Start tweetin' those twaikus!

Could there be a more perfect way to celebrate both National Library Week – and – National Poetry Month than to tweet a twaiku that sings the praises of your Library?!

You read that right: a twaiku – a haiku sent via Twitter.

Twaiku use the same structure as haiku – 3 lines with 5-7-5 syllables respectively.
Unlike a haiku, however, a twaiku can only be 140 characters, or 130 with the American Library Association’s Twaiku Contest tag #nlwtwaiku.tag.

You read that right: an ALA Twaiku Contest that begins today, the start of National Library Week, and continues through Wednesday, April 13.
Please note: all submissions must be tagged #nlwtwaiku.
The staff of @yourlibrary will post a selection of the best twaiku at @yourlibrary.org where everyone will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite entry through the end of National Library Week, Saturday, April 16.

Last year at this time, I serenaded (with apologies to Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson) the Top Five Libraries I’ve loved.
This year, however, (with a little bit of help from a fellow TeachingAuthor with a Twitter account!), I can tweet a twaiku that celebrates the Ultimate Credit Card.

Whenever I’m asked how I became a writer, I proudly show the card above.
“This is the card,” I say, “you don’t want to leave home without!”

                                         My Chicago Public Library Card

                                         Frequent card usage
                                         earns unlimited travel
                                         anywhere or time.

Now it’s your turn to think fondly of your library, then tweet a twaiku!
Consider your effort today's Writing Workout!

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.
There's still time to bid on the following TeachingAuthors' items being auctioned off at Kidlit4Japan:
a synopsis critique by Esther Hershenhorn;
(bid closes Tuesday 4/12 @ 12:00 pm EDT)
a signed copy of April Halprin Wayland's picture book New Year at the Pier;
(bid closes Tuesday 4/12 at 1:00 pm EDT)
a signed copy of JoAnn Early Macken's picture book Baby Says Moo?
(bid closes Tuesday 4/12 at 3:00 pm EDT)

Our Giveaway Winner and More Giveaway News!

Congratulations to Mary Ann, winner of our latest giveaway! She will soon receive a copy of the anthology Ladybug, Ladybug and Other Favorite Poems, which features Cathy Cronin's poem "Firefly." Mary Ann shared that in honor of National Poetry Month, she is highlighting poetry books on her blog, Reading, Writing, and Recipes, all month long. In fact, she even mentions Ladybug, Ladybug in one of her posts.

April is an especially busy month here at TeachingAuthors.com: next Thursday we will celebrate our first Blogiversary! As part of our celebration, we'll be offering a unique giveaway. I'm going to keep you in suspense until then. Meanwhile, keep celebrating National Poetry Month and National Library Week.

Happy Writing!
Carmela

To all the libraries I've loved before...

With apologies to Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson, this is the perfect week to serenade, if not all libraries I’ve loved before, certainly the Top Five.

In all truth, I could not NOT love libraries.

I grew up in Philadelphia, home of Benjamin Franklin, founder of our country’s first subscription library, The Book Company, in 1731. Franklin and fellow Junto members each invested 40 shillings or more each year to support the library and buy books.

Annual Philadelphia grade school trips to Franklin’s Arch Street gravesite had me quoting proverbs from Poor Richard's Almanac to and fro.
I graduated the University of Pennsylvania, the college Franklin founded in 1651.
Maybe there was something in the water, either in the Delaware or the Schuylkill River?
There was certainly something book-loving in my home, where I often played Library, lending out my Golden Books, childhood biographies of famous Americans and Honeybunch titles to friends and neighbors, date-stamping their book cards and charging fair fines.

Here are my Top Five Brick-and-Mortar Library Loves in chronological order. I wouldn’t and couldn’t be a TeachingAuthor without them.

(1) The Penn Wynne Library, Wynnewood, Pennsvylania

The Penn Wynne Library was but a stone's throw away from my new suburban home. Thanks to my trusty library card, the first I'd ever owned, I spent my tenth year voraciously reading through the blue-spine-ed books on the "K" shelves of the library's Children's Room. I rode along with Nancy Drew and her River Heights companions, seated in the back of Nancy's spiffy blue roadster, supposedly following clues and feeling the breeze, yet unknowingly uncovering how to tell a story. Through adolescence, I sewed along with Jo and her sisters, I strode the moors, I walked the streets of Chicago with Sister Carrie. Writers are readers, and that's the Truth. How nice that my Penn Wynne Library gifted me with so many wonderful teachers.

(2) The Wilmette Public Library, Wilmette, Illinois

It's here I learned how to write for children, reading my way through and around the Children's Room of the Wilmette Public Library. The New Books shelf especially kept me current in the ever-changing world of children's book publishing. My library card also served as my Passport - to the Ozark Mountains, to 19th century America, to wherever my characters - and stories - lived.

