posted at Monkey Poop. Feed sits in the favourites section of my book shelf.

Anamaria Anderson presents Middle Grade Gallery 5 posted at Books Together. The Middle Grade Gallery series explores descriptions of paintings from middle grade novels. Anamaria tells me so far no one has guessed this one - the challenge has been issued! I thought this was a fascinating approach to the relationship between image and text and immediately went searching for the previous Gallery posts.

Anastasia Suen presents 5 Great Books About School posted at 5 Great Books. Just in time for "back to school!" Can you ever have enough picture books about school? I don't think so. Now I'm wondering what happens If You Take a Mouse to School.

Candace Ryan presents Dr. Seuss and Maurice Ravel: A Convergence of Crescendos posted at Book, Booker, Bookest. I was fascinated by this comparison of the formal structures of And to Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street and Bolero.

Debra Black presents So what do we think? North Woods Poachers posted at Litland.com Reviews!. Litland.com uncovers books that are fun for the entire family, and especially for boys. This post reviews Max Elliott Anderson’s North Woods Poachers written specifically for boys who are reluctant readers (ages 8-14). Mix a little Hardy Boys-style adventure with Wally’s schemes from the TV show “Leave it to Beaver” and you’ve got Andy Washburn’s story.

Jennifer Wharton presents Extreme Adventures: Shark Bait; Scorpion Sting by Justin D'Ath posted at Jean Little Library. Jennifer said: I am so excited about discovering this series from Kane Miller. I think they're great adventures for the middle grade crowd - and I enjoyed them myself! Sandy said: I too was thrilled to see this review of the Extreme Adventures series by Aussie author Justin D'Arth. My own son loves them - there's thrills and action aplenty.

Kate Coombs presents In the Dollhouse: Doll Books Old and New posted at Book Aunt. This is a fascinating look at doll stories old and new. After reading this post I am determined to start with the old. The work of Rumer Godden is a new discovery for me.

Katie Fries presents Blueberries for Sal - Blueberry Frozen Yogurt posted at Eat Their Words. Every celebration needs food. Here we have the most delicious looking blueberry frozen yoghurt recipe and a sneak peek into Robert McCloskey's 1948 classic Caldecott Honor winner, Blueberries for Sal.

Katie Sorene presents 8 Suberb Children’s Books About Travel posted at Travel Blog - Tripbase. I was pleased to recognise a few old favourites, find some new titles I hadn't heard of and see one that's on my to-read pile.

Margo Tanenbaum presents Review: The Wonder of Charlie Anne, by Kimberly Newton Fusco (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010) posted at The Fourth Musketeer. Margo said: This is one of my favorite middle-grade titles of the year so far. It features a spunky heroine that you will really fall in love with! Now that's high praise indeed.

Mary Ann Scheuer presents Word After Word After Word, by Patricia MacLachlan (ages 7 - 10) posted at Great Kid Books. Mary Ann said: Word After Word After Word has been my all-time favorite book of the summer. I just savored each moment of it, and can't wait to read it aloud to my classes this year.

Matt O'Brien presents 40 Best Comic Books for the Classroom posted at Online Masters. The comic book medium has garnered a goodly amount of recognition as a viable literary medium as of late, but it took decades of marginalization to get there. The listed comic books in the article all have something to offer in terms of proving the stereotypes and misconceptions entirely wrong. And personally, I'll be following through on this one.

Roberta Gibson presents Weekend Science Fun: Steller Sea Lions posted at Growing With Science Blog, a unique look at stellar sea lions through an interview with Astro, the star of Astro: The Steller Sea Lion by Jeanne Walker Harvey and Illustrated by Shennen Bersani.

Robin Gaphni presents One Crazy Summer posted at thebooknosher. This middle-grade book by Rita Williams-Garcia is highly recommended by Robin and provides a unique historical view of "the charged atmosphere that was such a part of the summer of 1968."
Sarah Neal presents What Comes After Magic Tree House? posted at In Need Of Chocolate. An extremely useful list, broadly scaled from easiest to hardest, of suggested titles for a reader who is gaining confidence with chapter books.

