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I haven't written a poem for quite a while, but today I was inspired by a writing prompt posted by Elizabeth at Writing to Inspire. She challaned readers to: Write a story or poem that is based on receiving or not receiving a trophy.

So, after some tinkering, I have written a peom about an imaginary Bear Awards Ceremony. Hope you like it.

An invitation in the mail
Invites me to attend
The annual Bear Awards night
And I can bring a friend!

Primula is frocked up
And I have my bow-tie;
We both look rather lovely –
I cannot tell a lie.

We enter the grand ball room
Abuzz with bruins and beaus
Dressed to the nines and tizzed up
From their tops down to their toes.

The dinner it is sumptuous
The company top-rate;
Then comes the time for prizes -
To win one would be great

Best Singing Bear is first announced
That could be me, I think.
But no such luck, the prize goes to
Albear Humperdink

Best Shelf-Sitter – I was once that;
Perhaps it’s me they’ll choose
But not this time, it seems the best
Is old Bearyl Recluse.

And so it goes, right down the list
They do not call me out.
That’s okay, I console myself,
Winning’s not what it’s about.

But then Prim nudges me
I sit up with a jog
They’ve called my name for the Best Bear
At writing his own Blog!

I swell with pride
And slowly stand, trembling with pleasure
Such an award I never dreamed
But now it’s my great treasure.

And now back in the toy room
My trophy’s on display
And I can see it as I sit
And write poems every day.

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Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
by Wendy Mass

I'd heard of A MANGO SHAPED SPACE, a book about a 13 year old girl with synesthesia, but I'd never read it when I came across JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE at my local library. 

The first line, "my sweat smells like peanut butter" is one of the things that intrigued me enough to check this book out. 
The book follows 12-year-old Jeremy Fink through the summer before he becomes an official teenager. His father, who died when Jeremy was eight, has left behind a mysterious locked wooden box for Jeremy to open on his 13th birthday, but somehow the keys were lost. Now Jeremy has a deadline to find the keys which will open the box and reveal the meaning of life. According to his father's carving on the top of the box, that's exactly what's inside. To do this, Jeremy must think OUTSIDE the box, something he's not used to doing. He never leaves his own neighborhood unless he has to. Heck, he doesn't even like to try new foods. With the help of his lifelong best friend, Lizzy, Jeremy takes on the quest to find the meaning of life and meets all sorts of people along the way.

I enjoyed the storytelling style and the humor of Wendy Mass. Parts of the book seem to resolve a little too conveniently, and there are a couple of non-essential characters whose introduction remain a mystery to me (new neighbors Samantha & Rick), but overall, I'd say this one is worth the read. My nine-year-old son enjoyed Jeremy's character and voice, too.

I'll look for A MANGO SHAPED SPACE during my next trip to the library!

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I had a chance to meet Wendy Mass (author of my favorite book of 2006, JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE) in person last month at Michigan Reading Association (and I am finally having time to write about it)! (This conference is a GREAT one if you ever get a chance to go. Lots and lots of great speakers--professional and children's authors.) What a treat! We met before her session and then I was able to hear her to as part of a Young Authors' Day. She spoke to a group of student authors and their families at a great event sponsored by the conference.

It is always great to meet an author who you like even better after you meet them and hear them talk. If Wendy has an official fan club, I am pretty sure that I can now qualify for president.

Wendy talked about her journey as an author and shared lots of the writing that had been published in her life. Her goal is to publish a new kind of writing each year. I was amazed that even as her success as a children's book author, she seems to be sticking with this goal--How many different ways can I be published? She has greeting cards, short stories, advertisements, articles and more. Her newest publication is a behind the scenes look at C.S. Lewis. I wasn't aware of Wendy's two books in the series TWICE UPON A TIME. I read the first few pages of each and I'm sure they'll be a hit in my classroom. They are on my "to read soon" pile.

My favorite of her publications was one that she read aloud to the group-- "The Fear of Flying," an article in a Society of Children's Book Writer's newsletter. She talked about the need for authors to fly to do author appearances. It was an article I could certainly related to since I hated to fly for so long.

In September, Wendy has a new book coming out called HEAVEN LOOKS A LOT LIKE THE MALL. This book clearly calls to me. What a title!

She is currently working on a new book.

Wendy's talk was great. If you want to learn more about her and her work, here are some sites that have interviews:

Little Willow
TeensReadToo
KidsReads

And these have reviews:
Bookshelves of Doom (A MANGO-SHAPED SPACE)
Children's Literature Book Club (JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE)
Big A little a (JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE)

And here is her MySpace page.

