Laura Shovan's Blog, page 10

Poetry Friday: Frederick Douglass

Welcome to Poetry Friday! Each week, one PF blogger shares links to blog posts, book reviews, and original poems from around the Kidlitosphere. The Wonder from Down Under, Kat Apel, is hosting this week. Visit her blog here.

Quick post this week, my poetry friends.

One of my first reads of the new year was David F. Walker’s fantastic graphic biography, The Life of Frederick Douglass, illustrated by Damon Smyth and Marissa Louise (2019). (Publisher info here.)

I’d taken this book out of the library. As soon as I returned it, I went out and got a copy for my own shelves.

Among many aspects of this book that appealed to me were the pages devoted to historical context. These:

helped me understand the progression of slavery in the United States from 1619 to the Civil War,
illuminated how African slaves initially had rights similar to indentured servants but were increasingly disenfranchised by laws rooted in greed and racism,
and made clear that slavery was *the* institution at the center of the Civil War.

All of this was shared alongside Douglass’s personal story, the “Graphic Narrative of a Slave’s Journey from Bondage to Freedom” — which is the book’s subtitle.

Frederick Douglass did write poems, but I was unable to find them within the public domain.

Perhaps the most famous poem about Douglass is by poet Robert Hayden. (Read more about Hayden at the Poetry Foundation.)

 

 

Frederick Douglass

By Robert Hayden

When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful
and terrible thing, needful to man as air,
usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all,
when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole,
reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more
than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:

this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro  …

Read the rest at the Poetry Foundation or watch Hayden read the poem, with a wonderful introduction:

And another powerful reading, by 2013 Poetry Out Loud winner Shawntay A. Henry.

Tweet

Poetry Friday: Reading about Refugees

It’s the first Poetry Friday of 2020 and Carol is hosting at Carol’s Corner!

Happy New Year, Poetry Friday friends!

I am a member of the middle grade ARC sharing group, #BookExpedition. We are 12 educators — classroom teachers, librarians, and one visiting teacher (me) — from all around the U.S.

We request Advanced Reading Copies of middle grade books from authors and publishers, then share them within the group. ARCs travel via media mail from one member to another, finally landing in someone’s classroom or making their way back to the author. You can read more about how the process works here.

I am so grateful for the conversations we have in this group. Until I joined and began discussing books and classroom experiences with my #BookExpedition friends, I didn’t realize how much I had missed having colleagues.

Recently, three of the books that circulated in #BookExpedition have been about the refugee experience. I read:

Under the Broken Sky by Mariko Nagai

Middle grade historical fiction in verse, published October, 2019

About: As World War II ends, two Japanese sisters must leave their settlement in Manchuria and make a harrowing journey back to Japan. (More information at Macmillan.)

 

 

 

House without Walls by Ching Yeung Russell

Middle grade historical fiction in verse, published June 2019

About: Eleven-year-old Lam escapes from Vietnam with her brother during the Vietnamese Boat People Exodus in 1979, when people from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fled their homelands for safety. Ching has been friends with the real-life Lam and Dee Dee since 1986. (More information at Simon & Schuster.)

 

 

Which Way Is Home? by Maria Kiely (debut author)

Middle grade novel historical fiction, due out May, 2020

About: Anna and her family escape from Czechoslovakia after the 1948 Communist takeover–based on the author’s own family history. (More information at Penguin Random House.)

It was fascinating to read these books together. I wonder if the popularity of Alan Gratz’s book Refugee opened doors for other authors to write refugee stories based on the real-life experiences of their family, friends, and cultures.

Under the Broken Sky and House without Walls had special appeal for me as sibling stories. Like the first person narrators in these two books, I am an eldest child and was always taught to protect my younger brothers. It was easy, but also heartbreaking, to connect with the bond between these siblings as they worked to survive and stay together.

In two of the books, Under the Broken Sky and Which Way Is Home?, the authors’ notes called upon readers to treat modern-day refugees with compassion and understanding. I recommend all three books for the light they shed on refugee experiences in the 20th century and today.

Here is a poem to pair with these books. It was written in response to today’s refugee crisis.

Refuge

by Jason Fotso

Turn away the refugees.

