August, I tell ya....

I keep hearing from more and more folks who are going to be at the August SCBWI conference out here in currently-a-tad-too-warm LA. I'm really looking forward to reconnecting with a lot of folks as well as meeting a whole bunch o' fellow denizens of the kidlitosphere. And so, I propose a version of what I've seen in NYC and now DC -- a drink night! Now, it can't be a Kid Lit Drink Night, cuz that's silly since all 1000ish attendees are around for kidlit stuff. But us onliners in particular should meet at some point on Friday so we know who's who.

Anyone wanna be one of the N (where N is hopefully large) co-organizers/co-hosts/co-everything along with me? Please??!!! Drop me a line or leave a comment and let's hatch a plan. Friday night seems right... but what else?

It's not all vacation fun, ya know...

Nope. As you journey elsewhere around the kidlitosphere, you'll find a hive of activity, including a whole bunch of author interviews.

Why, look -- here's a schedule of who's talking where!

It's mighty fine stuff, so get thee hence and read....

Boo!

Did I scare you after a three day quiet period? Huh? Did I? As it turns out, I was in a place with (drum roll please) NO internet or cell phone service!

OK, I'm sure there were ways around both, but at the end of the day... why fight it? It was quiet. Peaceful, other than the cows. Food was plentiful, and caffeine was available in warm, brown, coffee form. There was good company, a yellow pad which basically remained unused, and absolutely NOTHING that needed to be done.

In other words... down time!

But now I'm back, and I missed y'all. I'll resume a normal posting schedule of some sort hereabouts... until the next down time, whenever that might be!

A Poetry Friday Fib -- a poetry Friday poem

In case you didn't go see Susan's Poetry Friday article, I'm re-linking it here. And just for fun, I'm extracting and reposting my Poetry Friday Fib from it as my contribution to this week's fun. Multiple birds with one Fib! Gotta love it.


Post.
Link.
Unite.
Spread the cheer:
Fridays through the year,
Poetry fills the blogosphere.

It's Poetry, ya see....

So, of course it belongs on the Poetry Foundation website. What am I talking about? An excellent article about Poetry Fridays written by the kidlitosphere's own Chicken Spaghetti (also known as Susan!).

Check it out!

You go, you Laureate you...

Michael Rosen was named the UK's new Children's Laureate (a post soon to exist in the US, by the way). And what sayeth he?

"I want to see children’s poetry loosened from its shackles and for people to become freer and easier with poetry," he says.

Right on. Here's to two years of shackle-loosening!

Moving, shaking, and blogging

So, today was the day for Fuse #8's big move.

Find her doing her rockin' blog thang at School Library Journal now. Or wait til later in the week when I update my blogroll and click on that link. But you don't want to wait, do you?

People always ask me "why blog?" There are a ton of great reasons, of course, but I think Fuse's success (getting paid to blog, the high profile position, the cupcakes) is a nice encapsulation of some of the things that can happen if you're blogging the kidlitosphere (or any 'sphere you want, I suspect). Yes, the social aspect of blogging is still the big draw for me... but that social aspect also explains why everyone I've run across is thrilled about Fuse's success. It's a nice place, this kidlitosphere. I hope you'll all stick around....

GottaBook -- the fragrance?

I'm doing some heavy duty magazine reading this weekend, and all of a sudden, there's Antonia Banderas staring back at me from one fine tome in a full page ad for "Antonio -- the fragrance." So I start thinking of all those lists I made up back in the day of things I'd like to accomplish/do/be, and I gotta tell you that having a fragrance bearing my name was never one of them... which is probably a good thing, come to think of it, as I'd probably fall short of that goal.

Still, I propose to you all the idea of virtual scents. You know, rub a little GottaBook on for the "essence of Fibbery." The possibilities for Virtusmells (TM pending, as is Eau du Web) seem limitless. Or something like that, anyway.

I admit I'm happy that we haven't seen a Harry Potter cologne with some sort of wizard or magic tagline... but who knows what July will bring? Other than that distant possibility, I think this is one area where kidlit will steer clear of any involvement. ...

