With Heartfelt Thanks to The Children's Book...

 Honestly?

It's been One Unimaginably Unimaginable Year for a Non-Stop Finder

of Life's Silver Linings.

But fortunately, as Elaine Stritch sang in her signature Sondheim song,

"I'm still here."

I keep keepin' on, no matter the state of my World(s).

So, "How?" you might ask.

Well, I did turn to my Sure-fire Cures when I first felt my Positive

Mental Attitude whimper:

lakeside walks,

Alfred Caldwell Lily Pond visits,

afternoons at Wrigley,

a Philly Cheesesteak (with fried onions).

Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto played in my head day and night.

I resided in Stars Hollow once each day, thanks to a Gilmore Girls 

episode.

Add: daily reflection time, daily inspirational readings, journal writing

and heart-to-hearts with loved ones here and (believe it or not) 

Elsewhere.

My towering grandson's gentle shoulder hug kept me upright and

moving forward, literally and figuratively.

The Good News?  All of the above did indeed help.

The Less-than-Good News? Not quite enough, and for not so long.

Despite my profound gratitude for those who engaged both my head

and heart, the rumblings of my Forever-Always-There-for-Me-and-

Others PMA let me know on a regular basis it was considering

becoming a No-show.

Thankfully, enter The Children's Book.

Rather, the right Children's Book and at just the Right Moment.

It gifted me with what I was so close to losing: i.e. Hope.

In case you forgot: every Children's Book must always offer its

Reader Hope.

Not the proverbial "Happily ever after" ending, which is my 

favorite.

Simply the possibility of such an ending.

Consider what follows a curated month-by-month list of the

children's books that did their job November, 2024 through

today, November 21, 2025, courtesy of my Chicago Public

Library: they informed, amused, encouraged, inspired and

best of all, kept me keepin' on.

Hopefully, they'll do the same for you.

NOVEMBER

..."a fresh and moving look at 

memories, filtered through 

the mind of a child."

DECEMBER

..."a tale of intergenerational friendship

forged through a shared understanding 

of loss."

JANUARY

..."a courageous and resourceful boy

struggles to hold his family together

after his mother doesn't come home."

FEBRUARY

..."a Holocaust memoir of hope when

facing the unimaginable and 

survival, thanks to the kindness of

strangers.

MARCH

..."a historical coming-of-age novel

in which a girl battles her own short-

comings and the random nature of

life."

APRIL

..."the healing power of community 

fixes a neighbor's broken heart."

MAY

..."a mountain-climbing boy finds his

path to healing - and forgiveness..."

JUNE

..."an inside look as well as tribute to

the late great (and my favorite)

children's book creator James

Marshall."

JULY

..."a tender portrait of resilience

and empathy as disaster strikes a 

family."

AUGUST

..."a middle grade girl wrestles with

what it means to 'shine' for a black

girl in a predominantly white

community."

SEPTEMBER

..."a universal parable with a message

about unity, hope and social action."

OCTOBER

..."a love letter to making friends

from unexpected places."

NOVEMBER

..."the true and powerful story of

Portuguese diplomat Aristides de

Sousa Mendes who believed every

life is worth saving."

CURRENTLY ON HOLD:

..."each story splinters into the next 

in this brilliant spin on classic 

tropes that celebrates the power of

imagination and creativity during

uncertain times."

As always, I hung with William Steig's Brave Irene

when necessary. Irene Bobbin's determined effort to 

deliver the dress her suddenly-sick Mother made for

the Duchess - NO MATTER WHAT BEFALLS HER! -

never fails to steel my spine and return me to the

challenging task at hand.

Here at TeachingAuthors we've often celebrated

November, the month of giving Thanks, with

original Thankus.  Since sharing this short poetic

expression of gratitude in 2011 in my National

Day of Writing post, in a string of Novembers

I've personally thanked my treasured writers,

my eager students, my Mentors, my fellow

TeachingAuthors, my Children's Book World,

my grandson, Walter Annenberg, the Chicago

Cubs - and last February, I thanked my Sonny

Boy.

With heartfelt thanks I now add to this list:

             The Children's Book

             The perfect Rx

             for Silver Lining Seekers

             lost and losing Hope.

    [Note, unpoetically expressed:

     Cures weighty hearts, wobbly footing

     and wilting Spirits; administer

     when needed; unlimited dosage]

May you find the Right Book at just the Right

Time to keep you keepin' on!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh, and thank you, Janice Scully, at Salt

City Verse for hosting today's Poetry Friday.

