Mystery Guest TeachingAuthor And Book Giveaway for Poetry Friday!

Howdy, Campers!  And...surprise!  Following the success of our first Mystery Guest TeachingAuthor which Carmela Martino posted last Friday, here's our second ever Mystery Guest TeachingAuthor (MGTA)—complete with his/her Writing Workout and a fabulous Book Giveaway! OMG.  I'll bet you can barely stand the excitement. The details about the giveaway are below, but DO NOT GO THERE YET.  If you do, you'll find out who our MGTA is and blow the whole deal.

Here's how we play the MGTA game: I'll share our MGTA's bio before giving you his/her Writing Workout [listen...this his/her thing is getting awkward...I'll give this to you: it's a her]. You try to guess who our guest author is before I reveal the MGTA's identity at the end of the post. (And even though it's going to kill you, no fair clicking on the MGTA's book links to find out the author's name!) 

Then let us know if you figured out who this most amazing lady is, either by commenting below, or an email.

Ready?  Okay, let's go!

Today's MGTA is a Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University and has taught graduate courses in children's and young adult literature at various universities since 1981. She has published extensively, including five books on literature for children [including—remember, no clicky-clicky—Poetry Aloud Here! Sharing Poetry with Children in the Library (ALA, 2006), Poetry People: A Practical Guide to Children's Poets (Libraries Unlimited, 2007), and Children'sLiterature in Action: A Librarians Guide (Libraries Unlimited, 2008)], as well as over 20 book chapters and 100 journal articles; she's recently co-edited several ground-breaking e-anthologies of poetry for children. In addition, she edits for Librarians' Choice. Is this woman is making you tired, just reading about her?  And there's more: her blog is full of tips and news (and poems) that help spread enthusiasm for poetry, and it has become a touchstone—the go-to blog in the field of poetry for children.

Have you guessed our guest yet?  No?  Well, let's let her tell us how she became a TeachingAuthor:

What a treat to be featured on Teaching Authors!

My mom tells me I started teaching neighbor kids when I was about 6, but it could be I was mainly bossing them around! My first paid gig was teaching sixth grade. Then I went to graduate school, loved it, and started teaching adults. I really enjoy working with both educators AND kids and have been doing it for 30+ years now.

I enjoy academic writing and lean toward the more pedagogical type rather than pure research. Helping teachers keep up with the latest trends and techniques is very rewarding. My focus has always been on children’s literature, sometimes generally (in my textbook, Children’s Literature in Action) and sometimes on specific genres—like poetry, my primary passion. I’ve written several books about poetry for children in hopes of giving those who feel uncertain about (or resistant to) poetry the tools they need to enjoy and share it in fun ways with kids.

This has led me to blogging; I am also the regular “Everyday Poetry” columnist for ALA’s Book Links magazine and serve as a consultant to the Poetry Foundation.

Poet and friend Janet Wong and I launched a biggie last year with the first digital e-books of poetry for young people, our Poetry Tag Time trio.  I’m so proud of those—particularly since they are traveling around the world and are a bit hit in Australia and Kenya, in particular. 

Before I reveal this author's name (if you've come here via Poetry Friday, chances are you've already guessed who our mystery star is because you're a poetry genius), here's our MGTA's terrific Writing Workout in her own words:

Here’s a Writing Workout that has helped me more times than I can count:

• Write, write, write.
• Then let it simmer,
• come back and try cutting out the first sentence or first paragraph.
• Let the next sentence (or paragraph) be the beginning. How does it sound? I find that I am often a bit wooden and cumbersome in the “set up” and cutting that off, leaves a fresh, more energetic sentence. The same is often true at the end. I say what I need to say, but then ramble.
• Chop it off.
• Read it again. Have I ended with what is most important and stopped with a fresh image or turn of phrase? Then stop. And my final tip?
• Even after that, I sometimes flip those two pieces—moving the end to the beginning and the beginning to the end. How does that feel? I sometimes find that it took me awhile to figure out my point (and say it well), but I really need to have that strong statement at the beginning, rather than at the end.
• So, flip it.

