How to use this Page

Our selection of hot new releases and popular kids' books has a lot to offer!

Add a Comment

To follow on from my review of Penny & Jelly: The School Show last Friday, I am very happy to have the author, Maria Gianferrari on the blog today to share about the inspiration for her debut picture book and offer … Continue reading →

Add a Comment

Poem Depot

Aisles of Smiles

Poems and drawings by Douglas Florian

 

Imagine a supermarket with aisles of poetry. Take a cart and wander up and down 11 aisles of puns, jokes, wit, belly laughs and just rhyming fun for the picture book set – and parents too! Couldn’t let April aka National Poetry Month, close out without a tip of the hat to Douglas Florian’s latest, called Poem Depot: Aisles of Smiles.

Poetry, and the idea of it, can set kids running in the opposite direction! Maybe that’s because they haven’t been introduced to the poems that tickle their funny bones first and make them giggle. Time enough for the classic side, as their tastes mature. But for now, kids are masters at enjoying the ridiculous and silly. It’s a shame we adults lose that so quickly under the shoulder of adult responsibilities and the desire to be taken seriously! Serious comes quickly enough, so why not get in touch with your silly side again, and let your kids see someone that both YOU and THEY haven’t seen in a while! And this may just be the book to start you down that road this April. Read the poems aloud and laugh long and lyrically – together. Or maybe if it’s too much of a leap all at once, try a simple chuckle first.

Any actor will tell you it’s much harder to do comedy than it is to do the dramatic. It’s the timing, delivery and the language all intertwined. Mr. Florian has a gift in that regard for the “language of laughter.” And in Poem Depot: Aisles of Smiles, his simple pen and ink drawings are the perfect complement to the poetry. He’s smart enough to let the words stand on their own with just the right touch of whimsy in the art to set the poetry off right!

His previous books like Laugh-eteria connect with kids and the funny things that happen in a child’s world. He is the winner of the Lee Bennett Hopkins and Claudia Lewis awards. And speaking of Lee Bennett Hopkins, here is a man that has done much to foster the love, laughter and language of poetry in the younger set. If you have a chance, please also take a peek at HIS books too. Lee Bennett Hopkins is “one of America’s most prolific anthologists of poetry for young people”, says Anthony L. Manna in the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. Try Days to Celebrate, Give Me Wings, Hand in Hand, I Am the Book, and the devilishly delicious, Nasty Bugs. These are some great compilations to whet the appetite of children for the dense compact language of poetry.

But first, just try a sample from Mr. Florian’s Poem Depot: Aisles of Smiles:

 

 

                                                         Scared

 

                                         I’m scared of wild animals:

                                       Of lions, tigers, bears.

                                        I’m scared of climbing mountains,

                                       Or falling off of chairs.

                                       I’m mortified of monsters,

                                     Or each and every ghost.

                                     Next Thursday is a science test-

                                      And that scares me the most.

 

 

Can YOU relate? I can, and so will your young readers as they wander up and down the aisles of this depot filled with the sometimes silly, scary and searching world of childhood.

You’ll find ME in Aisle 6: Tons of Puns. Love’em and so will you!

                              

 

 

Add a Comment

Douglas Florian: Studio Visit: I've been planning a group exhibition at the café in Inwood that I curate art shows for.  I've asked some of my favorite artists that...

Add a Comment

unBEElievables: honeybee poems and paintings
by Douglas Florian
Beach Lane Books, 2012

Douglas Florian does it again! A perfect trifecta of illustrations and poems and just enough information on every page.

I wish I would have had this book to show my student as a mentor text when they were writing their weather poems and including science information on the page with each poem.

Here's a favorite:

BEE ANATOMY

Lovely legs,
Lovely hue.
Lovely long
Antennae, too.
Lovely eyes,
Lovely wings.
But ouch!
How in the end
It stings!

Display Comments Add a Comment

At NCTE I found myself laughing at myself, because with 700 sessions to choose from, I managed to attend a session that I had already attended last year!  Not so surprising--the concept of "Picturing Writing: Fostering Literacy through Art" is right up my personal alley, and the collage-based approach called "Image-Making Within the Writing Process" is my back door.  Thanks to Beth Olshansky and her teacher colleagues for leading me home (two years in a row).

