The Tree and the River

The Tree and the River
by Aaron Becker
Penguin Random House, 2023
review copy from the public library
Full disclosure: I am NOT the Mary Lee to whom the book is dedicated!

This is a GORGEOUS wordless picture book. If it feels like Becker is painting from life, it might be because, according to the back flap,

“To prepare for the illustrations he first constructed a scale model of the book’s rolling landscape, which he then transformed with clay and wood over many months.”

At first, the story might seem like a tale of environmental destruction/dystopian future with a bit of a rainbow (literally) at the end. But look closely. Go back to the title page, to the first illustration. Look closely. You might see a different kind of long-term hope. For our planet. For humanity.

Yoshi, Sea Turtle Genius

Yoshi, Sea Turtle Genius: A True Story About an Amazing Swimmer
by Lynne Cox
illustrated by Richard Jones
Penguin Random House, 2023
review copy from the public library

Lynne Cox is one of my sheroes. She herself is an amazing swimmer, breaking records for long-distance swimming in difficult water without a wetsuit — most notably, swimming to Antarctica! If SHE thinks Yoshi is an amazing swimmer, Yoshi must be an amazing swimmer.

Yoshi is a loggerhead turtle. She hatched on a beach in Australia, then survived and grew in the Indian Ocean for five years before being snagged by a fishing net off the coast of South Africa. She was rescued by a fisherman, then placed in an aquarium, where she lived for over 20 years. After conditioning and training, and with a tracker attached to her shell, Yoshi was released back into the wild as an adult loggerhead. She first swam north, up the coast of Africa, then she turned around and swam south and then east, all the way to Australia, mating along the way and laying her eggs on the very beach where she (likely) hatched herself.

Amazing, right? Plus, this book is beautifully written and gorgeously illustrated. It has just the right amount of text for a read aloud, and I can bet there will be passionate conversations about the consequences of pollution, the pros and cons of zoos and aquariums, and the absolute genius of Yoshi.

Poetry Friday: Open

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All of my cheritas for the month can be found here.

If you missed it, one of Jone’s students made a powerful work of art and social commentary with my poem from last year’s NPM project, “Dandelions.” Go watch her video. Have a tissue ready.

Jone has the Poetry Friday roundup today, featuring Classic Found Poems. I’m late to the party, but I found a cherita inside A WRINKLE IN TIME, p.191.

comparing our lives to a sonnet:

a strict form
but freedom within it

you’re given the form
but you have to write the sonnet yourself–
what you say is completely up to you

Jone also has the next line in the Progressive Poem tomorrow. Sounds like my life at the beginning of the month! Such fun times in April!

In Between

In Between by April Pulley Sayre with Jeff Sayre
Simon and Schuster, 2023
review copy from the public library

It’s been a minute since this blog has been anything except Poetry Friday, but last week I sat down with the March/April issue of The Horn Book and the Columbus Metropolitan Library app. As I read reviews, I reserved titles. The bounty has begun to come in, and I’ve got LOTS of great new books to share.

We’ll start with In Between. This is April’s last book. But even as a last, it is also an in between. An in between for her readers as well as for her husband and co-author, Jeff. In the dedication, April wrote, “For anyone walking the uncertain path between endings and new beginnings.” That would be all of us, all the time, right?

April’s photographs in this book are more stunning than usual, and paired perfectly with her words. She reassures us that it is perfectly normal to be in between, and although we (and the animals) are feeling awkward and not at all ready for what comes next, we “Grow stronger.”

And although “Paws may pause. Eyes may stare.” we’ll be okay, because, “…it’s only an in between.”

I can’t wait to read and discuss this book with my Kids Club kids!


Poetry Friday: Dictionary Hopscotch

Back when I issued my challenge to the Inklings, I thought my Poetry Month project would be Dictionary Hopscotch — I would randomly choose 4 words from different spots in the dictionary and then use at least 3 of them in a poem.

So I challenged my fellow Inklings to use 3 of these 4 randomly chosen words in a poem: knuckle, denial, turn, cautious.

And then I changed my project to cheritas.

Therefore, this:

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Here’s how the rest of the crew met my challenge:

Linda @A Word Edgewise
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche

Margaret has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at Reflections on the Teche.

