Olivia's seventh grade year has begun in a Boston school, probably the same old thing, until new girl Eden arrives. They say it's not love at first sight but their friendship grows quickly because Olivia has started a poetry club and Eden joins. One never knows what goes on with kids' home lives and both of these girls, though quickly friends, then moving into a closer loving relationship, have troubled homes. They each continue a relationship during the after-school time and through texts, and readers soon realize they hide home life from everyone. Like everyone, both make mistakes. Olivia insults Eden and the sweet relationship ends. The story, and the poetry, fills up with their feelings, while Eden is included in another group called the "Crash", pushing her to party and play the games often played, like spin the bottle. Poems by Olivia are set on the left; those by Eden are on the right. Soon, with huge regrets, Olivia creates the idea of a poetry night with her poetry group, hoping to write a poem of apology for Eden, to fix the damage done. The joys and worries come through with heartfelt emotion, so much that one wishes to step in to help them and others in the background. From Eden: "I try to own the chaos,/and not let it own me." Kate Fussner's verse novel, her debut, feels as if many middle-grade readers will hold tight to the story as they live their own fears and triumphs, and learn that sometimes words can show both regret and love, and can help their growing up.
Monday, September 25, 2023
It's Monday - Recent Books I Loved
Olivia's seventh grade year has begun in a Boston school, probably the same old thing, until new girl Eden arrives. They say it's not love at first sight but their friendship grows quickly because Olivia has started a poetry club and Eden joins. One never knows what goes on with kids' home lives and both of these girls, though quickly friends, then moving into a closer loving relationship, have troubled homes. They each continue a relationship during the after-school time and through texts, and readers soon realize they hide home life from everyone. Like everyone, both make mistakes. Olivia insults Eden and the sweet relationship ends. The story, and the poetry, fills up with their feelings, while Eden is included in another group called the "Crash", pushing her to party and play the games often played, like spin the bottle. Poems by Olivia are set on the left; those by Eden are on the right. Soon, with huge regrets, Olivia creates the idea of a poetry night with her poetry group, hoping to write a poem of apology for Eden, to fix the damage done. The joys and worries come through with heartfelt emotion, so much that one wishes to step in to help them and others in the background. From Eden: "I try to own the chaos,/and not let it own me." Kate Fussner's verse novel, her debut, feels as if many middle-grade readers will hold tight to the story as they live their own fears and triumphs, and learn that sometimes words can show both regret and love, and can help their growing up.
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Poetry Friday - Worker Pay
I was out sweeping my patio of the leaves fallen already, really just to be outside on a lovely day, two days until fall. In hiding lay a tiny, lovely surprise! It felt like a last goodbye, as Carol writes, "summer's end".
Wishing you this kind of autumn's beginning: "It was a beautiful bright autumn day, with air like cider and a sky so blue you could drown in it."
Diana Gabaldon, OutlanderMonday, September 18, 2023
It's Monday - Sharing Some Great Reads!
"Astounding" may not be enough to begin a response to David Grann's newest adventure in story-telling. "Comprehensive" comes to mind, too, as Grann takes us on this harrowing journey of the HMS Wager, in 1740, with other vessels from Great Britain on a trek to capture gold. They must venture around Cape Horn, a journey told in excruciating detail of the sea weather battled, the lives lost, even before they wrecked. The descriptions of diseases encountered add to the sorrow for men who so wished for acclaim, for honor in the completion of their goals, only to then be stranded as this ship broke onto rocks by an island that offered little sustenance for survival. This part, Grann shows, is only the beginning for those who sought to survive. That some did, and those kept journals of their days, gives authenticity to this tale that makes one want to grimace (and perhaps understand) at their decision-making in numerous ways. The intense detail shows the extraordinary effort of Grann's research as blow-by-blow, readers learn of the characters, the weather, and the sea as a foe like no other. It took me longer to read because I also was mesmerized by the detailed notes and bibliography. On a personal note, I have sailed on a three-masted schooner and though my voyages were calm adventures, I did know the flavor of the ship, the sailing terms, the feeling of the ocean swells when way out to sea. I'm glad to have had the experience when reading this awesome tale.
