.
Howdy, Campers--happy Poetry Friday (link at the bottom) and happy home grown veggies to all! (Did you know that August 2-8th was National Farmers Market Week? Or that August 22nd is National Honey Bee Day and September 7th is National Acorn Squash Day?)
We're blogging about going back to school this round. Esther starts us off with a review of Kate Messner's book on revision, a useful and inspiring book; JoAnn writes about using repetition and how to Write a Poem Step by Step, and you can win her book of that very title by entering the latest TeachingAuthors' book giveaway (which ends tonight at midnight) Then Carla shows how to approach the familiar How I Spent My Summer Vacation essay as a non-fiction writer, and Mary Ann tells us the story behind her wonderful book, First Grade Stinks!
Now it's my turn. I'm here to suggest two very different books for this time of year. One about food, one about forgiveness...and the new year.
This collection,with photographs by Norie Wasserman (wonderful cover!) includes poems about small gardens, free range chickens, bees, farmers' markets, fair trade, food banks, a poem that mentions Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, and more.
Any of these would be a wonderful topic for student poems, stories or a class discussion about food and farming. And the remarkable
Renee LaTulippe, at
No Water River, has created what she calls
"poet-a-palooza" about Dear Tomato. which includes videos of some of the poets reading their poems from this book. Many of the poems are by friends from the Kidlitosphere, including B.J.Lee, Mary Lee Hahn, Charles Waters, Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, Matt Forrest Esenwine, Bridget Magee, Buffy Silverman, Stephen Withrow, J. Patrick Lewis, Elizabeth Steinglass, and I'm sure I've missed some others.
This is the book I've been giving my neighborhood gardeners with whom I trade homegrown veggies. Here's one of my poems from the book:
HOE OBSERVING THE FARMER
by April Halprin Wayland
.
He knows a hoe.
Never letting go.
Holds me steady in his grip,
lifts me up to rip against the weight of air.
Then he pulls me back, bearing down,
yielding to the power of the ground.
Holds me steady in his grip,
never letting go.
He knows
a hoe.
poem (c)2015 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.
my father and mother on the farm
The second book, relevant this time of year is:
The Jewish New Year--Rosh Hashanah--is on September 13-15th this year, so now is a good time to read my picture book,
New Year at the Pier--a Rosh Hashanah Story illustrated by Stephane Jorisch. Here's Dial Books for Young Readers' summary:
Izzy's favorite part of Rosh Hashanah is Tashlich, a joyous ceremony in which people apologize for the mistakes they made in the previous year and thus clean the slate as the new year begins. But there is one mistake on Izzy's I m sorry list that he's finding especially hard to say out loud.Humor, touching moments between family and friends, and lots of information about the Jewish New Year are all combined in this lovely picture book for holiday sharing.
Winner of the Sydney Taylor Gold Medal for best Jewish picture book of the year
Here are four ways to use
New Year at the Pier with kids--and adults:
1) Use it to explain to students where absent schoolmates may be during the Jewish New Year.
2) Use it to open discussions about
how to apologize and forgive.
3) Use it to show how other cultures celebrate New Year.
4) Give it to someone you’ve wanted to apologize to for a long time
Click here for more activities,and for New Year rituals around the world.
It's been nice chatting with you today--thanks for allowing me to share ~ April Halprin Wayland
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Howdy, Campers! You have just a few more hours to enter our latest book giveaway (details below)! AND today we celebrate not one, not two, but three things! Rosh Hashanah, the new Children's Poetry Blog Hop, and Poetry Friday (hosted today by Laura Shovan at Author Amok)!
My PF poem is below.
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Thanks, Laura!
* * *
1) Let's start with Rosh Hashanah. Happy New Year (both the Jewish New Year and the New School Year) to all! After I put the finishing touches on this post, I going to walk to the end of our pier and toss bits of bread to seagulls and fish as part of a Jewish New Year ritual called
tashlich.
2) And now on to the Children's Poetry Blog Hop. Having heard of other blog hops, poet Janet Wong and other
kidlitosphere poets have decided to start a Children's Poetry Blog Hop (CPBH) for...who else? Children's poets.
I nominate Mortimer as CPBH's meme:
To participate in the Poetry Blog Hop, simply:
1) Make up three questions you've always wanted to be asked in an interview about children's poetry and then answer them on your own blog;
2) Invite one, two or three other bloggers who write poetry (preferably children's poetry, but we're broad-minded) to answer any three questions that
they make up on their own blogs (they can copy someone else's questions if they'd like)
3) In your post, let us know who your invitees are and when they're are going to be posting their own Poetry Blog Hop questions and answers...if you know the dates.
4) You do not have to use Mortimer, the CPBH meme.
That's it!
