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1)Where are you reading from today?

Cybils books! I'm a first round judge for the Middle Grade/ Young Adult Nonfiction category.

2)Three random facts about me…

1. I can knit while I read.
2. On Monday, a delegation of municipal government employees from Jiangsu Province in the People's Republic of China came to my library. I got to welcome them and answer questions using my Chinese skills. It's the first time I ever really used Chinese at work in a work-related way.
3. I used to live in England. My first job there was the night shift at a call center travel agency. We were, like 50 different travel agencies (Sky, Morgan Stanley, AOL etc) and my computer flashed up which one the customer was calling so I knew how to answer the phone.

3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?

63 (There have been 76 books nominated in my category, but I've already read 13.) I know I won't read all of them.

4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?

Well, I can knit while I read. I hope to finish knitting the baby sweater I'm working on (only the knitting bit, not the weaving in ends/sewing of seams bit) and get cast on for the next baby project, so I can finish it before she outgrows it.

5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?

Alternate your coffee intake with water
Spend 5 minutes every hour doing yoga or crazy dance party or something.
Finger food that you don't have to prep and can eat while reading is key

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Well, I'm 35 minutes late, but it's time for me to start Dewey's Read-a-thon!

This is my first read-a-thon since the Kung Fu Princess arrived on the scene and she's calling the shots today, so we'll see what happens. Today I'll be reading books that have been nominated for the 2011 Cybils awards in Middle Grade/Young Adult nonfiction.

I won't be speed-reading through them just to read as much as possible-- I'll be reading normally, thinking if they meet that magic balance of excellence and reader appeal.

So, let the reading begin!

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

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It's once again time for Dewey's Read-a-Thon! Yay!

It starts at noon GMT on Saturday October 22 and goes for 24 hours. It'll be my first Read-a-Thon with my Kung Fu Princess. I forsee mad reading during naptimes and lots of reading out loud (she's already heard large portions of Middlemarch) at other times. And no staying up all night to read, but depending on how she sleeps that night, some random 3am updates.

I'm in! Are you?

Signups are here.

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Well, I've been to the store, cleaned the house, and packed for my trip tomorrow.

It's time to start reading.

There's no way I'll be defending my record of 42 hours reading that I set last year, but I do hope to get to 20.

Remember-- I'm donating $1 to Bridget Zinn for everyone who participates in the challenge (you need the start and end post on MotherReader) and another $1 for everyone who reads 20+ hours!

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Tammy's Book Nook is hosting this one.

What is you favorite non-fiction book and why? What genre(s) do you enjoy and are there particular writers that you would recommend to others? If you don't read non-fiction, why not?

I have a really hard time trying to come up with my favorite nonfiction book. Some of my favorites include Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler, Last Days of Old Beijing by Michael Meyer, and the Zipes translation of the Complete Tales of the Brothers Grimm.

I tend to read a lot of history, especially Chinese history and a lot of books about Modern China and the vast amount of change that is happening on the mainland right now. I'm sure you will be shocked to learn that my BA is in History, with a minor in Chinese. Some of my favorite authors are Peter Hessler and Shuyun Sun. I also like nonfiction about food. I've been reading a lot of that lately.

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Ok, I just finished the new Sisters Grimm book, The Everafter War. Wow.

I'm about to start I Want Candy by Kim Wong Keltner but here's this hour's mini-challenge, the midway survey!

1.What are you reading right now?

I'm about to start I Want Candy

2. How many books have you read so far?

3 full books, about 200 pages of 2 other books.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

I don't know what I'm going to read. I have a huge stack and am just picking through them as the mood strikes. No idea which ones I'm going to choose.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

As much as I love Read-a-thon, I wasn't about to cancel my vacation or end it early! So, my entire day wasn't free. Luckily reading is easy to do on airplanes and in gate areas. And, as I had to grab my checked luggage to take it through customs, I even got to switch out which books were in my carry-on.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

All my interruptions have been travel related (time to get off the plan! time to get on the plane!) I didn't really have a choice, so I just kinda went with them.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

Well, this is far from my first one. So nothing so far.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

Nothing is coming to mind...

