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Goodnight, pencil jars.
Goodnight, lunchboxes.
School's out!
Hello, sunshine books.
Hello, swing seats.
Hello, sandy feet.
Summer is in session!
Summery reads:
Sam and Jump by Jennifer K. Mann
A Beach Tail by Karen Lynna Williams, ill. by Floyd Cooper
Listen to Our World by Bill Martin Jr & Michael Sampson, ill. by Melissa Sweet
Surf's Up by Kwame Alexander, ill. by Daniel Miyares
Ocean Sunlight by Molly Bang & Penny ChisholmIsland: A Story of the Galapagos by Jason Chin
By:
Faith Pray,
on 4/27/2016
Blog:
SACRED DIRT
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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
Do you remember when you thought you might be able to fly,
if you just jumped high enough?
Do you remember when anything was possible?
On Monday, I helped at a young writer's conference.
I was surrounded with small writers
belly-full pleased with their writing,
oblivious to that dreaded taskmaster Revision,
unconcerned about snagging a publishing deal,
purely finding joy in their words.
All that youthful buoyancy
made me want to climb out of my writing slump
and grow some wings!
How do we as writers return
to that weightless pleasure in our words
without losing
the wisdom earned
from critiques and rejection slips,
writing groups and how-to books...
How do we find both our feet AND our wings?
As soon as we returned from our very long day,
the girls embarked on a writing project:
to send letters
to 100 authors and illustrators
of some of their favorite books.
Think we can do it?
If you're an author or illustrator friend and a crooked little envelope comes to you,
would you be kind and write back?
Please!
We have two hopeful writers, who think anything is possible.
In Need of Some Snail Mail?
Leave us a comment, and we'll put you on our snail letter list - whether you're published or not.
Happy writing!
Books: 
A Letter to Amy - Ezra Jack Keats
The Gardener, by Sarah Stewart, ill. by David Small
Toot and Puddle - Holly Hobbie
Click, Clack, Moo! Cows That Type - by Doreen Cronin, ill. by Betsy Lewin
Mailing May, by Michael O. Tunnell, ill. by Ted Rand
By:
Faith Pray,
on 2/27/2013
Blog:
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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 1/16/2013
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Because everyone needs a reason to hide secret notes...
I made a mail kit.
It's our Narnian Lamppost.
Our Portal.
Our place where the real world transforms into the magical one.
See, Pip and Winnie haven't exactly been excited
about writing time.
They moan and whinge when it's time
to pull out notebook and pen.
But now they have a reason to write.
All manner of small letters, notices and lists
have been appearing in the mailbox, begging for a reader.
Secret message makers, word lovers in the making, I hope.
And if we're not so concerned with punctuation just yet,
still Something is being kindled,
and that Something is what we're going for -
getting so lost in play so that the unseen world
shines brighter within us,
and the ordinary world shines brighter on our return...
This is what I want for myself, too.
To take more time to play
with my words, with art, with the kids
without focusing on how much I get done.
I have a choice every day -
wear myself out trying to blast through my goals,
or find the sweet spots and savor.
Relish the revision.
(thank you Gail Carson Levine and
Molly Blaisell for your great advice.)
and
if you need a reason to play with your words,
or an incentive for young heel-dragging-writers,
may I suggest a mail box?
Our kit is compiled of:
A domed box (thrift store find)
Denim.
Felt.
Mod podge.
Ribbon.
A cardboard swing arm fastened with a nut and bolt.
I added a mail sack, felt envelopes and flannel stamps
plus a thick stack of paper
for good measure.
My dad's old mail carrier hat tops the cake.
Any mail today?
Books of Note:
The Dove's Letter by Keith Baker
The Jolly Postman, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
The Gardener by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small
Toot and Puddle by Holly Hobbie
Letters from Father Christmas - J.R.R. Tolkien
Love, Mouserella by David Ezra Stein
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly - Gail Carson Levine
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
The Enchanted Chocolate Pot - Patricia C. Wrede, Caroline Stevermer
And an experiment.
