Poetry Friday: Rounding Up 30 Books of Poetry!

Head over to Buffy's Blog for today's round-up of poetic goodness.

Thanks to Buffy Silverman for hosting this week's buffet of poetic goodness.

Don't miss her salute to spring music, "Toad's Swampy Serenade."    

On the first Poetry Friday in April, I shared book spine poetry.

On the second Poetry Friday in April, I shared eight favorite titles from poets I've met. 

On April 19th for my SOL, I shared three titles I handed to reluctant poetry readers.

SOL - Enticing Poetry Books

Edited by J. Patrick Lewis

by Pat Mora

,On the third Poetry Friday in April, I shared line 23, of the 2016 Progressive Poem. 

On the fourth Poetry Friday in April, I'm sharing eleven more favorite poetry books

for a grand total of 30+ poetry books shared in April.  

I love that Poetry Friday is a year-round celebration of poetry!

Anthologies:

20.  Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young,

The 20th Century Children's Poetry Treasury,  and 

The Random House Book of Poetry for Children selected by Jack Prelutsky

(I know that's three titles, but I love all of them.  Great memories 

of my preschool daughter reciting "The Skeletons are Out Tonight" from the first title,

my 6th grade students loving the second title, and reading poems aloud from the third title

on road trips with my husband in the early 80's before kids. )

21.  Ten-Second Rainshowers:  Poems By Young People compiled by Sanford Lyne

22. Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle  . . and Other Modern Verse 

compiled by Stephen Dunning, Edward Leuders, & Hugh Smith

23.  Julie Andrews' Treasury For All Seasons

selected by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton

24.  Sunflakes:  Poems for Children selected by Lilian Moore

25.  One Big Rain:  Poems for Rainy Days compiled by Rita Gray

(When you live in the NW, you must have an anthology

devoted to rain by seasons of the year.)

26.  A Family of Poems:  My Favorite Poetry for Children

compiled by Caroline Kennedy

Books by Favorite Poets:

27.    Handsprings. Summersaults, Autumnblings, and Winter Eyes

by Douglas Florian

28.  A Maze Me:  Poems for Girls by Naomi Shihab Nye

29.  Blue Lipstick:  Concrete Poems by John Grandits  

30.  English, Fresh Squeezed!  by Carol Diggory Shields

Oh, and here are some more favorite poets that I couldn't fit in:

Valerie Worth, Karla Kuskin, Alice Schertle, Mary Ann Hoberman,

Bruce Lansky, Bob Raczka, Charles Ghigna,  X.J. Kennedy, 

Rebecca Kai Doltish, Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, Bill Martin Jr., 

Constance Levy, Myra Cohn Livingston,  & Barbara Juster Esbensen!

Be sure to let me know which of your favorite poetry books or authors I left out.  

A trip to the library is never complete without a stop by the 800s for poetry.  

And here's a pic of me all decked out last week for Poem in Your Pocket Day, 

(Can't decide on a favorite poem?   Get yourself an apron with many pockets!)

Slice of Life: Audacious Poetry Promoter

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Tara, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Anna, Kathleen, and Deb

                   for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

If it's April, then I'm celebrating - sunshine, longer days, blossoms, and National Poetry Month!  Similar to the familiar book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, I come to you today with the fun a retired teacher can have with a platform for poetry.  It all starts with Books, Brownies and Beyond, our after school book club.  If it's April, then you can be sure that I have at least two bins of poetry books in the trunk of my car.  I start collecting them in March with visits to our library on Mercer Island, the Bellevue library, and even a stop by the Issaquah library.  I stop by the school library and pull a cart of favorites from the shelves that I can roll down to book club each week.  We read poetry books at book club, we sticky note our favorite poems, we copy them, and we mount them on colorful paper - all in preparation for today's Books, Brownies, and Beyond blitz of bulletin boards. We'll head out with those favorite poems and staplers in hand this afternoon to share poetry love with our larger school population.

If it's Poem in Your Pocket Day, then you can be sure that I'll be somewhere at school with a poem in my pocket.  This year I showed up in an apron with multiple pockets and poems.  Members of Books, Brownies, and Beyond manned a table so students could stop by to share the poem in their pocket and receive a sweet treat in return.  At lunch, club members joined librarian Carrie Bowman to hand out poems rolled and tied with ribbon at Tuesday's book club meeting.

If it's the day after Poem in Your Pocket Day and I'm subbing as secretary at the front desk of our school (with lots of candy left over from the day before), I'll sneak in an announcement:  "Ms. Behnke is subbing for Ms. McCann.  Stop by the front office, share a poem, and she'll share from her leftover stash of candy." 