Shirley Duke presents Super Women in Science , a Non Fiction Monday post at SimplyScience Blog. Super Women in Science is a great book for any young girl interested in a career as a scientist. It's inspiring and full of surprises. In addition Shirley has suggested activities for further research and investigation.

Willow presents KIMCHI AND CALAMARI by Rose Kent posted at Middle School Book Reviews. When a 14-year-old Korean orphan adopted by an Italian-American family is asked by a teacher to write an essay about his ancestry, what in the world does he write about? Read this review for some clues and the book to find out the rest.

Zoe presents Travelling back at least 10,000 years in time posted at Playing by the book. This post is a wonderful blend of review, experience and activity suggestions. Start with Stone Age Boy and let your imagine run as you share this adventure in the here and now and the way back then.

AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Barbara Krasner presents Librarian's Notebook Linda R. Silver posted at The Whole Megillah, an interview with librarian and a specialist in Jewish children’s literature, Linda R Silver. The interview is wide ranging - from reviewing and librarianship to Jewish books for children.

Boys Rule Boys Read! blog presents Batter Up! An Interview with Wes Tooke , an interview with Wes Tooke, author of Lucky: Maris, Mantle, and My Best Summer Ever.

Carmela Martino presents Book Giveaway and Guest Teaching Author Interview with Patricia Reilly Giff posted at Teaching Authors-6 Children's Authors Who Also Teach Writing. Meet author, teacher and Newbery medallist Patricia Giff on her blog tour sharing news of her early chapter book series for readers ages 6 through 9, Zigzag Kids. Carmela said: We’re honored to be part of the blog tour for Patricia Reilly Giff’s new series, the ZIGZAG KIDS. I encourage you to stop by and read about Ms. Giff’s life as both a teacher and a writer. I was especially touched by how, even after all her books and awards, she still feels fragile about her writing.

D.M. Cunningham presents Middle Grade Madness with Jim Benton posted at Literary Asylum. This interview with Jim Benton, author of successful series Franny K. Stein and Dear Dumb Diaries, is full of humour and valuable insights. I like this one: I just write and draw and rewrite and redraw until I think it's funny.

Lori Calabrese presents The Wonders of Writing about Nature with Janet Halfmann + Giveaway at Lori Calabrese Writes!. Author Janet Halfmann visits Lori Calabrese Writes and shares her thoughts on the wonders of writing about nature.

BOOK PERSPECTIVES

Carrie Oakley presents 15 Famous Authors With Surprising College Majors posted at Online Colleges. These famous authors didn’t major in writing, or literature, or even journalism. Instead, they enriched their minds taking other, equally challenging classes, and used their experiences to become successful writers. I studied Mathematics at University and thought that was a strange background for a children's author. Now I see it's not so odd after all. Zane Grey majored in Dentistry! And J K Rowling studied French.

Elizabeth Dulemba presents Coloring Page Tuesday! - Back to School Snail posted at dulemba. Perfect for after school colouring, this snail has packed his books and apple (for the teacher or for himself?)

Marjorie Coughlan presents New PaperTigers issue now live: Refugee Children posted at PaperTigers Blog. This post introduces a month focussed on refugee children and highlighting books for young people about refugees, hoping to stimulate our discussions of what can be overwhelming enough for adults and so difficult to explain to children.

Wendie Old presents What is a Hero? posted at Wendie's Wanderings. Wendie provides a recommended introduction and link to Betsy Bird's amazing discussion about heroes in children's books.

WRITING TIPS

Dee White presents Tuesday Writing Tip – How to Fix Issues With Your Plot posted at DeeScribewriting Blog. Problems with your plot? This post tells you how to work out what went wrong, and what to do about it.

Next month's Carnival of Children's Literature will be hosted by Mary Ann Scheuer at Great Kids Books. You can submit your article for that event using the carnival submission form. For more information about the carnival and how to participate, visit Anastasia's carnival page.

Favourite Book Week Question So Far

It's day three (four more to go!) and I've met just under 750 kids from 9 different schools at 5 different libraries. I wanted to share my favourite question so far - the one that made me grin the widest:

A Year 5 boy says: I love the Samurai Kids books. They are my most favourite ever. Who inspires you to write them?