I've invited author, poet, and web mistress extraordinaire
Carmela Martino to the Children's Poetry Blog Hop (it sounds like a sock hop, doesn't it?) Carmela will be posting
right here at
TeachingAuthors.com on September 20th.
On the
same day, the marvelously creative author, poet and poetry supporter
Janet Wong promises a surprise twist on the blog hop theme. Find her guest post at
PoetryFridayAnthology.blogspot.com and
PoetryForChildren.blogspot.com on September 20th!
Okay...here are my three questions:
1) What children's poem do you wish you had written? Include the poem or link to it.
2) What's your process? How do you begin writing a poem?
3) Please share one of your poems with us.
And here are my answers:
1) What children's poem do you wish you had written? Include the poem or link to it.
There are so many! The first that pops into my mind is Deborah Chandra's "Cotton Candy" from her book, Rich Lizard and Other Poems (FSG)
I met Deborah years ago in Myra Cohn Livingston's master class in writing poetry for children. Deborah's a stunning craftswoman and looks at the world in madly original ways. And, as you're about to read, her metaphors are spectacular.
COTTON CANDY
by Deborah Chandra
Swirling
like a sweet
tornado,
it spins itself
stiff.
A storm
caught on a paper cone.
I hold it up,
the air grows
thick and
sticky
with the smell of it.
A pink wind
made of sugar
and smoke,
cotton,
earth crust,
delicious dust!
poem © Deborah Chandra. All rights reserved
2) What's your process? How do you begin writing a poem?
Sometimes
my process is to start with a word and I spin out from there. Sometimes I find a poem I admire and imitate its rhythm, meter and form. Sometimes it's a feeling. I ask myself,
what are you feeling today? What is true? What is authentic? And sometimes it's just,
you have ten minutes. Write the damn poem. (I don't actually use the word damn because, as I'm sure you know, children's authors and poets don't swear.)
3) Please share one of your poems with us.
Here's a
Rosh Hashanah/tashlich poem
first published in Jeanette Larson's book,
El dia de los ninos/El dia de los libros: Building a Culture of Literacy in Your Community
SAYS THE SEAGULL
by April Halprin Wayland
Shalom to slowly sinking sun
I sing in salty seagull tongue.
But who're these people on my pier?
I sail, I swoop and then fly near.
They're singing, marching up the pier
I think they did the same last year.
A father gives his girl some bread
she scans the waves then tosses crumbs.
I dive, I catch, I taste
and...yum!
I like this ritual at the pier.
I think I'll meet them every year.
I screech my thanks, and then I hear
"L’shanah Tovah! Good New Year!"
note: Shalom can mean hello, good-bye and peace.Copyright © 2013 April Halprin Wayland
Walking up the pier for tashlich in my hometown.
photo by Rachel Gilman
Thanks for stopping by TeachingAuthors today
--but wait! Before you head off,
be sure to enter for a chance to win a copy of Lisa Morlock's terrific rhyming picture book, Track that Scat! (Sleeping Bear Press).
posted by April Halprin Wayland 
Find out about our Teaching Author Book Give-Away Contest running all this week! Click here for details.
Happy New Year! This week we’re celebrating the new school year and our very own April Halprin Wayland’s book,
New Year at the Pier—A Rosh Hashanah Story, which is about another kind of new year—the Jewish New Year.
JoAnn:
Give us a feel for the time line of this book—from the first inkling of an idea to Book On the Shelf.
April:
I’ll tell you, but if you’re an aspiring children’s author, it might be best to cover your ears and sing “La, la, la” through today’s post…especially the very end.
So—here’s how it started. An editor asked me if I had any Jewish stories in me. I had a few…but one ritual was the standout for me: tashlich.
I began by writing down everything I knew about tashlich—how it feels to walk up the pier, singing, with two hundred of my friends, the sun, the waves, the butterflies in my tummy, the feeling I have when I give my “sins” to the winds.
Next, I read books about tashlich, starting with children’s books, though there weren’t many. The most recent children’s book I found in which tashlich is the main subject is Carol Levin’s
A Rosh Hashanah Walk (Kar-Ben, 1987).
Then I interviewed my friend, Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels of Beth Shir Sholom Temple in Santa Monica, California. Rabbi Neil is very tuned into kids; he’s written many albums of children’s songs.
I just re-read my notes from that afternoon and realize how much of what he taught me infuses the book. Look over my shoulder at a few of my notes:
• Rabbi Neil doesn’t like using the word “mistake,” as mistake means not on purpose, and sometimes you do some of these things on purpose.