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Thanks to Charlesbridge for this copy! |
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Thanks to Charlesbridge for this copy! |
Thursday, September 14, 2023
Poetry Friday - More Lunar Love
Irene's newest book, The Museum on the Moon (Hooray!), with Myriam Wares illustrating is one I've been waiting for what seems like the lo-o-ongest time! And it is finally in my hands! Many reviewed it last week and their words were great to read bit by bit, but made me want the book even more. I am old enough to remember President John F. Kennedy's words in his speech challenging Americans in space exploration on September 12, 1962: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because it is easy, but because it is hard." We did!
Thursday, September 7, 2023
Poetry Friday - Holding Summer
It's Poetry Friday! Thanks, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater HERE at her blog, The Poem Farm, for hosting. She's welcoming the new school year with an invitation you will want to accept!
One of my favorite books that I re-read is Ray Branbury's Dandelion Wine, from which comes "Hold summer in your hand, pour summer in a glass, a tiny glass of course, the smallest tingling sip, for children; change the season in your veins by raising glass to lip and tilting summer in.”
My family didn't have the pleasure of going to the beach this summer but we will again, I am sure. Meanwhile, the memories flow.
Playa Tivives, Costa Rica - 2022 |
Bottled
Patiently, words - liquid and flowing,
astonishing, alarming on occasion –
wait for writers to arrange them with a pen.
First, this day,
they take a sip of summer,
smile with the sunset,
stay close to siblings,
watch cousins race to the water,
skip and splash, back again
to munch and grin,
Leaning on moms and dads, aunts, uncles, grandparents.
Linda Baie ©
Monday, September 4, 2023
Monday Reading - All New Books To Share!
Thanks to Charlesbridge for this copy, published tomorrow! |
Thursday, August 31, 2023
Poetry Friday - Gifting!
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I sat in a nearby park to watch! |
It's Poetry Friday! Thanks, Ramona Berhenki HERE at her blog, Pleasures from The Page, for hosting. Her sharing of an anthology from Lee Bennett Hopkins titled "School Supplies" feels just right for this beginning of the school year.
Earlier in the summer, Jone wrote to ask if I had a One Little Word for the year. I did not, but did share that a favorite word is "serendipity". You'll see how Jone created a journal cover from learning about that word! Thanks for your creativity, Jone. You've given me a poem but also a journal's cover with secrets. I'll enjoy its message while capturing other favorite words!
This is a card made from the journal you can see in the picture above. The quote is penned there, and my word, 'serendipity' adds to others among the blooms! Also, Jone sent two poem postcards (below), one to keep and one to send with parts of my own words to Patricia! I think she knows how much I love the ocean!
Monday, August 28, 2023
It's Monday - Recent Books I loved!
I'm sorry that I missed this book last year because I would have taken it to the beach with me, to read to my family, young and old. Like the young girl who visits her grandparents in their little house by the sea, we, too, would have looked for "little houses", what Kevin Henkes tells of this grandmother who shares that about shells. There are wonderings, like who lived in them, as grandmother also shares, "things we cannot see"; and when grandfather speaks about the wide world with so much to know, the young girl begins her own questioning. In beautiful, color-filled, illustrations by Laura Dronzek, I know how wondrous is the beach, and Kevin Henkes has lovingly taken me there. I am grateful!
Thursday, August 24, 2023
Poetry Friday - The End is A Beginning
Welcome to Poetry Friday! I hope you are all doing well. Leave your links below!
Yes, time for BACK TO SCHOOL and Yes, I have seen a few leaves yellowing, dropping on the green grass! Wishing those of you who are so, so busy with your first days (weeks?) starting and hope it has been terrific and not too hot, or that the rain has disappeared from Tropical Storm Hilary. It's been near 100 all week here in Denver, and some schools do not have AC. I remember the challenges from years ago in my classrooms.
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from Vecteezy.com |
Resistance
This early adolescent spring,
this theater of boys,
shows one grown tall, grabs one more fling
with his old friends, his toys.