We will not

open up

our homes and hearts

for

children.

Close our doors on

the weak.

Only

fear behind

our

love can put

strength in our

hands.

We cannot let them bleed into our

nation.

They share the blood of our

enemy.

Our own

are endangered by

the refugees.

Read the rest at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

Tweet

Poetry Friday: Robot Poems

Our Poetry Friday host this week is Tanita S. Davis at Fiction, Instead of Lies. Stop by her blog for this week’s poetry link-up.

Happy Poetry Friday, everyone.

I wanted to do NaNoWriMo this year, but knew I wasn’t ready to work on a new a novel. So I set myself a different task: RoPoWriMo.

That’s RObot POem WRIting MOnth. My goal was to write a robot poem every day in November, with the ultimate aim of drafting 40 new poems.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that the root of this poetry project is my doodles. I started doodling and sharing a daily robot doodle in the spring of 2018, with zero expectations other than having fun and being open about the creative process.

Whether my robot doodle is awkward, awesome, scary, or somehow turns into a human being (that did happen) — it gets posted. MG author Jarrett Lerner and I talked about doodling at the MG Book Village blog a few months ago. You can read the post here.

Some of my favorite bot doodles are peeking out from the corners of this website. Have you spotted them?

Here is one of my favorite doodles, originally drawn for a thank you note to middle grade author Melanie Conklin. (Mel’s new book, Every Missing Piece, comes out in 2020. Can’t wait!)

And here is the nonet the doodle inspired. This was the 40th poem of the project, so I got to wrap it up with a dance party!

Moon Boots

Robot wore moon boots in rainbow hues

(three inch platform galactic shoes)

to the Nebulonic dance

on Planet Happenstance.

His suit — space plastic —

looked moon-tastic.

And those grooves!

Bot’s got

moves.

Tweet

Poetry Friday: Welcome to Baltimore

Edgar Allan Poe knew how to have a poetry party. You know who else hosts a great poetry party? Michelle H. Barnes. Stop by Michelle’s blog Today’s Little Ditty to join in the Poetry Friday festivities.

Happy POEtry Friday, everyone.

I’m excited that so many of you are coming to Baltimore next week for the National Council of Teacher of English conference. Lucky me — I get to host Poetry Friday friends Kat Apel and Irene Latham for a few days!

To put everyone in a Charm City mood, I am sharing one of my favorite poems about Baltimore City. It’s by Steven Leyva, who I met through the local literary magazine Little Patuxent Review, which he has edited for many years.

(Insider info: I met Steven when this poem won 2nd place in a statewide contest run by LPR and the Enoch Pratt Free Library — before he became editor. And more insider info: If you have a free hour or two during the conference, visit the Pratt’s Central Library. It’s a glorious building and has been newly renovated.)

Steven’s poem stays with me because it captures the city’s grittiness, acknowledges its history, and includes a dash of Bawlmerese.

Highlandtown after the Zappa Statue

By Steven Leyva

Children of dull import, and stevedores

for life, dock work passed down

like family deeds and ground rent.

Orthodoxy burned instead of incense.

Sons of Highland Ave. know well to assuage

their Greek around the Chesapeake “O”

for the city’s charm is a snake of language

eating its own tail. And to that end, oh

Hon, nothing can be done. The men wake

to the sun running roughshod through steel mills

gutted, seasons of dead fish, and Spartan women,

unmoored in waves of row homes.

Frank Zappa’s statue is located near the Highlandtown branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

***

NCTE attendees — you can take a workshop with Steven Leyva, a professor at Unversity of Baltimore, during the conference. Look for Folger Library: Poetry Immersion! A Reading and Workshop with Baltimore Poet Steven Leyva. It’s on the schedule for 9:30 am next Thursday.

***

 

 

Reminder: You are all invited to a Poets of KidLit dinner on Thursday (note the date change!) November 21, 7 pm, at Nick’s Fish House. Let me know if you’ll be there.

My third middle grade novel will be out in May!

And if you’re looking for me at NCTE, here are my panel and signing times. It’s my first official event with Saadia Faruqi, my co-author for A Place at the Table, which publishes in May. We are very excited!

