Poetry Re-issue: The Day After Thanksgiving

The Day After Thanksgiving
by
Greg Pincus

Yesterday my grandpa pinched my cheek and said I’d grown.
I heard my uncle’s lousy jokes and held back every moan.
I had to watch the football games instead of what I like.
I had to watch my cousins all take turns on my new bike.
I had to take a taste of Auntie’s tofu bean sprout "stuff."
I didn’t get the apple crisp – Mom didn’t make enough!
The table got so messy that I had to clear it twice.
I couldn’t wear my comfy clothes since Dad said, "Please dress nice."
All day I heard my grandma say how crazy my dog drove her.
Today I’m thankful we’re alone ‘cause I’ve got zilch left over.

This poem was originally posted here at GottaBook two years ago. I'd be willing to bet it's as relevant today as it was then or decades ago, too.

This week's Poetry Friday roundup is over at A Year of Reading. I'm thankful for everyone who shares poetry on Fridays... as well as Saturdays through Thursdays, too!

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!

Me! For Charity!

I don't talk much here at GottaBook about my social media consulting work. I mean, I send out subliminal hints that you should all hire me, of course, but beyond that....

 Except today, I want to direct you to the KidLit Cares auction where you can bid on two hours of my services with your whole donation/bid going to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. You get me... and support charity. It's a win-win.

 If you don't want to bid on little old me, you really gotta poke around over there: amazing Skype visits, autographed books/signed art, manuscript critiques, and much more are up for auction. Great deals, great cause, great stuff!

Oddaptation: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

For those of you new to my Oddaptations, they're kinda Spark Notes meets Shrinklits for picture books, usually in rhyme and always with attitude.

So, for example, they go like this....


Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
by Mo Willems
Oddaptation by
Greg Pincus

The Pigeon wants to drive the bus.
How to stop his whine? His fuss?
Saying "No!" is not a winner...
Here's a thought: try squab for dinner.

It's been some time since I posted a new Oddaptation, so if you've not even seen 'em before, you can check out a bunch over on the right hand side of the blog (or by clicking this handy Oddaptation link here). Heck, you can check 'em out even if you have seen them before.

And 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!

Etto's Voice - an etymology poem/a music poem

Etto's Voice
by
Greg Pincus

Etto had the deepest voice.
He boomed out his words, and it wasn’t a choice.
So when he tried singing as high as a bird,
“False Etto!” was yelled...
And we got a new word.

For what it's worth, I had originally called this poem "Ettomology." Should I change it back?

The Poetry Friday roundup is over at Ed DeCaria's Think Kid, Think! today. Which is nice, as I started on the word "falsetto" due to his March Madness competition. Anyway, head on over and check out his effort to make the Poetry Friday roundup even more fun and relevant for YOU. Yes, for YOU.

And 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!

Why, Yes... I Voted!

And you?

KidLit Cares - A Superstorm Sandy Relief Effort Auction

Want to donate to the Red Cross and get, say, a manuscript critique from Laurie Halse Anderson? A Skype visit from Mo Willems? Signed books, a writer's retreat, a portfolio review, or even a "free pass" for a manuscript to go to an editorial meeting?

All that and so much more is possible if you check out the KidLit Cares auction going on right now. Organized by authors Kate Messner and Joanne Levy and with 42 items up in the first round of the auction right now, this event is a response to the devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy. It's great stuff for a great cause.

A new batch of auction items will be going up on November 12th, too, so don't forget to check back then.

And I hope you'll check out the auction (and the bidding rules) and/or find some other way to help out those who have been impacted so greatly by nature's fury.

Why I Vote (the 2012 edition)

(This post is part of a broader idea: posts by authors, illustrators, and children's book lovers of all stripes about why we vote (not who we vote for). You can find links to this year's collection of posts over at Chasing Ray.)

Why do I vote? That always seems like a "wrong" question to me because the reality is that I can't come up with a single reason why I wouldn't vote.

I wrote in 2008 about the sense of responsibility I feel when it comes to voting, and that remains as true today as it was then. I also know that whatever the issue, from the Presidency to controversial propositions to the House to local offices, if I've skipped voting for it, it's harder for me to make a forceful argument about my positions. It's a bit like putting your money where your mouth is. And, hey, if "my" candidate doesn't win and I didn't even vote... well, I'm certainly part of the problem, not the solution.

Likewise, I've heard the idea that one vote doesn't matter. Yes, it's true that most elections aren't decided by tiny margins. Then again, each vote is "only" one vote. Collectively, they matter. And if you're not part of the collection, then you aren't part of the group that matters.

Is our voting system perfect? Of course not. Yet it is our system, and I want to be part of it, not an outsider looking in. I want to honor the lives of those who've died so that all of us who are old enough to vote get to vote regardless of race, religion, or gender. And I want to assure that all those who come after us have that right, too.

