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...has entered my classroom in the form 16 children who are, in three cases literally, angels. (I have an Angel, an Angela, and an Angelina!)  This year, in addition to my old favorite Roxaboxen, I began the year with the picture book poem All the World by our friend Liz Garton Scanlon.  This poem (even without the Caldecott Honor illustrations by Marla Frazee) touches the sacred for me, and the way I explained it to the shiny new second-graders children sitting on my shaggy spring green carpet is that it gathers up many small, ordinary things to make us feel one big true thing.  Here's an excerpt.

All the World | Liz Garton Scanlon

Rock, stone, pebble, sand
Body, shoulder, arm, hand
A moat to dig, a shell to keep
All the world is wide and deep.

Hive, bee, wings, hum
Husk, cob, corn, yum!
Tomato blossom, fruit so red
All the world's a garden bed

Tree, branch, trunk, crown
Climbing up and sitting down
Morning sun becomes noon-blue
All the world is old and new
....
Everything you hear, smell, see
All the world is everything
Hope and peace and love and trust
All the world is all of us

**************************
After I read this, there was this long pause, and then Andy (yes, I have an Andy too), raised his hand to say, "That book almost made me cry."  There was reverence in the room.

And that, my friends, is what they are ALL like this year:  full of hope and peace and love and trust, open-hearted and ready.  It's another miracle.

Just in case someone had thought to set this beauty to music, I searched a little and found my way to this, which plays with the end of the book to fit the music but comes out pretty wonderful.



Thanks to Liz, and thanks to Penny at A Penny and Her Jots for hosting today, and thanks be to the ebb and flow of the world that every year is different!

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I've been blogging here at my juicy little universe for 7 YEARS this month.  I thought of doing A Thing to celebrate back in September, but by the time October 15 rolled around these plans and even the momentous event itself escaped me.  (We have officially reached the stage where the kids have more obligations and events than their moms.)



not quite my costume, but you get the idea

So today I'll just remark that for at least 5 of those 8 Halloweens, I've gone to school dressed as Mother Nature, or more specifically Lady Autumn.  I wondered whether I should make a change now that I'm in 2nd grade, but I just love the deep green velour dress with its texture and sweep, and I adore how the colorful paper leaves look pinned or taped against its background, just like the changed trees stand in contrast, both mellow and sharp, with those still staunchly chlorophylled.

I went looking for a poem to match my wonder every October at this color scheme and was dismayed by the length and complexity of every suggested poem I found at the Poetry Foundation (but it was very late).  And then I remembered this:

"Autumn time:
days get cool, it's back to school.
It's Autumn time:
the world turns golden brown...
Mother Earth's about to change her gown.

She loves to change her season;
It's Mother Earth's routine.
Green to brown, brown to white
white back into green--
she changes clothes
and puts on something clean.

And she has reasons
for changing seasons--
You have to change to grow;
You have to change to grow."

- "Mother Earth's Routine," from the album Mother Earth

Tom Chapin and John Forster do it again and provide the perfectly detailed simplicity I'm looking for.  Thanks, guys!


The roundup today is with Jone at Check It Out, we think!  See you there.

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Sometimes we’re lucky enough to fleetingly meet a someone who changes us, bursts heart open, adds three feet to your height and shows you where your forgotten wings are buried. And it’s mutual. The following (and the rest of the song which I need to illustrate) are for you Brian Tappin ~ roaring lion, gentle angel, boy I miss you right now, dude! xx

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Sometimes we’re lucky enough to fleetingly meet a someone who changes us, bursts heart open, adds three feet to your height and shows you where your forgotten wings are buried. And it’s mutual. The following (and the rest of the song which I need to illustrate) are for you Brian Tappin ~ roaring lion, gentle angel, boy I miss you right now, dude! xx

Filed under: Brian Tappin, flying, journeys, love, sea, songs

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Below is my review of Jon Agee's Terrific as it appeared in the April 1, 2015 issue of School Library Journal.  The review was slightly edited from my original.  I didn't refer to Eugene as "the boy."  Eugene is definitely not a boy, as you can see by the cover illustration.  ;)

AGEE, JON. Terrific. 1 CD. 7 min. Dreamscape. 2014. $14.99. ISBN

9781633795112.

PreK-Gr 2--Eugene's life follows Murphy's Law--if something can go wrong, it will. And when inevitable misfortune falls, Eugene's favorite expression is a sarcastic, "Terrific." So, it's no surprise that when the boy's Eugene's cruise ship sinks, all the passengers (except Eugene) are rescued, and he finds himself on a deserted island with a talking parrot. "Terrific," says Eugene. Narrator Kirby Heyborne plays the resigned, older, and long-suffering Eugene perfectly with a mix of sarcasm and fatigue, and creates a suitably squawking voice for the take-charge parrot who will change his attitude. Sound effects including boat horns, construction din, and ocean waves complement the story. Though listeners will miss Agee's humorous illustrations, the CD includes a fun musical version of "Terrific," sung by Heyborne with music by the Promise Makers. The lyrics are slightly modified from the text to fit the upbeat rhythm and rhyme scheme of the song, but stay true to the original story. VERDICT Purchase this one for sharing with school or storytime groups, one with a copy of the print book.--


Copyright © 2015 Library Journals, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.
Reprinted with permission.