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

I would plan my books better. I usually do plan my read-a-thon books, but with me being gone all week, the new system at work, and the piles and piles of required reading to do as well as an absurd number of books that need to be returned to the library, that just wasn't going to happen this time around.

9. Are you getting tired yet?

Right now, I am 5 hours behind GMT, but when I woke up this morning, I was an hour ahead of it. I'm not entirely sure what day it is. Jetlag, however, seems to be working in my favor or something? I don't know. I'm just going with it.

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?

Music to dance to!

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Here are my responses for Jessica's mini-challenge.

1. What is the name of your local library? What city is it located in?

My local branch is the very creatively named "Columbia Pike Library" in Arlington, VA.

1. How often do you go to the library? If you're a regular, do the staff know you?

Well, see, this is my local library. I work at a different library. I go to the my workplace 5 days a week, so I tend to only go to my local branch when they have something that the system I work for doesn't. Or if there's a long wait for a book at work, but not in Arlington. I probablygo every other month or so. The staff doesn't know me. I'm a quick-in-and-out type of girl, especially as the dog is usually waiting for me outside!

1. Do you browse while you're there or just pick up items you have placed on reserve?

I might do a quick look-through, but it's usually just to pick up reserves.

1. What is your favorite thing about your local library?

I can walk there! It's super-close and my favorite coffee shop is on my way home.

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Well, it's Hour 10.5 of Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon. I've been participating this whole time! I've read about 7.5 of the hours so far. The 24 hours started half-way through my flight from Brussels to the US, so I had about 3 hours of passport control, baggage claim, customs, connecting flights and randomly falling back asleep.

I finished reading Socialism is Great! By Lijia Zhang and read all of by Grace Cavendish and Gold! A Lady Grace Mystery by Grace Cavendish and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. That last one counts for about a billion reading challenges I'm participating in. I also started Octavian Nothing Traitor to the Nation: Kingdom of Waves by MT Anderson. I'll get back to it, but my latest Sisters Grimm novel was waiting for me when I got home, so I'm going to read that instead!

Some literary highlights of my trip:

While flying into Manchester, we TOTALLY flew over Lyme Park, aka Pemberly.
I saw the Georgia Nicholson movie, which was quite well done, if not entirely faithful.
Went to a book store and on the way walked by 84 Charing Cross Road in London. It appears to be a Pizza Hut. Also, in London? Theatre District is also the Book District is also China Town. It was 85 shades of awesome.
King's Cross is under renovation so platforms 9 and 10 no longer share a barrier! But they still have the sign up, just around the corner. It was full of adults, all looking rather sheepish as they took their pictures.
I'm sure there was something literary in Belgium, but I was too focused on chocolate, waffles, frites, and beer to notice.

Overall, a great trip. I'm back to reading!

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Hours Spent Reading: 14 (ok, a lot of this also involved general messing around online, and mini challenges...)

Mini Challenges Completed/Won: 11 (12?)/1

Books Read: 7

Pages Read: 1187

Girl, 15, Charming But Insane Sue Limb

Jess has a bit of a problem in the way that teens invent comedic drama where ever they go. Her best friend is a goddess. The hottest guy in school is paying attention to Jess, but doesn't seem to like like her. And her bestest mate, Fred, isn't talking to her. What can be done?

Pretty funny. I especially loved Jess's Gran, who is obsessed with death and watches all the news programmes for news of the latest tragedy, which she reports a little too cheerily.

In other news, it stormed last night, so this morning is not too hot and not too humid. I went outside and read in my hammock, which was still wet from last night's storms. Now my butt is wet. *sigh*

Ok-- I have to squeeze out 3 more books in the next 4 hours... can I do it? Stay tuned!

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1. What are you reading right now?