So, in our new 2.0 Elementary Integrated Curriculum we are supposed, as winter sets in, to be studying plant and animal life cycles, planting seeds and learning about baby animals. (Never mind that all around us dying, darkening, sleeping.)  To tie it all together and to lead us into a poetry project, I chose Leo Lionni's Frederick and Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed, which we have been comparing and contrasting, enacting and evaluating: which parts of this story could really happen?  do Frederick and his family do what real mice do? 

Meanwhile, each child used watercolors to paint 3-6 papers for collage, in the manner of both Carle and Lionni. As the class worked to see what animals, plants and weather their unpredictable painted papers suggested, I learned quite a lot that will help me support the project next time!  (Note to self:  20 collaging kindergarteners at once is too many.)  Still, their collages are very pleasing, often striking, and most importantly, quite individual. 

This week we're placing our collages in front of us and writing poems.  While a couple of the 5-year-olds are able to write their compositions on their own, for most I'm scribing with strategically placed blanks for them to spell juicy words like fish, rain, float and lion.  I cannot wait to share the whole collection with you, but for now I have only two to hand.  Jordan cut 4 shapes from a pinkish-purple paper, arranged them as a fish on a stripy bluish sea paper, and then painstakingly cut and glued maroon and ochre spots from another paper to create a bubbly surface. Here is his poem.

Mighty Minnow
by Jordan

mighty minnow swimming fast
in a deep, deep sea
pinkish-purple spots and dots
do you see any more colors
or anything else on me?

Ezekial is my youngest nearly 6-year-old and My Project for the year. We worked very closely to make the lion he imagined out of a deep muddyish turquoise paper. Here is the poem we negotiated.

Lion
by Ezekial

the blue dad lion
is walking to his wife
the playground is their house
they eat leaves and grass
they climb up the ladders
and they jump!

Extra poet's note: My plan, of course, was to model the collage-to-poem move using my own giraffe-under-sunset collage...but as my colleagues often say, "Kindergarten happened," and I found myself sitting down to write with children without ever having modeled. Guess what? For this class anyway, it has not mattered. Perhaps the other poetry we've been reading (most recently Frederick's "Sky Mice" poem and Douglas Florian's Beast Feast) and all the singing we've done has been enough. Their words sing, too!

Display Comments Add a Comment

Blackaby, Susan. Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox. Illus. by Carmen Segovia. Sterling, 2011. Ages 4-7.

If you’re seeking a whimsical read-aloud for Groundhog’s Day, you’ve found it. Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox sparkles with wit and sly charm. Brownie is a clever groundhog that meets a hungry would-be predator on a cloudy February 2nd. The fox tells her, “Hold still…. I’m trying to eat you for breakfast.” Brownie’s flip response is that it’ s simply too late for breakfast. The two find they both hate to wait. Brownie suggests the fox work up an appetite by clearing the snow off the pond. Segovia’s humorous image shows the fox putting his fluffy tail to good use. Alas, after all that effort, it’s too late for lunch, says Brownie. Then the tricky groundhog leads the fox to a tree and winds her scarf around and around the fox, binding him to the trunk.

Brownie’s little heart is touched, though, as she hears the fox’s plaintive cries. She decides it’s time to share what’s in her basket: cocoa and cinnamon toast. The crumbs attract a robin — the first sign of spring! The two new friends leave for home, pondering their next adventure. The illustrator’s note describes how Segovia first conceived of this engaging character one winter as she sketched a groundhog. Her wintry palette, splashed with the fox’s red, is as refreshing as that impromptu picnic.

Enhance a snowy story with the cold facts, perfectly described and displayed in

Cassino, Mark and Jon Nelson. The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter’s Wonder.. Chronicle, 2009. Ages 4-9. You’ll be singing songs of snow, glorious snow after reading this snappy little informative book. Cassino and Nelson reveal the scientific nature of snow by using an accessible format featuring a brief fact in a large type size, then giving details in smaller text. Readers will learn of the three major types of crystals (star-shaped, plate and columnar), as well as other interesting facts. (It’s the molecular structure of water that creates the six-sided crystals, for instance.) The superb illustrations include both spectacular photographs that beg to be shared and Aoyagi’s ink and watercolor diagrams that show how a crystal develops from a speck of soil, pollen, or other substance, and then develops into an intricate six-sided beauty. Also noteworthy are the clear instructions on catching and examining snow crystals — just the trick for getting readers to venture outside to explore wintry wonders.

More and More Snow …

Alarcon, Francisco X. Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems. illus. by Maya Christina Gonzalez. Children’s Book Press, 2001. Fresh poems, often written with an unusual perspective, grace bright and beautiful pages showcasing poems in both Spanish and in English.

