Thursday, October 24, 2019

Poetry Friday -- Typewriter Rodeo































A couple of weeks ago, Liz Garton Scanlon alerted me that the Austin-based on-demand poetry writing group known as Typewriter Rodeo would be in Dublin, sponsored by the Dublin Arts Council.

We found out the hard way that you couldn't just turn into the Dublin Arts Center to attend this event. We had to park all the way down the road and around the corner at Scioto High School and we couldn't even make a left turn out of the DAC to head directly to Scioto. We had to turn right, go through Old Dublin (good excuse to oggle the new library), go around the monster roundabout, and then, once we got to Scioto, take a shuttle bus back to the DAC...which seemed a little ridiculous since there were about 5 other people at the event.

Fewer people gave us more time to get our poem written (I gave Sean the topic of "roundabout" in honor of all it took to get there), chat with the poets, and admire their manual clackity-clack typewriters.

I also bought a copy of their book, which I am anxious to dig into, once the must-reads are all read (with my two new crystal-clear eyeballs and my coolio reading glasses).


Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2018


Karen Edmisten has this week's Poetry Friday Roundup at The Blog With the Shockingly Clever Title. I'm sure there will be lots of must-reads there, too.


Friday, October 18, 2019

Poetry Friday -- The Day After Cataract Surgery


Unsplash photo by Janelle Hayes

yes, I see the hawk
there, on the power line
feathers fluttering


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2019



Not just the hawk, but the FEATHERS! My new right lens is nothing less than a miracle. Next Wednesday, my left eye joins the party. I am truly seeing the world anew. It's flat-out amazing.

Jama has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at Jama's Alphabet Soup.


Sunday, October 13, 2019

Welcome, Liesl Shurtliff!


Liesl Shurtliff is a favorite author here at A Year of Reading. Franki has reviewed Rump, Jack, and Grump. Liesl has a new series, Time Castaways, and the second book has its book birthday on Tuesday!


by Liesl Shurtliff
Katherine Tegen Books, September 17, 2019


by Liesl Shurtliff
Katherine Tegen Books, October 15, 2019

Liesl has graciously shared her thoughts on The Importance of Reading Wisely. We couldn't agree more!

The Importance of Reading Widely
By Liesl Shurtliff

“You are what you read.” It’s a sentiment many people have tossed around over the years, right along with “You are what you eat.” And if both of these things are true then I challenge anyone to define who I am. I read too widely, and I eat absolutely everything. I’m a person with many tastes and interests. I think we all should be.

I see many initiatives to get people to read more, and I like them, but what I’d liked to see a little more of is encouragement for people to read more widely, move outside their comfort zones, pick up a book you wouldn’t normally choose. Here are my suggestions:

Read both fiction and non-fiction

Statistics show that women tend to read more fiction, and men gravitate toward non-fiction. This is fascinating to me, and I could delve into all kind of psychoanalytic theories about why this is and what it means, but that would be (mostly) beside the point of the post. Suffice it to say, I think we should tip the scales in both cases. Men should read more fiction. Women should read more non-fiction. Both are good for you.

I personally used to think non-fiction was code for BORING. I’ve since learned that non-fiction can be some of the most engrossing books out there. It’s one thing to get lost in a good story. It’s another to get lost in a good story that is completely REAL. Malcolm Gladwell, Erik Larson, and Elizabeth Gilbert have been a few of my favorites.


Read outside your usual genre.

Whenever someone asks what genre is my favorite I say “Good writing.” Perhaps the definition of what makes a good book is subjective, but I’ve found my own tastes have become more refined the more widely I read. Yes, I read a lot of fantasy as that is what I write, but I’ve read plenty of poorly written fantasy, and I’ve found that it helps my own writing to read a wide variety of genres and styles. I feel like I’m in a rut when I read too much of one genre. It can start to feel stale and boring, sort of like eating only one kind of food. No matter how good those tacos are, eventually I’m going to want some salad. Mix up your reading diet with a mixture of genres.

Read books and authors outside your own race, culture, religion, country, experience and world view.

Reading has been touted as an activity that develops empathy, but for whom are we developing empathy? People like us? People whose experience and world view is not so different from our own? That will not develop empathy, only self-assurance. Challenge yourself and your world view. Pick up a book that makes you a little uncomfortable. Or a lot. And please, read books written by authors who are intimately acquainted with the experience being written about (aka #OwnVoices.) It matters.

Read children’s books!

Okay, I am slightly biased here, seeing as I’m a children’s book author, but please believe me when I say there is some incredibly good literature being produced in the children’s book world. Don’t stick your nose up at it. Pick up a picture book, a middle-grade or young adult novel, or a graphic novel, and remember what it was like to be a kid. Or pick up a book you remember reading and loving as a kid and see what you think of it now. I’ve done this and usually find I love it just as much, even though I’m reading it with a completely different perspective. It’s a nostalgic experience.

