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Friday, January 27, 2023

Congratulations To Our Latest Giveaway Winner!

This is just a quick post to congratulate the winner of our latest book giveaway: The Stories Behind the Stories: The Remarkable True Tales Behind Your Favorite Kid's Books, by Danielle Higley (Bushel & Peck Books).


 And the winner is:  

                                        Margaret S.

Thank you to all who took time to enter our giveaway. And special thanks to Bushel & Peck Books for providing the book for our winner!

Carmela

Friday, January 20, 2023

1 WORD FOR 2023

Howdy from California, Campers ~


Soggy California! Sorry about the drips on this page (I'm in Southern CA and we're fine, thank you).

And Happy New Year and Happy Poetry Friday to all! (The links to Poetry Friday, my poem, and my upcoming class are all below.)

Our theme for this round is Moving Forward in the New Year. We began with Esther's enticing review of the book, THE stories BEHIND THE stories (read her review here and enter to win it in our first BOOK GIVEAWAY in this fresh new year)

I'm up next.

In the 13 years I've been privileged to be part of TeachingAuthors, I've learned rain barrels-full about writing, teaching, poetry, and friendship from my fellow TeachingAuthors, from many of you, and from the Kidlitosphere and Poetry Friday communities.

One thing I've learned is that many of you move forward by choosing a word for the year.

So I tried it. Sometimes I'd choose a word and then discard it because it didn't seem to move me forward. But one year the magic happened. That was the year I chose the word CAPABLE.

I chose it because the nasty noises in my brain continually convinced me that I was never going to be capable of doing whatever it was I was doing. 

That word set me on the road to discovering I was, indeed, capable.

                                drawing (c)2023 by April Halprin Wayland

Good old CAPABLE. We're still very close. 

Usually, instead of choosing a word for the year,  I choose a word for the day. The book I read each night has one page for each day of the year. The page begins with a quotation, followed by a paragraph expanding on the quote, and then a gentle resolution for the day.

For example, one recent quotation was: "Competitions are for horses, not artists." ~ Bela Bartok

The words from that reading that resonated in me were: "People who have developed the art of living...are as respectful of their own values and opinions as those of others." (underlining is mine)

Every night I read a page and every morning I forget what that page was about.

So I decided to condense the whole page into one or two words. In this case, my word for the next day may have been "self-respect." And guess what happened when I woke up the next day? 

Nada. Nothing. 

Even if I created a visual for my word--for "self-respect" (which might be someone looking in a mirror and liking what she saw) even then, I still couldn't remember what I'd read. 

Finally, I decided to write that word on the top of my foot each night. In the morning, before I sat up, I'd challenge myself to remember the word, and sometimes I could. But if I couldn't, I'd lift my leg and read my foot. 

 
I write my word on the TOP of one foot. I do NOT draw faces on my toes. But, boy, it sure looks like fun...maybe I'll try it. (photo: Pixabay)

All day long my word walks with me. And if I feel scrambled, I'll stop and focus: what's my word? I rarely need to take off my shoe to remember it. 

Here's the draft of a poem I wrote about it:

IN INK 
by April Halprin Wayland


I write the word I'd like to think

on the top of my foot each day in ink.

 

Absurd, absurd, some friends may say,

to walk with that ink on her foot all day!

 

How odd, so odd, some will assert,

to write on one's foot—imagine the dirt!

 

You know what I mostly wish from this?

to tune out the voices and follow my bliss.

          poem © 2023 April Halprin Wayland. 

(That last stanza is super corny, but that's what I've got for you today ~ says this recovering perfectionist)

As this new year rolled around, I thought I'd try a word for the whole year again. I sifted through many. The word that felt exactly right is SIMPLIFY.

It's already working its magic: each time I'm overwhelmed by too many emails, too many TO DOs, too much noise, I think: SIMPLIFY. A calm washes over me. I focus.  And guess what? In simplifying the tasks I take on, I've begun writing a picture book I'm totally in love with!💗

I haven't felt this excited about writing in a long, long time. 

What's YOUR word for today or for the year? I'd love to read it in your comments.😊

And hey, Campers ~ my one day, three-hour Introduction to Writing Children's Poetry will be held again on January 28 from noon to 3pm PST. We read a variety of poems and have time to write our own. Come join the fun! It's offered through the UCLA Extension Writers' Program

Thank you for hosting Poetry Friday, Marcie!

posted by April Halprin Wayland, with help from Monkey and Eli, posing with one of their favorite, very old poetry books.