• There’s a famous story of a man who goes to his rabbi and says that he gossiped about someone in town and he is now sorry and wants the rabbi to help him make it right. The rabbi said no, he can’t help this man. What? What do you mean, says the man. I really am sorry. I want to make it right. No can do, says the rabbi. But why? Asks the man. Go get me a knife and a feather pillow, says the rabbi. The man does. The rabbi stabs the feather pillow and takes out all the feathers and throws them to the winds. The idea is that you can’t always fix a situation. A situation can be changed through apology, but not undone.
• His example, regarding how you can’t fix something completely, was of a child stealing a doll and bringing it back. She might say, “I know I can bring the doll back, but I can’t make you trust me again.”
• Not: “It’s okay.” (Because maybe it’s not okay.) But: “I accept your apology.”
• Neil suggests that instead of burning her list, she uses it as a checklist.
After the manuscript was written and accepted, my editor, Lauri Hornik, guided me through the rewrites with her clear vision. I growled at her under my breath. She sent edits. I stomped around my computer. She sent more edits. Back and forth, back and forth.
But ask her now how many “Thank you, my dear darling editor!” notes I’ve sent her since the book came out! (Lauri’s since been promoted to President and Publisher of Dutton Children's Books, in addition to her previous title of President and Publisher of Dial. My new fabulous editor at Dial is Jessica Garrison.)
So here, finally, is the spoiler…the actual time line of New Year at the Pier:
• April 2002: interviewed rabbi
• October 2004: accepted by Dial
• many, many, many edits, changes, drafts…
• May 2007: projected publication date is 2008
• September 2007: book delayed until 2009
• April 2008: tiny edit—five small word changes
• June 2009: book is on bookstore shelves—YAY!
SEVEN YEARS?!?!?! Well, yes. Would you believe me if I told you it was worth the wait? Look at the harvest—a starred review in Publishers Weekly and lots of other
wonderful reviews!
image credits:
photo of people walking up the pier by Rachel Gilman
erase writing:
http://christinabakerkline.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/red_pencil.jpg
Find out about our Teaching Authors Book GiveAway Contest running all this week! Click here for details.
Happy New Year! This week we’re celebrating the new school year and our very own April Halprin Wayland’s book, New Year at the Pier--A Rosh Hashanah Story, which is about another kind of new year--the Jewish New Year.
Esther:
April, how did being a Teaching Author influence/impact/inform your book?
April:
More than in any other of my books, I teach in this story—about forgiveness, about how to apologize, about friendship, about community.
All of my books have been fiction. My first book was about a child who turns into a rabbit. My second was a flying horse. My third was about a made-up Southern family and their wild grandma. My fourth was a fictionalized novel of my teen years. My fifth (published by a teensy weensy press in Canada) was about a fictional child moving to a new house.
In each of these, I had the freedom to invent anything I wanted in order to serve the story.
But New Year at the Pier is based on an actual event that I wanted to explain.
I sent drafts to religious Jews, I read them to synagogue classes (a Jewish librarian and Hebrew school teacher both suggested that I add someone apologizing to my main character, so we could learn not only how to apologize, but how it feels to
receive an apology), and every New Year I watched myself and others celebrate on the pier as if I were a journalist, taking notes and taking photos—all to make sure I was telling the truth of this celebration.
So, I teach in this book more than in any of my others. I tried not to hit people over the head with the lessons!
The other way teaching influenced my writing in this book was this: I wanted to show that in real life, not everything is neatly resolved, tied up in a neat package. I fought to keep this element in the story and am so glad I did.
Now that I’m doing performances, presentations and workshops based on this book, I am talking about forgiveness and apologizing, and I offer tips on these topics on my
website.
It’s been a fascinating journey for me to examine my own life and how I have or have not forgiven and how I do or don’t apologize…and how to turn all that humanness into poetry.
What a gift—to teach and to learn, both!
Find out about our Teaching Author Book Give-Away Contest running all this week! http://www.teachingauthors.com/2009/08/1-take-deep-cleansing-breath-2-set-goal.html
Happy New Year! This week we’re celebrating the new school year and our very own April Halprin Wayland’s book, New Year at the Pier--A Rosh Hashanah Story, which is about another kind of new year--the Jewish New Year.
Stay tuned for a series of Q&As from the TAs (say that five times fast) about the gestation of this touching story.
Jeanne Marie:
April, can you tell us a little about your religious identity and why you wrote this book?
April:
Although this book is about the Jewish New Year, it’s really about universal themes of forgiveness and apologizing, friendship and multi-cultural ways to celebrate new year.
Growing up, my Jewishness was all about big hugs from Uncle Raphael, Uncle Izzy, Uncle Avrum, Uncle Chucky, Uncle Davie, Uncle Moish, Uncle Max, Uncle Art, Aunt Fanny, Aunt Cissy, Aunt Sue, Aunt Frances, Aunt Polly, sitting at the “cousins table,” the smells of matzo ball soup, the bright magenta color and hot sting of horseradish, the dark shadow of the holocaust, overlapping layers of talking, laughter, holiday songs, and Yiddish words seasoning conversations, of flickering candles.
