Boo!

I merely want to state my opinion that you can never get too many Reese's peanut butter cups (or the minis) in one night of trick or treating. Just doesn't seem possible....

But I hope you all got enough of whatever you Halloween candy-vice might be!

Dressing up...

I was thinking for Halloween, I'd dress my blog up as something else. You know, turn it into the Disco Mermaids or something equally fun and different. But as so usually happens, I've run out of time on the home-made costume front. And once again, I'll just go as a "blog." Luckily, that's still a tad fresh, so I figure I've got one or two more years before I have no more excuse....

Hope y'all get every piece of candy you want tomorrow!

Well, I'll be....

I'm a rather big baseball fan, but I had thought that major league baseball had stopped after the 2004 World Series... since the metaphorical sky had fallen, after all. Imagine my surprise, then, to see my Sox in the World Series again... and sweeping it! Go figure.

There is joy in my Mudville this year, but to all the great fans of other teams... I promise you that "just wait 'til next year" actually can be more than just a slogan. It's just not always easy to believe it!

The Golf Fib -- a golf poem

The Golf Fib
By
Gregory K.

Drive.
Putt.
That’s it.
Golf’s simple!
The best game by far!
(As long as I’m ignoring “par.”)


This week's Poetry Friday roundup is over at The Literary Safari.

If you want to get all my new poems (and only the poems) emailed to you for freeee as they hit the blog, enter your email address in the box below then click subscribe!

Fibbing in class....

I've been lucky enough to get emails from a few teachers this year, telling me about their experiences using Fibs in the classroom. So far... so good! I'm sure there's more folks out there using them, so let me note that I'd love to hear stories. But the good news from my point of view is that kids do actually seem to enjoy the constraints of the Fib. Or maybe I just don't hear from teachers where it didn't work???

Regardless, thanks to all who've sent me reports, and happy Fibbing to everyone!

Rounding up...

... the roundups! Yeah, I know it's not Poetry Friday. Doesn't matter. Any day is a good day to talk poety (and that's no fib), so I wanted to point out to y'all the amazing thing that Susan Taylor Brown has done -- she's created a post linking to ALL the Poetry Friday roundup posts since it all began in March of 2006!

Great resource AND interesting to see how Poetry Friday has grown. Go on... check it out!

And so...

... again time zips by without me posting. I am lucky enough to say that it's not due to the various fires that have (worrisomely) affected so many people I know. Instead, it's just a return of the busy-ness. But it's good and will, when through, lead to more time for me to blog, write, and all that good stuff. But for today, sorry to say, you get bupkis!

Graphically speaking....

For all my SoCal friends, just thought I'd point out a cool event: Graphic Novel Day. It's on November 3rd, and run by the fine folks of the OC-SCBWI. Plus, Mac McCool and Marilyn Scott-Waters are speaking/teaching and I know from first hand experience that means you should go and listen up!

Late again...

For most of you, Poetry Friday is already done. Not here, though. Plus, it will live on, since the wonderful Kelly Fineman collected this week's links right here.

As for me, I was gonna do a search Fib, but kept staring too long at a few odd search terms that brought folks to me this week:

i will love you forever... i will love you forever and i think about you all the time garage music

congratulation for the contribution for the deal

chocolate chocolate i love you so i want to marry you and live in the flavor of your brown forever

Perhaps that's poetry in its own right? I'll think about that later, but for now I gotta book.

This is your brain. And this...

... is a link to a twirling dancer who, the story says, will help tell if your left brain or right brain is dominant.

Perhaps a parlor trick, though I will tell you that with concentration and coincidence, I have been able to see her spin both directions, so no saying it doesn't work at all!

Which way did you see her spin?

Tommy, can you hear me?

We might never know the answer to that, of course, but here's the news: YOU can hear me. "How?" I hear you ask in unison.

By listening to Fuse #8's latest podcast, that's how.

You get all sorts of Fuse-y goodness and then, near the end, you get to hear me read my Rainbow Fish Oddaptation. Need more Fuse? Check her blog, too, for cool news, funny stories, odd and intriguing tidbits, and reviews galore.

Robert's Snow (and the blogosphere...)

Many of you are familiar with Robert's Snow, an online auction whose proceeds go to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (via the Jimmy Fund, a charity certainly familiar to any Red Sox fan!). Now, Robert's Snow is not just any online auction -- it's children's literature related from its founding right on up to what you buy: individual snowflakes created by picture book illustrators.

And if you go check out Jen Robinson's very thorough post on the topic, you'll also see that throughout the kidlitosphere this week, those illustrators are being featured on blogs galore, with more to come beyond this week.

So this is, as they say, all good. You can support cancer research (in the year in which Robert, for whom Robert's Snow was named, sadly passed away), you can buy unique gifts, you can learn about amazing illustrators, and you can find great new blogs. What's not to love? Get going, people!

Bigger picture stuff....

Jen Robinson has a great post up recapping a session at the recent Kidlitosphere Conference. We, as an online community, have a great chance to help promote children's literature, since we're a wonderfully wide, eclectic, verbal group who all share a united passion.

Go check her post and see what ideas you might be able to toss into the pot....

Ode to Air Travel -- an air travel poem/a flying poem

An Ode to Air Travel (Upon Flying Cross-Country in Seat 31A)
by
Gregory K.

