ONE LAST POEM AS WE SAY GOODBYE TO APRIL AND NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.

I say it just
Begins to live
That day

-Emily Dickinson

HAIKU HOW-TO

Before saying good-by to National Poetry Month, I thought it would be fun to explore the Japanese art of writing haiku poetry.

Haiku poems don't rhyme, but they do follow a pattern and can be written horizonally or vertically.  Traditional haiku were often reflective of nature, but you can compose one about pretty much anything.  To write a haiku in English,  the simplest direction is to write your thoughts in 17 syllables, in three lines of 5-7-5.

Want to try writing a HAIKU with your kids?  CLICK HERE for an easy (and quick) lesson.  Here is my attempt:

Stories read aloud

to your children everyday -

goodness for their souls.

Have fun writing more poems with your kids on
the RIF (Reading is Fundamental) website...click HERE

NEWEST OFFERING FROM RENEE RIVA

Renee Riva again stays true to old fashioned, timeless values in her newest book, HAPPY CAMPER.  It's a perfectly wholesome romantic comedy for ages junior high and up. I thoroughly enjoyed the antics of Renee's heroine, Allie Jaskie, aka "Sage Forrester".  A recent graduate of fashion and design school, Allie is desperately searching for work, and finally manages to land an interview for a job as field reporter at Happy Camper Magazine.  There is only one minor problem:  she hates camping.  Especially in the snows of Mt. Rainer, Washington.

But that's precisely what her new boss, editor Charlie Braun, wants her to report on.  He, of course, finds himself attracted to this cute, but slightly quirky girl, in spite of (or maybe partly due to) the fact that she shows up for an interview in some unique outdoor attire she found last-minute at the Goodwill (her main accessory is an old canteen slung across her shoulder!)

Allie's fairly convincing job application and interview pretty much dupe Charlie - who is desperate to find a good journalist who will help him climb another rung of the ladder at Happy Camper so he can finally move into a better, bigger office - into hiring her.

You'll smile your way through this fun book and the situations that "Sage" finds herself in as she tries to deliver on promises she can't always keep.  Hint:  Much to her own surprise, she find celebrity status in bright pink tents, Girl Scout songs, and trendy hiking attire.  A heart-warming love story! (And don't 'ya think Charlie has a great last name?)

You might also like my post about Renee Riva's other books found HERE.  All her books are available on AMAZON.
"Author Highlight: Renee Riva" (posted August 18, 2010)

SHAKESPEARE ON THE BRAIN

Statue in Leicester Square, London

April 23rd marked the traditionally observed anniversary of Shakespeare's birth in 1564, as well as the date of his death in 1616.  The exact dates are in dispute by historians, just as the authorship of his plays is constantly under scrutiny by scholars.  In any case...

   

"Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart"...We owe quite a debt to the Bard for his contribution to the English language. Scholars credit him with the invention of more than 1,700 new words -- words and phrases that we hear and we use every day. Do these sound familiar: Dauntless, deafening, dishearten? Gloomy, gossip, green-eyed? Laughable, lonely, luggage? Madcap, majestic, monumental? Scuffle, swagger, and zany?

Famous Quotes:

The words and quotes of the William Shakespeare can be found everywhere! His quotations can be heard on the radio and television on a daily basis. Did you know that "What the dickens" was one of the quotes used by William Shakespeare, long before Charles Dickens was born? Other famous Shakespearean quotations such as "I'll not budge an inch", "We have seen better days" ,"A dish fit for the gods" are all used frequently and, almost as a parody, the expression it's "Greek to me" is often used to describe a frustrated student's view of Shakespeare's work! Politicians dig deep into their pool of William Shakespeare quotes and quotations such as "Fair Play", "Foregone Conclusion ", "One Fell Swoop", and "Into Thin Air ". Furthermore, other Shakespearean quotes such as "to thine own self be true" have become widely spoken pearls of wisdom. So quotes from William Shakespeare have now become household words and sayings - and just to emphasise the point "household word" is also one of the Bard's 'anonymous' quotations! (source:  www.william-shakespeare.info)

Why Shakespeare never fails to get brains buzzing:

Robert McCrum said this, in THE OBSERVER on guardian.co.uk, Sunday April 24 2011:

The magic that Shakespeare works with language is a commonplace of literary commentary, but it also answers to neurological analysis. Since 2006, Professor Philip Davis of Liverpool University has been studying the effects of Shakespeare on the human brain.

Using EEG and fMRI scanning techniques, Davis has been testing individual responses to some of the playwright's most daring innovations. "I had an intuition," he says, "that functional shifts of syntax in Shakespeare might have an impact on the pathways of the brain, which is an extraordinary internal theatre."