Asked and answered!

Happy Book Weeking

I love Book Week and this year my dance card is overflowing. There are two things I am sure of - 1) I'll reach the end of my seven days absolutely exhausted and 2) I will be totally exhilarated and inspired to write. (I have also just learned how to spell exhilarated. I really thought there were two 'i's!)

So where am I off to, on The Pointy Sticks and Loud Noises Tour, waving my bokken, blowing my shakuhachi flute and banging my gong? Willoughby City Council Library, Mosman Library, Stanton Library North Sydney, Lane Cove Library, Kogarah Library, Oatley PS, Blakehurst PS, Carlton South PS, North Sydney for a Video Conference, Warrawee Ps and Ultimo Ps. Whew!

I am madly making origami samurai hats for all the new friends I will meet.

ReadWriteZone

I have a new project and I am both excited by it and thrilled by the response to it. I probably sound over-earnest, over-enthusiastic and all too serious but this is something that is important to me.

ReadWriteZone is a project aimed at fostering an interest in reading and writing though blog-based classroom interaction between students and authors. Teachers provide input on the focus they would prefer for the project and incorporate the blog conversations in their literacy studies. Early posts have ranged from comparing books and movies to first paragraph writing exercise. The post on The Story Detective - Finding Story in Pictures might be of interest to schools intending to patrticipate in the NSW Department of Education's WriteOn competition where a photo has been provided as the story stimulus.

The project is in its first term and I am currently blogging with three schools - Smithfield Public School (NSW), Arncliffe Public School (NSW) and Manor Lakes Specialist College (VIC) for 8 weeks. Ultimately I hope to involve more authors and on ongoing stream of schools. Initial feedback is suggesting a 4 week period might be a more practical option for some classes.

A stumbling block for NSW public schools has been the Department of Education and Training's block of blog sites. In these cases a workaround is in place and a solution is being investigated by the teachers involved. Some schools access the blog via interactive whiteboard and others in library computer sessions. Students are encouraged to log in at home.

It is very early days yet but the project is proving popular with students and lively comment-based discussions are in place. I endeavour to add a multimedia element to the exchange and this always encourages comment. Already students have logged in from home to check what's happening and they are beginning to engage in discussion across school blog posts, commenting on the discussions I am having with other schools. Ultimately I hope this leads to direct cross-school conversation between students. Some students are already sharing written work, recommending books for others and contributing book reviews.

Any teachers or students are welcome to join current discussions. Teachers interested in participating next term can contact me samuraikids~at~people.net.au (replace ~at~ with @ when emailing).

Personally, I find ReadWriteZone a lot of fun and the feedback from the students is inspiring. Some of them are readers and writers and some of them are not. But they are all up for a good ReadWrite discussion!

Words are Not My Friends

Things are tough at the moment. Illness in the family. Work overload. Writing is a challenge I am finding hard to concentrate on. Words are not my friends.

Words do not love me back
they harass, push and bully me
to write, write,write
more, more, more
even though I am too tired.
They will not let me sleep
or stop to eat
or clean my teeth.
They do not care about me.
They scream inside my head,
bellowing that I am not good enough
to write them down
and that I have ruined everything.
They demand to be thrown away.
But when I crumple the page
and turn off the light
they make soft kissy noises in the dark
until I sit back down
to try again.

Tonight, words laugh at me.

My Second Week in Poetry

It was a short week in poetry. On the first day my good friend, author Di Bates arranged a session of Poetry Games. The kids were very motivated to join in and grab points for their team - for group effort, individual brilliance and things that 'took the judge's ear'.

At the start Di outlined the games and asked who thought it sounded a bit boring. Some of the boys put up their hand and the challenge was accepted. The hour passed quickly and when Di announced the last reading out of poetry with 'who has something they are so excited about they just have to be the last person to read', every one of those 'I'll be bored' boys was waving their hands to be chosen. We all had heaps of fun - poets and judges alike.

On the second day I introduced Poems that Tell Stories and our second 'old dead' Poet of the Day, Banjo Patterson. We looked at the stories in narrative poems through different media - Waltzing Matilda listening to Slim Dusty sing and watching a music video and The Man From Snowy River read to selected sections from the movie.