SATURDAY, November 23

Panel Sessions

8:00-9:15am Dismantling the Patriarchy: Girl Power in MG Fiction

Room 328

With Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Barbara Dee, Saadia Faruqi, Hena Khan, Laura Shovan, Elly Swartz, and Becky Calzada — moderator

11:00-12:15pm First Generation Stories: Stories of First-and Second-generation Americans

Room 330

With Saadia Faruqi, Nalini Krishnankutty, Minh Le, Laura Shovan, Sandra Neil Wallace, Rich Wallace, and Emma Otheguy — moderator

Signings

1:00-2:00pm Laura Shovan and Saadia Faruqi signing A Place at the Table in the HMH Booth, #711

3:00-3:45pm Laura Shovan signing Takedown in the Random House Children’s Booth, #1110

Tweet

Poetry Friday: Neville Spider

Happy Poetry Friday, everyone.

This week, I have an original poem inspired by one of my new neighbors.

This spider decided it was Guardian of the Mailbox. I found it there, sometimes on the handle, sometimes inside the box itself, for a few days in a row.

I wondered, what would a spider be waiting for in the mail. The answer is in the poem…

 

 

Spectocular

By Laura Shovan

Neville Spider is my friend.

He’s always got a leg to lend

for weaving scarves

and tiny hats.

They look quite jaunty

on my cats.

But lately Neville’s knits won’t knot.

His tangled webs are good for naught.

His dots won’t polka.

He moans, dismayed.

“I should have tried

a simple braid.”

I advised him, best I could.

“My eight-eyed pal, perhaps you should

consider glasses,

Arachnospecs,

for when your webwork

is complex.”

Can’t you just imagine the illustration?!

This week’s Poetry Friday party is at Jama Rattigan’s blog. There are sure to be some delicious dishes at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. See you there for the link-up.

 

Tweet

Poetry Friday: Critter of the Day

This week’s Poetry Friday host is Catherine Flynn. Be sure to visit Catherine’s blog, Reading to the Core, for all of this week’s poetry posts!

Hi, Poetry Friday friends!

I’ve been out of blogging commission for some weeks. Most of you know the reason why.

But first, a reminder: If you’re coming to the NCTE Conference in Baltimore next month, you are invited to a Poets of KidLit dinner. It will be on Wednesday, November 20, 7 pm. Location TBA (probably Nick’s Fish House). Our special guest will be Kat Apel!

So … why haven’t I been blogging lately? On September 30, my husband and I moved out of our home of 20 years. We downsized a bit and moved from the suburbs to the country.

Best of all: At the new house there is space for writing workshops! I hope to get the workshops up and running by summer or autumn of 2020.

When you come to take or lead a writing workshop at our new house, this will be your view.

This is the wooded path and door to the workshop space.

Meanwhile, Rob (husband), Sam (Schnauzer), Rudy (beagle), and I are getting used to living in the woods.

That means critters. Lots of critters. Enough to post a #critteroftheday on my Instagram account.

Today’s beastie was the spider who made itself GUARDIAN OF THE MAILBOX.

But most interesting so far was the skeleton by the shed. It took a group effort on Facebook to identify this animal. Once I got a good shot of the jawbone, there was no question.

Sam led me to this skeleton.

It’s an opossum.

I haven’t had time to write during the unpacking phase of moving, but I did find a wonderful poem to share with you today.

 

 

 

 

Possums

By Sheila Black

A kind of thrill—to lie on a road

and flatten yourself,

white fur like a ball of winter,

like the March blossoms on the fruit trees,

each one folded in like

the fledgling that never made it

from the nest.

They do this when they feel threatened,

remain motionless

even when curious people come prod

them with sticks,

stiffening their pearly claws as a tree stiffens

its twigs for winter.

Read the rest of the poem at Poets.Org.

My favorite resource for understanding animal encounters is Animal Speak by Ted Andrews. Does anyone else have and love this book as much as I do? I wonder if it’s unpacked. Time to search through the book boxes.

Tweet

Read a Poem to a Child on September 23

September 23, 2019 is Read a Poem to a Child Day.