All but Alice Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

2. How many books have you read so far?

3

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

Dangerously Alice, but I don't know I'll get to it.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

Well, I did have to work all afternoon, but I am skipping a party tonight, but that also means that I have the house to myself

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

Nope

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

How much time I'm spending on mini-challenges instead of reading! Also, the amount of comments I've been getting-- it's really awesome and fun!

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

Not yet.

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

Take the day off work! And not get my hair cut the day before-- I haven't figured out a good way to get it out of my eyes when lying down yet...

9. Are you getting tired yet?

It's after 11 here. Yes. But I think that Full Throttle slushie is starting to kick in and I'll brew up some coffee later...

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?

Well, I have a really peppy radio station playing on Pandora right now. (I put in Puffy AmiYumi as my artist and this station is AWESOME.) But the happiness of it is helping me stay awake, plus it's giving me something to occasionally jump up and around to. :)

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Well, here's my first attempt at making a button! I hope you like it!

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Hours read: 4 hours, 15 minutes

Number of books read: 3

Number of pages read: 514

WARNING: I am reviewing series books. While this review contains no spoilers for this book, it probably contains spoilers for previous volumes in this series. It’s the nature of the beast.

Reluctantly Alice Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Well, 7th grade has started, and every thing's different and harder, both academically and personally. Alice already has an enemy that's making her life hard but no matter what, her personal problems are nothing like her dad's and Lester's romantic woes!

Seriously though, Alice needs to stop taking advice from Aunt Sally. Geez. And stop talking to Lester's girlfriends on the phone...

Anyway, I just want to say how much I freaking love Pandora, which you need to check out if you haven't yet.

The new challenge is to make a button. I've never made a button, but I think I'll try!

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Hours Spent Reading: 2 hours, 45 minutes
Books read: 2
Pages read: 332

Alice in Rapture, Sort Of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Having a boyfriend is so hard! Especially when there's kissing involved! What if you just ate garlic pizza?!

The thing about being twelve is that you bawl a lot... Between the sixth and seventh grades, something happens to your eyes. They water a lot. I think it's so you can get all the watering out the way before you start wearing mascara. pp.160-161

There'll probably just be more plot summary, less reviewing until tomorrow when I'll review the series as a whole. Unless, of course, I feel like yelling at some characters a la Princess Diaries, which is rather likely, especially as I become more sleep deprived.

Anyway, the mini-challenge right now is to go take a walk, so I'm off to 7-11 to get a slushie. Yummy.

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Hours Spent Reading: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Books Read: 1
Pages Read: 166

So, I finished up Lovingly Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor!

It's Alice's 5th grade year and things aren't going so well. First of all Sara moved away without telling everyone-- rumor has it her family has been evicted. And everyone's being mean to Rosalind because she's fat. Things just go down hill from there.

Naylor has a way of capturing the bittersweetness of childhood. The confusion and giggles over where babies come from, the hurt involved in popularity...

I do like this series.

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Last night, I met up with a very good friend of mine from college. Such a good friend, that after working the closing shift at the library I was willing to go to a neighborhood that is too trendy for its own good to have a late dinner and drink.

It was AWESOME. Not the neighborhood where you can't find parking even at 10pm on a Monday, but just hanging out with John for a few hours.

This week looks fun. Today's the my only day shift at work and tonight we're going to a favorite bar that's closing down. On Friday I'm a first-time host of Poetry Friday. While waiting for your poems to roll in, I'll be getting my hair cut. I think I'm going to loose some length, but not too much length? I don't know. My stylist and I will consult. Then on Saturday-Sunday is the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon! Yay! I've been happily surprised at the generosity of people in sponsoring me to help raise money for Reading is Fundamental. I have to work until 5 that day, but I'll start reading on my lunch hour! And in my break! And then all night and all morning. READING IS FUN.

And here are some more entries from the Once Upon a Time... series published by Simon Pulse.

The Storyteller's Daughter Cameron Dokey

My favorite of this batch of three (though I will say Night Dance was a very close second).