For a third option I added The Highwayman, a favorite of mine and better suited to those who (like me!) like their poetry with a bit of action, blood and romance. The medium was a paper theatre telling by ten-year-old students (same age as the class) in the UK. The kids immediately wanted to create a paper theatre poem of their own.


Then we drew a comic strip of a selected poem - a fourth medium to demonstrate story from poetry.

We revisited The Highwayman searching out metaphors, allieration, onamatapoieas, refrain, end rhyme and similes. Then we wrote our own narrative poems and edited them using some of the techniques we learned in earlier lessons.

And the verdict so far: Some poetry is boring but a lot of it is fun.

Talkin' Poetry with Lorraine Marwood

This is a poetry sort of month for me - so it gives me great (perfectly timed!!) pleasure to join the blog tour (read = party) for Lorraine Marwood's latest collection of poetry, A Ute Picnic and Other Australian Poems. I love this line "Cat snores flip up, out onto the warm croak of day". I love the whole book. And the front cover.

Now I know Lorraine won't mention it but just in case you don't know, her verse novel Starjumps was shortlisted in the Prime Minister's Literary Awards for Children's Fiction. Go poetry!

Welcome Lorraine. Tell us more...

To hunger for poetry

To celebrate the release of my latest collection of poems “A Ute picnic and other Australian poems', I've been thinking about writing and about poetry.

Often when I take workshops with poetry the catch cry seems to be how do you tackle poetry teaching? Is it because we don't consider poetry the daily necessity like prose, newspapers, non -fiction? Or is it that we have this idea that poetry exists on another level which means that our heads have to be up in the clouds or that poetry is abstract? Yet all around us little snatches of images and glimpses of poetry tremble at the edge of our vision if we would only recognise them.

To me poetry is very concrete. If it's about an abstract topic like love then a poem should be able to conjure up love in sensory detail, so that it is tangible to the reader. It needs strong nouns and verbs and specific detail.

I have lots of ideas for ways to use poetry; incidentally amongst art work, on cards, make a daily fragment of poetry on yearly calendars, record the journey of my garden through poetry, record the telling details of life as my children grew up... these are the strengths of poetry. Sketching the minutiae of life in word pictures.

Here's one fragment:

Outside

The air outside this room is not static
now that the wind ripples under the
earth’s carpet- ripples in long drawn out
air socks, shaking the dust of autumn out
about the lawn, above privet hedge, becoming a skipping
rope for the white cabbage moth to toss and turn
like some flimsy ship in full sail.
© Lorraine Marwood

Then there's the idea that poetry needs to have an accountability ticket, a meal ticket...
And to this end I wrote strategies for encouraging children to write in the magazine 'Literature Base'- I combined my love of literacy with my love of the writing process -trying to make that writing process a bit more transparent for both teacher and student. I wrote techniques for mask poetry, conversation poetry,show -off poetry, Images poetry to name a few. Techniques that I would use as a way into a written piece. Providing scaffolding yet allowing freedom of risk taking.

And it works. The techniques I have devised- using all my literacy and teaching knowledge and experience has resulted in 50 minutes of power packed poetry encouragement- I love hearing the students read their poems. And they can write some powerful lines!

When I was co-judge of the Dorothy MacKellar poetry competition for two years with fellow poet Claire Saxby, I was struck by how much secondary students especially, needed the outlet of poetry- all that angst about who they were, who loved them, betrayal, trust... they NEED the vehicle of poetry to express these innermost feelings.

And this is the secret surprise with poetry. I never know what will flow out onto the paper. It's like upending a special box where little bits of treasure have been accumulating for a long time.
Recently I went back to the writing journals I kept thirty years ago- gulp and I'm utterly amazed at how much poetry I was writing then and the lines and the topics are like early prototypes of some of the poems that are now in my latest collection. There was a huge gap during the child rearing years when I suppressed my need to write and so the journals were dormant until the sixth child was at pre school. Then the writing/poems became a torrent.

To me journalling in poetry, in snatches this way has led to published work over the years. It's exercising the writing muscles for the real race later on.