My seat belt is fastened – it’s snug and secure.
Been sitting here hours... and feels it for sure.
I finished my books during airport delays.
It turns out my iPod’s been uncharged for days.
I’ve studied the plane wing: I’ve counted the rivets.
I’ve noted my seat cushion’s deepening divots.
I spilled all my water (my pants are still drying).
I hear one babe cooing... and 17 crying.
The man right behind me drones stories so boring,
I think I’m preferring my seat-mate’s wheezed snoring.
My back aches in tense, upright, locked tight position.
It’s clear 30A has a stomach condition.
Yet just when I think I can’t take anymore,
And I’m wishing my window would turn to a door,
I hear these great words (over 30B’s cough),
“This is your captain… we’re cleared to take off!”


This week's Poetry Friday roundup is right here at Two Writing Teachers. Go on over and check out the links AND the blog....

If you want to get all my poems emailed to you for freeee as they hit the blog, enter your email address in the box below then click subscribe!

Commenting on commenting....

An oft-heard observation at the First Annual Kidlitosphere Conference (as discussed here and a zillion other places (including The Miss Rumphius Effect and Fuse #8 and... and... and...) was that folks aren't commenting on blogs (well, kidlit blogs) as much as they used to. Certainly there's been some love going round due to the Conference, but in general, I think that's true. It used to be, for example, that I'd post a poem and get 10 comments about it. Nowadays, though I haven't been posting much since April (but will this Friday, I tell ya!), it's rare that I get more than two.

I wonder if this is 1) burnout or 2) posts that don't call for comment or 3) readers/aggregators vs. actually visiting the blogs?

Curious if any of you have answers or thoughts or more questions....

More on the First Annual Kidlitosphere Conference

Normally, I like to digest experiences before I spew about them in public. Note to self: when said experience is with 60 other bloggers, and you read those other bloggers, you will find that they make all the good points you'd like to make... but faster than you and often with better writing. Sheesh, people! Cut a guy a break. Still...

My overwhelming reaction is one of satisfaction. I mean it -- this was fun. Folks were like I expected from "knowing" them via their blogs, but even nicer and more interesting. So, for example, rather than sipping my coffee at home and checking out A Year of Reading, I got to sip iced tea and have dinner with Mary Lee (AND get to meet a spouse in the process!). And it was fun and good.

As Laini Taylor said in her excellent writeup, it did feel like the start of something bigger. The collective/connective power of us online folk sure should be able to shine a brighter light on children's literature in general (as was done with the Cybils (whose creators Kelly and Anne were pleasures to hang with!)). This, I think, is a critical area to focus on and think about as we move forward.

I can't even start to list all the great write-ups out in the 'sphere about the event. At any of the blogs I link to above, you'll find more. If you look in the comments of the two posts below this, you'll see more folks to check out (and "Hi!" Mother Reader! And "Hi!" Jim. And Camille... and Sara... and...and and and!).

More on this soon, I'm sure, but now I gotta book!

Visual proof

I know there are some people who there who think we bloggers make up everything we talk about, but here's visual proof that at least some of what we say is true.

Need more proof?

There. I hope you're satisfied.

Now do yourself a favor: don't just check out the pics (enjoyable to look at though all us bloggers all are) but go read Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast and listen well to Just One More Book. You'll be glad you did....

My day with lots o' bloggers....

What a fun day here among 60+ fellow children's literature bloggers. Robin Brande's pot-luck-turned-conference was a rousing success, seems to me. To meet so many people who had just been URLs and/or tiny photographs was more than enough to make it worthwhile traveling here, but add in conversation and a huge range of opinions on a raft of topics and I'd say the day exceeded everyone's expectations. Good times. Good times. And tired times. More on this day will pop up from time to time, I'm sure, but now I gotta book!

On the road....

I'll try and slap up a poetry Friday post before I go, but it's possible, despite traveling wired, that I'll just be silent this weekend. I'm looking forward to meeting many of you in Chicago... and the rest of you, well, make yourself at home while I'm gone -- there's poetry in the fridge and if you get hungry, there's some Oddaptations in the freezer...

Nominations....

There's a big contest coming up, as any of you who follow the news are probably aware. No, no, not that big contest for 2008. I mean the Cybils!

And it's time fro you to nominate!

Full instructions at the above link, natch.... So go on. Be a part. Nominate books for the Cybils. You'll be glad you did.

Is it a read-aloud?

So, the question of the week is "if the book in library time is a wordless picture book, can you still call it a read-aloud?"

This strikes me as a great question, and I won't complicate by adding the question of what happens if there's no one there to hear it. Luckily, that hasn't been a problem yet.


And does it make any difference that the book in question is Istvan Banyai's Zoom?

It's certainly been fun... but is it a read-aloud?

Chicago. Chicago....

Say it with me: Chicago. Friday, I'll be heading off to the city of the big shoulders (that'd be Chicago) for the 1st Annual Kidlitosphere Conference. Thanks to the remarkable efforts of Robin Brande, a potluck dinner has morphed into a full day event. I'm looking forward to meeting soooooo many folks, I can't even try to list them all.

And if anyone wants a date to a possible game 4 on Sunday at Wrigley, well, feel free to drop me a line!