If I'm subbing in the front office, then you can be sure that I'll take advantage of the front counter to promote favorite poetry books.  If you pause for more than a moment, I'll plead with you to peruse the pages of Daniel Finds a Poem,  my latest "favorite" poetry book.  

This teacher (with no poem in her pocket) recited
Shakespeare's Sonnet XCVIII verbatim.  

A few of my "favorite" poetry books!

If you're placed in the front office for a appointment with an administrator,  I'm sure to share a "favorite" book with you, A Fury of Motion:  Poems for Boys by Charles Ghigna. I'll ask you which poem you liked best (the one about soccer), and you'll ask me which poem I liked best ("What's a Poem?")  And the best moment of my day?  When you  pull up a rap on your   i-pad (written for a social studies project on prohibition) to share with me!

Celebrate This Week: Poetry, Showers, and Blossoms

                               Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 

                                                             When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.

                                   A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!

1.  Added line 23 to the 2016 Progressive Poem!

2.  A baby shower for Courtney,

sweet mama-to-be!

3.  Poem in  Your Pocket Day!

Members of Books, Brownies, and Beyond 

handed out candy to students with poem in pocket.

4.  More blossoms and sunshine!

5.  A rain kissed tulip!
Happy for the return of rain and cooler weather.

Poetry Friday: My Line for the Progressive Poem

Don't you love the visual for this year's progressive poem?  The image of the stones going round and round leading to a lovely floral center . . . Or is it the lovely floral center that leads us out and out and around and around?  

I promised myself that I wouldn't get involved this year.  But I watched the spaces on the calendar fill up and before I knew it, I committed again to join Irene Latham and friends for the 2016 Kitdlitosphere Progressive Poem.  The schedule for the month and the links for each day are in the sidebar.   

I enjoyed the analogy in Robyn's post linking the cruise ship docking process to our communal progressive poem - a journey directed by different folks along the way.   Robyn handed me this line: "blowing soft words the seer discerns."  I've spent many petrified moments reading and rereading our poem, thinking, writing and rewriting.  I chose to drift a bit, to gaze back at the journey we've taken together.   

I loved Jan's nod on the 21st to Poem in Your Pocket Day.  I included my own little nod to Earth Day in my contribution for the 23rd (composed on Earth Day).  I'm in awe of each added line and thank each poetic friend fellow poet (definitely in the fledgling ranks here) for his or her contribution.  Without further ado, I add my italicized line and pass our poem into Amy's capable hands at The Poem Farm. 

2016 Progressive Poem

A squall of hawk wings stirs the sky.

A hummingbird holds and then hies.

If I could fly, I’d choose to be

Sailing through a forest of poet-trees.

A cast of crabs engraves the sand

Delighting a child’s outstretched hand.

If I could breathe under the sea,

I’d dive, I’d dip, I’d dance with glee.

A clump of crocuses crave the sun.

Kites soar while joyful dogs run.

I sing to spring, to budding green,

to all of life – seen and unseen.

Wee whispers drift from cloud to ear

and finally reach one divining seer

who looks up from her perch and beams —

West Wind is dreaming May, it seems.



Golden wings open and gleam

as I greet the prancing team.

Gliding aside with lyrical speed,

I’d ride Pegasus to Ganymede.

To a pied pocket, the zephyr returns

blowing soft words the seer discerns
from earthbound voyage to dreamy night

Thanks, Jama, for hosting this week's poetry round-up of poetic goodness.  And I promise to get back soon to my project for April of sharing thirty favorite books of poetry!

Slice of Life: I Don't Like Poetry!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Tara, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Anna, Kathleen, and Deb

                   for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives

First of all, let me make one thing perfectly clear.

I am not the "I" in the title of this post!

It was Tuesday afternoon of the week before spring break

and time for Books, Brownies, and Beyond.  

I wheeled in a cart of poetry books, 

ready to begin our prep for Poem in Your Pocket Day. 

I was surprised when one young man, 

an enthusiastic participant in our book club,

eyed me with a rather sour expression,

followed by the words,

"I don't like poetry!"

Unfazed by this proclamation, 

I scanned the cart for a winning title

and promptly handed him this book.

Another student was less than enthusiastic and so

I asked him, "What's your favorite thing?"  

When he replied, "Food," I reached for this title.

It wasn't long until the room was quiet,
 as everyone plunged into poetry,

enticed by the words and illustrations to discover poems 

they might choose to tuck into a pocket,

to fill a basket of poems for lunchtime sharing,

 or to mark for copying for our school-wide blitz when we blanket

the hallway bulletin boards with poetic goodness. 