These are not absolute, of course. But it can help me look at my work with fresh eyes and see those words and sentences as more malleable than I thought at first.

*   *   *

Thanks for this Writing Workout, MGTA!  Campers, we'd like to know if you try this exercise—please comment below or or email us!  Now, finally, it's time for the big reveal. 

Today's Mystery Guest TeachingAuthor is (drum roll please):

Sylvia Vardell!

I met Sylvia many years ago at a conference through Janet Wong and I've been a friend and admirer of her ever since.  Readers, how'd you do? Did you guess who our MGTA was?  We'd love to hear what you think of our new feature. 

Appropriately enough, Sylvia would like to share a poem today from The Poetry Friday Anthology (edited with poet Janet Wong) (available Sept. 1).  

Isn't this a great cover?  

This book is a new anthology of 218 original poems for children in kindergarten through fifth grade by 75 popular poets from J. Patrick Lewis and Jack Prelutsky to Jane Yolen, Margarita Engle, Nikki Grimes, April Halprin Wayland, and many more. [Sylvia wrote this...I swear I didn't pay her to include my name in this blurb!]  Here is a sample poem to whet your appetite:

The Do Kind by Janet Wong

When my ball flies over the wall,

you run and get it back.

When my books fall down the stairs,

you help me pick them up.

Some friends are see friends,

me me me friends.

You are the do kind,

the me and you kind.

April says: Be a "do kind" of FOP (a friend-of-poetry)—or an FOTOP (a friend-of-teachers-of-poetry)—and arrange for your PTA or school district to buy a copy in September for every K-5 teacher!

Thank you, Sylvia, for being our second Mystery Guest TeachingAuthor, for sharing such a terrific Writing Workout with us, AND for offering a Book Giveaway to our readers!

The book Sylvia's giving away to one of our lucky readers is:

The Poetry Teacher's Book of Lists is jam-packed with poetry bibliographies and research-based strategies for selecting and sharing poetry with young people (ages 0-18). Need help finding the perfect poem for a holiday celebration or a science unit? A funny riddle poem or a bilingual poetry book? This book contains 155 different poetry bibliographies and lists of research-based strategies featuring 1500 poetry books for children and teens (ages 0-18).  Pretty cool, huh?  For more info, check out the dedicated blog.

Is your mouth watering yet?  Do you want to win this book?  
Here's how to enter THE POETRY TEACHER’S BOOK OF LISTS Book Giveaway:
1. Comment on today's post or enter by sending an email to us at teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com with "Book Giveaway" in the subject line. Tell us why you'd like to be the lucky winner.  Will you be keeping it for yourself or sharing it with a colleague or friend?
2.  You must include contact information in your comment.  If you are not a blogger or your email address is not accessible from your online profile, you must send us a valid email address in your comment.  Entries without contact information will be disqualified.  Note:  The TeachingAuthors cannot prevent spammers from accessing e-mail addresses posted within the comments, so feel free to disguise your address by spelling out portions such as "dot" and "at."
3.  You must send us your post by 11 pm (CST), Thursday, August 16th. Winner will be chosen at random and announced on Friday, August 17th.  Note:  Winners automatically grant us permission to post their names here on the TeachingAuthors website.
4.  You must have a mailing address in the United States.
5.  You must respond to the notification e-mail and provide a mailing address within 72 hours, or the prize will be forfeited and an alternate winner chosen.

And, hey! Thanks to Rena from

On the Way to Somewhere

for hosting Poetry Friday this week!

poem (c) 2012 Janet Wong all rights reserved                                                

TTFN! ~ April Halprin Wayland

Poetry Friday! EBook celebration! Rabbits! A Poetry Exercise! And just a few more days to enter our Blogiversary Giveaway!

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Howdy Campers!  Happy Poetry Friday!  Happy just-a-few-more-days-'til-our 3rd blogiversary giveaway ends! At the end is today's poem and a Writing Workout (aka Poetry Exercise).

My fellow Teaching Authors have kindly allowed me to post some good news today.