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.

In the spirit of Giving, please feel free to

share in the Comments a children's book

or two that made a difference in your Life

this past year.

My I-Didn't-Know-It-Then-But-I-Know-It-Now Best Day Ever

I count my Blessings like a lawyer, on the quarter-hour basis.

That's how grateful I am.

So when tasked to choose My Best Day Ever from a bounty of Best Days

both personal and professional, I was downright flummoxed.

Confounding the matter was that my mind was already otherwise 

engaged, remembering, reflecting, fully-focused on My Best Boy and his 

upcoming March 4th Big Five-O Birthday.

One remembrance continued to pop up, and each time it did, I felt my 

heart smile:

my son at two, settled in my lap, uncharacteristically still, 

uncharacteristically quiet, as we found ourselves lost in a Mr. Rogers

episode.

Fog had descended upon the world of Make-Believe - an enormous 

close-to-the-ground cloud, Mr. Rogers explained, so that Bob Dog 

couldn't find his stone.

Jon's dark brown eyes widened at the wonder of it all.  When Lady 

Elaine used her boomerang to lift the fog, his mouth formed a perfect 

"O."

Whatever this thing was, with the snap of a finger it made 

everything and everyone DISappear, but then, just like that, begin to 

REappear! It was Pure Magic and my Best Boy wanted some.

By the time Mr. Rogers finished singing "Wishes Don't Make Things 

Come True," I heard myself whispering, "Yes! Yes!"

Bob Dog had found his stone but even better, I had found my 

long-ago Dream to someday, one day, write a children's book!

"Jon," I said, "Mommy's writing you a picture book, all about a little 

boy who wants to catch a piece of the fog.  You'll have it by your 

very next Birthday."

I now know: that day's promise of a book not only set me on a 

professional path I liken to my very own Yellow Brick Road.

It forced me to mine my pluck and grit, to keep marching forth in 

step with my Best Boy, sometimes even over, under and through, 

to recover my buried voice so I could realize my Dream.

It picked me up every time I fell; it chased away all doubts and 

fears.

True, the road was longer than first imagined; I greatly under-

estimated my arrival time.

(FYI: I honored my promise nineteen years later, though with a

different story. The Fogcatcher, alas, still awaits publication.)

But to my surprise, despite the Despites, not only did honoring

that promise gift me with countless unimagined unexpected

Kodak Moments - Best Days, if you will. It continues to do so.

Just like my sunny Sonny Boy, it's the gift that keeps on

giving.

Each time I added an appositive noun to my name - author,

award-winner, teacher, writing coach, colleague, friend and

amazingly, blogger, each time I advocated for children's

book creators, I could feel my heart smile. 

"Who would have thunk it?" I'd hear myself ask.

Hopefully, each Thanku I posted over the years adequately 

expressed my gratitude - for my "storied treasures," my 

"new berries," my mentors, our Children's Book World, my 

fellow bloggers and you, our Readers.

This one, however, long over-due, I'm tucking inside my

Best Boy's Birthday card.

       My Sunny Son Jon

       A Maker of Dreams Come True

       Marching forth always!

Here's to discovering your Best Days Ever!

Esther Hershenhorn

p.s.

Thanks to Laura Purdie Salas for hosting today's Poetry Friday.  

12 Years! A Thanku and Another #HaikuFromTwo

Happy Poetry Friday! This post includes a Thanku and a #HaikuFromTwo.

As Esther shared in her post kicking off our current series, this month we're celebrating our TWELFTH Blogiversary! I can hardly believe it's been that long. This blogging journey has been filled with wonderful surprises and blessings. One of those surprises was the TeachingAuthors' virtual meeting Esther shared a photo of in her post. I thought that meeting was to learn some great new Zoom teaching tips from the amazing April Halprin Wayland. Instead, it was a party to celebrate our blog and my efforts to keep it running all these years. My fellow TeachingAuthors showered me with thanks that day. But I am just as grateful for all of them and what they've contributed to this blog over these dozen years. And I'm grateful to you, our readers, for traveling along with us. 

Esther didn't mention in her post the lovely gift my fellow TeachingAuthors sent me that day, as if the surprise meeting wasn't enough:

I smile every time I see these lovely plants (which are still blooming).   