Above all, being Jewish meant that part of my job on earth was tikkun olam—to repair the world. My relatives modeled tikkun olam every day.
I’m married to Gary, a non-Jew who embodies tikkun olam in every action, in every breath. We are both political activists in an effort to repair the world, and we weave Judaism into the fabric of our family throughout the year in other ways, too:
On Friday nights, our family goes to our favorite hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant. I’m not sure how Jewish tacos are, but it’s our way of marking the start of the Sabbath, a time of rest and renewal.
In December, we have an annual latke party, inviting neighbors to bring electric skillets, spatulas and aprons. Hanukah latkes are yummy hot-from-the-frying-pan potato pancakes, served with apple sauce or sour cream. We set up latke-making stations, cook, gab, sing, bless the candles, play the dreidle game and eat!
Gary’s a CPA and his busiest time of the year is near Passover. For many years, my son and I traveled overseas during his spring break, where I taught writing and poetry workshops. I’ve taught in schools in Germany, France, England, Italy, Switzerland and Poland, and every year we celebrated Passover with new friends. (One memorable year we ate Passover dinner on the floor of our Berlin hotel room…ask me about it sometime!)
Tashlich is a ritual during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The exact date of Rosh Hashanah varies—in 2009, it’s Sept. 18-20th. When synagogue is over, nearly two hundred of us will walk to the pier, sing songs, and fling pieces of bread into the ocean.
Each piece of bread represents something we wish we hadn’t done in the past year. Tossing the bread (tashlich means “to throw”) is a way of letting go of the past. It represents the footwork we’ve done to sincerely apologize and compensate for any wrongs we’ve done, cleaning the slate for the New Year.
Tashlich is outdoors, in a beautiful setting. Tashlich is community, a huge component of the juiciness of Judaism.
Tashlich is about healing the world, beginning with me.
Tashlich my favorite Jewish celebration. I’ve dragged many friends to the pier so they could taste its poetry. I wanted them to feel the wind, hear the gulls, experience the relief of tossing each piece of bread.
How could I not share all this in a picture book?
image credits:
interior picture from New Year at the Pier © Stéphane Jorisch 2009
latkes: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_k6Qpln2Ucz4/SSQYTaB212I/AAAAAAAABwU/nSGwt_qiZkk/s400/latkes.jpg
Hi, April. What a chock-full post. I love the sensory details of "Cotton Candy." And your poem -- amazing what a fresh point of view can bring to a tradition.
What a happy, wonderful, celebratory post on many levels! Thanks for the smiles, the Chandra, the Wayland, the good, good words. :)
And YAY for the poet blog hop!
From cotton candy to marching at the pier - lovely poems to enjoy today.
Children's authors and poets don't swear. Ha! Love your process, April, and your results. Three cheers for Mortimer! xo
Hope you had a wonderful Tashlich! And thank you for the shout-out on my Blog Hop post (going up on Sept 21)!
Hi April,
Thanks for the Poetry Blog Hop invite, though you will definitely be a tough act to follow!
And thanks so much for sharing these poems. I was especially struck by this line from yours:
>>I sing in salty seagull tongue.<<
Good New Year to you!
Happy New Year and Happy Blog Hopping, April! (I think Mortimer would be the perfect meme BTW)Thanks to your poem choice, "Cotton Candy". I now have a hankering for cotton candy...a guilty pleasure. =)
I'm going to send your poem to some friends who I know will appreciate it! Love the photo of Mortimer -- adorable :-)
Correction: I meant Friday, Sept 20--my Blog Hop post will go up on 9/20 as you reported correctly, April!
Gang and Gangettes! Happy New Year to all ~
Join the Children's Poetry Blog Hop whenever and wherever you'd like.
It'll be like tossing confetti in the air and seeing where it lands.
Gang and Gangettes! Happy New Year to all ~
Join the Children's Poetry Blog Hop whenever and wherever you'd like.
It'll be like tossing confetti in the air and seeing where it lands.
Hi there April. So many great things to love about this post. Happy New Year to you! And congratulations on your new picture book. Very lovely! And the children's poetry blog hop is also ingenious! Cute Mortimer.
What an uplifting, tasty, wonderful and rich post, April! Thanks for sharing all this deliciousness. You've set the blog hop bar high, too.
"Shalom to slowly sinking sun..." mmmmmmmm.
A very rich post, April! Thank you for the cotton candy, the pier, Mortimer (what a great name!) and the blog hop information!