The poignancy and timelessness of a poetic moment is best expressed in this four line poem below- written when I was 21( a long time ago) yet this same moon lights the night sky again and again.

Egg yolk moon rising
behind night silhouettes
soundless, tasteless, untouchable
yet immeasurably beautiful

© Lorraine Marwood

Thanks Sandy for your generous hosting of a taste of poetry. http://www.lorrainemarwood.com/

And a final note from me because Lorraine would never say an awful pun like this but... tomorrow the poetry ute will be pulling in to Sheryl Gwyther's blog.

Lunching with the Star

I went out for lunch today. Not something I often do and I almost missed the occasion - failing to notice the change in road conditions and heading on a 40 minute detour (there was one exit-and-turn-around point but it was blocked by an rainy-road-related accident). Luckily I am an over-organised Virgo type and had left 30 inutes early!

The occasion was to celebrate the recent Prime Minister's Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction shortlisting of my good friend Bill Condon (see Sandy name drop!) who has long been one of my writing heroes. Bill is an author who labours over every word but never at the expense of the story telling. I wish I could write like he does.

I am very proud to say I was there for the birthing process of Confessions of a Liar, Thief and Failed Sex God and was lucky enough to be privy to early drafts and even invited to offer opinions. I voted against the title - yes, what would I know - don't ask me for title advice!

Around the table were Bill's wife Di Bates, author Mo Johnson and Buzz Words editor Vicki Stanton. A good meal, the company of friends and a reason to celebrate. I don't mind detouring half way around the Illawarra for that!

Congratulations to all the wonderful shortlisted authors in every section of the PM's Awards. I am thrilled to see so many familar names and books I have already enjoyed.

My Week In Kids Poetry

Like most things that happen to me it was a bit of an accident. The side-effect of having a big mouth which has a way of getting me involved in all sorts of things I didn't anticipate. But I'm not complaining - I have had some wonderful and even life changing experiences as a result.

And so last week I found myself teaching poetry to thirty-two ten-year-olds. I am not a teacher, although I once wrote a poem which the Canberra Times published. But I am an author and I love talking about words with kids. So I set myself a mission - to convince the class that poetry wasn't all boring. I was honest - I admitted some of it was - because poetry is personal - and from a young perspective some of the classic children's pieces haven't dated well. The class wasn't too keen on looking at 'old dead poets'.

We began with Poems That Make You Laugh and Andy Griffiths was our Poet of the Day. He was a good choice - a friendly and trusted name in the classroom - someone the kids knew wouldn't let them down by being boring. One look at the Very Bad Book Trailer immediately scored me a point for non-boring poetry and provided an opening to talk about how poetry can be controversial. We cut poems into bits (stanza, lines and rhymes), played with limericks and fractured (nay destroyed!) a few nursery rhymes.

On Tuesday we were up to Poems That Make a Noise with Michael Rosen as our Poet of the Day. We did the Michael Rosen rap and talked about rhythm, refrain, alliteration and onomatapoeias. We made a lot of noise and found that Michael's poems did too. We wrote great poems about a haunted house using onomatapoeas and some I-Spy couplets using alliteration. That afternoon, kids came up to me as I waited in the playground, to tell me a new limerick or alliteration tongue twister. One boy even brought an Andy Griffiths book (one of the Just series) to show me he had found a poem in the back. I'm hoping that means they are having fun.

On Wednesday we turned to our first 'old dead poet' to talk about Poems that Paint Pictures. Our poet of the day was Dorathea Mackellar and we discussed lyric poems and emotion. We got all patriotic listening to My Country sung at the Australia Day celebrations in 2010. We drew a picture based on Open Sea and then looked at how poetry made pictures in our heads - simile, metaphor, adjectives and personification. We wrote simile and metaphor poems about ourselves ("I'm Great") and everyone wanted to read aloud. Then we wrote personification poems about how things came to life in our bedroom at night. It's a party in there after dark! Did you know bookshelves are big readers when everyone is asleep?

Finally, just for fun, we made a simile and metaphor chatterbox. Apparently I "dance like a duck." Sigh. It's true.

PS If you need someone to teach poetry...