Andersen, Hans Christian. The Snow Queen. Trans. and retold by Naomi Lewis. Illus. by Christian Birmingham. Candlewick, 2008. Ages 8-10. Don’t miss Andersen’s most beautiful fairy tale, a source of inspiration for C.S. Lewis and other fantasy writers. Of the many versions available, Lewis’s is the one you want. This memorable wintry tale begs to be read aloud: “The cloak and cap were made of snow, and the driver ah, she was a lad

Display Comments Add a Comment

I’ve so enjoyed the poetry activities this National Poetry Month that I’m sorry to see it end. (April, are you ready for a break?) I spoke about poetry this month to elementary school students from prekindergarten to sixth grade and worked with young poets in Merrill, Marshall, and Winneconne, Wisconsin—and I loved every minute of every visit! Hello and thanks to all the helpful teachers, librarians, and PTO organizers!


Today is Arbor Day (read about it here), so I’m including a shape poem I wrote about trees and my own writer’s dilemma.


To celebrate Arbor Day and National Poetry Month, read some tree poems! Kristine O’Connell George’s Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems is one of my all-time favorite collections. Poetrees is a new collection by Douglas Florian.

Writing Workout: Write a Shape Poem

A shape poem is also called a concrete poem or a spatial poem. You can find them in collections such as Doodle Dandies: Poems that Take Shape by J. Patrick Lewis, Splish Splash and Flicker Flash: Poems by Joan Bransfield Graham,  and A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems, edited by Paul B. Janeczko.

To write a shape poem, choose a concrete object so you have a shape to work with. Write the poem first. Then fit it into its form. I used the WordArt feature in Microsoft® Office Word to create the poem above. Have fun!

Don't forget to join us in our first anniversary celebration and enter to win a critique of your work!

Display Comments Add a Comment

 

It was so fun to meet Douglas Florian in person at TLA last week! He had the librarians in stitches with his wry and speedy recitations of his poems. Here's one of my favorites from his newest collection, Poetrees (Beach Lane Books, 2010): Scribbly Gum The scribbly gum's smooth gray bark Has lines where larvae left their mark. Their nibbling left a scribbly drawing-- A work of art by boring, gnawing. From their munching, lunching, chewing-- Lovely woodcuts for the viewing. --Douglas Florian, all rights reserved

Now I'm off for Day 5 of this busy week of school visits, rounding off three weeks of travel. It'll be good to get home tonight!

P.S. The Poetry Roundup today is at Anastasia Suen's Picture Book of the Day blog. Enjoy!

Add a Comment

Words and pictures by Douglas Florian

Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster, 2010

$16.99, ages 4-8, 48 pages

A poem may not be as lovely as a tree, but Florian's tribute to these stalwarts of the forest is certain to inspire affection.

When reading these splendid little poems, be sure to hold the book upright for the listener to see, for it's the melding of words and pictures that makes this tribute so extraordinary.

Florian, author-illustrator of the hit book Dinothesaurus, overlays short poems on paintings of trees, tree parts and in one case the organic outline of child, so that the poems are as much about the pictures as the words.

On one two-page spread, a poem about roots is set over the torso of a child. Her outline is drawn in water-saturated lines of paint in varying shades of earth-brown. The lines, like roots, wind down two pages, which, like all of the book's spreads, are oriented vertically.

The poem begins just below the child's eyes and continues over her midriff, with an occasional word changing in spacing and direction to give it emphasis.

Every time Florian uses a word that means, "to expand," he spaces the letters widely, and when he uses one that means, "downward movement," he breaks from the horizontal structure of the poem to write vertically.

The words and pictures work so well together that you're swept along by Florian's passion for trees. In "Giant Sequoia," his awe for this ancient tree easily becomes your awe.

He paints a single massive sequoia rising "heavenly high," far above every other trees in the forest, and illuminated by an outline of radiant gold. Spaced up the trunk are human hands with their palms flat and facing the reader, as if to say "Halt," to any who would want to cut it down.