Davis will take a sentence, for example Albany's charge to Goneril in King Lear: "A father, and a gracious aged man... have you madded." This is an ungrammatical, highly energised compression. MRI scans suggest that it evokes a powerful neurological response. In the words of his collaborator Dr Guillaume Thierry: "The Shakespearean functional shift appears to prompt activation in the visual association cortex, ie in regions normally activated by visualisation; that is, the mind's eye."

Shakespeare and the Elizabethans loved to use language in new ways. Davis shows that this brilliance has a cerebral dividend. Lines such as Albany's, he says, are "a way of upping the attention level, what we might call the 'wow factor'". Subjecting Shakespeare to an MRI scan might seem an abstruse piece of scientific reduction, but it's an apt reminder that Shakespeare's language, like all great literature, is all about neural excitement.

 (read the whole article HERE)

SHAKESPEARE FOR KIDS?

For Reading...

TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE by Charles and Mary Lamb. (grades 6 and up) Product description: In the twenty tales told in this book, Charles & Mary Lamb succeeded in paraphrasing the language of truly adult literature in children’s terms. The Lambs provide a real feast of plain fare, and flavor it with as many tasty tidbits of Shakespearean language as they felt the young reader could easily digest. 

JUST FOR FUN-

You might want to check out Lois Burdett's series, SHAKESPEARE CAN BE FUN. (ages 7-12) To see excerpts from HAMLET, click HERE.  Though not at all pure Shakespeare verse, you might garner some fun ideas for your students/children from these books. ( The reading of them probably won't match the fun her elementary students had in creating them.) Her titles, illustrated by the students and resulting from an intensive project she did with them, include:

A CHILD'S PORTRAIT OF SHAKESPEARE

HAMLET; ROMEO AND JULIET; A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM; MACBETH; MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING; TWELFTH NIGHT; THE TEMPEST

For Listening... (to read my past post about JIM WEISS, click HERE)

Jim Weiss Storytelling: ROMEO AND JULIET (ages 8-Adult)

Jim Weiss Storytelling SHAKESPEARE FOR CHILDREN (A Midsummer Night's Dream &Taming of the Shrew, ages 8-Adult)

For browsing...

Fun website for kids from FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

POINT TO HAPPY

April is Autism Awareness Month and I want to share a new book with you, that was just published in March:

POINT TO HAPPY, FOR CHILDREN ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM, by Miriam Smith and Afton Fraser; photos by Margo Smithwick.  Conceived of, written, and designed for children on the autism spectrum, Point to Happy combines a picture book and a pointer to create a breakthrough in reaching children who communicate best through pictures. Ingenious in its simplicity, it was created by a grandmother, Miriam Smith, and her daughter, Afton Fraser, for Ms. Fraser’s son, a young boy on the autism spectrum.  (And the photographer is Miriam's daughter and Afton's sister!)

"Point to happy... Point to sad... Point to hug... Give me a hug," the parent reads, as the child can point. It turns reading into a joyful, shared experience. Dozens of friendly photographs are compelling to look at and easy to understand. The text is clear and direct. By pointing to the pictures in the book—moods, activities, everyday objects, the rituals of going to bed and getting ready in the morning—children will learn to convey their wants and needs, their experiences and, most importantly, their feelings.

The simple device of the pointer, with its soft, molded hand on a wand—safety-tested and 100 percent nontoxic and PVC-and phthalate-free—begs to be held and used. And using it—the motor task of holding and pointing, again and again—is an effective tool to help a child focus.

For my other recent posts on books for children with Autism, CLICK HERE.

EASTER EGGS WITH A PAST

Lilly of the Valley Egg 1898

Easter has always been the most joyful celebration of the Orthodox faithful in Russia... after attending devout church services, families gather to exchange gifts of decorated eggs, symbols of renewed life and hope.  In 1885, Tsar Alexander III needed an exceptional 20th Anniversary gift for his wife, Tsarina Maria Fedorovna.  So he commissioned an order with a young jeweler, Peter Carl Faberge.

I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing the images in this Youtube video of the beautiful Imperial Easter Eggs that were created by Faberge for the Romanov Family.  In 1894 Tsar Alexander died and the traditional gift-giving of the opulent Faberge eggs was continued by Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra until 1917, the year Nicholas was forced to abdicate after riots, strikes, and a government take over by the revolutionaries.