Listen to an excerpt from Terrific here.

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A quick list of some favorite songs for writing celebrations, to brighten your day!

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With Sparkcon coming this weekend to Raleigh, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to release the first set of CD's from the  Sketch Song Project!

Back in the late 80’s I owned a Tascam 4 track recorder. Using regular cassette tapes, I was able to create multi-track recordings. I can compare the songs I wrote and recorded to that of an artist’s visual journal. These weren’t polished works of art by any means but rather rough sketches.

Most tracks were recorded in one take with mistakes becoming part of the song. All the songs chosen for this project hold promise. However, if one listens to the recordings with anything other than a sketchbook mentality, they will miss the value of the work.

In total there are 100 CDs produced for this project. I’ve selected 20 songs and created 5 CD’s for each song. Like all my artwork, all 100 CDs will be left somewhere to be found.

I plan to leave at least the first ten CD's at Sparkcon on Saturday. Hope you find one!!

This is the first song to be part of the Sketch Song Project. The title of the song, I used to be a Wombat is based on the name of a band I was a member of back in the late 80's. We were the Wombats and had fun playing clubs in NYC like CBGB's. All the lyrics in this song are made up of lyrics from other songs we wrote. I still find it interesting how well they strung together.

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These are taken from an interview with the amazing Zoe Toft

Filed under: children's illustration, dances, flying, journeys, snow, songs

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When I got home I created this little Zonkey stencil out of a cereal box. Isn't it cute!


Then I spray painted the stencil on CD #1. The song is "Use To Be A Wombat" just in case you wanted to know.


This is the CD on top and the stencil once removed below.


Here is the CD in the case. It's almost a complete package. This little project has a lot of parts!

Stay tuned!!

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Progress on the Song Sketch Project is moving along slow but steady. The first three album covers are complete and I've started work on the next four. If you're aren't up to speed on the project, read about the idea and how it got started here.


This is the second set of images. These are done so next step will be to cut them out, fold them up and place them inside a jewel case.


Meanwhile, the 20 songs play list is completed and all songs mixed down from cassette tape to MP3. The quality is less than perfect but what can one expect from 25 year old magnetic tape...

Stay tuned!

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I got to thinking, it would be interesting to see what would happen if I put these sketch songs out there. How would people react? Listen to the song and laugh like one would at a blind contour drawing? Maybe they would throw it away? And the long shot, maybe enjoy them for what they are.



Today, I started work on the first two CD inserts. 1 of 100 and 2 of 100.


Each will be folded up and inserted in a jewel case along with a CD containing only one sketch song.


Here's a look at the first CD.

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By Sarah Hansen

Music today is usually categorized by the genre to which it most stylistically relates. A quick scroll through the iTunes genres sections reveals the familiar categories, among them Rock, Pop, R&B/Soul, Country, Classical, and Alternative. Songs or musical compilations today seem to have a readily apparent identity.

For the Inuit people of Alaska, this is not the case. Inuit music is distinguished according to its function rather than style, and most songs serve either a secular, social, or religious purpose. Many religious songs tend to be reserved for traditional ceremonies, while secular songs might be focused on the individual. Secular songs are sung to ease the birth of a child, to locate lost objects, or to cure illnesses.

There are, of course, many sub-categories of songs. For example, the Inuit of St. Lawrence Island, have terms that distinguish between nighttime and daytime singing, while the Inuit of the Northwest region of Alaska categorize songs by whether they are used in games, in stories, for dance, or in traditional ceremonies.

One such traditional ceremony that is still important for Alaskan Inuit culture is the whaling ceremony. All of the stages in the whaling process are celebrated, and there are songs to reinforce the hunting materials, bring forth the whales, and control the weather. Once the captain and crew return with the captured whales, the materials of the animal are distributed at a celebration called Nalukataq, which takes place during the month of June. Nalukataq, literally meaning “to throw and toss up,” refers to the whaler’s skin toss dance, and celebrates the bounty and distribution of Quaq (whale meat) and Muktuk (whale blubber).

To celebrate Nalukataq, communities gather to sing songs, dance, and take part in the traditional whale-toss, in which men and women in the community hold a Nalukataq blanket, generally made from seal or walrus skin, and toss the captains and captains’ wives up into the air. Traditionally, the wives of captains would throw out tools and food whilst being thrown into the air to mimic the distribution of whale meat among members of the community, but the tradition has since evolved to be candy thrown out to children.