He plays and plays, barooms around,
hoping no one hears the sound.
The only other life around
are buzzing bees, like thoughts he found
that reach into the boy’s ears.
He sits and listens to his fears
that all the future coming days
won’t be like all the grown-ups praise.
He only wants his monster truck,
a track of dirt, a time to play,
the growing up, another day.
Wishing you all a great weekend, writing, reading, fun with family and friends or simply "be-ing"!
You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enterThursday, August 17, 2023
Poetry Friday - Pinkish
“Barbie” seemed to herald the third leg of historical troika."
What is Pink? By Mary O’Neil
Pink is the color of a rose.
They come in other colors
but everyone knows
pink is the mother-color of a rose.
Pink is a new baby,
the inside of a shell..
Pink is a cooked shrimp
and a Canterbury bell.
Pink is peachbloom,
gauzy… frail
the wind’s exquisite wedding veil.
Pink is a bonbon,
pink is a blush,
some Easter bunnies
are pink plush.
If you stand in an orchard
In the middle of Spring
and you don’t make a sound
you can hear pink sing,
a darling, whispery song of a thing.
Pink is the beautiful little sister
of red my teacher said,
and a ribbon girls tie
round their head.
Pink is the sash
with the lovely fold
you’ll remember
when you’re old.
Pink is the flower on a lady’s hat
that nods and bows this way and that.
Had enough PINK? Or, do you have a favorite "pink" memory? Happy Poetry Friday!
Monday, August 14, 2023
Monday Reading - Books to Note!
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Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy! |
It's always fun to read books by Dave Eggers. Most are for adults, but if you want a book that not only tells a fun story, and is true, read Moving Millers' Minnie Moore Mine Mansion. At the same time, readers can see how inviting the use of alliteration can be, title included. It begins with early history, and builds page by page with awesome details in brown tones with a feel of history by illustrator Ju´lia Sarda`. The tale of a silver discovery, lots of money to build a mansion, then a descendant with a wish to raise pigs includes an amazing structural move, and Eggers' expected humor from the start to a laugh-out-loud finish.
It was terrific to revisit Garvey again, trying hard to ignore his father's wishes for a football player. Nikki Grimes' words for middle-school-aged kids shine brightly again, this time teamed with artist Theodore Taylor III. I loved the brightly-colored chapter titles, like this one, "Three Bears" when Garvey says to himself, "It doesn't matter/how wide I am when I sing./Like Goldilocks, I/have finally found what fits./My high tenor is just right." Finding connections with his dad through music was a loving surprise to me again. It's a young teen story, a family story, a rich story for kids growing up!
The lead-up to the tryout feels like my own challenges many years ago when I too, wanted to be a cheerleader. I even tried a gymnastics class at age 12, but starting that late is simply too late to learn backflips, etc. At least it was for me! The challenges in middle school often feel so rigid when kids are simply trying hard to discover who they really are, the kind of person they wish to be. I imagine adults and those in middle school (or high school) will make personal connections to this new book!
I labeled this both nf & historical fiction because it is a story by Glenda Armand, based on her family's story. That "school train" holds many layers, first of Glenda's mother's time in the morning line to school, but it also meant education as a train to freedom, and the outward layer is a story of The Great Migration. In the early part of the 20th century, thousands of African Americans left their ancestral homes, some dating back to slavery, to move to differing places in America, for better opportunities for adult work and to escape most of the Jim Crow laws. Young Thelma tells the story from her own 'riding' the train, waving to the real train that once carried an aunt and uncle to California for a better life. Taking that step was both exciting and sorrowful, leaving friends and family, a home one has always known. The term Jim Crow is used throughout, first confusing Thelma because she thought it was a person and did not understand the real meaning until her father told her. Keisha Morris' collaged artwork fills the pages with heartfelt emotions as the train, this time of history, moves along. It's an excellent book for middle-grade readers and younger that can either begin or add to their knowledge of this part of African American history. There is a great piece by Armand at the back, with family photographs, too, plus a source list!