As I watch the devastation of hurricane Sandy, I'm reminded again how we all pull together... how we are, despite vast spaces between us, all part of something bigger than just our own smaller communities. To me, a Presidential election is about that, too.

So, wherever you fall on the political spectrum, I hope you exercise your right to vote. I know I will.

(Again, I hope you'll go see the roundup of posts to see the wonderful reasons why so many of us will take to the polls this coming Tuesday.)

Poetry Friday... on Poetry Friday!

I'm long overdue in posting here about the remarkable Poetry Friday Anthology - a collection of poems and curricular connections put together by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell. You should own a copy whether you're teacher, student, parent or poetry lover.

I don't say that just because I have two poems in the anthology. I say that because it's flat out great reading (not to mention perfect for schools). Plus, the poets who contributed are an utterly remarkable lot (and I am kinda giddy to find myself mixed in among them).

I could go on, but for an incredible glimpse of what's inside (and why), I want to send you over to an amazing post on Renee LaTulippe's blog. (Bonus fun is that it's a Poetry Monday post about Poetry Friday which I send you to on a Friday).

Speaking of which... this week's Poetry Friday roundup is over at TeacherDance today. I hope you enjoy it and the anthology, too!

Get Thee to the Cybils Now and...

Nominate, nominate, nominate!

Yes, it's that time of year again - nominations for the Cybils are open til October 15th. Follow the link to go nominate your favorite books of the year. All the possible categories are in the sidebar (right now you have to scroll down a bit to see 'em) and they range from book apps to poetry to graphic novels to YA.

Go on, now. Join the fun!

Awesomeness in Song (and Book!)

This is a video of author (and ukelele player, obviously!) Mike Jung at the official book launch for his debut novel Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities.

You won't see me do this at my launch... but that's only cuz I can neither sing or play like he can. If I could, I'd ask him for the rights to this song in a heartbeat.

Go buy his book. I mean, if you like seriously funny middle grade stuff and all. Or if you just want to help him get new pants.

(And if you can't see the video here, check it out on YouTube cuz it'll make you smile.)

A Poem for Banned Books Week

A Poem for Banned Books Week

by

Greg Pincus

Lay off my Harry Potter.

Please leave Tango here with me.

Let me read Alexie's Diary from sea to shining sea.

When Margaret wants to talk to God

Don't take away her voice.

Avoid To Kill a Mockingbird but let ME make MY choice.

I'm enlisting in the Chocolate War.

I'll count Alice as my friend.

What My Mother Doesn't Know can't hurt me in the end.

Twilight and the Hunger Games?

Don't rip them from my hand.

Yet if you try, I'll still read on...

Since I am with the banned. 

I give myself lots of poetry prompts and challenges, though it's rare I share the results here. However, I liked how this one started with the phrase "I'm with the banned" and ended up where it ended up. Plus... it's timely since it is, indeed, Banned Books Week.

It's also Poetry Friday, and this week's Poetry Friday roundup is over at Laura Salas' Writing the World for Kids. I hope you'll go check it out.

And 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!

KidLitCon is Done and Gone....

As I always have in the past, I had a great time at this year's KidLitCon. From a publisher's preview at Little, Brown (boy do they have a lot of good books a-coming) to a dinner gathering with the fabulous Grace Lin speaking to the conference and to KidLit Drinks night at the end of it all, there was nary a dull or bad moment from my perspective.

A big part of that, of course, is the wonderful people you meet when you hang out with bloggers in the kidlitosphere. I mean, really, these are my peeps! Too many great people to list them all, though it's always fantastic to see Mother Reader and Liz Burns again. And Maureen (attendee of all six kidlitcons!). And... and... and!

And this year... oh my... I met Leila from Bookshelves of Doom! Oh, and Alex from The Children's War. And... you get the idea.

I had a fabulous lunch with Kellie Celia of Walden Pond Press, Mary Ann Scheuer of Great Kid Books (whose children's app knowledge is fantastic, too), and blogger/librarian Brenda Kahn. These be some mighty smart people!

I saw great presentations, of course, and enjoyed Maureen Johnson and Robin Wasserman giving the oddest "keynote speech" I've ever seen... yet one perfectly in keeping with KidLitCon's very essence.

I also gave a presentation called Avoiding the Echo Chamber: Bringing the World of Children's Literature to the World. You can read my own recap of it on the Happy Accident, and if that's not enough (or even if it is!), you can check out School Library Journal's take on it, too.

Good times, and huge thanks to Betsy Bird (who wrote a fab recap), Monica Edinger, and Liz Burns for putting the whole thing together. I can't wait til next year, wherever KidLitCon might be!

Tomorrow's #kidlitchat is all about School Visits

For those of you who might be interested, I wanted to let you know that this week's #kidlitchat will be all about school visits. Got ideas or questions or stories to tell? Come join us!