This month, each of us are sharing a favorite post written by one of our fellow TeachingAuthors. My heart is so filled with gratitude for our blogiversary milestone that if felt appropriate to remind you all of Esther's terrific post introducing us to the Thanku: a haiku expressing gratitude. Esther inspired us to feature thankus often over these twelve years. You'll find many of those posts here. I'd like to add one more to that collection:

For my fellow TeachingAuthors and All Our Readers:
       My heart overflows
       like a basket of flowers,
       still growing. Thank you.
©2021 Carmela A. Martino. All rights reserved.

Speaking of haiku, this week I wrote another #HaikuFromTwo. I shared last month about Amanda Davis's #HaikuFromTwo challenge: you randomly pick two words from a book you're reading and create a haiku using them. After Beverly Cleary's recent death, I thought it would be fitting to read one of her books. Unlike most writers I know, I never read any of Cleary's work until I was an adult, and that book was Ramona Quimby, Age 8. A few weeks ago, I finally read the first Ramona book: Beezus and Ramona.  Today's #HaikuFromTwo includes two random words from that book: drawing (page 45) and pretend (page 159):

Be sure to check out this week's Poetry Friday roundup by Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core.

Happy writing!
Carmela

PS: Congratulations to Linda M, winner of our giveaway of JoAnn Early Macken's new book, Grow!

IMAGINE!

Imagine!

In but twenty-four days, 2018 will have come and gone.
I’m amazed to report: I made it!
My Can-Do/Anything-is-Possible Spirit appears surprisingly intact, only a smidgen worse for the wear this past year.

I did indeed try my hand at undertaking many of the verbs I’d recommended in my January post. (Think: begin, write, revise, finish, push, stretch, seek and find.)
I of course remain immeasurably grateful to those who kept me keeping on: my family and friends,  my fellow bloggers, my Chicago Cubs – in particular David Bote who pinch-hit a walk-off grand slam at the bottom of the ninth to beat the Nats 4 to 3 this August, but especially my students and writers – my storied treasures who kept me focused on doing what I love and loving what I do.
I’m still in the Hope Business, writing children’s books as well as teaching and coaching children’s book creators who do the same.

To be truly honest, a September trip to the Amalfi Coast did wonders. 😊
As did binge-watching The Gilmore Girls, a much-touted series that allowed me to live daily in Stars Hollow. 😊
So did so many beautifully-written inspiring children’s books, from Khaled Hosseini’s SEA PRAYER, Lesa Cline-Ransome’s FINDING LANGSTON and Mandy Davis’ SUPERSTAR to Minh Lê’s DRAWN TOGETHER, Jarrett J. Krosoczka’s HEY, KIDDO and Deborah Mills’ LA FRONTERA.

Best of all, though, when I needed it most?
Along came Juan Felipe Herrera’s IMAGINE in October, gorgeously illustrated
by Lauren Castillo (Candlewick Press), gifting me with my course of action for 2019.
Poet, performance artist and activist Herrera moved with his migrant family from Mexico to the U.S. when he was a small boy, saying goodbye to his amiguitos. In time he learned how to read and write in English, grabbing words he’d never heard and sprinkling them over a paragraph to write a magnificent story.  He served as the 21st U.S. Poet Laureate from 2015 through 2017, reading the book’s poem on the steps of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
“Imagine,” he writes at the end of each verse.  “Imagine what you could do.”

Candlewick’s front flap copy says it all: “Herrera’s breathtaking poem ‘Imagine’ and Lauren Castillo’s evocative illustrations will speak to every reader and dreamer searching for their place in life.  Who might you be? Imagine...”

If you don’t believe me or the flap copy, look and listen for yourself.

IMAGINE!
I plan to steal away and do just that beneath tonight’s New Moon, once I upload this post.
What I can do. What I can be. What I can become. 
My world.  Our world.
What matters.  Just name it.

IMAGINE is my 2019 verb. I hope you’ll consider making it your verb too.

As always, thanks to our Poetry Friday connection, Elizabeth Steinglass.

Happy Imagining!

Esther Hershenhorn

My Broken Haiku

For the last three weeks, Teaching Authors has celebrated the season of gratitude by writing Thanks-Giving Thank U Haiku. And with each offering, Carmela, Esther, April,  Mary Ann,  and JoAnn offer hauntingly beautiful poetry that, as JoAnn stated so eloquently, asks us to add our light to the sum of light.

Now it’s my turn. 