As can been seen from Nalukataq, aspects of the original ceremony live on, but traditions have changed with the times. Festivals are often associated with US holidays, such as Independence Day, or with special community events. Although music might not still be used as frequently to help cure illnesses or ease childbirth, it still plays an important role in Alaskan Inuit culture, and will certainly continue to do so.

All information from this post is taken from an article on Alaskan Inuit music from Oxford Music Online.

Sarah Hansen is a Publicity Assistant at Oxford University Press.

Oxford Music Online has made several articles available freely to the public, including its entry on Inuit Music. Oxford Music Online is the gateway offering users the ability to access and cross-search multiple music reference resources in one location. With Grove Music Online as its cornerstone, Oxford Music Online also contains The Oxford Companion to Music, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and The Encyclopedia of Popular Music.

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The post Songs of the Alaskan Inuit appeared first on OUPblog.

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This was made for the brilliant STEW magazine recently.

Filed under: children's illustration, poetry, songs, summer

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Did you know that on Sunday it is International Dawn Chorus Day? It’s a day where all around the globe people will be rising early to greet the dawn and simply listen to bird song. If you can’t find a local event to join in with, you could instead simply curl up with The Dawn Chorus by Suzanne Barton (@suzannebarton0).

Peep the bird wakes to the sound of wonderful song. He’s determined to find out who’s singing so beautifully; could it be the owl, the mouse or the frog? Eventually he stumbles on a flock of birds, and he has his answer: It’s the Dawn Chorus!

And oh, how beautifully they sing. Peep is determined to join their ranks, but despite practising hard, he keeps missing his early morning auditions. Is there a reason why he’s not cut out to sing at first light? Will Peep every be able to fill the sky with gorgeous song?

A charming addition to the ranks of picture books which explore how creatures (or indeed we, the readers) react when we find out we don’t quite belong (I’m thinking, for example of Stellaluna, and Croc and Bird), The Dawn Chorus is a delightful, soothing tale about perseverance, and discovering who we truly are.

The eyecatching illustrations make great use of visual texture, with collage, decoration and especially effective looping swoops of paintbrush and patterns, capturing playful flight and joyful flurries of song. The restricted earthy orange/red/yellow palette makes this book gently glow – just like a warm sunrise held in your hands as you read.

Taking our lead from the cute birds in Barton’s book we decided to make our own flock to sing to us. I cut out several bird bodies, and cut slits in the middle of them.

The girls used doilies like stencils to decorate the birds’ chests, and then decorated those doilies (coloured them in) before folding them accordion style and then slipping them into the slits. Gently we slightly opened out the doilies to create wings, which we held in place with paperclips. We finished off the birds with small hand-drawn eyes, and tails created by taking half a doily and folding that like a fan before taping in place.

M and J then took the flock out to the garden, where they settled in our cherry tree.

Whilst making our birds we listened to:

The Dawn Chorus by Spiers and Boden (click to listen for free on MySpace). If you want to learn to play this yourself, you can find the details here.

Birdsong FM – “an immersive experience designed to help busy city goers to escape the grind and get more relaxation in their day. It is currently available for iPhone/iPad, Android and the web.”

Cantus Arcticus (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra) by Einojuhani Rautavaara. This lovely piece of classical music is overlaid with birdsong. I discovered it when I heard children’s author and illustrator Mairi Hedderwick being interviewed on BBC Radio.

Other activities which would go well alongside reading The Dawn Chorus include:

Making a spring tree table decorations with colourful leaves. Perhaps something like this scrap paper tree centrepiece from Everyday Mom Ideas, or a similar lovely idea using twigs and tissue paper from My Nearest and Dearest.

Learn to identify nightingales. The RSPB has a great page here, with illustrations and audio files.

Yes, you’ve guessed it: Wake the kids up REALLY early and head out to listen to the dawn chorus. The BBC has produced a handy leaflet with some tips, including games.

Do let me know if any of you make it on early on Sunday 4th of May!

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of The Dawn Chorus from the publisher.

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In the battle for equal rights, many Americans who supported the civil rights movement did not march or publicly protest. They instead engaged with the debates of the day through art and culture. Ruth Feldstein, author of How it Feels to Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement, joined us in our New York offices to discuss the ways in which culture became a battleground and to share the stories of the female performers who played important but sometimes subtle roles in the civil rights movement.

Ruth Feldstein on the ways artists used their art to advance the civil rights movement:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ruth Feldstein on Lena Horne’s legacy:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Nina Simone as an activist:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ruth Feldstein is Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University, Newark. She is the author of How it Feels to Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement and Motherhood in Black and White: Race and Sex in American Liberalism, 1930-1965.

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The post Female artists and politics in the civil rights movement appeared first on OUPblog.

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