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By:
Faith Pray,
on 4/27/2016
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Apparently, it's Poetry Month.
Only, I've been a little distracted.
I skipped off to the city
for my local SCBWI meeting -
an art show,
a lecture from book-wise and witty
editors Mary Kate Castellani and Caroline Abbey,
and then a consultation and workshop with
art director, professor, and story genius Joy Chu.
This is the same Joy who guided me over the last two winters
in visual storytelling classes through the UCSD online extension program.
I'm still reeling with inspiration.
I could have listened for days. Months. Years.
Now I'm home, all bright and hopeful,
waiting for my brain to shape so many beautiful tips
and ideas into working order.
Time to let the front thoughts simmer.
Time to play with poetry.
We started with a poet-tree.
The wildebeests and I cut out branchy trees and labeled each branch with simple word:
sky, go, sea, etc.
Next, we cut out dozens of leaves - in all flutters of color,
because it just looks more exciting that way.
Each branch grew rhyming leaf words:
sky = cry, my, pie, etc.
Because we like to make life even more thrilling, and sometimes complicated,
I thought it might be fun for the older wildebeests to thread their leaves on yarn.
Winnie added a button.
Pip used gold pen. She's really into gel pens lately.
And their finished masterpieces.
I'd love to meet a tree like this someday, shimmering with colors, yarns, and words!
I think I'd move in.
I'll share more poetry play next time.
Until then, here are a few favorites:
A Kick in the Head, An Every Day Guide to Poetic Forms - compiled by Paul Janeczko, ill. by Chris Raschka
The Random House Book of Poetry - edited by Jack Prelutsky, ill. by Arnold Lobel
Switching on the Moon - collected by Jane Yolen and Andrew Peters, ill. by G. Brian Karas
Chicken Soup With Rice - by Maurice Sendak
When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne, ill. by Ernest Shepard
Now We Are Six By A.A. Milne, ill. by Ernest Shepard
We like to masquerade in these parts.
Especially when learning our Pacific Northwest animals.
Especially when all fuzzed up about pumpkins and costumes.
I started with a few sketches,
the kids made their own beautiful batches,
and Voila!
Wildebeests, unite!
Need a quick costume this week?
I'm offering a few freebies for your personal or classroom use.
{Please note that these images are my original art.
They're not to be sold or passed off as anyone else's work.
Thanks!}
To use, just drag the image to your desktop,
print on card stock,
color at will!
Crayon, colored pencils or watercolor work just fine.
We also tried gouache and acrylic gel medium, for hoots.
Birdie asked if she could change her name to Owly-Whoo.
When you finish all that lovely color,
cut out and fix for wearing!
Our salmon puppet has a popsicle stick taped to his back.
Did you know sockeye salmon turn red when they spawn? I did not.
The wildebeests told me.
I guess this means they are learning something in the midst
of my art diversions.
Yarn or ribbon is an easy tie for the masks.
Hey, anything for a party, right?
Anything for a printable, coloring, educational, masquerade party!
That's right. We mask merry around these parts.
Happy hoots!
Books!
S is for Salmon - Hannah Viore
123 Moose! by Art Wolfe, ill. by Andrea Helman
Have You Heard the Nesting Bird? by Rita Gray, ill. by Kenard Pak
North - The Amazing Story of Arctic Migration, by Nick Dowson, ill. by Patrick Benson
A House in the Woods by Inga Moore
Leaves by David Ezra Stein
Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson, ill. by Jane Chapman
Once Upon a Memory by Nina Laden, ill. by Renata Liwska
Kiss Goodnight by Amy Hest, ill. by Anita Jeram
A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd
By:
Faith Pray,
on 3/6/2013
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Some children are raised by wolves.
Others, by creatives.
And really, is there a difference?
Sometimes, the lines between "creative" and "fur-brained" blur.
And that's the beauty of it.
To be a creative,
you get to strap on your courage boots every day
and write,
paint,
parent,
sew, stitch, cook - whatever your bent -
and be prepared
for surprises.
Surprises like tears and paper wadding.
Snapping pencils.
Earnest screwdrivering until the cabinet doors fall off.
(Thank you for that, my wildebeests.)
Havoc.
Howling at the moon.
Eating paint.
raised-by-wolves days,
and sometimes, gleams of brilliance.
Have I mentioned this book?
"The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, the Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood and illustrated by Jon Klassen
(the Caldecott 2013 doublescoop!)
I love this book! I am in a happy swoon.
Jane Austen meets Agatha Christie meets Alexander McCall Smith, only with heaps of originality and humor. Well done, Maryrose Wood. Wow. wow. wow.