American historian and writer, Robert Massie, who has devoted much of his career to the study of this royal family of Imperial Russia, says..."there still are those who for political or other reasons continue to insist that Nicholas was "Bloody Nicholas." Most commonly, he is described as shallow, weak, stupid—a one-dimensional figure presiding feebly over the last days of a corrupt and crumbling system. This, certainly, is the prevailing public image of the last Tsar. Historians admit that Nicholas was a "good man"--the historical evidence of personal charm, gentleness, love of family, deep religious faith and strong Russian patriotism is too overwhelming to be denied-—but they argue that personal factors are irrelevant; what matters is that Nicholas was a bad tsar....Essentially, the tragedy of Nicholas II was that he appeared in the wrong place in history."

Here are my favorite books (mostly for older readers) about the Romanov children and family, who have long been surrounded by mystery and controversy.  Despite what your impressions may be of Tsar Nicholas II and his role in the Russian Revolution, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the intimate encounter with the Romanovs in these books whose content is derived mainly from primary sources.

ANASTASIA'S ALBUM: THE LAST TSAR'S YOUNGEST DAUGHTER TELLS HER OWN STORY by Hugh Brewster. (Ages 8 and up). Publisher's Weekly: Designed to resemble a scrapbook, this striking, profusely illustrated volume presents a sympathetic and affecting portrait of the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last Romanov ruler. Brewster juxtaposes remarkably pristine period photos (some artfully hand-colored by Anastasia) with Christopher's carefully composed shots of the palaces the family inhabited and of several family possessions: a doll, a Faberge egg, a Red Cross uniform worn by one of Anastasia's sisters. His prose is equally atmospheric: Anastasia at three is "a blue-eyed whirlwind." Well-chosen excerpts from Anastasia's own correspondence and from memoirs by Romanov friends and staff heighten Anastasia's very real presence in these pages. This immediacy renders the sudden end to the siblings' carefree youth, and eventually the Romanovs' violent deaths in Siberia in 1918, all the more tragic and haunting. 


ANASTASIA THE LAST GRAND DUCHESS by Carolyn Meyer (Grades 4-8.)  School Library Journal: Given to Anastasia by her grandmother as a keepsake, this diary begins on the day after the Winter Ball, January 3, 1914... Through careful research, the author successfully provides interesting glimpses into daily events, family relationships, and growing up royal. Russian terminology, unobtrusively explained, is carefully blended into the narrative. Entries are simply written, brief, and sometimes unexciting. Lulls occur in some of the everyday events; yet little expressions, mini-tantrums, and exasperation reveal Anastasia's personality, her temperament, and feelings. The epilogue details events leading to the family's assassination. Black-and-white pictures, a bit grainy in quality, pique readers' interest in the Romanovs. Additional information on life in Russia in 1914, historical notes, a family tree, information about the Russian language and calendar, and a list of characters all provide wonderful background information.


ELLA'S STORY:  THE DUCHESS WHO BECAME A SAINT by Maria Tobias, illustrations by Bonnie Gillis.  (Grades 4-8.) Product description: This story brings to life the amazing journey of Princess Elizabeth (granddaughter of Queen Victoria, sister of Tsar Nicholas' wife, Alexandra), from privileged childhood to eventual martyrdom. While her biography, as St. Elizabeth the New Martyr, is available to adults, this is the first such book for girls, written in an approachable appealing style. Maria Tobias tells the Princess' story in such a lively way that the book is hard to put down. A true role model for today--Elizabeth, a real princess, is gifted with all those qualities girls still seek (intelligence, beauty, wealth, renown), converts to Orthodoxy and subsequently sheds all of this for the greater prize of the martyr's crown.


GRAND DUCHESS ELIZABETH OF RUSSIA by Lubov Milar (High School/Adult.) Granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Elizabeth married the Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich, uncle of Tsar-Martyr Nicholas. Adopting wholeheartedly the Orthodox Faith, she dedicated herself to the commandment of love — nursing the sick, rescuing children from Moscow's slums, establishing the Martha-Mary Convent of Mercy, and ultimately receiving a martyr's crown. Ample, richly illustrated life of one of the great spiritual lights of our times.  A beautiful, but sad story, with lots of historical photographs.


AN ENGLISHMAN IN THE COURT OF THE TSAR (High School/Adult) Subtitle: The Spiritual Journey of Charles Sydney Gibbes. Charles Sydney Gibbes travels abroad in a crisis of faith, and his world is changed forever when he becomes a tutor to the children of the Russian royal family. Gibbes eventually returns to Great Britain, there dedicating his life as an Orthodox priest to the memory of the Imperial Family and the faith he discovered in their distant homeland.  I absolutely loved this book - it's a good account, with excerpts taken from actual letters of Sydney Gibbes, who was intimately connected with this pious family before and during the Russian Revolution.  A fascinating read.

CHRIST IS RISEN!