*Gasp!* My one and only child just graduated from college.  And at the exact same time, my books have begun graduating into eBooks.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Wait...wrong photo.

This guy.  He's my kid.
Go, kid, go!

For a bonus point: on what campus is he?
For double bonus points: what is the image on his gold stole?

Actually, that's not the good news they were hoping I'd post.  My fellow TeachingAuthors thought I was going to talk about my new eBook.  So...

Once upon a time...I was nine months pregnant with the guy above when we held the launch of my first picture book, To Rabbittown, at Dutton's Bookstore in Brentwood, CA.

Dutton's was our award-winning neighborhood
independent bookstore extraordinaire, whose doors closed in 2008--sniff, sniff.

To Rabbittown began as a scribble...an illustrated poem, in 1984, when I was working in the marketing department of A.T. & T. in downtown Los Angeles. Looking back, writing it was my escape.  And it really is an escape story--the child in the book runs away to live with rabbits...and slowly turns into one. How much farther can you run away to hide from the nasty corporate world?

It was one of the few books that has floated down from the clouds directly to my fingers, bypassing my brain, nearly fully formed. 

How does that happen?  And why can't it happen all the time?

1984 manuscript of To Rabbittown, now archived
at the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature

I sent it to Scholastic, it was gloriously illustrated by Robin Spowart and published in the spring of 1989, and you can bet your sweet bippy it felt like the birth of my child (the good parts of giving birth, you understand), who was born a few days later.

It became a blue ribbon best seller for Scholastic (I don't know what that means either), sold over 64,000 copies, and got a starred review in the School Library Journal (I was a newbie author; I thought everybody got a starred review in SLJ...); it was in print for eight years...

...until it wasn't in print.  This being my first Out of Print (OP) book, I was devastated.  It really did feel like a death.  I was mortified. And ashamed.  I thought it was my fault.  I tiptoed around, eyes on the ground without telling anyone. If I had been better, had done more, if I had written the next one faster, if I had picked up more trash off the sidewalk, my book would have been immortal.  I thought books were immortal, and if they weren't, well, then there was something deeply wrong with the author.  

Fast forward to 2012.  I am older.  I understand life a little more.  Not everything is my fault.  And some fabulous things are my fault.  My beamish boy is launched into this woolie, wild and wonderful world...

 

...my first born book is reborn as an eBook (for 99 cents) (and just £0.77 in the UK)!
 

First, here's the text of TO RABBITTOWN as my offering for Poetry Friday--but I really hope you have a chance to see the luscious watercolor illustrations by the amazing Robin Spowart on every page.

TO RABBITTOWN
by April Halprin Wayland, illustrated by Robin Spowart

I opened her rabbit-y cage
and while she nibbled celery
I asked her:
Where do the rolling hills go?
She said:
Beyond the wheat
to a pine forest
to the edge of it all
to Rabbittown

I snuggled her close
She told me:
Hop there
Ride the green waves
Find the cliffs
past the smell of the sea
There you’ll find
those brown rabbit eyes
And so I went

They sniffed me and I asked:
How long have you been here?
And what do you eat
in Rabbittown?

The woolly one spoke
She said:
Here before the moon
we drink milk from the milk grass
eat pine needle salad
and save water lilies for dessert

They told me:
Stay
I sat with them
burrowed with them
played games with their babies
and sliced pine branches
at dusk

I grew ears
I heard butterflies fly
I heard the movement of worms in the soil
I heard clouds coming

I wrinkled my rabbit nose...read the rest here 

text and cartoony drawing © 2012 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

Writing Workout: Abracadabra--You're an Animal!

To Gazelletown.  To Wormtown. 
To Owltown.  To Sharktown. 
To Horsetown...

What animal would you like to become? Using To Rabbittown as a structure, become that gazelle, spider, eel, elephant or flamingo.  What do you hear, feel, sense, eat?  How do you move through your world?  Who do you long to be with?

Be in that world.  Pull your readers in, too.  Remember to breathe...and to write with joy.