Once upon a time, there was a king who was betrayed by his queen, and determined not to love, or trust again.

Once upon a time, there were five brothers who used to be princes of a vanquished kingdom. They have vowed revenge on their king for the death of their sister, the traitorous queen.

Once upon a time, there was a blind girl, the daughter of the vizier and storyteller, a girl destined to be the greatest storyteller in history.

Once upon a time, our stories met and wove themselves into one story of love, betrayal, court intrigue, and of telling stories to make a point.

Dokey's retelling of The Arabian Nights focuses less on the many stories of Shahrazad, and more on how she came about her storytelling ability,why the king decided to behead his brides, and how their love grew. (But we do get some of her tales) Overall, a gripping story.

Also, too often in the Once Upon a Time... series, it's love at first sight, and attraction without basis. Reading too much of that in a row (like I did) gets old quickly, so I really appreciated that Shahrazad and Shahrayar's love grew in the normal fashion, when neither of them was paying attention.

The only con? The main character's name is Shahrazad, so her name appears multiple times on a page and every time I read it, my brain started singing "Friend Like Me" from the Aladdin Soundtrack

Well Ali Baba had them 40 thieves, Scheherazade had a thousand tales. Master you're in luck 'cuz up your sleeve, you've got a brand of magic that never fails! You've got some power in your corner now, some ammunition in your can, you've got oomph, pizazz something something something, all you gotta do is rub that lamp and I'll say "Mr. Aladdin sir, what will your pleasure be? Let me take your order, jot it down! You ain't never had a friend like me... WHY DO I KNOW THAT?

Anyway... moving on.

The Night Dance Suzanne Weyn

In this volume, Weyn blends the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" with Arthurian Legend. In this case, the princesses in question are the daughters of Vivienne, Lady of the Lake and a mortal man. 12 years ago, Vivienne was trapped by Morgan Le Fey, and her husband, Sir Ethan, has trapped his daughters in their home ever since.

The youngest, Rowena has found a way out through the fence which sets in motion a quest to save their mother, a quest that Morgan Le Fey will do anything to stop. So across the enchanted lake where their mother is held, Morgan sends boats and ball gowns on Satyrs as dates for the girls to go dancing.

Meanwhile, Sir Bedivere is searching for an enchanted lake, having promised a dying King Arthur he would return Excalibur...

It all comes to a head when Sir Ethan demands to know how his daughters silk slippers get so worn every night and offers a contest-- the first man to figure out where his daughters are going will have his choice in marriage...

A wonderful blending of the two stories, and a great re-imagining of the tale. I liked it just as much as Wildwood Dancing.

Scarlet Moon Debbie Viguie

Ruth had no choice but to help her father in his blacksmith shop after her brother went off to the crusades. The villagers don't like Ruth's trousers, ropey arms, or men's work, but William, the Earl of Lauton doesn't mind. He likes her quick wit. He likes that she can take of herself.

At every chance she can, Ruth takes supplies to her grandmother's house in the woods--where she's been banished for suspected witchcraft. Still, Ruth knows the woods well enough to fear them.

For it's no ordinary wolf that stalks through the trees, and William has a secret that makes him want to push Ruth far, far way...

I really liked the whole werewolf concept and I loved Ruth's grandmother, but the ending was really rushed and was a let down after such a great start.


I've been reading a lot of spy novels this week, so stay tuned for that!

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Alright, I'm insane and didn't sleep all weekend. And when I woke up on Monday at 12:00 (I didn't have to work until 1, and I had gone to bed at 9 on Sunday) I still felt like I had been run over by a MACK truck. Apparently flying to Iowa and back last weekend, a few days of Code Red air days and no sleep = sinus and ear infection. So I didn't go to work yesterday which is very, very poor form. BAD JENNIE. Also, there is definitely a point of diminishing returns. I probably could have read the same amount if I had slept because the lack of sleep was messing with my reading speed and comprehension.