(This Easter song was performed by ''Stupovi'' and various Serbian singers and celebrities, dedicated to the resurrection of Christ, made as a part of an action of raising funds for reconstruction of medieval Serbian orthodox monastery ''Pillars of Saint George'')


HRISTOS VOSKRESE!  CHRIST IS RISEN!

English Translation:
People rejoice, all nations listen:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!
Dance all ye stars and sing all ye mountains:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!


Whisper ye woods and blow all ye winds:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!
O seas proclaim and roar all ye beasts:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!


Buzz all ye bees and sing all ye birds:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!
O little lambs rejoice and be merry:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!


Nightengales joyous, lending your song:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!
Ring, O ye bells, let everyone hear:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!


All angels join us, singing this song:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!
Come down ye heavens, draw near the earth:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!


Glory to Thee, God Almighty!
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!
Glory to Thee, God Almighty!
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!


People rejoice, all nations listen:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!
Dance all ye stars and sing all ye mountains:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!


Whisper ye woods and blow all ye winds:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!
O seas proclaim and roar all ye beasts:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!


Buzz all ye bees and sing all ye birds:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!
O little lambs rejoice and be merry:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!


Nightengales joyous, lending your song:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!
Ring, O ye bells, let everyone hear:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!


All angels join us, singing this song:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!
Come down ye heavens, draw near the earth:
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!


Glory to Thee, God Almighty!
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!
Glory to Thee, God Almighty!
Christ God is risen! Let us rejoice!
-Vladika Nikolaj

Versatile Blog Awards! And Angst over a Crashed Harddrive

Hi all! I am relieved to say that I am back online after dealing with a hard-drive crash (new hard drive installed, covered by the warranty-phew!). This mishap was followed by spending some time in the Catskills with a downed Internet. Wahhhh!

Anyhoo, I was awarded a versatile blog award by the fabulous T.G. Ayer, otherwise known as Tee. I thank her and urge you all to check out her blog. As part of paying it forward, I want to give out Versatile Blog Awards too! But first, the rules stipulate that I reveal 7 things about myself, so here goes:

1. I've seen James Brown in person five times, and John McLaughlin four. Hear, hear to soul and rock fusion.

2. I had a serious painting career before getting published in children's fiction. See one of my oils above. The one with the hedgehogs. It's called NECTAR. Don't ask me why! Can you figure it out?

3. I am rather obsessed with birds. I've painted at least 25 bird paintings. Thinking about designing a bird calendar for 2012. Maybe sell on my website? Stay posted.

4. I stabbed a mouse that was stalking my apartment with a giant screwdriver. I know, I know, very gross! And disturbingly impulsive. But it was even more disturbing that it was setting up house and terrorizing me every night.

5. I love to line edit. And fold laundry. Hey, if you are in the market for a good line edit or manuscript evaluation, I am probably less expensive than most, so shoot me an email describing your project. No, you can't hire me to fold your laundry.

6. I despise squishy food like custard, cream pies, and soft breads--yeeeccchhhh. Give me something really crunchy, even scorched toast.

7. I love the outdoors. Could spend all of my time outside if it never snowed, hailed, rained or thundered.

And now, DRUMROLL, please!!!

I grant the next seven Versatile Blog Awards to...

1) The amazing illustrating blogger, Lynne Chapman's An Illustrated Life for Me.

2) The Book Rat, because I love the reviews, the topic of YA spec, her Fairytale Fortenight, and let's face it, hers has got to be the coolest banner around! Check it out here.

3) Alison DeLuca's Fresh Pot of Tea, because indie authors rock too. Take a look.

4) From Sarah with Joy, because she's another cool indie author with brave posts.

5) Helen Mallon's thoughtful blog WritingNurture. She is also a kick-butt author of literary fiction. Welcome her into the blogosphere as she redesigns and builds her world.

6) Moving on to PK Hrezo's Fiction Addiction with major swag and sass. She will not disappoint.

7) Miriam Forster's Dancing with Dragons is Hard on Your Feet. I mean, the title alone is worth an award!

8) Love this one too: YA Authors You've Never Heard Of. There is power in numbers for these small press YA authors. Though they may have to change their title to Authors You Have Heard Of, if they keep up the good work.

And there you have it! Come back and drop a line, tell us what you think.

A PAT ON THE BACK FOR PICTURE BOOKS!

I loved reading this letter sent by some students to the Editor of the NY TIMES in reference to that now infamous article "Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children" (Oct. 2010) - which I, and many other bloggers, posted about.  This was no ordinary letter, but a 15-ft. scroll, delivered in a tube.  (Click HERE to see the NY TIMES Opinion Pages, April 13, 2011.)