Reading is good. Reading a lot is better. Reading widely is best, just like eating a varied diet. Take stock of your reading choices. See if you can mix things up every now and then.   Get recommendations for friends or co-workers. If there’s one thing I know it’s that people love to talk about what they’re reading. And if they don’t read, well then, we should all be ready to share our own reading recommendations and feed the famished. Best to have a variety on hand.


Liesl Shurtliff is the New York Times bestselling author of the (Fairly) True Tales series and the Time Castaways trilogy. The second book is available October 15th! Her books have been named to over two dozen state award lists and have won many awards including a Children’s Book Award from the International Literacy Association. Liesl lives in Chicago with her husband and four children. Lieslshurtliff.com @lieslshurtliff



Thanks for visiting, Liesl! We can't wait to read your new series!



Friday, October 11, 2019

Poetry Friday -- My Nose Takes a Walk in Fall




My Nose Takes a Walk in Fall

dust of acorns, crushed
summer-gone spicy gardens
skunk musk, just a waft


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2019



I got the best gift in the mail yesterday! Along with two books that will inspire my writing, there was a box of "matchsticks" to Spark Creativity. I pulled one out: "Take a walk, tuning in carefully to everything you smell," and found this poem! So much fun! I can't wait to try more of them. Thank you, Brenda!!

Catherine, at Reading to the Core, has the Poetry Friday roundup this week and a post full of gratitude.


Friday, October 04, 2019

Poetry Friday




Loss is a Non-Negotiable Miracle

The cold front came through last night
scrubbing the sky of humidity
polishing Orion, the Pleiades, and Cassiopeia
to a glittering shine.
Loss is a non-negotiable miracle.

My hair, both parents,
a purse left in a shopping cart,
occasionally my temper,
frequently the punchline of a joke.
Loss is indeed non-negotiable
but the part about miracles is sometimes murky.

We read the news of the day
and non-negotiable seems more like
brutally inevitable
or else crushingly destructive
with a side of mercilessly inescapable
and miracles are nowhere to be found.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2019 (flash draft)


My new set of Metaphor Dice (Erudite Expansion) have been waiting on my desk for a month, patiently watching me clear hurdle after hurdle, with no time or brain space left over for them. I cleared a huge hurdle last night -- my first night of parent conferences. Eleven down, fifteen to go, but the prep for all is complete.

It's been unseasonably record-breakingly HOT this past week, but the weather from Colorado and Montana finally arrived. The relief is palpably miraculous. On the other hand, the daily news seems like it can't get any worse, and then it does. As I look back on my draft, I'm not sure I like how it slides from such joy into such deep despair. Perhaps I need to flip the first and last stanzas, so that the flow is from broad, generalized angst, to specific, local joy. What do you think?

Cheriee is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Library Matters. I'll do my best to visit posts, but now that the parent conference hurdle is cleared, the 150 picture books that have been accumulating in my living room need to be read this weekend!

Happy Friday! Happy Poetry!


Friday, September 27, 2019

Poetry Friday

via Unsplash


In praise of joe
by Marge Piercy

I love you hot
I love you iced and in a pinch
I will even consume you tepid.

Dark brown as wet bark of an apple tree,
dark as the waters flowing out of a spooky swamp
rich with tannin and smelling of thick life—

but you have your own scent that even
rising as steam kicks my brain into gear.
I drink you rancid out of vending machines,

I drink you at coffee bars for $6 a hit,
I drink you dribbling down my chin from a thermos
in cars, in stadiums, on the moonwashed beach.

Mornings you go off in my mouth like an electric
siren, radiating to my fingertips and toes.
You rattle my spine and buzz in my brain.

Whether latte, cappuccino, black or Greek
you keep me cooking, you keep me on line.
Without you, I would never get out of bed

but spend my life pressing the snooze
button. I would creep through wan days
in the form of a large shiny slug.

You waken in me the gift of speech when I
am dumb as a rock buried in damp earth.
It is you who make me human every dawn.
All my books are written with your ink.


I'm a tea drinker, but except for that small detail and the fact that I've not written multiple books (yet), this poem rings fairly true. There's a steaming cuppa sitting beside me as I write.

Here's to all the things that gut us out of bed and waken in us the gift of speech, including Poetry Friday! Carol, at Beyond LiteracyLink, has the roundup this week.

Monday, September 23, 2019

Bird Count by Susan Edwards Richmond

As I continue to build my nonfiction area of the classroom library,  I am thrilled when I find a picture book that I know will be perfect for middle grade students. Since I always seem to have students who like birds and birdwatching I have a Birds basket in the nonfiction section of the library. Many years it is a favorite go-to basket. I love finding new books to add to this basket.   I was thrilled to get a copy of Bird Count from Peachtree Publishers.


Bird Count by Susan Edwards Richmond and illustrated by Stephanie Fizzier Coleman will be released next week and I couldn't be more excited to share this book with my students. This book is a fictional narrative about a girl who participates in the Audubon Bird Count each year.  (I first learned about this bird count in Loree Griffin Burns' Citizen Scientists book.) I love being able to pair some nonfiction books with a fiction book that shares information about an annual citizen science project.