But it was fun.

Anyway, today I'm adding pictures and things to my 48 hour posts, I'm also going to be posting some things on my spoiler blog because I have a lot of opinions on where Princess Diaries left off.

ALSO! The 24 Hour Read-a-thon is coming up in 2 weeks.

This one is a little different--

1. Everyone reads for the same 24 hours (1:59 Saturday afternoon to 1:59 Sunday afternoon if you're on the East Coast like me.)
2. You can read anything you want.
3. Instead of fame and glory, this one's for charity (Reading is Fundamental.)

SO! I'm asking for sponsors to help me for this. There are a few ways to sponsor me.

You can just donate a lump sum. Or, you can donate based on how I do.

I will personally be donating $.03 for every book, hour and page I read. Based on this past weekend, I'm expecting that to be around $60-$70.

I've already received some sponsors, so including my own donation, I will be raising $.08 for every page I read, $.06 for every book, and $.06 for every hour.

If you would like to help me raise money for this worthy cause, please email me at kidsilkhaze (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Anyway, some further thoughts on books. I think I forgot to mention that Pure Dead... talks about poop. A lot. Mainly dragon poop. And baby poop. And how Yetis like to eat poop. This can either be a turn off or a selling point, depending on your audience.

Also, it was obviously written by a mother. There is a lot in here for adults poking fun at childhood foibles that kids won't get. But, for kids, there's poop. Lots and lots of poop. And talking crocodiles.

Also, the character of Ffup was interesting. I'm still not keen on how her personality totally changed when she found out she was a girl. I also think her as a teenage mother was odd, because she was very much a teenager and not ready for a child, even if she was 600 years old.

All in all, it was just very, very British. British children's books are always much more adult than American children's books are.

UPDATE:

Also, I wanted to add how much I love Mia's dorkiness. She talks in Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings similes. And she rights Battlestar Galactica fanfic. And is an expert on Lifetime movies, much like my friend Sarah.

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Here's the next book in my series of 6 Capstone poetry books.

After the fall poems, I headed into the weather batch of photos. This group was full of more stunning images. I was so glad I got to start with two subjects--autumn and weather--that really appealed to me. I love pictures of nature, and that's, of course, mostly what the weather pictures were.

I flipped through all the images and began making notes on them. Basically, I just wrote down whatever occurred to me, right there on the page. Sometimes it was a certain poetic form I thought the image lent itself to, but other times it was a thought about the topic or mood of a possible poem. On the lightning bolt image, I wrote "haiku?" For a boy playing on the beach wearing goggles and a towel cape, I imagined a poem about a superhero. For boys looking out a rainy window, I wrote, "magic of rain, how it softens everything." 

I did have a slight problem, though. There were a number of images with kids in them, and you could almost always see their faces. I found this really hard to work with! I was surprised by that. Actually, I don't know why I was surprised. I don't tend to like artwork with people in it, especially if I can see their faces. (That probably reveals some horrible psychological defect in me!) And with these images, I had a hard time imagining anything but the mood and thoughts of the kid in the image. So it felt very restricting to me. I wanted to focus on the weather phenomena, but I needed to work on the relationship between kids and weather, too.

And on top of that, there were kids of both genders and various ethnicities, and I needed to be balanced. Capstone did not want a book full of kids that all looked the same. But I had a few choices for most topics. Caucasian girl flying a kite. African-American girl with her hair blowing behind her. Asian boy with his hat blowing off. That kind of thing. So whatever image I chose for the wind poem, I needed to keep that in mind when I was choosing the rain poem, which also offered several choices of ethnicities.

So, it was a little tougher that Shrinking Days, Frosty Nights for me. More logistics to consider.

Also, I turned in a couple of poems that showed the fascination and even appeal of deadly weather. One was about a tornado, and it was kind of light-hearted. The other was about the deadly beauty of a hurricane seen from space.