Sign o' the times....

Yes, when I miss Poetry Friday completely (links collected this week by Hip Writer Mama), you know that things were busy around here. Luckily, Friday returns with great regularity....

I also realized it's been some time since I gave any insight into how I waste my time online, in those rare moments I do so. Oh, sure, there's always Babble, but for elegance and amusement (and frustration!) combined, check out Stick Remover. The games listed along the side there are all worth checking out, in fact. If I had time to waste, I'd certainly give Double Wires a try. And Golf. And.... Only if you have the time, of course, and I know how busy you are....

And your weekend plans?

Do they involve the Mother Reader 48 Hour Book Challenge? Hmmm? You gotta go check out her sidebar to see how many folks are doing her challenge this year. It really shows the explosion of the kidlitosphere over the last year, I think. Or it shows that more people are willing to admit to spending 48 hours reading books. But in either case, it's a good thing.

When in need of posting material...

... my strategy is simply to borrow from Fuse (soon to be SLJFuse!). OK, that she borrowed from the equally borrowable Kidslit merely makes my post all the better, I say.

But really, how can you not just point to a book aimed at kids called...
The Sky's Not Falling!: Why It's OK to Chill About Global Warming.

No, I'm not making that up... though I must say a "enjoyed" the blurb, clearly not written by an unbiased source!

Poem Face

Sometimes in your sitemeter you get a search term that fills you with glee. Let me introduce you to "poem face" the most recent on my list.

Is it an insult?
A compliment?
A search for poetry about a face?

And what would a poem face look like? "Oh you with your iambic eyes, sometimes in trochee ye disguise"? Or is that Ode Face?

Inquiring minds want to know....

Oh, sure. Be that way.

You know I speak highly of the Disco Mermaids from time to time. Heck, I even tagged them recently (hint, hint) in a sign of respect (and taking advantage of their three-for-oneness). But this time... well...


Go read their "most expensive post ever" to see why they truly are the bee's knees.

They continue to raise the bar, though I'll continue to work diligently to lower it for the rest of us....

Hello, Summer! -- a last day of school poem/a summer vacation poem

'Tis the end of the school year in many parts, and I thought I'd celebrate this poetry Friday by tossing up a summer vacation/last day of school poem. And why not, I ask? Ya, I couldn't come up with a reason either.... Check out the Poetry Friday roundup over at adventures in daily living!

Hello, Summer! -- (A Last Day of School Poem)
by
Gregory K.


Goodbye, classroom!
Goodbye, Teach!
You can find me at the beach...
Or in the park or at the pool
Or any place that isn’t school.

Goodbye, quizzes!
Bye, reports!
Hello days packed full of sports
And days when I’m just lazybones
While eating melty ice cream cones.

Goodbye, homework --
Lunchroom, too.
There’s so, so much I wanna do.
I know the school year flew on past…
But please, please summer -- last and last.


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Triply Tagged!

Well, I'm not a big meme fellow, but today I was tagged and tagged and tagged again. I can take a hint! Behold, then, the 8 Things Meme....

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1) There's an X-Files character who shares my name.

2) I have held an Oscar. It was heavy!

3) I now know a frightening (to me) amount of Dewey Decimal numbers... and what they mean.

4) I have a copy of Winnie the Pooh in Esperanto. At one point in time I was convinced I'd learn Esperanto. Then... uh... I don't remember what happened, but I can safely say it's never been a problem that I'm not fluent.

5) I have seen every Abbott and Costello movie multiple times... but have definitely not seen a single one of them in the past 20 years.

6) Every year, I attempt to decaffeinate for two weeks. Please note the word "attempt."

7) At Christmas time, I can do The Grinch off book. The rest of the year, I can do far too much of The Lorax off book....

8) I have never met a Game Seven of a best of seven sporting event that I didn't like. Team Handball, Albania vs. Malta, Game Seven??? Let's make the popcorn!


