Sharon Dennis Wyeth at Hollins

Sharon Dennis Wyeth came to speak at Hollins on Monday, July 2. I had never heard of her before this summer, but she is the Hollins Children's Literature program's Writer-In-Residence this year. I realized when I saw her, and her books, that I was familiar with some of her work.

Sharon Dennis Wyeth began writing poetry because she wanted to make sense of things. She needed to heal from things that had happened in her life. In fact, she encouraged us as writers to tell about an event in our lives, "attaching action to specificity", and to create a narrative that will be healing for ourselves and perhaps for our readers.

She became a children's writer because it sounded important. In fact, she hadn't intended to be a children's writer at all, but she told her college friends that she was going to be a children's writer, and they seemed impressed. It was only later that this became a reality.

Wyeth writes about difficult circumstances and has characters that go through a lot. She doesn't want to sugarcoat their lives. Instead, she writes characters that rise up above their circumstances and survive.

Her advice to writers:
1) Write what you MUST write
2) If you have a memory that you think about everyday, then it is something important to you--write about it.

Some of her books include:
Something Beautiful (illustrated by the amazing Chris Soentpiet)--A picture book for all ages. Sharon Dennis Wyeth talks about her something beautiful here. I can't wait to read this book to my fifth graders at the beginning of the year and do some writing with them!

Orphea Proud--A young adult novel about Orphea, a poet. She is an African American teenager, orphaned, who falls in love with her best friend.

Corey's Underground Railroad Diary (My America Series)--Middle grade novels written by a slave boy who escapes to freedom. She talked about how many slaves were forbidden from learning to read or write, but some of them had been taught in secrecy. Corey's diaries begin with his limited writing, but he improves as the series goes on.

Always My Dad (illustrated by Raul Colon)--now out of print, Picture book, Reading Rainbow selection

Kampung Boy--Graphic Novel

Kampung Boy
by Lat
First Second, New York, 2006
ISBN: 978-1-59643-121-8

I would not consider my self a voracious reader of graphic novels, but when I hear about one that strikes my interest, I can't resist. Two graphic novels have recently come across my radar screen as ones needing to be read by me because of my connection to them. 1) Kampung Boy 2) American Born Chinese (which I reviewed briefly here).

I picked up both of these because I grew up overseas. I went to boarding school in Malaysia (the setting for Kampung Boy), and I remember what is was like to feel like an outsider in America (premise of American Born Chinese).

I found Kampung Boy easy to read because of it's larger pictures and paragraphs of text chunked together. Sometimes I think graphic novels can get so busy on the page. This one was not.

I love the details about village life--both the true and the funny. Lat, the author/illustrator, really brings the culture of his home village to reluctant readers. While I really love some of the novels and poetry written about Asia and growing up overseas, male students in my classroom may not be inclined to read them. A copy of Kampung Boy, however, would be well read.

Poetry Friday 2--Nikki Grimes

What is Goodbye?
by Nikki Grimes
Illustrations by Raul Colon
Hyperion Books, New York, 2004

Well, I've been in sort of a marathon reading mode. I'm getting ready to take a trip out of the country--to Thailand, specifically--for a month. I had about 20 library books checked out that I really wanted to read before I left. So I've been reading like a hungry bear. One of my finds from the library is Nikki Grimes' collection of poems, What is Goodbye? I actually would call this a novel in verse. It is centered around two characters, a brother and sister, who are coping with the loss of their brother. It is not a long novel, but it still has characters, plot, and a resolution.

Jesse and Jerilyn are two siblings whose brother has died. Each of them tell their side of the story--their emotions, their thoughts--about this event in their lives. They talk about their parents and how their brother's death has affected them. Grimes gives each point of view by titling companion poems the same. The only thing that changes is the person telling the poem. For example, "Getting the News--Jesse" and "Getting the News--Jerilyn". We learn how they view the same set of circumstances differently.

I love the way Grimes has set up this book with the two siblings each telling their side of the story. Jesse's poems are more patterned and often rhyme. Jerilyn's poems are always told in free verse. The whole book is full of wonderful figurative language and images.

Here is my favorite example from "Getting the News--Jerilyn". She is talking about her father's reaction, then her mother's.

Silent, he stepped away,
turned himself like
a page in a book
so I couldn't read,
couldn't look inside.
Mommy also hid,
her eyes dull coins
peeking from the pockets
of her lids.

Nikki Grimes' poems are honest and powerful. She deals with death and the raw emotions that come with it. She includes a beautiful author's note at the end encouraging readers to deal with death in whatever way is the right way for them--everyone is different.

Teachers' Guide available at Nikki Grimes' website

Poetry Friday--Blueberry Haiku

We went blueberry picking last Saturday at Crow's Nest Farm. I've never done that before. We picked loads of blueberries. Then I came home to make blueberry jam and a blueberry pie.

I have always admired cloudscome at A Wrung Sponge and her photos and haiku. So, I thought I'd try a little of my own. Here's the picture I took at the blueberry patch along with my haiku.

shades of blue clustered

ripening til it falls in

a bucket of blue

--Marcie Flinchum Atkins

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is at Farm School.

Podcasting

I mentioned that one of my favorite toys is my iPod. I got it for Christmas, and ever since, I have been hooked on a few podcasts. No, I don't use my iPod exclusively for music, as many teens do. I spend most of my time listening to podcasts--specifically ones related to children's books or writing.