From a Tornado (That Doesn’t Know Its Own Strength)  

My whirling funnel’s
a windy slide!

I’m a twirling jump rope—
Step inside!

I’m a monster
roller coaster ride!

I don’t know why
you’re terrified!

I knew this might not fly, because the book is for young kids, and tornadoes are scary things! But poetry for me is about seeing the other side of things, and I loved imagining the tornado's point of view. The editor apologetically passed on that this poem, though she liked it and so did the higher-ups, at first, didn't make the cut. They were worried about parents or some reviewers having trouble with it. And while I thought that was too bad, I could understand their point. I actually revised the poem somewhat and put it on my website. 

Here's the tornado poem I wrote on revision for the book. Please note: None of these images are from the book. I just wanted to add photos to give you a tiny idea of what they go with.



Wild Wind

Rushing wind
Roaring wind
     Whirling, twirling
          Warring wind

Ripping wind
Whipping wind
     Please release your
            Gripping wind

Nearing wind
Clearing wind
      Finally,
            Disappearing wind


I also placed the hurricane poem on my site.

So, those were a couple of issues I ran into with this collection. But I still loved writing these poems. Here are a couple more poems from this book.





Softer

Through a windowpane
Streaked with sliding rain
Outside world has changed:
Blurry, velvet stain

Every house and car—
Soft where edges are…
Waterpainting sky
makes each light a star 


 



Wind Is An...

Expert blower
Seed sower
Sailboat go-er
Hat thrower
And, best of all, a
Kite tow-er


And this one goes with a glorious image on rime ice on trees against a Parrish blue sky.



Winter Blooms

branches
blooming with ice
paint a shocking picture
of frosty white trees on winter's
blue sky

[cinquain]

Speaking of weather, we're dropping 30 to 40 degrees today here in Minneapolis. Yesterday it was almost 40--barely jacket weather--and today the high is 10, which is the temp right now and should be dropping all day. So I think I'll go read a few of the summer poems from my book now:>) Stay warm!

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Nonfiction writer Nancy Sanders posted an interview with me about my Charles Drew biography for Capstone Press. Thanks, Nancy!

This is my very first blogerview. Please stop by if you have a chance so Nancy doesn't regret featuring my book:>)

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Last night, the friendly UPS man brought 2 heavy boxes to my door, and they were the author copies of 4 more of my 6 Capstone poetry books. Woop! Woop! I now have copies of all of them except Flashy, Clashy, and Oh-So Splashy.

So, as promised (or threatened!), I'll be sharing a little of my process about each of the books. Today is the day for patriotic poems.

This book, Tiny Dreams, Sprouting Tall, was one of the toughest of the first set of 6 books. In fact, I think it was the toughest. Part of the reason for that was that my other collections all had a certain degree of silliness to them, even with serious pictures. In Then There Were Eight, for instance, the picture of the Mars Rover is a silly dog poem, because it looked like a metallic dog to me. Tiny Dreams was the last book of the 6 that I wrote. So my editor, Jenny Marks, and I had a good system down, and I followed it. I wrote my manuscript and turned it in the same way I had done all the other collections.

But then came the feedback. My revisions on the other books had been fairly specific and minimal. But on this one, there was a bigger change underway. They wanted the poems to be more specific to the United States. She explained that "For some photos/poems, the connection is obvious—like MLK Jr. or the flag. They are uniquely and obviously American. Other subjects, like surfers, light houses, beaches, cows, etc..., are definitely American, but those things are found in other countries, too. For those subjects, especially, the poems must make a more explicit connection." 

This hadn't been planned from the start. But upon reading the manuscript, the product planning committee felt this title could come under greater scrutiny than the other titles, and would be more likely to be criticized for what was included or left out. So they wanted every poem to really have a strong, overt connection to the United States somehow.

This new directive meant heavier revisions just before I was leaving for a family reunion--so I was a bit stressed out about it! Jenny was, as always, encouraging and supportive, so there was no feeling of having screwed up. It was just an unanticipated shift or tightening of focus. Still.