#kidlitchat is held every Tuesday at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific on Twitter. For information about Twitter chats and joining in, I highly recommend Debbie Ridpath Ohi's article about chats for writers.

(Then, unrelated to chatting, I recommend congratulating her on her first picture book, I'm Bored, launching (and being reviewed in the New York Times by David Small!).)

 Hope to see you on Twitter on Tuesday!

A Kitchen Mystery - a cooking poem/a messy poem

A Kitchen Mystery
by
Greg Pincus

You’re asking who did this?
Well, Mom, I don’t know.
I don't even have a good guess.
Who'd leave the oven encrusted with goop
Or the counters in such a big mess?
I don't have a clue why there's flour in my hair
Or how frosting has turned my shirt plaid,
But really, I... what?
You demand that I guess?
Well, fine....
It must have been Dad.


This week's Poetry Friday Roundup is over at Random Noodling. Head on over and check it out!

And 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!

The Homophoem - a New (to me) Form

Over at The Miss Rumphius Effect, today's poetry stretch comes courtesy of current Children's Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis... and it's a new-to-me form called the homophoem which uses, can you guess, homophones!

You can see some examples from Pat as well as poems in the comments (including mine, as well as from Douglas Florian and Kate Coombs (and is that Kenn Nesbitt, too?)) if you head on over.

Why knot leave won of you're own homophoems their ore hear?

Join Me in NYC for Kidlitcon 2012!

I'm excited to be going back to Kidlitcon after a two year absence. I hope some or ALL of you - yes, all!!!! - will be joining me for the fun. The conference itself is Saturday, September 29th in New York City. And , the conference is FREE. Yes, you read that right. You can register here.

Kidlitcon is an annual gathering of children's and YA bloggers... though it's open to ANYONE. It's a great place for authors and illustrators to learn about what book bloggers are thinking and doing... and vice versa. And if I were a publisher based in NYC, I'd send a lot of my staff to meet folks and listen and try to understand where value can be created in this space... and where it can't.

The schedule has been posted... and, lookie there! I'm speaking about avoiding the children's literature echo chamber. This is a bit ironic, as I'm flying across country to hang out with bloggers and authors and librarians in the children's literature world, of course, but I think it's a critical topic. Or put another way...

Those 100 million folks on Twitter? A huge number of them are potential allies, fans, supporters, word-spreaders, and book buyers. When we ignore this and only talk among ourselves, I think we miss out on a great opportunity.

Beyond that, there are fantastic talks and panels (some at the same time as me, even), and a keynote address from Maureen Johnson! Awesome stuff thanks to the conference organizers. And did I mention that all you have to do is register, cuz it's free?

Hope to see you there!

Video. Poetry. Song. It's all good.

I wanted to share a video a friend of mine put together, as I think it's poetic in the best sense of the word. The video features parents of kids with disabilities offering up what they might have told themselves on the day their child was diagnosed. Powerful stuff, I must say.




This week's Poetry Friday roundup is over at Sylvia Vardell's Poetry for Children. You'll find all sorts of goodies over there (including a book I'm thrilled to be a part of and which you'll see more about here soooooon!).

Newsworthy Poem Redirect!

I didn't realize that today was the conclusion of the Reinvention of the Toilet Fair (with a winner announced today). Here at GottaBook, I'm always ahead of the news trends, ya see...

So, I point you back to my poem The Evolution of the Toilet (A Brief History).

Will I have to rewrite it? Here's hoping!

It's That Time of Year Again! (With a Tweetup!)

I am not actually going to be an attendee at the now sold-out SCBWI Summer Conference here in LA, but as a local, I will be coming by and hanging out, at least a little. I'm not attending because I can't actually be there the whole time - a disappointment on multiple levels. Still, I'll get there... and I hope to see YOU!

I suspect you can find me in the hotel lobby a lot, but you most certainly can on Friday night from 8:30 to 9:30 for a #kidlitchat Tweetup. Yes, it's time for us all to meet in person (or see each other again). Hopefully, by doing this Friday night, folks will have a richer weekend cuz they'll know the, oh... 100+ others at the conference who have also come by #kidlitchat.

By that hour, I doubt many of us will still be tweeting, so just look for a chatting crowd or me or Bonnie Adamson and jump on in.

Oh, and for those Tweeting the Con or hoping to follow along at home... the Conference tag is #LA12SCBWI.

Hope to see you there, whenever I get there!

A Late Bird Giveaway for Poetry Friday...

It's Poetry Friday, and I'm still trying to catch up from days of no internet and everything in boxes... so rather than a new poem, I decided to give a copy of The Late Bird away over on Facebook. All you gotta do is "like" or comment on the post by 7 PM California time today, and you could win! Wheeee!

The Poetry Friday roundup is over at A Teaching Life today. Lots o' good stuff to check out, so I hope you do!