Poetry Friday - More Lunar Love

 

          It's Poetry Friday! Thanks, Rose Cappelli HERE at her blog, ImagineThePossibilities, for hosting.  She's written a wonderful reverso where she considers the love, or not, of fall! Be sure you check it out!

        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!

       The Museum on the Moon creates an enticing beginning, starting with parts of the historical Apollo program. Irene welcomes us readers ('Earthlings!' all) to imagine a trip to a museum, this time to the moon! After her invitation, she writes of that first trip, only seven years after Kennedy's words, and Armstrong's footprints, 

                 "with no wind, no rain,

                   there's no way to erase"

                  "forever in space"

          Irene's poems take us on through history, poems in rhyme, poems in free verse, but accompanied by brief paragraphs of explanation of those "next steps" in our moon history and full-page illustrations by Myriam Wares. They include a Golden Shovel, an acrostic, and a ghazal, among other forms. Myriam's mostly black and white paintings, splashed sometimes with stars, often the museum artifact adding color to a bleak landscape give the feelings that do not surprise, showing the vastness of the moonscape. Examples of poems include the flags placed by those who were there, a picture of a family of one astronaut who stepped on the moon, a plaque commemorating one mission, and "two round bits of metal" in honor of two Soviet Cosmonauts who perished. 

           A poem titled "Old Glory" commemorating the American flags there ends with the following solemn, heartfelt  words:

                                 "Now, time-tattered,

                                 sun-battered

                                 some fibers may be lost –

                                 but pride soars."

           More information can be found at the back, adding to the inspiration found in this poetic visit. There is a timeline with additional notes, some links to explore, and a few explanations of poetry forms that were used. 

           I imagine that some young readers will read a poem and say to themselves, "I want to know more about that." There is a poem titled "Gravity", a new activity I didn't know about on the Apollo 15 mission where the Commander tested Galileo's theory of gravity by dropping a feather and a hammer. After the beginning, Irene's words are:

                            "and now we know it's true

                              because it was on TV for all to see:

      

          against that starry backdrop, the poems' words themselves also drop. It's marvelous to "see".

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 Reading - All New Books To Share!

   

        Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they and others have been reading! Your TBR lists will grow! I hope everyone has had a nice Labor Day Weekend including today, too! 

 

Thanks to Charlesbridge for
this copy, published tomorrow!

           Traci Sorell and Charles Waters' book collaboration packs many issues into one school year, one eighth-grade honors English classroom, and a teacher who wishes to challenge her students. The focus is on six students, ones we have the pleasure of getting to know well. We feel their resentment and passion, the backgrounds that fuel the feelings between the wish to cling to tradition and the school mascot, and the hurt that continues because of that same mascot. The six students, all with differing beliefs and backgrounds are Callie (Indigenous), Sean (White-Irish), Teassa (White), Luis (Hispanic), Priya (Indian), and Franklin (African American).         

          Friendships grow and begin and they are also lost and broken as change happens through learning facts, considering opinions that were previously unknown, and through listening to others. Traci and Charles, through a free-verse format that allows readers to read each character's thoughts, show the students' clearly honest opinions. Subtly, through a phrase or word, readers can catch that change is happening. For example, this is from the student, Franklin: "I still love sports and banger sneakers,/ yet I can feel myself changing./And that's not such a bad thing, is it?" 

         Not everyone changes, nor does everyone change quickly. Some stay loyal to their original beliefs. After all, the mascot has been Rye High School's mascot for generations! But there at the end, while satisfaction for some reigns, Traci and Charles sneak in to have some small hint that the holdout, hmmm, might not stay clinging anymore.

        There are added resources at the back including a few pages of Cherokee and Salvadoran words translated that are found in the text. It will be a terrific book to read with a group or to read aloud to a class. I imagine terrific discussions where learning happens! 

         Linda Ashman crafts mask poems about each "winner" of the stinkiest, the "strongest bite", the "tallest", and on. Poems are enticing with the illustrations by Aparna Varma giving a 'hint' of the winner, then on the next page, the full picture of the animal with a paragraph all about it. There is lots of information at the back, too, including about endangered species, what mask poems are, and Recommended Reading. If one wants to learn about spectacular animals, this is an adventurous way to begin!

Poetry Friday - Gifting!

 

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. 

        With all the turmoil and disasters happening in the world, finding gifts in my mailbox lifts my spirits. Among other lovely things, like Wednesday night's super blue moon, the summer poetry swap created by Tabatha Yeatts brings beautiful surprises that, like the cliché, keep on giving.

          I shared those from Tabatha, Denise Krebs, and Patricia Franz earlier in the summer. This past week, I received more creative bounty from Janice Scully and Jone MacCulloch. 

         One thing I also want to acknowledge is Janice's thoughtfulness. After I sent her a package, she replied with thanks and asked about her own gift sent. I never received it! Sadly, USPS is not always reliable. But Janice put together a second gift and that one arrived! Thanks so much, Janice for a poem of address to the marvelous redwoods and for Billy Collins, a favorite!

         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!

             Jone also sent me a created calendar with poems from her for every month!

        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!

It's Monday - Recent Books I loved!

  

        Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they and others have been reading! Your TBR lists will grow! I missed again last week but I have a few to share this time. I have been busier at the bookstore which lessens the reading time. There are many books on my TBR shelf waiting, and I hope my life settles down a bit more as we move into fall. I hope all of you are doing well. Our heat last week was near 100 all week but Friday brought the edge of Hurricane Hilary, seventies, and rain! It's back somewhat warmer but I know many continue to have the terrible heat. Best wishes for better! 

        Some of the following are older books I thought you might like. Some are brand new!

       Twelve-year-old Jonas and his friends get into lots of goofy things, even in the halls of their school. There are girls and jealousy, though it seems that at their age, no one would admit it. It's hard for us adults to read Phoebe Sinclair's debut book and realize that life as a tween is really complicated, but it is! Jonas tells the tale in fast action, even when he has to take care of his little sister Rex (Roxanne) and it turns out she saves him from some embarrassment at times. Then there's his separated parents and having two homes, the entry of something totally new, zines, that a friend wants Jonas to create, too. The candy-snatching comes in when the friend wants Jonas to answer the question, "What's the worst thing you ever did?" and what turns into the real self-searching even twelve-year-olds must do. Zines by illustrator Theodore Taylor III complete the whirlwind of Jonas' life.

Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy, out just a week ago!

       Many are taught NOT to judge a book by its cover and sadly people continue to judge by what they see, never digging deeper into actions. Christina Gonzalez shows this so wonderfully in this new graphic novel about five students, all in various ways Spanish speakers, who are ordered to do community service - together! Slowly through the book, with speech bubbles in both Spanish and English, readers begin to see each character for who they really are. There are revelations readers might also understand about oneself as the truths of each one are also revealed. It's interesting to see how stuck in a stereotype a person can be and how very difficult it is to break out into who they really are, especially without support. I enjoyed the incredible actions and emotional expressions Gabriela Epstein conveyed in her fantastic illustrations. It won many awards last year and I'm thrilled I finally got to read it!

       From long ago (1967), a wordless tale that's full of laughs and surprises. You have to see it!

       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!