I ended up going to the reunion and finishing up the revisions afterward, and I was really happy with the completed book. But boy, was I happy to be finished!

Something else unique to this manuscript was trying to express pride in my country but being honest as well. An early draft of a poem about the Statue of Liberty was a cinquain:

Doorway of the U.S.A.

Statue
of Liberty
welcomes all refugees
streaming in seeking the promise:

freedom

I knew this was an idealized vision, but it was sometimes hard to know how far poetic license could go. Not this far. Jenny pointed out that, sadly, this was not true. I tried working on a more historical perspective to a time the U.S. was more welcoming of immigrants, but I ended up going with something else entirely.

Lady Liberty

Liberty carries a golden torch
She wears a copper skin
She’s broken free of all her chains,
and sways upon the wind

This book, like the others, contains poetic forms that kids often write in in school. One common form is the diamonte. I love using them to express the relationship between two opposing forces. Here's one from this collection:

Grand Canyon

rock
hard, red
rising, rippling, towering
water flowing, canyon growing
carving, wearing, eroding
sunken, brown
river

While the book isn't stuffed with uber-patriotism, I did want to show pride, too! Here's one I had fun with:

Flag Music

Luff-luff-luff-luff
like a clipper’s great sail

Rat-a-tat-tat
Like a stormy day’s hail

Creak up and down
Like squeaky old brakes

No matter the sound
that our flag outside makes

Still day or windy

Quiet or loud 

It makes me feel safer

And stronger and proud  


As with the other books in the collection, gorgeous, dramatic photos complement the poems, and impressive design work makes the poems themselves visually interesting. I'm thrilled my words got such great treatment!

Becky at Farm School has the Poetry Roundup today. Check it out!

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I wanted to blog just a little bit about each of my Capstone poetry books as I get my author copies. Each had its own joys and challenges (some more so than others!). I shared my basic process in an earlier post.

Here are a few tidbits just about this title.

Then There Were Eight: Poems About Space was my fourth book in the series, so Jenny Marks and I had a pretty good routine down by then. The photos were just stunning, and I enjoyed doing the research on the various space phenomena. My dad worked at NASA for his entire career, and space exploration and space science are fascinating to me.

I remember one thing that I questioned was that I didn't have images of all the planets. I think there are poems about 4 or maybe 5 of them in the book. I asked Jenny about it, and she explained that, with only 15 or 16 poems in the book, they didn't want 8 of them to be of planets. I think it would be too many similar photos. Not enough variety. Also, these books are for young kids and they were wanting the book to inspire them to learn more, to be excited about space. The book didn't need to serve as an encyclopedic reference of them. Of course, she was right. But it still bothered my slightly compulsive, completist, list-loving self to showcase only some of the planets!

For the first time in the series, we used captions here to explain the images. This had been my request. I felt that without them, each poem would basically have to name and define for young kids whatever was shown in the image. That would get old and non-poetic very quickly!

Here are a few poems from the book. The images shown are not the ones from the book. They're just similar, to give you an idea of what the poem is about. I hope you like them!



Great Red Spot

It's not a huge red ocean
It's not a desert form
It's twice as big as Planet Earth
And it's a great red storm

It's been around three hundred years
It's still around today
According to the weatherman
This storm is here to stay

     (at least until some future day
     still centuries away!)

Caption: The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is actually a giant hurricane.




Then There Were Eight

Poor ball of ice, we know you exist; but you're
Little and solid and we must insist on
Undoing the past, so though you'll be missed, we've
Taken you 
Off of the "real planet" list

Caption: Pluto was removed from the list of planets in 2006.



Here, Girl!

She rolls
   and roams
      and wags her tail
She never needs to see the vet


I love her
   silver
      shiny coat
She's my planetary pet!

Caption: The mars Lander explores Mars.

 

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I am so excited!