Don’t forget to check up on the Progressive Poem! Links are in the sidebar.

Days 1-6 of my #NPM23 project can be found on FB, IG and at Poetrepository.

The hopscotch image is via Unsplash.

2023 Kidlit Progressive Poem, Day 1

About the Progressive Poem: Irene Latham began the tradition in 2012 and hosted until 2019. (Early archives here.) Margaret Simon took the reins in 2020. (Recent archives are tabs at the top of her page.)

Blogs where the next lines will be found are linked in the sidebar to the right.

The rules are few: “The poem will be passing from blog to blog with each poet-blogger adding a line. The poem is for children. Other than that, anything goes.” Each blogger will copy the previous lines exactly as written (unless permission from the previous poet is obtained) and add their line, including commentary on their process if they wish.

My process was scant. This line jumped into my head (and luckily, was captured in my notebook) on March 5. No other possible lines held up to the potential contained in this one. I love stories that start at the end, so here you go. Write me a story that ends with sudden clarity.

Happy National Poetry Month and Happy Progressive Poem! Let the fun and hijinks begin!

The Poetry Friday Roundup is HERE!

It’s a Poetry Quadfecta this week! It’s the last Friday of the month which means it is time for the Poetry Sisters’ challenge AND it’s the last day of March which means it’s National Poetry Month Eve AND the Poetry Friday roundup is here PLUS the 2023 Progressive Poem will launch right here tomorrow morning! (See sidebar for links to the rest of the lines/month.)

Let’s start off with my poem for the Poetry Sisters’ challenge. This month, we wrote etherees, a poetry form that begins with one syllable in the first line and continues growing each line by a syllable until the tenth line has ten syllables. Additionally, we tried to stick to our year-long theme of transformation. I’m using my etheree to announce my Poetry Month project.

Here’s what the rest of the Poetry Sisters came up with this month:
Tricia @ The Miss Rumphius Effect
Tanita @ {fiction, instead of lies}
Sara @ Read Write Believe
Laura @ Laura Purdie Salas
Liz @ Liz Garton Scanlon

I wrote my etheree to announce my National Poetry Month project, which will be a month of cheritas.

This year, my National Poetry Month project will feature the cherita form. At the website The Cherita, the form is defined thus: “Cherita is the Malay word for story or tale. A cherita consists of a single stanza of a one-line verse, followed by a two-line verse, and then finishing with a three-line verse…The cherita tells a story.” Like last year, I will be publishing my poems daily at Poetrepository and crossposting here each Friday for Poetry Friday.

And now, for your poems! Click to add your link to the roundup:

Poetry Friday: A Glimpse

The image doesn’t really have much to do with my cherita, except for the unreadable but definitely not antagonistic silent stare that passed from those four-leggeds to this two-legged in the early morning light earlier this week.

March. It does what its name says. Here we are, all of a sudden, a week away from National Poetry Month Eve, from Progressive Poem Eve, from the Poetry Friday roundup right here. Have I nailed down my NPM project? No. Have I written the first line of the Progressive Poem? Maybe. Is the roundup post ready? Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Let’s take a deep breath and see what everyone else has to offer this week. Rose has the first Poetry Friday Roundup of spring at Imagine the Possibilities. Next week will take care of itself, all in good time.

Poetry Friday: Bridges

It’s been a dry month for poems that are Poetry Friday material. My challenge poems for the Poetry Sisters and for the Inklings are drafted and I am filling a project folder with poems that…well, you’ll have to wait and see! Luckily, I have the well of Laura Shovan’s February Poetry Project in which to dip, and look what I found! In lieu of a traditional Irish blessing, I wish you all the books you can read and all the time you need to read them and the joy of getting lost in the story as you cross its bridge.

In other news, I still haven’t nailed down my National Poetry Month project, but three poems from last year’s project were published in The Be-Zine! Click on the “Introduction & Table of Contents” button and scroll down to find the link to my poems. While you’re there, check out the poems from Michelle Kogan, Heidi Mordhorst, and Laura Shovan, too!

Laura Purdie Salas has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup. She HAS nailed down her National Poetry Month Project, and I’m tempted to join in! She also uses the word doohickey in her post, which makes me love her even more!!