I don't enjoy tagging others (hey, this is like a bonus factoid/habit!), but I'll give a meme-tag to Tina, Terry, all three Mermaids, and Alan, assuming they've all been tagged anyway (though please note that NONE of their blogs have proof of my supposition!).

Fib talking...

I don't talk about Fibs here as much as I'd like. I still write 'em, still enjoy 'em, and still am fascinated by how they spread... and continue to spread. I've seen Fibs in syllabi, in poetry journals, in poetry books, and all around the web, not just in the comments of my blog. In fact, this week alone I stumbled into a page devoted to fabulous Fibs, and learned of fellow blogger Minge relaunching his Fib Sundays.

As always, I love to hear about places y'all have encountered Fibs (of the poetic kind!), and in particular I love hearing stories of Fibbing in the classroom. So if you've got a good story, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me. Thanks!

And the survey says...

What better on a long weekend (well, long for those of us in the States, at least) than a report from the trusted news source... the Onion? Exactly. Nothing. And so...

Study: 38 Percent Of People Not Actually Entitled To Their Opinion

an excerpt:

"While people have long asserted that it takes all kinds, our research shows that American society currently has a drastic oversupply of the kinds who don't have any good or worthwhile thoughts whatsoever. We could actually do just fine without them."

More soon, but now I gotta book....

Oddaptation: If I Ran the Circus, If I Ran the Zoo, On Beyond Zebra, Scrambled Eggs Super

It's been a few months since my last Oddaptation (and if you're new to the concept, please see the label below or the links over on the right hand side of the blog to understand what an Oddaptation is (hint: attitudinal cliff notes) AND to see prior ones). In the interim, I'd gotten a couple notes asking me to Oddapt more Seuss. So I figured, huh, why not do a bunch of Seuss at once? I could probably add to this title (Happy Birthday to You, anyone?), but four books at once seemed enough. But if you feel the need for more than four, feel free to add to the list!


IF I RAN THE CIRCUS/IF I RAN THE ZOO/ON BEYOND ZEBRA/SCRAMBLED EGGS SUPER
by Dr. Seuss
Oddaptation by Gregory K.

These books share a gist:
Each works as a list.
The plots don’t much matter,
Though sometimes kershplatter.
You don’t know that word?
Then it’s time that you heard
These books invent things
Like pwabackalecklings.
So read ‘em aloud
To any size crowd
Or just son or daughter...
And wish they were shawter.




A Wrung Sponge has the Poetry Friday roundup! Get thee hence....

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C'est Impossible!

That's what it seems like to me when I realized that there's a whopping three weeks left to the school year... and when I realized that that type of thing has an impact on my life! Gone are the days, I guess, when school was but a distant memory....

So now I ask my fellow librarians/teachers -- any favorite end of the school year read-alouds? Think K through 3, and please hit me with your best shot!

Boom, Boom - Out Go the Lights!

So, last night was gonna be poetry writing night hereabouts. Don't get me wrong -- I write poetry all the time, but I never seem to have contiguous hours to do it, so I have been trying to reserve one or two nights a week to do nothing else. OK, maybe I pay bills if needed. Or a few other things. But the point is, it's poetry night!

Anyway, I'm getting mentally ready as the hour draws near. Sharpen the pens, start yellow pad number 28 (each pad having only 2 or 3 pages scrawled on it, of course), clear the brain of other thoughts. And all of a sudden -- it's dark. I mean TOTALLY dark. I mean the type of dark that you don't experience unless your power is out, and all your little green and blue and red lights that dot your house and indicate "power on" disappear. Because our power wasn't on. It was totally, utterly off.

I had a romantic notion of lighting candles and scribing in the flickering light. I saw myself dipping a quill into ink and working anyway. I visualized myself telling the story of brilliant poetry spewing forth the night the lights went out.

But it was really dark!

So, I followed the muse of Ben Franklin and went early to bed. This morning, indeed, it was early to rise (a blinking 12:00 if my clock is to be believed). And yes, the power's back... so pretty soon I expect to be healthy, wealthy, wise, and well lit. I'll let ya know how it goes, but now I gotta book.