I've been trying to set up some freebies for my small writer friends, so here is my first attempt to provide a download.
You are welcome to use this art as long as you credit the artist (Hey, that's me - Faith Pray!) and as long as you don't try to pass it off as your own work, or sell it (That would be illegal). If you are going to pin or webshare this, please credit me as the artist, and link back to this original post.
Thank you for the respect.
It's United Nations Day.
Flags would be nice.
Meals from around the world.
Folk dancing.
Music.
We didn't get that far.
We spun the globe and colored pictures of continents.
Every tree starts with a seed, right?
My grandmother Elsie was a great oak of political consciousness.
She lived and breathed for the United Nations,
for women, for equal rights,
for the poor, for education.
Her legacy stands true and straight before me,
waving its branches:
Be brave! Help others! Stand up for what's right!
Women couldn't vote when my grandmother was little.
Which amazes me.
It's such a simple and essential thing
to have a voice, to be counted!
I'm grateful for the
whole forests of women and men before me
who fought
for me and my girls,
for our rights, for our vote,
for changes that have made this world better.
And here we are!
Voting day is around the corner.
Regardless of how it all turns out,
it's a beautiful gift
to have a voice that counts.
Some books that we love:
Grace for President - Kelly di Pucchio, illustrated by LeUyen Pham,
Ruby Mae Has Something to Say - David Small,
Imogene's Last Stand - Candace Fleming
How to Make and Apple Pie and see the world - Marjorie Priceman
...and here's a great game for future world changers:
"I Never Forget a Face" matching game, illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell
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
What do sharp new pencils, pigs, and a gym ball have in common?
Call it a surprise twist in the plot,
a hopeful story arc...
One that involves less free time while we learn the ropes
but hopefully more flexibility in the long run.
Pip and Winnie are trying a new school setup:
a public school / home school mix.
Today was our first day.
It felt like the first day of a tricky job.
Do you know that feeling?
The feeling that you might possibly be drowning after only minutes on the job?
(You don't print directly onto the blue paper. Don't you know the difference between a codicil and an amendment? You need fresh flower powder. Freeze-dried coffee. Powdered creamer...)
That was me today.
It should have been great.
We're home all the time!
But somehow, I crammed all my expectations
into one small day's window.
I even had a list written up on the wall - our day's assignments.
The first fifteen minutes were bliss.
And then it all began to unravel:
Pip asking over and over when we could go to the library,
Winnie crying over the math game where you throw the little pigs and count them,
Sugar Snack bouncing the gym ball at everyone,
sneaking off with the camera,
and me wondering who was going to make me some coffee
if I was down here doing MATH! Quelle horreur!
 |
| "Gym Ball" - by Sugar Snack |
I love perspective.
The day is now folded away.
The moon is up, warm and embracing.
And I'm here, peeling off my layers.
Thinking about how sometimes I take a great wad of expectations that would probably fill a year or a lifetime and I stuff it into a summer, a holiday,
or one small first day
when really,
all that's needed is joy for the moment,
patience,
and a lot of love.
Tomorrow, we'll try it home style.
We'll aim to get some learning done,
but this time we'll add a generous dose of
breathing room.
 |
| "Uniforms" |
|
A sweet book about breathing room:
Little Bird, by Germano Zullo, illustrated by Albertine
Funny, I have been wondering a lot lately about whether some of my "anything is possible" dreams are actually impossible. But I keep returning to the thought that "impossible" things happen every single day of the year. So I, for one, plan to keep jumping. I hope you do, too. Because I know we'll have lots to talk about when we're both up there flying around!
You KNOW I'd write back!!! (but will my note be delivered via that special home-grown mailbox (featured here way back when in mid-January)?
xo
"How do we find both our feet AND our wings?" You nailed it, Faith. Like Barb, I'll keep jumping. :)
I know many small authors who would love letters from their old friends and would be happy to write back via snail mail. You know where we are. Linda Morris
Faith, what a lovely project to do with the children. I shall have to do this too.