If It's Friday, It Must be Poetry

Who's excited about National Poetry Month. Ooooh! Me! ME!!! I am really getting excited about this year's edition of 30 Poets/30 Days, kicking off April 1 right here. (Here's a link to last year's edition, for those unsure why I'm excited. All new poets and poetry this year... yay!).

There's going to be a lot else going on in the Kidlitosphere, too, and we'll explore more nearer April. In the meantime, though...

At Farm School, Becky has a fantastic post full of sources and ideas for National Poetry Month. Yow! You could spend all day here.

Over at Semicolon, Sherry is asking for list-submissions so she can put together a list of the Top 100 Classic Poems of all time (in this case meaning poems no longer under copyright so she can print them all on the blog!). It's not children's poetry specific, I know, but I do so love top 100 lists. Send her what you got!

And it's Poetry Friday, so why not head over to Becky's Book Reviews for the Roundup? Learn about The Spiney form of poetry. You know you want to....

The Los Angeles Public Library Crisis - Time to Act!

The Los Angeles Public Library, like many school and public library systems across the nation, is staring down the barrel of a possible budget cut. There are ways we can all help.

Here is their Save the Library site.

Please go check it out and see if there's anything you can do to help. Time is of the essence. Click over today.

Sharing Stories: A Gift That Lasts a Lifetime

When I was growing up, my father had one favorite book to read aloud to me: The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf (with illustrations by Robert Lawson). Well, actually, our copy was El Cuento de Ferdinando translated into Spanish by Pura Belpré, (with my father's re-translation back into English handwritten on each page by my mother).

In my memory, this was my goodnight book off and on for many years, sometimes read in English and sometimes in Spanish (which I didn't and sadly still don't understand).

In truth, I have no idea how many times I heard the story, but the words, the feeling, and the experience of sharing that time with my father all had an impact on me. A positive one.

My father read other books, too, and shared stories from newspapers, magazines, and wherever else he found them. When I headed off to college, he emailed stories he'd find to me (and I emailed ones I'd find back to him).

Later, I moved to Los Angeles, leaving my computer science degree unused to pursue my dream of being a screenwriter. Was that the influence of Ferdinand sending me off to find my own path? Perhaps. Certainly, my father smiled at the choice. Soon, I was writing stories... and my father was always one of my first readers.

I have two boys of my own now. I love to read aloud to them. I share books and poems and stories snuggled on the couch and from the front of the car and huddled around my computer and shouted from across the room and, well, wherever we are and wherever we find stories. They already share back.

I know research shows how important it is to read aloud to children. Literacy is so critical and that alone should be reason enough for dads (and moms) to read to their kids. But for me, the reasons to read aloud and share stories go deeper still.

When you share stories, they became part of the way you communicate. My father and I could use stories to share what excited us, to learn and teach, to help decipher the world, to connect with each other even thousands of miles apart. Understanding stories helped broaden my world and has made my life richer.

Best of all, though, sharing stories creates a bond, and a surprisingly strong one at that. And reading aloud with your child begins the process.

I've been the volunteer librarian at my sons' school for five years now, and when I walk across campus, it's not at all unusual for a student to run up to me to tell me what they're reading or to share a story of their own. Even there, with me only reading to them once a week, story has created a connection. You can capture that at home. It isn't hard.

Pick your favorite books or let your child pick. Read what excites you from a magazine or newspaper or read what you think might excite them. Be enthusiastic, no matter what you're reading (even when it's a book you can't believe they like), and show your child that you have the time for them, that you care what they like, that you are listening, and you are sharing.

And remember, reading aloud is an experience... a shared moment... and not a race to the end of the story.

By reading aloud, you will make a positive impact, often in ways you never even contemplated.

You see, my father passed away about a dozen years ago. Yet to this day, when I see any copy of The Story of Ferdinand, not just my childhood copy which I still have, I can hear my father reading to me...

And like Ferdinand himself, I am very happy.

So share a story. Shape a future. Read aloud to your kids and give a gift that lasts a lifetime.

(I'm proud to be a part of the kick off day of Share a Story - Shape a Future, a week-long reading and literacy related blog event. Click through to learn more and see links to some wonderful posts throughout the blogosphere.)

