Two New Seymour Simon Books

Horses (Updated Edition)
by Seymour Simon
HarperCollins, 2017

Water
by Seymour Simon
HarperCollins, 2017


"Simon may have done more than any other living author to help us understand and appreciate the beauty of our planet and our universe." -- Kirkus Reviews

Not only that, but he can teach our students to write with clarity and organization. Look no further than one of Seymour Simon's books and you'll find great introductions and conclusions, and paragraphs that contain ideas all on one topic.

Dream Big Dreams

Dream Big Dreams: Photographs from Barack Obama's Inspiring and Historic Presidency

by Pete Souza

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2017

Inspirational is the best word for this book.

The introduction explains the job of Official White House Photographer. The table of contents say as much as the photos and their captions about our 44th President:

Be Kind and Respectful
Work Hard
Make Time for Family
Show Compassion
Have Fun
Dream Big Dreams

Would that we all lived lives that could be outlined with those topics.

Poetry Friday -- My Heart Is So Full

Unsplash photo by Tim Marshall

My heart is so full. This Poetry Friday community is a wonder of the modern world. We've been at this (some of us) since 2006. That's more than 120 roundups, countless comments, and, recently, an upwelling of friendly challenges and exchanges.

Which brings me to the Winter Poem Swap, offered and organized by Tabatha (The Opposite of Indifference).

My heart is so full. There was much joy in digging into another's blog for inspiration, then creating a poem/gift combo that was just right for her.

And then I got my gift from Linda Mitchell (A Word Edgewise), and my heart ran over. Linda wrote not one, but FOUR poems all stemming from my November Poetry Friday post in which I "poemized" the words of Seth Godin. She took the theme of "maps" and ran with it, writing a response to that Seth Godin post, a found haiku from Ted Kooser's "Map of the World" (which was shared that same week by Little Willow), a ditty written at an AASL workshop, and, my favorite, an echo to Jane Yolen's "Always A Poem." Accompanying the poems was a hand-decorated map-themed clipboard that is going to school with me to remind me to keep the compass of my heart set to the True North of friendship, creativity, thoughtfulness, and joy that Linda's gift exemplifies.

An Always Poem

Again winter follows fall,
stick arms of trees wave
furiously, turning our clocks.

Again a freeze follows fall,
crystals bloom in weak light
leaving a mess of our map.

Again stillness follows fall,
we seek direction,
home at every compass point.

Again dark follows fall.
A chair, a fire, story warms
despite a season that strips bare.

Again follows
fall, a winter.


by Linda Mitchell, ©2017



Diane has this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Random Noodling.

May 18 is still available on the Jan-June 2018 Roundup Schedule. Thanks to all who have taken a slot!

I'm only halfway through commenting on last week's roundup, but I vow to complete that round before beginning this week's! While we're on the subject of not keeping up, I am on track with #haikuforhealing on Twitter, but I still need to fancy up a week's worth over at Poetrepository.

On the subject of commenting: I've tried to figure out what's causing your comments to disappear. The best I can tell is that for some reason, our blog continues to load long after you arrive at the page and even though everything appears to have loaded. If you stop the loading, I think that will prevent the comment drops. I think. Those of you who have re-commented multiple times, thanks for persevering.

Poetry Friday -- Pomegranates

This is one of my favorite #haikuforhealing for the week, and I thought it would make a perfect visual for our Tumblr Roundup Host, Lisa at Steps and Staircases. Don't be afraid to submit your link. It's really easy! Click on "SUBMIT" at the top of the post and you'll get what looks like a comment form. Give it a title, put in your name and email. Drop your link in the box. It's moderated, so Lisa will harvest out your link and add you to the roundup. You can't mess up! Go for it!


The Roundup Schedule for January - June 2018 is nearly complete. Would you like to snag THE LAST slot? May 18 is still available!!

Poetry Friday -- Call for Roundup Hosts

It's that time again. Six months have passed since last we queued up to host the Poetry Friday roundups.

If you'd like to host a roundup between January and June 2018, leave your choice(s) of date(s) in the comments. I'll update regularly to make it easier to see which dates have been claimed.

What is the Poetry Friday roundup? A gathering of links to posts featuring original or shared poems, or reviews of poetry books. A carnival of poetry posts. Here is an explanation that Rene LaTulippe shared on her blog, No Water River, and here is an article Susan Thomsen wrote for the Poetry Foundation.

Who can do the Poetry Friday roundup? Anyone who is willing to gather the links in some way, shape or form (Mr. Linky, "old school" in the comments-->annotated in the post, or ???) on the Friday of your choice. If you are new to the Poetry Friday community, jump right in, but perhaps choose a date later on so that we can spend some time getting to know each other.

How do you do a Poetry Friday roundup? If you're not sure, stick around for a couple of weeks and watch...and learn! One thing we're finding out is that folks who schedule their posts, or who live in a different time zone than you, appreciate it when the roundup post goes live sometime on Thursday.

How do I get the code for the PF Roundup Schedule for the sidebar of my blog? You can grab the list from the sidebar here at A Year of Reading, or I'd be happy to send it to you if you leave me your email address. You can always find the schedule on the Kidlitosphere Central webpage.