You have only a few days left to enter our TeachingAuthors Third Blogiversary Giveaway for a chance to win one of THREE 30$ gift certificates to Biblio.com, where you can purchase new and used books from independent booksellers around the world, often with free shipping! See ...all the bloody details are here.

Katya is hosting Poetry Friday--thanks Katya!

Interview with Poet Janet Wong & a Book Giveaway--Happy Poetry Friday!

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Howdy Campers!

Today, Class, to celebrate both Poetry Friday and National Poetry Month, we've invited a very special visitor: my dear friend, amazing human, poet and teaching author, Janet S. Wong.  (Yay--applause!) 

I've known Janet since we were in classes taught by poet Myra Cohn Livingston during the Pleistocene epoch.  Among other accomplishments, Janet and her co-editor, Sylvia Vardell, have revolutionized the way poetry is published in their Poetry Tag Time eAnthologies.  And in honor of our upcoming 3rd (!) Blogiversary (April 22nd), Janet has generously donated THREE copies of her timely book, Declaration of Interdependence: Poems for an Election Year. Read more about the book and details on how to enter to win your own autographed copy below.

Our friendship is not why I've invited her today.  Janet is a force of nature in the world of children's poetry--that's why I wanted you to meet her today.

Janet S. Wong looking calm, peaceful, even--hiding the dynamo within
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Janet is the author of a gazillion books for children and teens. She has been honored with the Claremont Stone Center Recognition of Merit, the IRA Celebrate Literacy Award, and by her appointments to the NCTE Commission on Literature and the NCTE Excellence in Children's Poetry Award committees. She currently serves on the IRA Notable Books for a Global Society award committee. A frequent speaker at schools, libraries, and conferences, Wong  has been featured on CNN, Fine Living’s Radical Sabbatical, and The Oprah Winfrey Show and has performed at the White House. (!!)

 

Janet's house. 
Ha ha. 

1) How did you officially become a TeachingAuthor?
I had my first “teaching author” gig in May 1994, four months before my first book, Good Luck Gold, was published. On a Friday I got a call from a bookseller who had heard me speak and wondered if I would visit a middle school near LAX. An author who was scheduled for Monday had canceled. Could I fill his spot? Three days later, I walked into an auditorium of 700 seventh graders. I introduced myself, read a poem about race discrimination, “Waiting at the Railroad Cafe,” and was greeted with thunderous (truly, thunderous!) applause.

After the assembly, kids said: “I like your poems because I know they’re real.” What an amazing feeling of accomplishment at having connected with those kids! I knew that I wanted school visits to be a big part of my life as an author.

2) What's a common problem/question that your students have and how do you address it?
The most common problem: what to write about. I want to teach kids that their own everyday experiences--even seemingly trivial ones--can be good material. I’ll read a handful of poems and talk about the stories behind the them: why I wrote about my dad’s anger, why I wrote about noodles for breakfast, why I wrote about hiking in the woods. Some of the kids must wonder: “That’s good enough for a book? But then you could write about anything!” Exactly! You don’t have to have an “exciting” dream-filled life in order to write. I also want kids to write just for practice, just for fun, at home. Write an ode to cookies that is so mouth-watering good, it will inspire a mom to say, “Yes, we should bake some cookies today!” I want kids to know that they have the power to make good things happen with their words.

video credit: Bettie Parsons Barger

3) Would you share a favorite writing exercise for our readers?
My most successful writing exercise is a simile exercise that I usually do when I visit schools. Here it is, broken into 10 steps.

Step #1, Introduce Similes: I introduce similes before they even know that an exercise is coming. Showing--not telling--what a simile poem is, I read “Dad” from Good Luck Gold (my dad as a turtle, hiding in his tough shell), and sometimes also “Sisters” from A Suitcase of Seaweed (sisters who are opposites, like fiery ginger and soft tofu) and “The Onion” from The Rainbow Hand (mom as an onion; you cut her and yet you cry).


Step #2, Describe the Prompt: I say: Take someone in your family (mother, father, brother, sister, grandmother, grandfather, uncle, aunt, cousin) and turn that person into a plant, animal, or object--but don’t make the mistake I made with calling my dad a snapping turtle--make it a loving idea, an idea that can become a gift poem.