The peek at the iPad book

If you haven't seen the video of Penguin's demonstration of what they're doing on the iPad, you can head over to the Happy Accident and take a peek. And you should take a peek, as I think it puts to rest the argument that kids and e-books aren't likely to mix (not that that's ever been a valid argument).

Is it a book? Does that matter? It's a path towards keeping kids reading, seems to me, and isn't likely to wipe out printed books. Still, the days of the simple PDF equivalent e-book are numbered, seems to me.

As one of my favorite teachers used to say on his tests, "Feel free to discuss." Then it wasn't optional, though here it is!

Thank You! Thank You, Sam-I-Am! - a thank you poem

Thank You! Thank You, Sam-I-Am!
by
Gregory K.

Would you like to learn to read?
     All books are dull. I see no need.

All books are dull? No! Take a look –
Green Eggs and Ham! Here, try this book.

Fine.
If you will let me be,
I will try it. You will see.

Say...
Say!
This book is great! I see the need -
I understand why I should read!

Now I will read books on a train
And in a car and on a plane.
And I will read while in a house
And in a box and with a mouse.
Now I will read books here and there.
Yes, I will read books anywhere!

I do so like Green Eggs and Ham!
Thank you! Thank you, Sam-I-Am!

This poem was actually inspired by a contest (and originally left as a comment in a slightly different form) at OPWFT. And since Tuesday was Dr. Seuss's birthday... call it a tribute and thanks to him, too.

This week's Poetry Friday Roundup is over at TeachingBooks.net (a fantastic resource as the roundup post itself will show!). Get thee hence!

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!

Whether You Say "What? A Day?" or "What a Day!"...

... tomorrow, March 4th, is National Grammar Day!

I'm particularly excited, because NGD was founded by Martha Brockenbrough... who I've actually heard talk about grammar (and laughed as I listened. She's funnnnny.). And on top of that... she also writes for kids! Another reason to support the day, I say.

Tomorrow, I plan to punctuate my day with joy (and commas). And you? How will you celebrate?

30 Poets/30 Days - the 2010 Edition Tease

31 days!!!! That's all the time that's left until National Poetry Month... and here at GottaBook, the kickoff of 30 Poets/30 Days - 2010!

Last year was the inaugural 30 Poets event, and it was such fun for me that I'm doing it again.

So where's the list of participating poets, you ask? Hey... I'm a tease - I'm not sharing yet. I can tell you it has some overlap with the fabulous Poetry Makers series at the Miss Rumphius Effect... and that it has lots of non-overlap, too.

And I can definitely say it's a stellar list of amazing poets all, once again, sharing previously unpublished work - a different poem/poet every day in April - to celebrate the month.

Stay tuned for more hints and announcements as the month goes on. And I hope you'll stick around - it's gonna be a poetry party!

Two Great Blog Lists (and... Win Me!)

OK, fine... you can only win me doing a social media consultation, and you can only win if you enter before February is done. Still, why not head over to my giveaway at the Happy Accident and enter? It's freeeeee!

If you don't want to win a consultation, you should still head over there... because there's now a list of more than 60 recommended blogs with reasons why you might like 'em. Plus, there's nearly 60 bloggers doing the recommending, and they run some mighty good blogs, too. Let me tell you, there's GOOD stuff there.

I also want to direct you to another fabulous list of bloggers right here at GottaBook. Check those folks out! You'll be glad you did.

A Carnival. A Roundup. You'll Keep Busy.

If it's Friday, that means there's a Poetry Friday Roundup! This week's is hosted over at Check It Out (where Jone is once again hosting a postcard poetry project for April - you can get an original student composition mailed to you to celebrate National Poetry Month!).

Today also brings the new Carnival of Children's Literature, hosted at Sally Apokedak's Whispers of Dawn. As usual, it's chock full of good reading material.

Seems like enough for a Friday. If you run out of material to read, just let me know. I can find more!

My First Ever Giveaway!

I've never had a giveaway or contest here on GottaBook or anywhere else on the web, for that matter. That's changing though... at least the second part of it.

Over at The Happy Accident, I'm giving away a social media consultation of the type I've been doing at conferences: you get homework which will tell me what you are doing in social media (if anything) and what you hope to accomplish. Then I read your homework, write up notes for you, and spend 30 minutes talking it all over with you. And yes, you're encouraged to ask questions!