In some of the poems, the lines follow the shape of the subject, as in "Tree Rings," in which words move in a circular path, or "The Seed," in which the

Add a Comment

 

 

I shared a poem last year from Douglas Florian's Dinothesaurus, but I couldn't resist sharing another one. That's because I'm very excited about getting his new book, Poetrees, which I haven't seen yet! We'll both be at the Texas Library Association conference in April, and I'll be buying my copy there.   Meanwhile, I'm satisfying my appetite for Douglas' ever clever poetry and art by rereading Dinothesaurus today. If you don't already have this one, buy it when you get Poetrees! Plesiosaurs PLEASE-ee-oh-sawrs (near lizards) We're PLEASE-ee-oh-sawrs. We're car-ni-vores. We swim in deep seas, unlike dinosaurs. We swallow sea reptiles and gobble great fishes. A fine meal of mollusk tastes jolly delicious. But we aren't vicious, we're very polite-- We always say PLEASE before we might bite. --Douglas Florian, all rights reserved I know there are big doings all over the kidlitosphere for National Poetry Month in April--yay! Since I'm once again going to be on the road with school visits and conferences, I'm keeping it simple. I'll post one poem a day, kids' or YA, and on 15 Words or Less Thursdays, I'll be asking participants to write poems specifically for kids. Meanwhile, check out the Poetry Friday Roundup today at Julie Larios' The Drift Record!

Wednesday is the last day to vote for my poetry book Stampede in the Minnesota Readers' Choice. Will you click on the aqua banner at the top of the post to vote? Thanks so much!

Add a Comment

Happy Book Birthday to Douglas Florian!

His latest collection of poems, Poetrees (Beach Lane Books, 2010), was just released on Tuesday, and it's simply tree-mendous! But of course! This poet-painter (or authorstrator, as he calls himself) creates such consistently excellent work, that each new book is a big cause for celebration.

On the heels of his much lauded Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings (Beach Lane Books, 2009), Poetrees is a paean to Florian's longstanding tallstanding love of trees:

I grew up in a neighborhood in Queens, New York, that was filled with young sycamore trees. In the summer, when my mother wasn't looking, my friend and I would climb those trees and enjoy the view from high above . . . although I no longer climb trees, I do still love to draw them, paint them, study them, write poems about them, and enjoy their beauty and shade with my children.

This collection contains 18 poems -- five are about tree parts (seeds, roots, tree rings, bark, leaves), while the others describe 13 different species (baobab, coconut palm, oak, monkey puzzle tree, banyan, paper birch, dragon tree, giant sequoia, scribbly gum, bristlecone pine, Japanese cedar, weeping willow, and yew). Quite an eclectic treet featuring Florian's signature wordplay and uncanny ability to serve up fascinating facts with verve and humor. I daresay he's captured the very essence of these trees -- their personalities, in some cases, from his vantage point of child-like, sophisticated pooh-bah, employing to brilliant effect his reverent irreverence. 

This poem goes with the cover illustration:

LEAVES

Lobed leaves.
Oval leaves.
Smooth leaves or jagged.
Heart-shaped.
Odd-shaped.
Leaves eaten ragged.
Fan-like.
Hand-like.
Light leaves.
Dark.
Leathery.
Feathery.
Leaves in a park.
Two points.
Ten points.
Points like a saw.
Lovely leaves
Leave me in awe.

I love the art in this book -- mixed media (collage, gouache, oil pastels, colored pencil, rubber stamps) on primed brown paper bags. The primitive style, earth tones and textures perfectly complement the poems, giving the whole an organic feel. Poem and painting engender a complete emotional experience, with the book opening vertically to emphasize the trees' towering height. There's also an interesting Glossatree with thumbnail sketches, an Author's Note, and a list of sources.



OAK

From the acorn
Grows the tree --

S l o w l y ,
S l o w l y .

Finally, my favorite poem. This painting always makes me smile and think of Hawai'i.



COCONUT PALM

I'm nuts about the coconut.
I'm cuckoo for the coco.
I'm crazed for this amazing nut.
For coco I am loco.
I'm never calm to climb this palm.
I scurry up and hurry
To knock one down onto the ground,
Then eat it in a flurry. 

Let's celebrate Douglas's new book with some creamy, moist haupia cake (recipe is

Add a Comment

In celebration of Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 30 I decided to pick two new poetry selections for this post. I got to combine one of my favorite poets Douglas Florian (I still have the napkin he signed during a author visit) plus my favorite topic Dinosaurs. The lastest book from Douglas Florian is called Dinothesaurus. Barosaurus is my favorite poem in the book. Douglas Florian has a very interesting way of taking animal facts and creating fun poems.


The other poem book I picked was Incredible Inventions. These poems are selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins. This book takes inventions like jigsaw puzzles, roller coasters, and band-aids and creates poems. In the pack on the book there is a Behind the Inventions page. This page allows the reader to explore real information about the invention.