Step #3, Give Examples: I share examples. From a 6th grade girl in Los Angeles: “My mother is like braces; she can be a pain to deal with, but she straightens me out.” From a 5th grader in Seattle: “My mother is like glasses; she helps me to see things more clearly.” From a 3rd grader in Texas: “My aunt is so sweet, she is like candy.” (Me: “What kind of candy? A cool peppermint? A tough red rope?” Her: “Well, she’s kind of . . . nutty, so I guess she’d be a Hershey’s bar with almonds.”)

Step #4, Think for a Minute: Too often kids are thrown into a quick-write with zero idea of what to write (and of course they panic). I have them sit and think for a minute--no writing. While they’re thinking, I’ll make a few additional suggestions, pointing to things in the room. “Do you know someone who is very bright?” (pointing to a light) “Do you know someone who is full of stories?” (pointing to a book) “Someone who gives you energy?” (pointing to an electrical outlet)

Step #5, Draw for a Minute: Drawing for the group, I show how you can change a negative idea into a positive one if you imagine that there’s a “video in your mind” and you let it run. What starts out as a rain cloud might turn into a sunny scene with a rainbow, transforming the idea of a stormy mom into one who is just a bit moody, like spring weather.

I also like to show that there’s more than one way to draw something. For instance, if you draw a rose one way, you might think of a perfect rose, a gift of love. Or you could draw the whole bush and it might help you think of a grandmother as an old-fashioned climbing rose with deep roots.

Step #6, Share Ideas: For the next several minutes, I invite kids to share their ideas aloud so that the whole group can hear. I tell kids that if I pick them, I want to be able to use their idea for my own poem, and also want them to allow other kids (who might not like their ideas) to use their idea, too. This is yet another way of making sure that every student has something positive to write about.During this sharing portion I help students fine-tune (or change) their ideas, especially in terms of making them “more loving.” For instance, if a boy says his sister is a pig, I’ll say, “Is she very intelligent? Pigs are very intelligent creatures. They are strong, sturdy, not fussy, they are good in groups and give their lives to us. Is your sister this way?” After seeing that a negative idea fails to get the shocking reaction they’re after, these kids with less-than-loving ideas often surprise with moving poems on a completely different subject.

Step #7, Suggest Music: Rather than just say, “Now write a poem,” I give a one-minute lesson on rhyme, repetition, and rhythm. I ask them to “put a little music in the poem”--and we’re off!

Step #8, Write: I write at the same time as the kids. Using chart paper or the board, I let students see me struggle with their same writing exercise, crossing words out, making a “sloppy copy,” and then a second very different draft. Kids who don’t know where to start can see that I plunged in and started my first draft quite simply--just “my cousin is like a [something].” Not all of them start their poems this way, but I think it takes the pressure off them if they can copy my format. I’ll usually write a second draft during the same five minutes and will deliberately try to make it very different (but still on the same subject).

 Janet Wong with students at Heritage School in Newnan, GA. 
Photo by Marianne Richardson

Step #9, Evaluate: I don’t ask, “Did anyone write a good poem?” Instead I ask, “Is there anyone who wrote something--start of a poem, part of a poem, whole poem--that is better than you thought it would be?” This is key: having the courage to try, especially when you’re not inspired, and being happy when you can surprise yourself. I also point out that a poem can be short and still be good by reading my poem “Down Dog” from TWIST: Yoga Poems. That poem is only 14 words long, but one of my own favorites.

Step #10, Share the Poems: It’s important that we make time for children to share their poems by reading them aloud. It takes less than 30 seconds for most children to read a poem aloud. I like to point out favorite parts of poems but also lines where the child could add or change a few words to give a head start on a revision.

4) What one piece of advice do you have for teachers?
Pick exercises that have “real world meaning” for you. The week before the birthday of your mom, your husband, or your child, have all the kids write a birthday poem for someone in their families. If you love gardening, bring in a bunch of gardening catalogs and have kids scour them for found poems. Create an e-book anthology as a fundraiser and earn money for a classroom party, field trip, or your library. If your writing exercises have some sort of real world meaning for you and your students, the enthusiasm will be genuine and infectious.