I smiled as I noticed this book filled with sticky notes,

a personal favorite that I'm happy for students to discover.  

Before we knew it, our hour together was almost over.

We saved a few minutes for everyone to share a poem. 

And that young man who didn't like poetry?

He begged to share a second poem with the group!  

Celebrate This Week: Sister Fun!

                                Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 

                                                             When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.

                                   A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!


When I returned from my recent trip to California, everyone queried, "What did you do?"  In our family, just being together is the best treat ever, and I celebrate my five ordinary days in California.  Those ordinary days were extraordinary because Kay and I spent them together!

We did a few things:  got mani-pedis, went to church together, watched Call the Midwives and some Hallmark movies, had some shopping outings to the grocery store and Wal-Mart, baked some family favorites and tried out some new recipes, went to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, and headed out to dinner on my last evening there for Mexican food at Don Jose's (always a requirement when I visit).

The time together went by much too fast.  I wish I lived closer to my siblings, but I'm happy when I get to visit each of them.  And visiting is the best part of my trip - plenty of time to talk about our memories and bring each other up-to-date on our lives.

Next sibling trip is in June when I'll visit my brother and family to attend my niece's wedding in Oklahoma.  After that I'll be headed to DC to meet my new grandson!

 Bougainvilleas outside the movie theater

Cinnamon and chocolate roll -

a family tradition for generations

A friend at church took this fun sister pic - 

Ramona (that's me) and Kay (the sis in the scarf)!

Poetry Friday: 8 Poets I've Met!

Head over to Today's Little Ditty

 for this week's roundup of poetry love

with Michelle Heidenrich Barnes.

Thanks for hosting, Michelle!

Arriving late tonight, but keeping my promise to show up

every Friday to share 30 poets and books I love 

(I'm up to 15 now).

Today I'm featuring poets I've met (or heard speak)

and a favorite book by each poet.

All Write Conference 2013

1.  Amy Ludwig VanDerwater - Forest Has a Song

Workshop for The Poetry Box at Islander Middle School - October 2014

2.  Janet Wong - Night Garden  

NCTE 2014

3.  Irene Latham - Fresh Delicious

4.  Paul Janeczko - A Foot in the Mouth:  Poems to Speak, Sing, and Shout

5.  Laura Purdie Salas - BookSpeak!  Poems About Books

6.  Joan Bransfield Graham - Flicker Flash 

7.  Sylvia Vardell - Poetry Out Loud

All Write Conference 2015

8.  Georgia Heard - This Place I Know:  Poems of Comfort

Slice of Life: Beverly Cleary's 100th Birthday!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Tara, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Anna, Kathleen, and Deb

                   for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

Several weeks ago I started hearing mention of Beverly Cleary's upcoming 100th birthday.  I quickly checked the calendar, "Wonderful!  April 12th is a Tuesday.  We'll have a celebration at our after school book club."  Except that this week is our spring break.  

"Okay, fine.  I'll invite some grown-up friends over to share birthday cake and watch the Ramona movie that Karen gave me for Christmas several years ago."  Except that's the day I'm flying home from my spring break trip visiting my sis in CA.

And then I got an idea to honor Beverly Cleary's birthday with a list of 100 middle grade books that I love.  Only somehow this date crept up on me, and suddenly it was the day before Beverly's birthday, and I was in California at my sister's house. I got up extra early on Monday to read Ready Player One for my adult book club which meets on Wednesday evening.  Except that before I knew it, I was jotting down favorite titles for my 100 MG Books I Love list to honor Beverly Clearly's 100th birthday.   It's been challenging to create the list without walking the shelves of our middle school library, scanning my own bookshelves, or consulting the book I keep (at home) of books I've read.  (Don't be surprised to see a few changes to the list after I return home on Tuesday.)

I refuse to put the books in order by preference.  I love them all, and it's impossible to assign numbers to them.  So they are arranged in alphabetical order by author's last name.  I decided that I could only choose one book by a specific author.  So know that while I may adore multiple books by an author, for this list I chose my favorite book by a specific author.  

Drum roll and confetti, please!  

In Honor of Beverly Cleary's 100th Birthday...