This are two unique additions to the poetry world. Don't forget to share a poem on April 30!
Happy Poem in Your Pocket Day!

Display Comments Add a Comment

Yea! It's National Poetry Month, and to start it off, I want to share an excerpt from Douglas Florian's funny, clever, new collection, Dinothesaurus. It's getting starred reviews and laughs all over the place!

Here's one of my favorite poems from the book. I just love the idea of a dinosaur as a tank, with its heavy-armored skin. Love that! Ankylosaurus AN-kee-lo-SAW-rus (fused lizard) Tough as tanks and hard as nails, Heavy clubs swing from our tails. We like spikes and we like scutes (Bony plates we wear as suits). We have heavy-armored skin-- Hey, but that's the skin we're in! --Douglas Florian, all rights reserved You can read a few more excellent poems (and check out the striking artwork) from Dinothesaurus at Florian Cafe: Iguanodon Gigantosaurus Barosaurus

Douglas is relatively new to the blogosphere, and I've been enjoying reading his Florian Cafe posts, where he shares poems, art he loves, quotations, and riffs on lots of artsy topics.

After I read this super-funny collection, which I had been salivating while waiting for because of the several teaser poems he shared on his blog, I asked him 3 questions. And he answered! (I love getting the behind-the-scenes scoop from poets!)

1. What's one thing you did (writing or painting) in this book that you haven't ever done before?

This is the first book that I created art specifically for the endpapers (the brave girl shaking hands with a Pterodactyl). There's also a "sites and museums page." And it's my first book for Simon & Schuster.

(Check out that endpaper image here.)

2. Do you do lists of rhyming words related to your poem topic before you start working on a poem? Or do you look for the words as you need them?

I don't start with words. I start with a concept or an image. In the Pterosaurs poem the idea was to carry the funny "pt" spelling of the name into the ptotal poem.

(And it's pterrific! You can read "Pterosaurs" here on Douglas' blog.)

3. What was your favorite bit/kind of dinosaur research that you did for this collection?

A funny thing happened to me. In New York City I took the C train instead of the E train going home, and when I got out at the station I was surrounded by all the dinosaur fossils embedded in the wall because it was the stop for the American Museum of Natural History. I couldn't escape them.

(I now have this great image in my head of dinosaurs pursuing Douglas Florian through the streets and stations of NYC! The first ever art-thriller blockbuster movie!)


So, thank you to Douglas Florian, for getting Poetry Month off to a rousing start here! I know this book will be an enormous (gigantosauric?) hit with kids and adults alike.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reminder: Everyone's invited to my online book launch for Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School. Just drop by www.stampede.ning.com this Monday, April 6, to join in the fun!

Add a Comment

National Poetry Week Goings-On...

If you're looking for ways to get your daily shot of the poetic during April (which, of course, is National Poetry Month) here are two great options:

• GottaBook's 30 Poets/30 Days. Poet and blogger Gregory K. Pinkus has put together quite a National Poetry Month celebration. Every day in April on GottaBook he'll be posting a previously unpublished poem by a different children's poet, including Jack Prelutsky, Mary Ann Hoberman, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Douglas Florian, Nikki Grimes, Jane Yolen, Pat Mora, Nikki Giovanni, Adam Rex, Jon Scieszka, and many many more. Click here to read the full list.

• Poetic Asides' Poem-a-Day Challenge. Poet's Market editor, blogger (and my super-duper co-worker) Robert Lee Brewer is holding his annual Poem-a-Day Challenge on the Poetic Asides blog. Throughout April Robert will post a daily poetry prompt and poets are encouraged to post their prompt-inspired work on the blog (every day if they're up to the challenge). In May Robert's 50 favorite poems will be offered in an e-book. It's all free and there's no registration to complete--poets simply write and post.
  

Display Comments Add a Comment

Douglas Florian is a poet who doesn’t simply swim through the water, he flies using the water-wings of his imagination to create the kinds of poems that have earned him a reputation over the years as a favorite of poetry fans.From his very first efforts at poetry, Florian preferred not to follow a straight line but to zigzag and pun his way across the pool using a variety of strokes and words,

Display Comments Add a Comment

Oh my giddy aunt! (Learned that expression from Michele at Scholar's Blog.)

Douglas Florian has a blog, Florian Cafe. I know this because Gregory K. at GottaBook reported it last week.

Thank you, thank you Greg for sharing this news.

Display Comments Add a Comment