5) Can you share a funny (or interesting) story with our readers?
I did a drop-in Q & A at a high school where a student once asked, “How much money do you make?” When I told him the sad truth, he stood up and left the room. I guess it wasn’t worth his time to sit and listen to someone who makes as little as 10 cents per book! This made me realize how important it is to make writing seem profitable to kids.

The reality is that very few authors make a “good” income. But writing, as a skill, can help people make millions and “live rich.” Kids perk up when I explain that a good sportswriter can go to the Super Bowl or World Series for free. You can drive a Ferrari one week and a Lamborghini the next if you are a car reviewer. The suggestion they love the most: developing video games. In Minn and Jake’s Almost Terrible Summer, Jake carries a notebook in his pocket because he wants to capture ideas that pop into his head--ideas for video games. I tell kids about a video game developer who once told me that “the writer is the most important person on a video game team.” Before illustrators go wild, before programmers get practical, first you need a story: a setting, characters, and a basic plot (Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 in a game).

6) What's on the horizon for you?
More e-books! I love the freedom: you think of an idea, you write it, and a week later the e-book is out, on Kindles and iPads all over the world. It’s exciting to look at the royalties and to see that an e-book has sold in Australia or Ireland.

7) And finally, since it's Poetry Friday in the Kidlitosphere, do you have a poem you'd like to share with our readers?
I’d like to share the poem “Liberty” from my new book Declaration of Interdependence: Poems for an Election Year, available both as an e-book and in paperback. If you like this poem, please look at its blog,
TheDeclarationOfInterdependenceBlog.blogspot.com

Liberty

by Janet Wong

I pledge acceptance

of the views,

so different,

that make us America

To listen, to look,

to think, and to learn

One people

sharing the earth

responsible

for liberty

and justice

for all.
poem and drawings (c) 2012 Janet Wong all rights reserved

That is one of my favorite poems, Janet. And I love the different ways you engage elementary through high schoolers (and adults, too) about elections in the book, including a Voters Journal and Discussion Guide ("If you were a dog, what kinds of promises would you want to hear from your mayor?") 

I'm thrilled you stopped by!  We'll be following your blogs and gobbling up your new hold-in-your-hand books, eBooks and eAnthologies!

This is April speaking now: before we get to Janet's Book Giveaway, I'm asking you with big puppy dog eyes to stop by and read an original dog poem a day on my Poetry Month blog. 

Eli has just performed surgery on his friend, Squirrel.

AND, in honor of Poetry Month, Easter, and all things rabbity, we’ve just e-published TO RABBITOWN, 

the first picture book I ever had published (by Scholastic). It’s a free-verse fantasy (gorgeously illustrated by Robin Spowart) about a child who runs away to live with rabbits and slowly turns into one. To Rabbittown is available on Kindle and Nook (both just 99 cents)…and I’ll upload it to iTunes for iPads soon (wish me luck) ~

And now, without further delay, here's your chance to win one of three autographed copies of Janet's marvelous and timely, Declaration of Interdependence: Poems for an Election Year

Before entering our contest, please read our Book Giveaway Guidelines. Then answer the following question:  If you're our winner, would you keep the book for yourself or pass it along to a young reader, and if so, to whom? (Don't worry about sounding selfish--who wouldn't want to own a book of election poems during this exciting year?)

You may either post your answer as a comment below or email your answer to teachingauthors at gmail dot com with "Contest" in the subject line. If you enter via a comment, you MUST include a valid email address (formatted like: teachingauthors at gmail dot com) or a link to an email address where we can reach you. Your entry must be posted or received by 11 p.m. April 19, 2012 (Central Standard Time). The winner will be chosen in a random drawing and announced on Friday, April 20, 2012. G'luck!

Poetry Friday is hosted by
Robyn Hood Black at Read, Write, Howl
 ~ thanks, Robyn! ~

Happy, Happy Poetry Friday!

~ and remember to write with joy ~