Last week I started getting author copies of my 6 poetry books for Capstone Press. I've only gotten one of the six so far, because the others are backordered. But soon, I hope!

Anyway, some people have asked about what it was like to write work-for-hire poetry, and I thought I'd share my overall process. Plus, I'll probably do one post about each book as I get my copies of it. I want to have some record of the whole experience.

A woman who used to be with Lerner (and whom had assigned my Isaac Newton bio) and was now with Capstone Press (which I've been writing for for years) emailed me to say that she saw I had a poetry book coming out from Clarion and was writing a Write Your Own Poetry book for Compass Point. She wanted to know if I'd like to get together for lunch to talk about a possible poetry project. Of course I would!

Over lunch, she shared her vision of poetry books illustrated by striking photos for young kids. But the photos would not, for the most part, be studio shots; they would be stock images. She asked about the best way to work, and I said that I thought it would be fun to actually write the poems to the images, rather than have them try to find images that illustrated my poems.

Her idea hadn't been approved yet. She was trying to convince whomever she had to convince that poetry was viable for them. That enough school libraries would buy it.

And within a couple of months, she had approval and the project was moving forward.

The actual hands-on editor I would be working with was Jenny Marks at Capstone Press. She was a delight to work with, and this is basically how our process went.

She would tell me when the team was meeting to discuss images for each title. I would brainstorm my own list of possible images that I thought would be inspiring for poems and fun to look at. I'd email her the list, and they'd include my ideas in the meeting.

I had 4 weeks for each of these first 6 books. So here's how the schedule shook out.

Week One - I receive the images. The batch always includes extras, because I won't be inspired by everything! Each collection needs 14-16 poems. I need to submit 18 or so so that they have a couple of extras to allow for variety, design decisions, etc. They send me images of 20 or so objects/scenes, and I have more than one choice for some of those. For weather, for instance, there were 2 or 3 different pictures of a kid with a kite. I could choose which one to write to.

I spend a few days sifting through photos. I jot notes on the ways certain images strike me. If an image has a capacity for opposites (like a rainbow and a cloudy sky in the same image), I might write "diamante" on the page, because it's an image that lends itself to that form. Or I might note a silly picture that could make for a good limerick. I also jot words or phrases that occur to me, that might or might not make it into the poem, as well as angles/topics for the possible poems. (I'll give examples of this when I talk about the individual books.)

Then I start writing. I write like mad. I do research along the way, as necessary--more for space poems than for color poems! For the 20 or so images that I choose, I write a poem rough draft for each one. Many of these are bad! I try to have the rough draft complete that first week. I often end up with closer to 25 poems.

Week Two - I go back through the poems and revise them. Sometimes I write entirely new poems at this point, but mostly I'm reworking, rewriting, reseeing these poems.

Week Three - I let the poems sit. I am sick of them now and need a break! Sometimes, my wonderful critique groups have time to do a quick read and give me feedback on which poems work, which don't, and how I might fix them.

Week Four - I write the end matter (glossary, poetry terms, read more, etc.). I polish and tweak and make decisions about which poems to submit. At the end of the week, I submit the poems to Jenny.  Another deadline met--hurray!

After a week or so, Jenny gets back to me with comments on the poems. She has had a group of people read them. I think, but am not sure, that her group consists of teachers and librarians. She passes along their comments/feelings about various poems and her own, too. She is incredibly encouraging and complimentary, and also points out what doesn't work about various poems.

I do revisions the following week and turn it back in.

With few exceptions, the process went really smoothly. (I'll share stories when I do the individual books.) I wrote these books last spring, and I was so thrilled to see the galleys this past fall. The books are gorgeous! The images look spectacular, and the design work is fabulous. I have no say in any of that, of course, and I was a little nervous. But I couldn't be happier with how they came out. I can't wait to hold every one of them in my hot little hands, in fact.

So that's the (too long--sorry) story of how I wrote these books. If you look at them on my site, you can read one brief excerpt from each title and see each cover. I hope you like them!

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