Alas, I am not a poet. After hours of trying to compose a Thank U Haiku, I concede that I cannot do it.  It’s worrisome.

There are many things that I cannot do, of course. 

I cannot drive a truck. I’m not talking about the little SUVs, complete with manual five-speed stick shift. I’m talking about those eighteen-wheeler, semi-trailer big rigs. Complete with forward engine, steering axle, two drive axles. Ten forward drive gears and two reverse gears. And a bed. Vroom, vroom! Wouldn’t it be fun to drive across country, to see this vast and changing landscape? To see those very steps where Martin Luther King said he had a dream? Where on Christmas Day George Washington crossed the river for his own country’s honor? Where Abraham Lincoln spoke about a new birth of freedom? What about to walk the ruins of the Alamo or march across the fields of Gettysburg? Or the hills of San Francisco, where Harvey Milk imagined a righteous world?

Well, true enough I have seen many places. And you don’t really need a truck. As a working writer, I visit the landscape where my characters once walked. I do that to make them more alive. But it’s more than that, too. It’s why I write historical fiction. History is important. As Penelope J. Corfield said,  “All people and peoples are living histories,” and studying those stories that link “past and present is absolutely basic for a good understanding of the condition of being human.” That’s true now more than ever, given recent events. Still, wouldn’t it be fun to be a truck driver? Vroom, vroom! 

There are many things I cannot be, of course.

I cannot be a worm. How important are worms! Big worms! Small worms! Rain worms! Dew worms! And everyone’s favorite, angleworms! They burrow beneath our feet, sight unseen, churning the inorganic into the organic. Even their poop – I mean, worm casts – are invaluable in enriching soils. Which grows gardens. Which feeds the world.

I am not near as important as a worm. Still, I am a writer, and if I do my job as well as a worm does his, perhaps I might enrich at least one mind.

Speaking of important, I suppose I cannot be a rose either. Even the most imperfect rose is perfect compared to other flowers. Or, so a rose thinks. They are an old, old flower. Maybe that’s why they feel so entitled. Sacred to their Goddess Venus, Romans covered their sofas with roses. Cleopatra covered her floor with roses whenever Marc Antony was about to visit. Roses even have their own language: red rose for love, yellow rose for joy, purple rose for royalty, and white rose for innocence and peace. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” wrote William Shakespeare. In a story that has lasted hundreds of years.

I have wild roses growing like brambles in my back yard. They certainly share the same hoity toity attitude as their hybrid cousins, despite having the nastiest thorns around. Still, bees love them. And in their thorny tangle hide rabbits and wild turkeys with their fledglings. And skunks. There’s nothing sweet smelling about them.

All the same, I prefer the dandelions that blanket my acres every spring. When they bloom, they look like a thousand bright yellow suns, shooing away the last memory of winter. When the blooms turn into puff balls, they look like a thousand moons. And when the puff balls explode, dispersing their seeds, they look like a thousand shooting stars. My galaxy is growing!

Of course, the result of all those shooting stars is a yard full of weeds. But I like weeds. “And, constant stars, in them I read such art as truth and beauty shall together thrive,” as Shakespeare also wrote.




But the question remains, how can I write a haiku? I'll try once more...



My Broken Haiku

Discover your world

Honor what lies beneath

Expand your galaxy



Thank U for being a part of my universe.

Bobbi Miller
(PS: All photos courtesy of morguefile.com)

The Task That Stands Before Us

Continuing our “Three Weeks of Thanks-giving” series, I add my Thanku:

Like so many people I know, I’m struggling to respond to acts of terror around the world. I search for wisdom, look to other thinkers, try to make sense of the senseless.

In his book What Then Must We Do? (first published in 1886), Leo Tolstoy asks that question over and over. Jane Addams said in an Introduction, “Tolstoy’s presentation of the contrast between the overworked and the underfed poor on the one hand, and the idle and wasteful rich on the other, was felt as raising unanswerable questions in every country where the book was read.”

I learned about the book in a scene from The Year of Living Dangerously that has stuck with me for years. Linda Hunt’s character Billy Kwan, a photojournalist, says, “I support the view that you just don’t think about the major issues. You do whatever you can about the misery that’s in front of you. Add your light to the sum of light.”

James Taylor sings about light in his “Shed a Little Light.”

“Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King
and recognize that there are ties between us,
all men and women living on the Earth.
Ties of hope and love, sister and brotherhood,
that we are bound together
in our desire to see the world become
a place in which our children can grow free and strong.
We are bound together by the task that stands before us
and the road that lies ahead.”

What then must we do? One person alone can never make up for lives lost, homes destroyed, families torn apart. But I believe that we are bound together. Together we can begin to lift a burden for someone.

We have so many burdens to lift.

What matters to you? Poverty? Hunger? Refugees? Racism? Health care? Education? Women’s rights? Voter rights? The environment? Climate change? Animal welfare? The list goes on and on.

The only response I know is to try to do some good in the world.

Do whatever you can about the misery that’s in front of you.

Add your light to the sum of light.

Be sure to see the other posts in our “Three Weeks of Thanks-giving” series:

• Carmela
• Esther
• April
• Mary Ann

We invite you, our readers (and your students), to join in by sharing your own "gratitudes" with us in one of four ways:

1. Share them in a comment to any of our blog posts through Friday, November 27.
2. Send them to us via email to teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com, with "Thanks-Giving" as the subject. Depending on the number of emails we receive, we may share some of your gratitiudes in our posts.
3. Post them on online on your own blog, Facebook page, etc., and then share the link with us via a comment or email. (Feel free to include the image above in your post.) On Saturday, November 28, we'll provide a round-up of all the links we receive.
4. NEW THIS YEAR: Share them as a comment on our TeachingAuthors Facebook page. While you're there, we hope you'll also Like our page.  

Today’s Poetry Friday Roundup is at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Enjoy!

JoAnn Early Macken

Three Weeks of Thanksgiving: A Teacher's Thanku

We are deep into our season of gratitude here on Teaching Authors. The series started off with Carmela giving thanks for insights gained through the loss of her kitchen.  Esther thanked the Chicago Cubs for a season of hope, with April appreciating good health. And now it's my turn.

Five years of Thanksgiving posts. here on Teaching Authors. Each year I struggle to write our traditional thanku, our many blessings, in haiku form. Each year I've had to be thankful outside of the five syllables-seven syllables-five syllables structure. So this year (among many other thing)...I'm grateful for mastering the thanku! (You can tell me if I really have when you send your own thanku.)

If you have read this blog for awhile, you know that my year is divided into three seasons--"the holidays" (which now kicks off on Labor Day, chugging relentlessly through to January 6th, the last of the Twelve Days of Christmas, in my religion), post-holiday (January and February are the dreariest months, no matter how many "national holidays" there are.) And then there is Camp Season, which for me, begins in April, when the redbud blooms, and I start planning this year's activities for my Young Author's Camps in June and July.

Writer up a tree!

"Camp Season" is checking rosters for returnees, as well as sibs of former campers, and new writers.  It's studying the composition of each week's camp. How many girls? How many boys?  The campers are (supposedly) ages 9 to 14 (with some birthdate slight-of-hand by some parents on the registration). Is this group mostly rising fourth graders? All sixth graders? Or a lovely balance of ages. (That's happened twice in ten years!)  I tailor the weeks to suit the age and gender makeup. In my advanced classes of returnees, I am careful not to repeat activities and exercises (except for the Traditonal Writer's Walk.)

Our writing HQ (in winter), a converted carriage house.

Just thinking about those steamy June and July days, full of creative young minds, instant friendships and...juice boxes...excites me on a blue-and-gold-autumn morning, crispy enough to require my cuddly chenille lap robe as I compose this post. I am ever thankful for my students, who inspire me to improve my craft so I can inspire them in return. The days are long and hot, but always fun for us all.

So with that in mind, here is my Thanku 2015.

    For Authors Everywhere--

Inspiration glows

Imagination surrounds

A writer matures.

Now it's your turn to share your gratitudes with us, both here on your comments or on your new Teaching Authors Facebook Page. For more details, see April's Poetry Friday post.

Does anyone suddenly have the urge to draw and color a handprint turkey? Have good one, writers!

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

What's a Thanku? A Writing Prompt for Poetry Friday!

.
Howdy, Campers--and Happy Poetry Friday!  My poem is below, as is the link to PF.

What are you thankful for? Since 2011, we TeachingAuthors have each written a thanku (a haiku expressing gratitude) every November. Join us--use it as today's writing prompt!

.

Carmela started this round expressing her thanks in a graphically beautiful thanku about being in the middle of a house remodel. Esther's post followed--she's jumping up and down with gratitude for a particular sports team. Now it's my turn.

