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   10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston & illustrated by Rich Deas “Looky!” says a silly turkey swinging from a vine. Gobble gobble wibble wobble. Whoops! Now there are nine.” Girls and boys will gobble up this hilarious counting story about ten goofy turkeys roller-skating on a fence, doing a noodle dance, and more! Give …

My husband was in Wales recently for a conference and heard Welsh poet Gillian Clarke read there.  I knew I’d heard of Clarke; in fact, I found her on The Childrens Poetry Archive website where you can hear her read the poem Legend.  I was therefore happy to find at my local library a book of poems edited by Clarke that is very appropriate for Halloween. The Whispering Room Haunted Poems (illustrated by Justin Todd, Kingfisher, 1996) is a collection of poetry chosen by Clarke on the theme of  ‘haunting.’   As Clarke says in the preface, “Haunting is all about imagination, and the best imaginers are poets and children.”

My daughter and I committed ourselves to reading a poem or two each night out of this anthology (while finishing off The Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson!) leading up to Halloween.  I find reading poetry with her helpful in teaching her about poetic language and concepts such as rhyme.   I let her pick out the poems she would like to try and then we have a go at them.  Flipping through the book together, I was quite struck by Justin Todd’s arresting illustrations, some of which drew me to certain poems.

What books are you reading to your child for Halloween?  Any good poetry titles?  Do share and spread the word!  Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Diane Mayr at Random Noodling.

Today's word of the day is: Workshop

I'm back from Nashua, where the New England SCBWI conference was a huge success and my four-hour workshop on web design and blogging was well-attended and well-received. The grand finale was a live update of my website to include news about the presentation itself, thanks to a kind volunteer photographer in the audience.

That's my new website design in the background, and see how exhausted I looked by that point? Since I was presenting for both sessions on Sunday, I didn't get to attend the equally well-received workshops going on at the same time:

• Toni Buzzeo on self-promotion;
• Brian Lies and Lita Judge on illustration;
• Sarah Aronson on point of view;
• Harold Underdown on an overview of the basics;
• Debra Garfinkle on humor writing;
• Emily Herman and Anne Sibley O'Brien on writing tools;
• Sarah Shumway on pitches; or
• The Write Sisters (Janet Buell, Kathy Deady, Muriel Dubois, Diane Mayr, Andrea Murphy, Barbara Turner, and Sally Wilkins) on critique groups and collaboration

by Annie Bryant

Traits you could use to describe me:
1) An actress
2) Top favorite actress is Audrey Hepburn
3) Dream roles include Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady"
4) Loves classic movies (and quoting from movies)

The main character in Maeve on the Red Carpet shares each of these traits with me. As I read, it was a little startling - I mean, is this author stalking me or something?!

If you have any of the above things in common with me and Maeve, you will probably like this book. It's really cute, fun, and fast-paced (albeit predictable). The book is pure fluff - if Harry Potter is a four-course meal, this is only cotton candy. But since I adore stories about filming and aspiring actresses, I adored this book. Especially since the heroine and I had so much in common. ;)

Thanks to Jen for recommending this title.