These have proven popular and productive at conferences, so I'm now offering them outside of that environment, too. This one, however, is freeeeeeeeeeeee.

Click here to see how to enter to win ME (well, kinda :-)).

Blogoversary or Blogiversary? Either Way... Today is Mine!

I'm not sure why I've always spelled this (utterly made up) event Blogoversary. I'm not alone... there's support out there for that spelling, if you search the web. But then again, if you search "blogiversary" you see that that is what Neil Gaiman calls it, and he's had way more of them then I have.

But whichever it is, today is my fourth here at GottaBook, and I'm happy about that. Last month, I celebrated my 1,000th post and gotten an amazing list of wonderful bloggers (you'll be doing yourself a favor if you check them out!), so for now I think I'll keep this low-key. Unless I get an idea, of course. The great thing about having your blog is that... well... it's your blog! As the past four years have shown hereabouts, that means you can do anything you want whenever you want to. Cool.

Thanks to all of y'all for hanging out with me now, in the past, and, I hope, in the future.

Oddaptation Redux - Goodnight Moon

This was the first Oddaptation I wrote and the first I posted, too. Oddaptations are basically short, rhyming Cliff Notes with an edge... and of picture books. And yes, I get hits from Google from people looking for picture book notes all the time.

GOODNIGHT MOON -- Margaret Wise Brown
Oddaptation by Gregory K.

That great room is green.
That old lady’s spooky.
That half eaten bowlful of mush is quite ooky.
That Cow on the wall has leapt off of the ground,
And someone named Nobody’s walking around.
All over the room runs a squeaky, small mouse…
So I hope you sleep well in this creepy, weird house.


The Poetry Friday roundup is up at Irene Latham's Live. Love. Explore! I hope you'll go check it out.

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!

The Percy reviews are in....

I spent the last couple days asking lots of kids what they thought of the Percy Jackson movie. In general, they liked it... but all of them who had read the book said "it's nothing like the book."

There were many reasons - missing characters and missing setpieces high among them - the biggest reason was, as one 2nd grader said simply "they took away all the character stuff."

Adapting a book like the Lightning Thief for film is incredibly hard. Clearly, there was a choice made to try to appeal to a bigger audience by aging up the characters, but that wasn't what bothered the kids I talked to (and based on first weekend grosses, seems to have been a good choice). Instead, it was taking away the emotional stories they connected to. And here again is a challenge of book to film - Rick Riordan could set up so much about the half-bloods and their camp with the luxury of time that a film doesn't have. From the kids I talked to, though, the happy medium wasn't found.

As for me... I preferred the book, too, but wasn't looking at my watch during the movie. And you?

The Writing Olympics

Why aren't there such a thing as the Writing Olympics? I mean, I can close my eyes and hear the commentators at the Poetry event...

"Oh, he nailed that double dactyl! In practice his rhythm was off, but he landed perfectly on his metrical feet tonight!"

The judges in the Free Verse arena would no doubt be a cause of controversy. Over in persuasive writing, no one would know what to think for long. And the winner in the Crime category would always be accused of having stolen victory from the jaws of defeat.

Feel free to leave other categories here or tell me where I can find the actual Writing Olympics. Cuz I'm in! I've been training for this my whole life....

The Cybils are Announced!

The 2009 Cybils winners have been posted!

As always, it's a great group of books. I was a member of the poetry committee that chose Joyce Sidman's Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors (with illustrations that nabbed a Caldecott honor by Pamela Zagarenski). It's a knockout of a book.

Congatulations to all the winners, quite a few of whom I know this year. If the other categories were like Poetry, these were hard choices as there simply is sooooo much good stuff out there. So check out the short lists, too, if you're in need of books to read or recommend.

A Poetry Re-issue: Book Report on the Dictionary

BOOK REPORT ON THE DICTIONARY
by
Gregory K.

I found the plot missing,
The dialog weak.
I kept waiting and waiting for someone to speak.

The characters bored me.
In fact, there weren’t any!
The jokes were not funny, and there weren’t too many.

The book started slowly.
The middle lacked energy.
And what type of ending is “zymotic, zymurgy”?