I was noodling around last week, thinking about which of my many blessings I wanted to write about here: I'm grateful for monthly hikes with five amazing women; for my best friend who taught me that if I ever think about doing something nice, don't question the thought--just do it; for my husband, who taught me that a fork in the sink does not mean he doesn't love me. It's just a fork in the sink.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, the edge of the forest, a lick of the frosting, the preface in my gratitude book, of course.

Just this weekend I was strutting around like a proud you-know-what,

from morguefile.com

congratulating myself that I hadn't gotten a flu shot and grateful that I was just fine, thank you very much, while several of my friends and family who HAD gotten flu shots were sick as dogs. Ha, ha, HA, said the evil green woman inside me!

And then...well, you know what happened.

from morguefile.com

BUT...I'm sure you'll be glad to know that the raging headache has abated and my eyes don't hate bright sunlight this morning.  Yay, health, yay, sunlight (especially the glorious slant of morning sun)!

So...here's my...

THANKU FOR GOOD HEALTH
by April Halprin Wayland

Bees stopped stinging my
eyes...raise our curtains! The light
now tastes like honey.                                 

poem (c) 2015 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.
(And if you ever want to know anything about REAL haiku, click on over to the wonderful Robyn Hood Black's bounty of haiku resources.)

So, You, reading this...what are YOU thankful for?  Join us in one of FOUR ways:

1. Share a thanku--or simply tell us what you're grateful for--in a comment to any of our blog posts from November 6th through Friday, November 27th.
2. Send them via email to teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com, with "Thanks-Giving" as the subject. (Depending on the number of emails we receive, we may share some of your gratitiudes in our posts.)
3. Post them on your own blog, on your Facebook page, etc., and then share the link with us via a comment or email. Feel free to include our Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving image (above) in your post. On Saturday, November 28, Carmela will provide a round-up of all the links we receive.
4. And NEW THIS YEAR: share them as a comment on our TeachingAuthors Facebook page. While you're there, we hope you'll also "Like" our page.

And thank you, Bridget, for hosting Poetry Friday
on your Wee Words for Wee Ones blog!

posted by April Halprin Wayland, who is grateful she is no longer in bed, but bouncing on her bosu:

photo (c) Jone MacCulloch

Three Weeks of Thanksgiving: Chicago-style

How terrific that our blog’s traditional Weeks of Thanksgiving celebration now enters its 5^th year.

Even more terrific is that each of us poetically celebrates by penning a Thanku.

As I shared last year, I often borrow the words of former Ambassador Walter Annenberg to describe my never-changing state of mind:  i.e. grateful and hopeful.

Gratitude begins my day – gratitude for my family and friends, especially my carioca grandson, for my writers, students and Children’s Book World, for my fellow TeachingAuthors and of course, you, our readers.

Hopefulness propels me forward.

This year, 2015?

This year I express my heartfelt thanks to the 2015 National League Central Division Champions, the 40-man roster of the 2015 Chicago Cubs, inspiringly led by their Manager Joe Maddon.

In a crazy-crazy oft-dark April through mid-October when making sense of the world sometimes proved head-shakingly challenging, my Cubbies, with their Can-Do boundless Spirit, proved to be the cure-all, the vaccination against succumbing.

They pierced through the gloom and doom, to those blue skies above Wrigley Field dotted with flying WIN pennants, enabling and ennobling me to keep keepin’ on.

They perched in my soul like that feather of Emily Dickinson’s.

Thanku to My Home Team

2015’s Cubs!

Just what the Doctor ordered

to validate Hope.

All together now, even though I can sing the tune without the words: Go, Cubs, Go!

May you always have reason to give thanks and be hopeful.

Don’t forget to share your Thanku!

Esther Hershenhorn

Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving, 2015 edition

If you've followed our TeachingAuthors blog for a year or more, you know about our tradition of setting aside time in November to give thanks. It started in 2011, with our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving, inspired, in part, by Esther's post about thank-you haikus, also known as Thankus. In 2012 we expanded to Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving, which we repeated in 2013. And last year we stretched our Thanks-Giving posts to a full Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving!