More wolf-ishness we love:
[For the record, and in case any great-grandmothers are concerned:
dry ice is considered dangerous in some contexts.
As such, it should probably not be given to toddlers...however, the children in these pictures were skillfully trained stunt-models, posing as children, and obediently avoided actually touching the ice.]
By:
Faith Pray,
on 2/27/2013
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I am Icharus.
Except instead of wax and feathers,
I'm patched together with glitter glue,
writing morsels and
cups of hot tea.
Struck by a blaze of new story lightning,
I'm going down.
That's a good thing, right?
...Right?
Muttering at walls, scribbling
"Words are my wings!" on sticky notes,
covered in ink smudges,
I'm delightedly doomed.
But not too doomed
to help with peg dolls.
Indeed!
And Ancient Greek peggies at that.
Athena, patron of wisdom, and arts and crafts!
She's an owl lady.
Aphrodite, patron of love.
Posiedon. Sea guy. And that's his trident.
Hera, wife of Zeus, patron of marriage.
Peacock lady.
Also compared to a cow in some circles.
Now you know.
Parthenon?
Ruler. Cardboard. Scissors. Tape. White glue.
And now for the drum-roll, please...
we'd like to announce a winner!
A hearty thanks to all of you who entered
Margaret Bloom's
Making Peg Dolls giveaway,
and thank you to
Margaret for the fantastic blog tour.
Our winner is...
Barb Davis-Pyles. Congratulations, Barb!
I hope you will all go out and find this beautiful book.
You are going to LOVE it.
And did you know SACRED DIRT has a
facebook page?
"Like it" to get posts on the beautiful mess of artsy writing,
daily dirt, and parenting sent directly to your facebook feed.
Ancient Greece on the page:
Greek Myths For Young Children, by Heather Amery, ill. Linda Edwards
Explore Ancient Greece!
Greek Myths - Ann Turnbull, ill. by Sarah Young
A Gift From Zeus - Jeanne Steig, ill. by William Steig
The Adventures of Odysseus, by Hugh Lupton, Daniel Morden, ill. by Christina Balit
Aesop's Fables - Lisbeth Zwerger
By:
Faith Pray,
on 2/10/2013
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Here we go again!
Tomorrow is the big day.
Tonsils out!
I'm reading about the hero's journey lately -
the road a character takes
to become changed in a story
- a.k.a the story arc.
Writing and life are so linked, don't you think?
We're all on a journey.
We face monsters, magic, trials, portals every day - they just look a little different in real life.
Tests, school, work, laundry...
Pip's monster this week is tonsils.
We're trying to equip her with happy times,
to sustain her on the road of liquid food and couch time.
So we took her ice skating.
And experimented with pennies.
and made some copper valentines.
Did you know salt and vinegar can make some pretty impressive green crystals?
Then it was time for invisible ink, made of baking soda and water.
and purple cabbage juice to reveal our secret messages.
Very spy-like.
To go with the spy theme, I'm making her a book treasure hunt.
Like the book
geo-caching we did last year when Winnie said goodbye to her tonsils.
  |
| Sticky note clues hidden in favorite books: "The Nutcracker" ill. by Maurice Sendak, "The 5,000 Year-Old Puzzle," ill. by Melissa Sweet | | |
|
And speaking of books,
Margaret Bloom's "Making Peg Dolls" book giveaway is coming to my blog soon!
Stay tuned!
Happy, healthy hearts to you!
Sick days, valentines, and writers' journeys:
By:
Faith Pray,
on 12/12/2012
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We made ornaments this week...for the birds.
Because they ate all our cherries this year?
Because they pecked holes in the eaves
and made attic nests?
Heh.
But then we went birding.
A day's adventure into the wet, into the wind,
unconnected
from my technical world,
no busy busy, no run arounds, no errand hopping,
just listening.
Squinting into far off brambles.
Surprisingly, I connected. With the herons in the tree.
With the brown-headed eagle, the sparrows, the finches.
Like the time we stumbled on a barn owl and we lingered there, watching,
till the sky turned shadowy.
Or the day we pulled over the car to observe scores of starlings bathe in muddy puddles.
Maybe it's just the act of stopping
in the midst of a life that whirls
-watching birds go about their day,
breathing in a piney forest,
feeling rain pelt and pummel -
Maybe that's what slows me down.
wakes me up.
brings me peace.
And peace is what we all need this time of year.
So we made gifts for the birds.
I never thought I'd buy lard.
Or thistle seeds, for that matter.
Who needs more thistles? Birds, I guess.