The story takes us through the full day of the Christmas Bird Count with Ava, her mother and their team leader.  We learn a bit about the bird count on each page through the dialogue and the illustrations.  We learn a bit about birds, the rules of the count, and more. And on each page, we see Ava's tally of the birds they've seen so far. 

The book has some great features.  At the end of the story, readers can learn more about the birds that Ava sees during the day of the bird count.  The author's note gives us a bit more information about The Christmas Bird Count and the connection the author has to this event.

Below is a book trailer about the book.


This book seems great for all ages!  

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Poetry Friday -- Live Writing



LAST WEEK ON THE PLAYGROUND

Boom boom boom.
Buzz buzz buzz.
The drums on the playground
are filled with wasps.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2019




blue sky, puffy clouds
buildings keep people apart
the bridge will connect

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2019


Good thing I'm writing live with my students or I wouldn't be writing at all! Life has been more than a little busy.

I love to start our writing workshop with some short-form poetry -- 15 Words or Less and Haiku. Each student gets a blank Google Slideshow through Google Classroom. For their poetic inspiration,  I share a set of photos taken around the school (plus a few, like the one above, of the Columbus skyline, that I have taken). This way, we can also talk about choosing media that has been labeled for reuse. 

Here's another random haiku, just for fun:


Linda B. has the Poetry Friday Roundup at TeacherDance this week. She's got a SUPER EXCITING cover reveal of a book I. Must. Own.

Friday, September 06, 2019

This Happened



Oh, the joys of a book award committee.

The stacks on the left are August books that still need to be read/reviewed, and the tower of 4 boxes and a package came yesterday.

No Poetry Friday for me this week! Probably not next week either -- I'll be teaching fly fishing at Ohio's Casting for Recovery retreat.

Happy reading to me! Happy Poetry to you!

(Updated to add today's shipments: 4 more boxes and 2 more packages! Eek!)




Monday, September 02, 2019

Grandparents' Day is September 8


Grandparents' Day is September 8 this year. Here are some picture books, many of which are #ownvoicees, that explore the relationship of children and their grandparents.


Our Favorite Day 
by Joowon Oh
Candlewick Press, 2019
review copy provided by the publisher

An #ownvoices book with gorgeous paper collage illustrations. Thursdays are Papa's favorite day because he gets to spend time with his granddaughter.




Ojiichan's Gift 
by Chieri Uegaki
illustrated by Genevieve Simms
KidsCan Press, 2019
review copy provided by the publisher

Every summer when she visits Japan, Mayumi and her grandfather care for the rock garden he built for her when she was born. What will become of the rock garden and their time together when Ojiichan has to go into the nursing home? Another #ownvoices story of the connection between a grandfather and granddaughter.




My Grandma and Me
by Mina Javaherbin
illustrated by Lindsey Yankey
Candlewick Press, 2019
review copy provided by the publisher

This is an autobiographical story of growing up in Iran and all the things a little girl does with her grandmother who lives with her family.




Grandpa's Top Threes
by Wendy Meddour
illustrated by Daniel Egnéus
Candlewick Press, September 3, 2019
review copy provided by the publisher

When Grandpa stops talking to him, Henry persists and finds a way to keep their bond -- by asking Grandpa for his Top Threes. At the end of the book, perceptive readers will learn why Grandpa had turned inward and have an even greater appreciation for Henry.




Stolen Words
by Melanie Florence
illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard
Second Story Press, 2017
review copy from the library

Like Henry, in GRANDPA'S TOP THREES, the granddaughter in this #ownvoices story helps her grandfather heal by giving him back the Cree language (in a book from her school) that was stolen from him when he was taken from his family to live in a residential school.




Grandpa Cacao
by Elizabeth Zunon
Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2019

Based on her childhood in the Ivory Coast, West Africa, this book is the author's love letter to a grandfather she never knew (and a fabulous connection to our 5th grade social studies if you trace the story of chocolate back even further to the Maya and Inca people in Latin America).




Around the Table That Grandad Built
by Melanie Heuiser Hill
illustrated by Jaime Kim
Candlewick Press, September 10, 2019
review copy provided by the publisher

A fun, cumulative story the celebrates the gifts that remain when our loved ones are gone.




I Miss My Grandpa
by Jin Xiaojing
Little, Brown and Company, September 3, 2019
review copy provided by the publisher

The little girl's grandfather died before she was born, but she still misses him. Her grandmother helps her to see her grandfather's facial features and character traits in her living relatives, and the girl realizes that her and her family. The text is translated into Mandarin Chinese on the final endpapers.




The Immortal Jellyfish
by Sang Miao
Flying Eye Books, 2019
review copy provided by the publisher

A boy's grandfather begins a conversation about immortality, but then dies before he and the boy can explore the idea further. In a dream, the boy's grandfather takes him on a grand adventure in which they explore reincarnation.