Why would I do a Poetry Friday Roundup? Community, community, community. It's like hosting a poetry party on your blog!

And now for the where and when:

January

5    Catherine at Reading to the Core

12  Jan at Bookseedstudio

19  Kay at A Journey Through the Pages

26  Carol at Beyond LiteracyLink

February

2    Donna at Mainely Write

9    Sally at SallyMurphy.com.au

16  Jone at Check it Out

23  Liz at Elizabeth Steinglass

March

2    Renee at No Water River

9    Michelle at Today's Little Ditty

16  Linda at TeacherDance

23  Laura at Writing the World for Kids
30  Heidi at my juice little universe

April

6    Amy at The Poem Farm

13  Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge

20  Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference

27  Irene at Live Your Poem

May

4    Linda at Write Time

11  Jama at Jama's Alphabet Soup

18  Rebecca at Sloth Reads

25  Margaret at Reflections on the Teche

June

1    Buffy at Buffy's Blog

8    Kiesha at Whispers from the Ridge

15  Karen at Karen Edmisten*

22  Michelle at Michelle Kogan

29  Carol at Carol's Corner

Poetry Friday -- The Roundup is Here!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo

boiling water

tea leaves understand

relax

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

Welcome to the Poetry Friday Roundup! Have a cup of tea and relax. Leave the madness of the world behind for a few minutes while you peruse the offerings in the roundup. My poem today is a pre December-Haiku-a-Day #haikuforhealing from this past week.

A note about next week's roundup. Lisa at Steps and Staircases will be hosting the roundup. Her blogging platform is Tumblr. She shares this information: 

"Hello poetry friends! The topic/prompt I want to suggest for the December 8 Poetry Friday Roundup is either/and: Respond to "When Life Gives You Lemons..." or write a poem using an object/making a drawing, as Amy Krouse Rosenthal did with a lemon drop. (picture below) If your poem can be expressed visually through a picture or drawing -- like Amy Krouse Rosenthal's "When Life Gives You Lemon Drops"-- I would love to post everyone's visuals. No matter what/how you choose to express yourself, I wanted to share Amy's Lemon Drop poem and her Instagram Project 1,2,3. This is only a suggestion. I look forward to reading all of your submissions!"

When participants go to Lisa's Tumblr space, they should click the "SUBMIT" button at the top of the page to leave their link or their visual. Thanks for being flexible with a different kind of roundup next week.

Also, watch for the Call for Roundup Hosts post, which goes live tomorrow, 12/2. It's time to gather hosts for January - July 2018!

Charlotte Huck Award

The winner of the 2017 NCTE Charlotte Huck Award® is

After the Fall (How Humpty Got Back Up Again)

by Dan Santat

Roaring Brook Press, 2017

The NCTE Charlotte Huck Award® for Outstanding Fiction for Children was established in 2014 to promote and recognize excellence in the writing of fiction for children. This award recognizes fiction that has the potential to transform children’s lives by inviting compassion, imagination, and wonder.

This picture book will resonate with all ages. On the back of the book, we are reminded that "Life begins when you get back up." Santat's epilogue of the rather unsatisfying nursery rhyme about an egg that falls down and gets patched up is all kinds of brilliant. My 5th graders gasped aloud at the ending. They were like, "Wait. WHAT?!?!" This book will change your thinking about Humpty Dumpty and it will remind everyone that we shouldn't let our setbacks keep us down.

I am currently serving on the NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Committee. In our deliberations at NCTE this year, narrowing our list of 45 books down to one winner, five honor books, and eight recommended books, we kept coming back to the award criteria as we deliberated over each book. "The potential to transform children's lives" was a phrase we used over and over again when we spoke about this book. Don't miss it. It's an amazing book.

Poetry Friday

Unsplash photo by Autumn Mott

early morning walk

constant chatter of leaf-fall

first hard frost

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

I'm gearing up for another Haiku-a-Day in December. I'll be tweeting my haiku using last year's #haikuforhealing if you'd like to join in. 

Although #haikuforhealing was born as a reaction to last year's current events, this year's iteration, at least for me, will be an acknowledgement of the absolute necessity of a creative life and a reclaiming of the discipline found in daily writing. I'm hoping #haikuforhealing helps me focus on moments and slows me down to a more livable pace.

Carol at Carol's Corner has the Poetry Friday roundup this week.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors
by Drew Daywalt
illustrated by Adam Rex
Balzer + Bray, 2017

First of all, this is the most fun read aloud ever. (Fun for both reader and audience.)

Second, in the aftermath of reading it aloud, this happened: Pearl, Shark, Bomb. (Pearl beats Shark by choking him when swallowed, Shark defuses Bomb under water, and Bomb blows up Pearl.)

And last, I give you this episode of The Big Bang Theory:

Blog Break -- NCTE

Both of us will be just a tad busy this coming week at NCTE, so we won't be blogging. We hope to connect with many blog readers, Poetry Friday Peeps, and Twitter followers at NCTE!