Over the next three weeks, each of the TeachingAuthors will blog about 3 (or more!) things we're grateful for in each of our posts. I'm kicking the series off with a Thanks-Giving Thanku poem below. As in the past, we're also inviting you, our readers (and your students!), to join in by sharing your own "gratitudes" with us. And this year you can participate in one of FOUR ways:

1. Share your "gratitudes" in a comment to any of our blog posts from today through Friday, November 27.
2. Send them to us via email to teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com, with "Thanks-Giving" as the subject. Depending on the number of emails we receive, we may share some of your gratitiudes in our posts.
3. Post them on online on your own blog, Facebook page, etc., and then share the link with us via a comment or email. (Feel free to include the image below in your post.) On Saturday, November 28, I'll provide a round-up of all the links we receive.
4. AND NEW THIS YEAR: share them as a comment on our TeachingAuthors Facebook page. While you're there, we hope you'll also "Like" our page.  

In an interesting bit of Synchronicity, a friend of mine recently posted a link on her Facebook page to an article on the science of the benefits of gratitude. The article quoted Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas, science director of the Greater Good Science, as saying:

"Speaking of stress, writing thank you notes has been shown to ease stress, reduce depressive symptoms, and encourage people to be more mindful of what makes them happy (just ask Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon), as well as foster better relationships."

I'm definitely in need of some stress relief right now. The past month has been rather nerve-wracking. We're in the midst of a major home remodel project encompassing our family room and kitchen. I'm currently without a working kitchen, and the furniture that used to be in our family room is scattered about the rest of our small house.

In my thank you note for last year's Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving, I expressed gratitude to my family, my writing friends, and to all our TeachingAuthors' readers. Of course, I'm still grateful for all three groups of people, but I'd like to add three more groups this year. The "Thanks-Giving Thanku" poem below is dedicated to:

1. The students of my COD class, Beginnings, Middles, and Ends, for their patience with me if I was a bit distracted/frazzled during the last two weeks of class.   
2. My family members and friends for all their help and support during this time. In particular, for my husband's siblings and their families for providing temporary homes for my father-in-law. (He normally lives with us, but his bedroom is currently storing some of our family room furniture.) And also to the dear friends who allowed my husband and me to stay with them for two nights while our new hardwood floors were stained and finished.
3. The wonderful craftspeople carrying out our remodeling project. They've been careful, courteous, and punctual throughout the whole project AND they're doing marvelous work!

The target completion date for the kitchen/family room remodel is Saturday, November 14--the same day I'll be attending the SCBWI-Illinois Prairie Writer's and Illustrator's Day. We'll still have lots to do afterward, but if all goes well, I should have my kitchen back then. I'm definitely looking forward to that!

The other day, my husband and I were eating dinner in our makeshift kitchen (in our dining room) when the Passenger song "Let Her Go" came on the radio. In case you're not familiar with the lyrics, the song begins:

Well you only need the light when its burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go . . .

I began singing a revised version that went something like:

Well you only need the kitchen when it's been torn out
Only want to cook when there's no stove about
Only miss the cupboards when you must do without . . .

I thought of turning this into a poem for Poetry Friday, but decided to go with a Thanku instead:

I invite all of you to also participate in our Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving by sharing your "gratitudes" with us in one of the four ways I listed above. And don't forget to also check out this week's Poetry Friday round-up over at Write. Sketch. Repeat.

And if you're looking for more resources about gratitude and its benefits, see the links on the resource page of Gratefullness.org.

Happy Thanks-Giving to all!
Carmela

More "Gratitudes" from our Readers

Even though today is Wednesday, this isn't a Wednesday Writing Workout post. (We'll be back with more workouts in January.) I just wanted to share a quick update regarding our Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving challenge. This year was the first time we ran a book giveaway in conjunction with our series of posts expressing our gratitude. Last Friday, when I posted my wrap-up linking to posts by other bloggers who joined in our challenge, I didn't realize that a number of our readers had shared their "gratitudes" in their giveaway contest entries. It wasn't until I reviewed all the entries this past Monday that I saw them. Their gratitude was so uplifting I had to share them with you.