100 Favorite Book Titles by Middle Grade Authors!

 

Alcott, Louisa May			Little Women
Alexander, Kwame			The Crossover
Anderson, Laurie Halse			Chains
Applegate, Katherine			Home of the Brave
Baskin, Nora Raleigh			Anything But Typical
Bauer, Joan			Rules of the Road
Benjamin, Ali			The Thing About Jellyfish
Birdsall, Jeanne			The Penderwicks
Blume, Judy			Are You There, God?  It's Me, Margaret
Bradley, Emily Brubaker			The War that Saved My Life
Brink, Carol Ryrie			Caddie Woodlawn
Burnett, Frances Hodgson			The Secret Garden
Buyea, Rob			Because of Mr. Terupt
Carey, Janet Lee			Dragon's  Keep
Cleary, Beverly			Ramona's World
Codell, Esme Raji			Sahara Special
Cooper, Susan			The Boggart
Cummings, Priscilla			Red Kayak
Curtis, Christopher Paul			The Watsons Go to Birmingham
Dahl, Roald			Danny, the Champion of the World
DiCamillo, Kate			Because of Winn-Dixie
Draper, Sharon			Out of My Mind
Eager, Edward			Half-Magic
Ellis, Deborah			The Breadwinner
Farmer, Nancy			The House of the Scorpion
Field, Rachel			Hitty, Her First Hundred Years
Fitzhugh, Lousie			Harriet the Spy
Gannett, Ruth Stiles			My Father's Dragon
Gardiner, John			Stone Fox
Gemeinhart, Dan			The Honest Truth
Giff, Patricia Reilly			Eleven
Going, K. L.			The Liberation of Gabriel King
Goldblatt, Mark			Twerp
Graff, Lisa			Absolutely Almost
Hannigan, Katherine			Ida B
Henkes, Kevin			Bird Lake Moon
Hesse, Karen			Out of the Dust
Hiaasen, Carl			Hoot
Hillton, Marilyn			Full Cicada Moon
Holm, Jennifer L.			Sunny Side Up
Holt, Kimberly Willis			My Louisiana Sky
Hunt, Lynda Mullaly			One for the Murphys
Jacobson, Jennifer			Small as an Elephant
Jones, Kelly			Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer
Klages, Ellen			The Green Glass Sea
Knowles, Jo			See You at Harry's
Konigsburg, E. L.			From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Kuhlman, Evan			Brother from a Box
Lai, Thahhna			Inside Out and Back Again
Larson, Kirby			Hattie Big Sky
Levine, Gail Carson			Dave at Night
Levine, Kristin			The Lions of Little Rock
Lewis, C. S.			The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Lin, Grace			Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Lovelace, Maud Hart			Betsy-Tacy
Lowry, Lois			Gossamer
MacLachlan, Patricia			Sarah, Plain and Tall
Magorian, Michelle			Good Night, Mr. Tom
Martin, Ann			Rain Reign
Mass, Wendy			A Mango-shaped Space
McKay, Hilary			Saffy's Angel
Messner, Kate			The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z
Montgomery, L. M.			Anne of Green Gables
Murphy, Pat			Wild Girls
Ness, Patrick			A Monster Calls
Nielsen, Jennifer A.			A Night Divided
Nielsen, Susan			Word Nerd
O'Dell, Scott			Island of the Blue Dolphins
Palacio, R. J.			Wonder
Park, Linda Sue			Project Mulberry
Pearsall, Shelley			The 7th Most Important Thing
Peck, Robert Newton			Soup
Pennypacker, Sarah			Pax
Rawls, Wilson			Summer of the Monkeys
Rex, Adam			The True Meaning of Smekday
Rhodes, Jewell Parker			Ninth Ward
Rowling, J. K.			Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Rundell, Katherine			Rooftoppers
Ryan, Pam Munoz			Esperanza Rising
Scattergood, Augusta			Glory Be
Schlick- Noe, Katherine			Something to Hold
Schmidt, Gary			The Wednesday Wars
Shafer, Audrey			The Mailbox
Sloan, Holly Goldberg			Counting by 7s
Speare, Elizabeth George			The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Spinelli, Jerry			Stargirl
Stead, Rebecca			Goodbye Stranger
Tashjian, Janet			My Life as a Book
Taylor, Mildred D.			Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Turnage, Sheila			Three Times Lucky
Turner, Megan Whelan			The Thief
Twain, Mark			The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Ursu, Anne			Breadcrumbs
Vaswani, Neela			Same Sun Here
White, E. B.			Charlotte's Web
Wiles, Deborah			Each Little Bird that Sings
Williams-Garcia, Rita			One Crazy Summer
Wood, Maryrose			The Mysterious Howling
Woodson, Jacqueline			Brown Girl Dreaming
Zimmer, Tracey Vaughn		Reaching for Sun