Happy Poetry Friday everyone! Thanks to the fabulous Linda Baie at Teacher Dance for hosting this week’s Poetry Friday link-up. (Look for a cameo from Linda a bit later in this post!)

This Friday and next, I am celebrating Read a Poem to a Child Day. I wrote about this annual initiative a few weeks ago. You can read that post here.

I am asking educators, authors, and friends  to record a video of themselves reading a poem for children, to be shared on social media. The collection of those videos will be right here at my blog.

Thanks to Poetry Friday friends Carol Varsalona and Linda Baie for making and sending videos to share!

I recorded two video poems: “I Know This One” from The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, and “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll.

Here are links to all of the videos so far. I encourage you to watch them and share with your students, children, grand-kids, and young mentees.

Linda Baie reading “Write about a Radish” from Karla Kuskin’s book Near the Window Tree: Poems and Notes.

Laura Shovan reading “I Know This One,” from The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary.

Laura Shovan reading “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. This poem is from Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.

Carol Varsalona reading of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Swing,” from A Child’s Garden of Verses.

There’s still time to participate. And if video isn’t for you, I hope you find time to read a poem to a child in your life, or volunteer to read to kids at a library or school.

Here are the details from 100 Thousand Poets for Change and their partner organization, Reading Is Fundamental:

“Dear Poets and Poetry Lovers, Will you read a poem to a child on September 23-28 as part of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change Global initiative ‘Read A Poem To A Child?’ This is an especially an important year to highlight the significance of children in the world. We are increasingly aware of their fragility. It is time to take a moment in this busy, crazy life we live, and share something we cherish. Poetry is our gift. Last year we had over 2,000 individuals and organizations sign on to participate. Michael Rothenberg, co-founder of Read A Poem To A Child hopes to increase that participation.

“Click for a free downloadable pdf of poetry for children. And for classroom curriculum ideas you can contact Michael Rothenberg, co-founder of the Read A Poem To A Child initiative, at walterblue@bigbridge.org. This important poetry literacy program was developed in conjunction with 100 Thousand Poets for Change and Florida State University Libraries Special Collections.”

Tweet

Two Poet/Performers Reimagine Phillis Wheatley’s “On Imagination”

“Because Phillis Wrote” by Aleta Greene

Happy Poetry Friday, everyone!

Sylvia Vardell is hosting this week’s round-up at Poetry for Children. (Sylvia knows how to throw a good party, so be sure to stop by and enjoy all that’s on the poetry menu.)

Two quick bits of business before we get to the good stuff:

Are you participating in the Read a Poem to a Child incentive? (Go to this post to find out more.) If you’ve got a video recording to share, feel free to drop the link in the comments. I’ll include it in my Read a Poem to a Child post later this month.
Which Poetry Friday friends are coming to NCTE 2019? The conference is in Baltimore this year, hon! Liz Steinglass and I are hosting a “Poets of Kidlit” get together on Wednesday evening, November 20. PF regular Kat Apel will be here from Australia. We can’t wait to meet her and share some Charm City crab cakes. Stay tuned for details.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to multi-faceted artist Aleta Greene. Speaking of reading poems to children, Aleta has been working on a website where she reads and posts “rest-inducing poetry and stories to assist people, including the little ones, to sleep.” For more info on that project, check out Aleta’s Go Fund Me page.

With the permission of Aleta and our mutual friend, poet/photographer Linda Joy Burke,  I share this sample today. Aleta is the reader of Phillis Wheatley’s poem “On Imagination.” Linda Joy produced the video. What a beautiful way to engage with this poem!

If you would like to read the full text of the poem, it is posted at the Poetry Foundation. I recommend reading the accompanying biographical entry on Wheatley, which begins, “Although she was an African slave, Phillis Wheatley was one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century America.”

And here is Aleta’s art collage, “Because Phillis Wrote.”

“This contemporary scribe has her head full of poetry and a look that says, ‘Puh-leeze! Of course, I can.'” Art by Aleta Greene

Linda Joy describes the image this way, “‘Because Phillis Wrote’ … was done fingertip to android device screen, as are all of her [Aleta Greene’s] drawings with no added apps or software. Mixed media with photos – 2018 by Aleta Greene.