I have been recently listening to Just One More Book. I downloaded 180-some podcasts from them, and I have been slowly making my way from the present backwards. On my way to and from the Green Valley Book Fair, I listened to Just One More Book's coverage of the IRA 2007 conference (to get to IRA Coverage, find the Categories list on the left side of their homepage, scroll down to "Special Series", click on IRA 2007). They include interviews with the likes of Tony Stead, Janet Wong, and Mo Willems.

Just One More Book does a lot of reviews of Canadian and American books, but they also do intereviews with authors and other literacy-related people. I have been to the IRA conference twice, and both times were amazing experiences for me. I got to hear and meet dozens of authors. And the exhibition hall--amazing. Cheap books, lots of famous writers, free stuff. It's a book lovers dream. So, I was thrilled that Just One More Book did coverage of the IRA Conference, since I couldn't be there this year. It made me feel like I didn't miss out on everything.

Other podcasts I download:
Grammar Girl
Jodi Piccoult
YALSA--I haven't listened to these yet, but I am saving these for my 36 hour plane trip to Thailand next week.
Children's Book Radio

If you have podcasts related to children's books or writing that you listen to and love, let me know. I'm always looking for good listening.

5 Things Meme

I am very belated with this, but I thought, better late than never.

Five Things I Was Doing Ten Years Ago:
1. Getting ready to start student teaching
2. Going to the gym everyday
3. Thinking about getting my degree in Children's Literature, which I didn't start until 5 years later.
4. Working at Roanoke College in the Alumni Office as a student worker
5. Basking in the glow of graduating from college

Five Snacks I Like to Eat:
1. Chips, salsa, and sour cream
2. Ice cream
3. Butterfinger bites
4. Zucchini Bread
5. Chocolate chip cookies (or Oreos) and milk

Five Songs I Know All of the Lyrics To:
1. Any song from Annie
2. Fiesta VBS songs from last year. It's on permanent repeat in my Jeep. My daughter loves it.
3. Brown-Eyed Girl
4. Remember Me
5. If You Want Me To

Five Things I Would Do if I Were a Millionaire:
1. Travel a LOT
2. Hire someone to clean my house and do my laundry
3. Buy a house with a marvelous kitchen
4. Invest so my daughter could go to any college she wanted
5. Quit my job and write full-time

Five Bad Habits:
1. Eating chocolate
2. Staying on the computer too long
3. Buying things that are unnecessary
4. Planting things and then forgetting to take care of them
5. Keeping piles of things on the floor of my office--they are my to-do piles

Five Things I Like to Do:
1. Read
2. Write
3. Travel
4. Bake
5. Cook Asian food

Five of my Favorite Toys:
1. iPod
2. Laptop
3. Booklight
4. Cuisinart Food Processor
5. KitchenAid Stand Up Mixer

June's Read-a-Thon

I didn't get to participate in the 48 Hour Book Challenge sponsored by MotherReader because it was the last weekend before school was out, and I was totally swamped. I knew I couldn't do it justice. But I have been reading with my 2 year old for the summer reading program at the library. We've had to write down all of the books and the time we spent reading. So, since I was doing it for her, I decided to do it for myself. I wrote down all of the books I read this month. I read more than I thought, but I'm only a fraction of the way through my "To Read" pile for the summer.

Here it goes:

June 2007

Pictures books (These are ONLY the ones I read for myself for craft purposes and general enjoyment. I read about 75 other ones to my daughter.)

1. Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth by Anne Rockwell
2. The Last Brother: A Civil War Tale by Trinka Hakes Noble
3. Freedom School, Yes! by Amy Littlesugar
4. Knock on Wood: Poems about Superstitions by Janet Wong
5. Jazz by Walter Dean Myers
6. A Bird or Two: A Story about Henri Matisse by Bijou Le Tord
7. Wolves by Emily Gravett (my review here)
8. Appalachia: The voices of sleeping birds by Cynthia Rylant
9. The Flying Bed by Nancy Willard
10. The Last Resort by J. Patrick Lewis and Roberto Innocenti (my review here)
11. Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine (my review here)

Middle Grade Novels

1. Ghost Cadet by Elaine Marie Alphin
2. Ghost Soldier by Elaine Marie Alphin
3. Clementine by Sarah Pennypacker

YA

1. American Born Chinese by Gene Luan Yang (my review here)
2. Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson
3. The Perfect Shot by Elaine Marie Alphin
4. An Unlikely Friendship: A Novel of Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley by Ann Rinaldi

Nonfiction

1. Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion by Loree Griffin Burns (my review here)
2. Pocahontas: Princess of the New World by Kathleen Krull
3. Down Cut Shin Creek: The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky by Kathi Appelt and Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer
4. Who's Saying What in Jamestown, Thomas Savage? by Jean Fritz
5. 1607: A New Look at Jamestown by Karen E. Lange (my review here)

Poetry

1. Ludie's Life by Cynthia Rylant (my review here)
2. Come with Me: Poems for a Journey by Naomi Shihab Nye
3. Autumnblings by Douglas Florian
4. 19 Varieties of Gazelle by Naomi Shihab Nye (my review here)
5. Ordinary Things: Poems from a Walk in Early Spring by Ralph Fletcher