April is Poetry Month - DUH!

What kind of habitual rhymer forgets poetry month?  I'm going to use being in Las Vegas when April began as my excuse.  It's lame - I know!  In honor of Poetry Month, I'll post a new poem everyday - starting today.  I'll also include fun poem-writing ideas I've found in various places.  So, my poem for April 3rd is called a Book Spine Poem.  April Halprin Wayland mentioned it in today's blog post at Teaching Authors.  She got the idea from Travis Jonker, an elementary school librarian and he wrote about it on the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) blog.  I copied this off the blog: 


How do you create your own?  Here are my tips for kids and teens:
1. Check out last year’s book spine poem gallery for inspiration.
2. Once you’re in the library, start looking at titles to see what strikes you. Arrange and rearrange in your head. The best part of this type of poetry is the fact that you don’t know where you’ll end up.
3. Have a pencil and paper with you to write down titles that stand out – you can go back to them later.
4. Don’t be afraid to use the library catalog to search for titles with exact words or phrases that you want.

As promised, here's a book spine poem I wrote tonight:

What am I doing here

Lost in the cosmos?

Beginning to see the light

With a little help from my friends - 

Heroes!

Give it a try and, when you do, post it here for others to read!  

Happy Poetry Month!!

Radio Disney at Kidgits Book Blast

On March 5th, I participated in the Kidgits Book Blast, hosted by Radio Disney, at Orland Square Mall in Orland Park.

They had a great turnout!

Fellow Author, Laura Crawford and I each read our books and sold and signed them.

      It was a lot of fun!  

Anderson's 9th Annual Children's Literature Breakfast

On February 19th, I attended Anderson's Annual Children's Literature Breakfast for the third year in a row.  This year was different, though, because I was invited to be a visiting Illinois Author.  As a visiting author, I began the breakfast at my assigned table and I spoke with the other attendees about my book, the Cheerios contest, writing for children and I explained why I had Book Tour Alex with me.  

There were four guest speakers and, between each of their presentations, the other visiting authors and I moved to the next table and spoke with those attendees.  


The first guest speaker, Trent Reedy, wrote the book, Words in the Dust.  It's a story about an Afghan girl, loosely based on his experiences in Afghanistan.  It was very moving.  

Here's a picture of me and two young men at my second table.

The second speaker was Tim Green, the author of The Big Time: A Football Genius Novel.  Tim was an NFL player and has since earned his law degree.  As if that wasn't enough, he's also written several books for adults and middle school readers.  And did I mention, he's also handsome and funny?  What a loser!

My friends and third table mates, Kelly Polark and Laura Ripes.

The third speaker was the amazing illustrator, Mark Teague, who showed us his process of illustrating his latest book Firehouse!  He also illustrated a director's chair that one lucky winner took home - it wasn't me :-( 

The fourth speaker was Kathryn Lasky, author of Shadow Wolf, one of many books about animals.  Ms. Lasky shared a secret with us - even though she often writes about animals, she's not a big fan!

The final speaker was Weird Al Yankovich, who answered pre-submitted questions from the audience and discussed his latest book, When I Grow Up.

In addition to all this, they sold the visiting Illinois authors' books in another room.  I believe I sold one book - to the two cute boys at my table.  Alex and I had fun posing with the stack of 1 Zany Zoo.

Any authors, teachers, librarians and children's book lovers should consider attending next year!

Catching Up

I can't believe it's been two months since I've posted!  Really, I can believe it - thinking about how busy I've been, juggling work, writing/writing events and family & friends.


Work:  Everyone knows how much financial trouble all the schools are in - it's tragic!  As lead teacher of our Hearing Itinerant Program, I need to determine the number of teachers we'll need for the upcoming school year, and it's not always possible to stretch the numbers far enough to avoid cuts.  Because of circumstances beyond my control, our student numbers are down, which means we may not need all the teachers we have.  It's been a long couple of months working on the numbers "creatively" to stretch them as much as I can to avoid losing a teacher.  No decisions have been made yet, but I'm afraid it's not going to be good.


When I'm not lead teacher, I work with students at Stevenson High School and Hawthorn School District.  In the past two months, I've had eight intake meetings (IEP meetings for eighth grade students who will be my students next year at SHS).  I've also had seven other IEP meetings.  Thank goodness for electronic IEPs - at least we're saving some trees!  I've also attended two computer workshops and a teacher's conference.


Writing:  I've been revising, revising, revising my story in prose, Eb & Flo.  I think I may have found the missing "something" I've been trying to pinpoint.  We'll see what my sister (and best editor) thinks!
Writing events: That'll be a separate post.


Family:  My mom has been going through some health issues with arthritis and carpel tunnel surgery.  I'm happy to say, she's doing really well now - she's an amazingly strong person!  I've been able to spend more time with her and my other family members, which has been wonderful!  Sean's still living at home :-)  but not for long :-( and Brian came home for spring break, plus I got to see him at ISU this weekend!


Friends:  While I had to back out on a couple of events, I managed to get together with friends from the neighborhood, college, high school (thanks Facebook), work, and SCBWI.


Wow, I was busier than I thought!  I'm tired just writing it down :-)

Save Everything! (and the Picture Book.)

I want to tell you about a great new blog - Save Everything! (and the Picture Book), Started by Bridget Heos, author of the upcoming book What to Expect When You're Expecting Larvae: a Guide for Insect Parents (and Curious Children), illustrated by Stephane Jorisch (Lerner/Millbrook, Spring 2011). 

The goal of this year-long promotion is to introduce children to new picture books.  Here's how it works:  Each month, Bridget will highlight 10 new picture books centered on a theme.  Kids who send in a review (in the form of a paragraph, drawing, video, etc.) for one of the books, will be entered to win book-related prizes. Teachers can also win prizes for their classrooms by submitting multiple student book reviews.

Here's what teachers need to do:

   1. Read picture books to your students.

   2. Have them write reviews.

   3. Send the reviews in to be entered to win picture books and other bookish prizes for your 

       classroom.

Each month, there will be a new theme, new list, and new prizes, so be sure to follow along on the blog.

To my author friends, here's a list of monthly topics.  If your book fits one of the topics, let Bridget know and your book may be included in that months book reviews.

January: Save the World (and the Picture Book)
Books with environmental or world themes

February: Save the Sweets (and the Sweet Picture Books)
Books about sweets things like cupcakes and sweet-ish things like fuzzy animals

March: Save the Bookworms (and the Picture Books They Eat)
Books about books…and insects

April: Save the Laughing Children (and the Picture Book)
Funny books

May: Save the Pink Princesses (and the Tomboys)
Books about princesses and other girl power themes

June: Save America’s Favorite Pastime (and America’s Favorite Picture Books)
Baseball books

July: Save the Polar Bears (and the Teddy Bears)
Books featuring bears

August: Save the Summer Vacation (and the Picture Books)
Books about summer and books about school

September: Save the Koalas (and the Marsupial Picture Books)
Books about marsupials

October: Save the Monsters (and the Picture Books)
Books about monsters—scary, funny, or cute

November: Save the Heroes (Real and Pretend)
Books about military, police, firefighters, superheroes, and other heroes

December: Save the Snow Angels (and the Picture Books) Books featuring snow or angels (This includes holiday books if they have snow.)