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Now Reading: Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences
Just Finished: Pay the Piper: A Rock 'n' Roll Fairy Tale, This is Paradise!

So, today let's talk about two fairy tale series that so far only have two books a piece. Both of these series needs to step on it and write some more books! I crave more! I am a glutton and demand you indulge me!

So, first up we have the Rock 'n' Roll Fairy Tales by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple.

Both books are modern stories of our world and the world of fairy tales crash landing into each other. They are both exceedingly well written (I mean, they're Yolen, so that's a given, but I still wanted to point that out.) Both books feature original rock songs with lyrics used at appropriate times in the book, and then a chapter at the end of the book with all of the songs and their lyrics. I wish for only two things:

1. More books
2. Recordings of these songs! Adam Stemple is a rock musician, so I strongly suspect there are melodies behind these lyrics. I long to hear them.

So, first up we have Pay the Piper: A Rock 'n' Roll Fairy Tale. Gringras is the lead singer/lyricist/piper for a folk rock band (rock and reel) Brass Rat. He is also an exiled prince of Faerie and every year must pay a teind of silver, gold, or souls.

Callie is a junior high reporter who's covering the Brass Rat concert, but knows something is not quite right. After accidentally seeing Gringras charm rats with his pipe, she looks deeper into the problem, and ridiculous as it might sounds, thinks Gringras might be the Pied Piper of Hamlin...

Then, on Halloween night, all the children in town go missing. Callie knows Gringras does not have silver or gold, so must be paying in souls. Callie knows that if she ever wants to see her brother, or any of her friends again, it's up to her.

This story is well done. Alternating between Gringras's back story and the modern day narrative, we get a great adventure, and an amazing look into faerie lore-- parts of it reminded me a lot of the Faerie sections of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It's also just an awesome adventure, and it's not often we get high end adventure in a rather literary novel.

Troll Bridge: A Rock'n' Roll Fairy Tale is the follow up.

Every year, the Minnesota State Fair has twelve dairy princesses. Every year, they have their likeness carved in butter and displayed at the fair. Every year, the butter heads are then left on a bridge in a small town near Duluth. Every year, but not this year. This year, they left the butter heads at the fair. This year, all twelve dairy princesses have just disappeared off that very bridge. This year, the trolls didn’t get the butter maidens, so they claimed the real maidens.

They also took a rock and roll band made up of three brothers. Add in one mischievous fox that can talk to musicians, and you have yourself another great adventure.

This is a fun, rollicking tale of music and escape that draws on classic fairy tales and Norse mythology. I liked the explanation that the Norse mythological creatures came over in the nightmares of the long boat passengers and the hint of the battles between the Scandinavian creatures and those in Native American cosmology. I also liked how there was personality differences in the different trolls and they were complex creatures-- that's more consideration than they normally get!

I especially enjoyed the slice of Minnesota culture. I could hear the accent in the news reporters' dialogue, and I missed home. (Yeah, earlier today I said I missed Iowa. I just miss the Midwest. 3 more weeks and I'm there!)

Next up is the Twice Upon a Time series by Wendy Mass. These books take classic tales and retell the story, a chapter for the princess, and a chapter for the prince. The prince's stories are really my favorite, because we have no expectations of them before the rescue, and Mass does great work with their back story.

Twice Upon A Time #1: Rapunzel, the One With All The Hair, I originally picked this up because it was part of Wilsona's stupidly long banned book list. There is nothing wrong or bad in this book, it was just on the same page as something they objected to, so it got cut too. (These are the people that banned Clifford's Bathtime after all!)

Anyway, so Rapunzel is taken on her birthday to live in a tower. She's a little whiny and petulant-- understandable certainly, but still a bit annoying.

Benjamin is a prince who is lonely at the top. I especially liked his friendship (and issues) with Andrew the page and the difficulties (and jealousies) with his cousin Elkin. I liked the ingenuity that the boys had to show to rescue Rapunzel.

I especially liked Stephen, the little green man who is also imprisoned by the witch and helps Rapunzel.

Twice Upon a Time, No. 2: Sleeping Beauty, the One Who Took the Really Long Nap:The One that took the really long nap was even better. Mainly, because Rose didn't annoy me! Anyway, I liked Rose's frustrations with being perfect, which were even more so than Rose in Princess School, and better done, I think, but mainly because they were more fleshed out here.

I really liked Prince (he doesn't have a name). His mother has some Ogre blood in her and hates beauty. She also needs to eat living things occasionally. She's not very tender. Because of this, Prince has a hard time making friends and servants don't stay for very long.

But then Prince discovers a castle in the woods that is a perfect match for his own, but it is covered with brambles and thorns...

I want more!

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