When asked to "Tell us three things you're grateful for," here's what they said:

• Family, children's books, great blogs to follow!
• I'm grateful for my family, my awesome poetry friends, and for my wonderful life.  Sometimes I have to pinch myself to see if it all is real.
• I am grateful for my family, friends and God for my life. 
• Health, loved ones and faith top the list today!
• My job, my friends, and my family
• Wonderful family, immediate and extended, fabulous friends from way back and from recently, and writing for the sake of writing. Thankful, happy, humbled.
• I'm thankful for: the cornucopia of rich SCBWI IL and beyond authors and Illustrators sharing their skills and knowledge with us; my family that perpetually allows me to pour myself into my writing and art; and nature that is a constant well of inspiration for all that I create! 
• Thankful for family and thankful for the snow
• I'm grateful for 1. my hubby, 2. currently having no obstacle, be it physical, mental, emotional, or practical, to enjoying every simple joy in life that I could wish for, and 3. having no obstacles (except for my own inefficiencies) to exercising creativity in many ways every day.
• I am filled with gratitude for my loving home and family, more than five years of being cancer free, and my opportunities to make a difference. 
• I am grateful for: A wonderful network of writers through SCBWI. My two challenging, supportive writers groups: one in Illinois and one in Virginia. My family, who provide inspiration, encouragement, ideas, and yes--distractions.
• I'm grateful for health, happiness and heaps of good books to read--and WRITE!

WE'RE grateful so many of our readers took time to share their "gratitudes" with us! 

Congratulations to our giveaway winner, Margaret Simon, who blogs at Reflections on the Teche. She shared her lovely "Thanku to Roux" along with a student Thanku in her November 8 post.

Thanks again to everyone who participated.

Happy writing!

Carmela

Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving Wrap-up

Today closes out our Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving. See below for my round-up of posts and thank-you notes. If you haven't shared your link/comment yet, you can still do so. I'll update this post later with any additional links/emails we receive. And don't forget--today's the last day to enter for a chance to win a copy of the 2015 Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market (CWIM) containing my interview roundup article, "Writing for Boys (and other 'Reluctant Readers')." See my November 7 post for all the details.

Thanksgiving is over for most people (and many are busy celebrating the more recent American ritual of "Black Friday"). However, I'm getting ready to celebrate our second Thanksgiving this week, this one with my husband's family gathering here in our home. This two-Thanksgivings-in-one-week tradition started years ago when my son was young. When my husband and I were first married, we actually spent Thanksgiving day with both our families, eating an early meal at one home and then driving to eat a second Thanksgiving dinner at another. After our son was born, we realized that was no longer practical. My in-laws came up with a simple solution: scheduling their family gathering on a different day, usually the weekend before or after Thanksgiving. Over the years, I've been very grateful to be able to celebrate fully with both sides of the family. So, while some of you may be gearing up for the December holidays, I'll be cleaning and cooking in preparation for Thanksgiving #2. That's why I'm keeping this post short. J     

Here are the links to the Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving blog posts:

• Nov. 7: my initial post containing my Thanku called "Thanks-Giving"
• Nov. 7: Jan Godown Annino shared a post called Appreciations on her Book Seed Studio blog.
• Nov. 8: Margaret Simon shared her wonderful "Thanku to Roux" along with a student Thanku at her blog, Reflections on the Teche. 
• Nov. 10:  Mary Ann Rodman wrote about "A Half Glass of Blessings."
• Nov. 11, Carl Schwanke of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library system (who is also known as "Iron Guy Carl" with the Boys Rule Boys Read! blog ) shared "This Turkey is Thankful For . . .." 
• Nov. 14, April Halprin Wayland shared a lovely Thanku to her mom in her post "3 (Well, 5 Actually) of the Most Kindhearted People in my Life."  
• Nov. 14, Linda Baie shared a Thanku in her Celebration Saturday post.
• Nov. 17, Bobbi Miller listed what she's grateful for in her post called "Apple Dumplings."
• Nov. 20, Annis posted her poem "Gratitude and Appreciation" at her blog, Poems by Annis.
• Nov. 21, JoAnn Early Macken shared a Thanku in her post "Thanks from the Depths."
• Nov. 24, Esther included a wonderful Thanku called "Obrigado to my Grandson Gabe" in her post "Yet One More Thanks-Giving Thanku."

Also, I want to thank the two readers who were unable to post their Thanks-Giving comments but took the time to email them to us:

1. Wendy, who blogs at An Education in Books, who wrote: "I am thankful for my family and for the unexpected snow!"
2. And Julie Phend, who said, "I am grateful for: 

A wonderful network of writers through SCBWI.
My two challenging, supportive writers groups: one in Illinois and one in Virginia.
My family, who provide inspiration, encouragement, ideas, and yes--distractions."

Don't forget to check out today's Poetry Friday round-up over at Carol's Corner.

Happy writing!
Carmela