Friday, January 6, 2023

Heaps of Heart and Hope for 2023 + OUR BOOK GIVEAWAY!

 What better way to launch the New Year than with a Book 

Giveaway!

And not of just any book.

 IMHO: Children’s books gift Readers with Heart and Hope.

Katherine Paterson described story as “one heart in hiding 

reaching out to another.”

"A good book,” venerable Atheneum editor Jean Karl shared, 

"…respects a child’s capacity to become.”

But when a children’s book offers us the true and remarkable 

stories behind the stories we’ve come to love – as does Danielle 

Higley’s THE stories BEHIND THE stories (Bushel & Peck 

Books, 2021), how could we not reap EXTRA heaps of Heart 

and Hope?

Think: twenty-nine writers’ hopeful hearts waiting to be

discovered.

 

I guarantee our Giveaway Book will fortify you fully so you 

can keep keepin’ on in 2023.

And Good News! It will also inspire one lucky Young Reader 

because the publisher honors its Book-for-Book Promise: for 

every book sold, Bushel & Peck donates one book to a child in 

need. 

Be sure to enter our Book Giveaway! Instructions follow this post.

To nominate a school or organization to receive free books from 

Bushel & Peck, click here.


In her Author’s Note, Danielle Higley shared an important insight 

she gleaned while researching the how and why her chosen 

children’s book creators told their stories. Yes, creativity and 

imagination played a role.

 ·       J.R.R. Tolkien, while editing a student’s blank paper, penned, 

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” – and then promptly 

built a bigger world.

·       A young librarian patron queried Beverly Munn Cleary, 

“Where are the books about kids like us?” and her answer, 

fortunately, was Henry Huggins.

·       Dr. Seuss believed, “Nonsense wakes up the brain cells… If you 

can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in 

whack.”

But most treasured children’s books were born from extraordinary 

persistence and grit.

·       Beatrix Potter self-published The Tale of Peter Rabbit when 

multiple publishers rejected the manuscript.

·       Librarians offered a storm of protest, though to no avail, 

because the children in Gertrude Chandler’s original Boxcar 

Children series “were having too good a time without any 

parental control.”

·       Every day for thirteen years, Christopher Paul Curtis worked 

on a General Motors assembly line, taking turns with his partner 

to hang thirty doors in a row to earn a thirty-minute break to write 

his stories.

 

From Mother Goose rhymes and Clement Clarke Moore’s The 

Night Before Christmas to Rick  Riordan’s Percy Jackson and 

the Olympians and Jeff McKinney’s Wimpy Kid series, each of 

the true tales behind the featured books magnifies the treasure 

these beloved stories hold.

David Miles’ beautiful illustrations, many collage-like boasting 

photographs and original art, the many meaningful author and 

illustrator quotes throughout and the shared research resources 

on the last pages enrich the book’s enjoyment.


Thanks to Bushel & Peck Books for generously gifting one of 

our lucky TeachingAuthors readers with a copy of THE stories 

BEHIND THE stories.

Thanks, too, to Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core for hosting 

today’s Poetry Friday.

May Heart and Hope accompany you through the New Year!

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.

I need to shout HURRAH! for my writer Amy Neeren and her 

recently-released debut chapter book Nellie in Knots published by 

Bushel & Peck Books! The story behind her story offers bushels 

of Heart and Hope.

. . . . . .

To enter the giveaway drawing for The stories BEHIND THE storiesuse the Rafflecopter widget below. (Note: if the widget doesn't appear, click on the link at the end of this post that says "a Rafflecopter giveaway" to enter.)

You may enter via up to 4 options. The more options you choose, the better your odds! 

If you choose option 3, you MUST leave a comment on TODAY’S blog post or on our TeachingAuthors Facebook page. If you haven’t already “liked” our Facebook page, please do so today!

If you prefer, you may submit your comment via email to: teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com.

Note: if you submit your comments via email or Facebook, YOU MUST 
STILL ENTER THE DRAWING VIA RAFFLECOPTER BELOW.  The giveaway ends January 20, 2023 and is open to U.S. Residents only.

If you’ve never entered a Rafflecopter giveaway, here’s info on how to enter 
a Rafflecopter giveaway.  And a second article explains the difference between signing in with Facebook vs. with an email address.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway