Poetry Friday -- The Belly of the Whale

Wikimedia Commons

Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
by Dan Albergotti

Measure the walls. Count the ribs. Notch the long days.
Look up for blue sky through the spout. Make small fires
with the broken hulls of fishing boats. Practice smoke signals.
Call old friends, and listen for echoes of distant voices.
Organize your calendar. Dream of the beach. Look each way
for the dim glow of light. Work on your reports. Review
each of your life’s ten million choices.

(read more here)

If "the belly of the whale" is the point of no turning back in a hero's journey, then that is definitely what October is like in the classroom. Except I think someone forgot the supernatural aid...unless those are the literacy and numeracy coaches!!

I like the attitude of the speaker in this poem. If you've got to be in the belly of the whale, then at least you should kick back and rest...maybe even get a little work done!

Amy has the Poetry Friday roundup today at The Poem Farm, and remember, Jone will have the roundup on the 30th, not me.

Thank You, T.A. Barron!

Recently, we got the nicest email through the blog. It was from author T.A. Barron, thanking us for our work with children and all we do on our blog to get great books into the hands of teachers and kids.

Then, nicer still, he sent each of us a big box of books and posters, ranging from his picture book about the day the giant stone heads on Easter Island walked...

The Day the Stones Walked

...to the first five books in his acclaimed Merlin series...

The Lost Years: Book 1 (Merlin)

...to two that feature strong girls (Tree Girl and The Ancient One (Kate Gordon) ), plus his newest

Atlantis Rising

Philomel, September 2013

But the thing that most caught my eye in this big box of goodies was the flier for the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes.

This prize, named for Barron's mother, honors twenty-five young people every year for the work they've done to make our world a better place. 

The heroism of a character in a book of fantasy might seem like just a story, but T.A. Barron shows us that heroism is alive and well and embodied in young people from every corner of the country and every walk of life. His book The Hero's Trail also provides true stories of every day heroism.



What if each of us instituted a prize in our school or community to recognize the brave and important things that the young ones we work with make happen? I'm thinking of the fifth grader in my class who has single-handedly started a student council in our building. Or the third graders that raised money for diabetes when their classmate was diagnosed. We need to hold these kids up, publicly recognize them, and thank them for their vision and passion.

Thank you, T.A. Barron for your books, and for reminding us to celebrate our young heroes!