The authors have talent
But need to refine it...
'Cause if there's a point here, they failed to define it.


Since I promised a little retrospective betwixt my 1,000th post and upcoming blogoversary, what better poem to reprint than the only one that ever led to angry, angry mail here at GottaBook? Yes, you see, the edition of the dictionary my correspondent had did NOT have those two words at the end, and, while they understood I had taken poetic license with the concept, it was totally pointless for me to make up fake words when I could use real ones. Oh, to have sent them this link! But I didn't :-)

The Poetry Friday roundup is over at my friend Lee Wind's I'm Here, I'm Queer. What the Hell Do I Read? (a fantastic blog and resource, by the way). Go off and find yourself a poetry post to love, I tell ya!

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!

Pop-Up E-Books?

Today I did a show-aloud during library time, letting kids see Matthew Reinhart's Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy. Suffice to say that they liked it, even the ones who didn't care much about the ice planet of Hoth or which droid was R2D2 or not.

And then, as my mind is prone to do, I was thinking about convergence - in this case, how pop-ups and ebooks are going to mix. As it stands now, even with what I know of the iPad, the idea of buying this book in an electronic version is a non-starter.

Still, as 3-D technology advances, I wonder. Will computer algorithms based on folding be able to create even more dazzling books? Imagine being able to open a new "page" frame by frame so you could see the intricate folding that enables opening and closing of the book. Imagine not being constrained by the dimensions of your book? And imagine that no matter how many times you opened the book, you couldn't damage it so that it didn't fold smoothly?

Would it be the same experience as the awe we get from holding a great pop-up book and realizing that someone actually was able to do the work that enables the treat we're holding? Probably not. But could it be a wonderful, immersive experience that could lead to great storytelling potential? Yes, I can see that.

And you?

Books and Flicks

I know there must be some of you here who don't read Betsy Bird, aka Fuse #8's blog, so I want to shoo you all over there, as she has started to count down the Top 100 Chapter Books of All Time (at least based on her poll results). This promises to be a great series of posts.

And then... I just gotta ask... what are you all thinking about the upcoming Percy Jackson/Lightning Thief movie?

My first reaction when I saw the trailer was that those aren't 12 year olds. But beyond that, well, I know I'm gonna go see it. And y'all?

A Poetry Friday Guest: Barney Saltzberg!

Ooooh! I have a guest! And not just any guest, but Barney Saltzberg - a singing, songwriting, illustrating, picture book and poetry writing guest. The piece of a poem that follows is an excerpt from his book All Around the Seasons, coming out next week. Can anyone guess how many poems/seasons are in the book? Good - all of you who said four can stay late and help clean the erasers.


WINTER
by
Barney Saltzberg

A carrot nosed friend
Appears in the yard;
Forever smiling
A snowman stands guard.

Flickering candles,
Reindeer and sleighs,
Twinkling lights-
Hooray, holidays!

Gliding on ice,
Bundled in fleece.
Silently snow falls;
Winter is peace.

(© 2010 by Barney Saltzberg)

---

If you've ever had the luck to see Barney Saltzberg perform or use one of his books as a read-aloud, I'd be willing to bet you've heard kids' laughter. Heck, in my library, kids started laughing when I showed them the title The Soccer Mom from Out of Space (then kept laughing all the way through).

All Around the Seasons (from Candlewick) is for the younger crowd and as the piece of Winter up above shows, it's not just about the laughs. Seasons is instead about that warm, happy, fun reading-in-the-lap time feeling, seems to me. And that is something we can always use.

Thanks for stopping by (both you and Barney)... and if you haven't already, why not head on over to the Poetry Friday roundup, happily hosted over at Great Kid Books? You'll get Langston Hughes and book reviews and poems and more, more, more.

It's TIME.

And by that I mean TIME for Kids... because they're having a poetry contest.

Kids can send in a funny, rhyming poem for a chance to win an online class visit from the verrrrrrrry funny Kenn Nesbitt. They can also win his new book, The Tighty Whitey Spider, once it comes out in April. Oh yeah... and see their poems published on the TIME for Kids site, too.

March 15th is the deadline, a couple weeks before National Poetry Month begins. Good! Poetry should be written year round, after all.