(3) The Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois

A non-subscription library, the oh, so beautiful Newberry Library houses a world-class collection of books, manuscripts, and maps, ranging from illuminated medieval manuscripts to rich genealogical resources, and from early printed books to the personal papers of Midwest authors. The Library is also home to my Writing Workshops - The Picture Book in the Fall, a Facilitated Children's Book Writer's Group in the Summer, a Nuts-and-Bolts Seminar in the Spring, and thus a bounty of talented children's book writers with whom I'm privileged to work.

(4) The Chicago Public Library, Chicago, Illinois

Eleven years ago, I traded my North Suburban Library System (and Wilmette Library card) for that of the Chicago Public Library and its Thomas Hughes Children's Library!  Here is where I now stock up weekly on the children's books that feed me. (And feed my students and writing clients, too, for that matter.)

(5) The Water Works Branch of the Chicago Public Library, Chicago, Illinois

Like my first library love, the Penn Wynne Library of my childhood, Chicago's newest branch, a tiny space within Chicago's Visitor Information Center in the Water Works off Michigan Avenue, is but a stone's throw away from my Chicago home.  Its Popular Library and shelves waiting to hold requested reserved books bring a smile each time I enter.  All I need do is visit CPL online, reserve whatever book I need/want/long for/wish for, and just like that (almost), the book's in my 'hood, a minute away, with my name on it.  
And how appropropriate is it that a library branch resides within a tourist facility?!
Oh, the traveling I've done at the libraries I've loved before.

Yesterday, when visiting Mrs. Lauren Gray’s Third Grade classroom at the George Armstrong International Studies Elementary School in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, I proudly showed my fellow writers my CPL Library Card.

“Despite the ads telling you otherwise," I shared, "THIS is the card you don’t want to leave home without!”

All of my personnaes - the Writer, the Teacher, the Writing Coach, the Teaching Author, the Former Child, the Adult and of course, the Mom, thank the above five libraries from the bottom of our book-lovers' hearts. We wish every library everywhere, built of real bricks or otherwise, Happy National Library Week!

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.
Don't forget to visit Shelli Srjohannes blog Market My Words to read other posts celebrating National Library Week.

Your Local Library

A library is allegedly coming to the corner of our county sometime in the next decade (read: never).  In the meantime, our nearest branch is in a burg called Walkersville.  The whole building is approximately the size of our living room and kitchen combined.  Given the obvious constraints, their collection is impressive.  (They have MIND GAMES on the shelf and once featured FIRST GRADE STINKS prominently in the children's corner.  What's not to love?) 

When my daughter turned two, I was excited to take her to our first Story Time.  After the first half-hour experience, my excitement waned considerably.  Ms. Shelba was fantastic.  My daughter, alas, was not.  She was mostly concerned with wandering the aisles, pulling books off shelves, and making repeated breaks for the parking lot.  At least it's fairly easy to corral a wayward kid in a library the size of a postage stamp.  Despite the browsing opportunities the aisle-roaming afforded, we were not so long for story time. 

Blessedly, the library bookmobile now comes to my daughter's preschool.  Apparently she is angelic and attentive during story time.  She and her brother frequently play "libary" at home.  This is a game that has the rare cachet of House, School, Princess, and Horsie.  My daughter, by some miracle certainly not wrought by me, has come to view the library as a magical place.

My college students, on the other hand, were reluctant attendees last week at a presentation from the campus librarian about research and materials available to them.  As I have observed in many classes now, the idea of reading actual books or journal articles (a requirement for this assignment) is pretty much a non-starter among today's Digital Natives.  If you can't find it on the Net, forget it. 

I do understand this mentality.  I am a proud member of Generation X.  I have my Kindle for PC app, and I adore the instant gratification it affords.  I operate a paper-free office for my job.  I read everything on my computer screen.  And I can't imagine how I ever lived without the Net. 

The thing is -- our students can access the campus library from the comfort of their own homes. They can search for information, reserve books, read articles (CQ Researcher!), and even watch movies.  Our local library allows patrons to renew books online and sends overdue reminders via email.  Yay, 21st century! 

In my mind, the library is a place with cozy chairs and that scintillating smell of books old and new.  But technology has made it possible for the library to come to my home -- and not just in the let's-pretend way of my children. 

Happy National Library Week!

And if you're looking for a fantastic addition to your home library, remember to enter our new book giveaway! Before entering, be sure to first read our Giveaway Guidelines here.


If you'd like a chance to win an autographed copy of the anthology Ladybug, Ladybug and Other Favorite Poems, post a comment here telling us why you'd like to win the book. Also, we'd love to know if you're doing anything special to celebrate National Poetry Month. And please, don't forget to provide your email address or a link to your own blog in your comment so that we can contact you. (U.S. residents only, please.) Entries must be posted by 11 p.m.(Central Standard Time) Wednesday, April 14, 2010. The winner will be announced on April 15.