So we squished together birdseed "cookies,"
threaded cheerios onto pipe cleaners
and bent them into hearts.
Where did Birdy's cheerios go?
The big kids strung popcorn, nuts and apples into garlands.
I cut up felt and old jeans and t-shirts into bird-ish shapes
for ornaments and pins.
It was a good project for little sewists.
And then we gathered our bounty
and strung it up
in the climbing tree.
"I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
- and wild and sweet
- The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
- Had rolled along
- The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
- A voice, a chime,
- A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
- "For hate is strong,
- And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
- The Wrong shall fail,
- The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Peace to you, my friends...
peace that lifts,
peace with wings.
And some beauteous books to warm your winter!
The Birds of Bethlehem - Tomie dePaola
Night Tree - Eve Bunting, Ted Rand
The Candle in the Forest - compiled by Joe L. Wheeler
Uncle Vova's Tree - Patricia Polacco
The Trees of the Dancing Goats - Patricia Polacco
The Birds' Christmas Carol - Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Mitten - Barbara McClintock
The Mitten - Jan Brett
The Money We'll Save - Brock Cole
Owl Babies - Martin Waddell, Patrick Benson
Owl Moon - Jane Yolen, John Schoenherr
No Two Alike - Keith Baker
By:
Faith Pray,
on 10/4/2012
Blog:
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Peanut shell sacrcopha-guys.
Yes, I know.
We're nuts.
I like to think of research as
permission to plunge overboard,
to get lost in your story world
in order to find it.
Some people tape maps to the walls
and wear fuzzy Russian hats.
Others swear by magazine clippings.
Hungarian folk music.
Books on fly fishing.
French chocolate.
We wear pipe cleaner headdresses.
What's your research quirk? 
Can you tell what we're into these days?
It helps that King Tut's treasure is only a ferry ride away.
We said our howdies to the Pharaohs
and hopped home, hot about Egypt.
I buried old pottery shards for a "Dig."
Kids + Dirt = Heaven!
When I was sixteen, my parents took us to Egypt.
Valley of the Kings, pyramids and the Sphinx
all did their dazzling best.
And then there was this old dump,
littered with broken scraps.
At the time, mum and dad seemed so very un-cool
sifting through that Egyptian dump,
selecting a few shards to bring home.
But who's my mummy now?
Oh yeah!
There has never been such excitement in our backyard.
My fake gold necklace
came in handy
as the crowning discovery.
Treasure!
Hieroglyphs + Clay = Name cartouches!
Sarcophagi:
Our wee coffins
are nothing more than
peanut shells, paint,
and gold pens for a little extra pizazz.
That's it in a nutshell.
So many great books to share with you! The 5,000-Year-Old Puzzle - Claudia Logan, Melissa Sweet
Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile - Tomie dePaola
The Egyptian Cinderella - Shirley Climo, Ruth Heller
The Secret Room - Uri Shulevitz
Zekmet, the Stone Carver - Mary Stoltz, Deborah Nourse Lattimore
How the Sphinx Got to the Museum - Jessie Hartland
The Three Princes - Eric A. Kimmel, Leonard Everett Fisher
One City, Two Brothers - Chris Smith, Aurelia Fronty
Exodus - Brian Wildsmith
I, Crocodile - Frank Marcellino
The Shipwrecked Sailor - Tamara Bower
The Jewel Fish of Karnak - Graeme Base
By:
Faith Pray,
on 10/26/2011
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Why Speed Scrabble is good for writers...
Every Tuesday,
I visit the classroom
and play "literacy sort" with six and seven year-olds.
We cut words from paper
and shuffle them around
to find out how they are similar or different.
Most of the kids are okay with this sorting game,
but one of my new friends
is traumatized.
He wants his little word scraps to stay in one place,
straight as soldiers, unsullied by battle.
As a writer enamored with my first drafts, I sympathize.
It's painful to step back from your work.
A good pair of pruning shears can help.
Or a few rounds of Speed Scrabble.
Love it. :)
Thanks for the book recommendation!
If you like Alexander MS as I do, you'll LOVE Alan Bradley...the author of "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" and sequels. Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. We just had a library book by Jon Klassen...I Want My Hat, I think it was. Again, fabulous!
ooh -- photos of paint-covered babies! love it!!
xo
Faith, Bloom, thank you. I love having such dear blog buddies.
Knitty, happy baby to you! And I can't wait to try the book recommendations. Thank you!
I love the the Incorrigibles! I've read them all so far. Funny to read your post today. I just read The true story of The Three Little Pigs to my son; we're going to see the play tomorrow. Time to get into our Wolf point of view.