“Inspired by the poem ‘On Imagination’ by Phillis Wheatley (1753?-1784), the first African-American author to be published in book form. All Miss Wheatley needed was to be taught to read and she could take it from there. This contemporary scribe has her head full of poetry and a look that says, ‘Puh-leeze! Of course, I can.'”

Need more art in your day? Follow Linda Joy’s photography on Instagram.

Tweet

Read a Poem to a Child

Kathryn Appel is hosting Poetry Friday this week! Visit Kat’s Whiskers for links to this weeks poetry news, reviews, tributes, and original poems.

Greetings, Poetry Friday friends.

I have been absent from blogging this summer as we prepare for a big change: we are moving to a new home in a few weeks! More details to come, but I hear that there is a resident tortoise living in the back garden.

Meanwhile, I’d like to invite you all to participate in a very special program.

Last year, my friends at 100 Thousand Poets for Change began a new initiative — Read a Poem to a Child. Once a year, everyone (poets, poetry lovers, aunts, uncles, grannies, librarians, dads, and dudes) is encouraged to read a poem to a child.

I am asking my friends in the kidlit community to record a video of themselves reading a poem for children, to be shared on social media. I’ll make a collection of these videos and will share the links here on my blog. No bells and whistles necessary. Find a comfy chair or a park bench, use your phone, read from a book or recite from memory.

Here are the details from 100 Thousand Poets for Change and their partner organization, Reading Is Fundamental:

“Dear Poets and Poetry Lovers, Will you read a poem to a child on September 23-28 as part of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change Global initiative ‘Read A Poem To A Child?’ This is an especially an important year to highlight the significance of children in the world. We are increasingly aware of their fragility. It is time to take a moment in this busy, crazy life we live, and share something we cherish. Poetry is our gift. Last year we had over 2,000 individuals and organizations sign on to participate. Michael Rothenberg, co-founder of Read A Poem To A Child hopes to increase that participation.

“Click for a free downloadable pdf of poetry for children. And for classroom curriculum ideas you can contact Michael Rothenberg, co-founder of the Read A Poem To A Child initiative, at walterblue@bigbridge.org. This important poetry literacy program was developed in conjunction with 100 Thousand Poets for Change and Florida State University Libraries Special Collections.”

If you’d like to let Michael know that you’re participating, go to this Facebook even page and comment “I’m in” with your city name.

I can’t wait to see what you all come up with! I may have to write a new tortoise poem for the occasion. (Especially since all of my poetry books are packed.)

Today, I’m hanging out with my two old dogs. We’re enjoying this old video of Jimmy Stewart reading his poem about his dog, Beau. Listen to how the audience settles down, stops laughing, and grows silent as they absorb this poem.

Tweet

Poetry Friday: Roboversary

Buffy Silverman is hosting Poetry Friday this week! Stop by her blog for links to more original poems, favorite verses, book reviews, and all things poetic.

Hi, Poetry Friday friends.

Today, is my anniversary, but I’m not celebrating a wedding. More like a milestone.

One year ago today, I posted my first robot doodle on Instagram.

Much like the annual poetry project that I run each February, sharing my almost-daily robot doodles is an exercise in being creative without judging the outcome. At last count, I have doodled and posted (usually the same day) about 230 robots.

To celebrate the Roboversary, I’m giving away some prizes. On Instagram, you’ll find re-posts of some bots from this past year. If you stop by and vote on your favorite robot doodle, you’ll be entered to win a prize! Visit this post for full details and instructions on how to vote.

Later today, I’m going to announce the BEST BOT, based on fan votes.

If you’d like to learn more about how doodling supports other creative practices, I’ll be at MG Book Village today talking with fellow doodler and middle grade author Jarrett Lerner.

What does this have to do with poetry? Inspired by the robots, I am writing a series of RoboPoems. This is the first one!

Robot Stew

By Laura Shovan

2 cups of brackets

A dollop of nuts

Stir in some hinges

And lawn mower guts

Whisk up this mixture

With half can of oil

Place on the stove-top

Bring to a boil

Feed to your robot

After it’s cool

This stew’s guaranteed

To make robots drool

And here is a photo of the original draft (and robot, natch) from my notebook.

 

Tweet