This is just a quick post to congratulate the winner of our latest book giveaway: The Stories Behind the Stories: The Remarkable True Tales Behind Your Favorite Kid's Books, by Danielle Higley (Bushel & Peck Books).
Margaret S.
Thank you to all who took time to enter our giveaway. And special thanks to Bushel & Peck Books for providing the book for our winner!
Carmela
Howdy from California, Campers ~
Our theme for this round is Moving Forward in the New Year. We began with Esther's enticing review of the book, THE stories BEHIND THE stories (read her review here and enter to win it in our first BOOK GIVEAWAY in this fresh new year).
I'm up next.
In the 13 years I've been privileged to be part of TeachingAuthors, I've learned rain barrels-full about writing, teaching, poetry, and friendship from my fellow TeachingAuthors, from many of you, and from the Kidlitosphere and Poetry Friday communities.
One thing I've learned is that many of you move forward by choosing a word for the year.
So I tried it. Sometimes I'd choose a word and then discard it because it didn't seem to move me forward. But one year the magic happened. That was the year I chose the word CAPABLE.
I chose it because the nasty noises in my brain continually convinced me that I was never going to be capable of doing whatever it was I was doing.
That word set me on the road to discovering I was, indeed, capable.
drawing (c)2023 by April Halprin Wayland
Good old CAPABLE. We're still very close.
Usually, instead of choosing a word for the year, I choose a word for the day. The book I read each night has one page for each day of the year. The page begins with a quotation, followed by a paragraph expanding on the quote, and then a gentle resolution for the day.
For example, one recent quotation was: "Competitions are for horses, not artists." ~ Bela Bartok
The words from that reading that resonated in me were: "People who have developed the art of living...are as respectful of their own values and opinions as those of others." (underlining is mine)
Every night I read a page and every morning I forget what that page was about.
So I decided to condense the whole page into one or two words. In this case, my word for the next day may have been "self-respect." And guess what happened when I woke up the next day?
Nada. Nothing.
Even if I created a visual for my word--for "self-respect" (which might be someone looking in a mirror and liking what she saw) even then, I still couldn't remember what I'd read.
Finally, I decided to write that word on the top of my foot each night. In the morning, before I sat up, I'd challenge myself to remember the word, and sometimes I could. But if I couldn't, I'd lift my leg and read my foot.
All day long my word walks with me. And if I feel scrambled, I'll stop and focus: what's my word? I rarely need to take off my shoe to remember it.
Here's the draft of a poem I wrote about it:
IN INK
by April Halprin Wayland
I write the word I'd like to think
on the top of my foot each day in ink.
Absurd, absurd, some friends may say,
to walk with that ink on her foot all day!
How odd, so odd, some will assert,
to write on one's foot—imagine the dirt!
You know what I mostly wish from this?
to tune out the voices and follow my bliss.
poem © 2023 April Halprin Wayland.
(That last stanza is super corny, but that's what I've got for you today ~ says this recovering perfectionist)
As this new year rolled around, I thought I'd try a word for the whole year again. I sifted through many. The word that felt exactly right is SIMPLIFY.
It's already working its magic: each time I'm overwhelmed by too many emails, too many TO DOs, too much noise, I think: SIMPLIFY. A calm washes over me. I focus. And guess what? In simplifying the tasks I take on, I've begun writing a picture book I'm totally in love with!💗
I haven't felt this excited about writing in a long, long time.
What's YOUR word for today or for the year? I'd love to read it in your comments.😊
And hey, Campers ~ my one day, three-hour Introduction to Writing Children's Poetry will be held again on January 28 from noon to 3pm PST. We read a variety of poems and have time to write our own. Come join the fun! It's offered through the UCLA Extension Writers' Program.
Thank you for hosting Poetry Friday, Marcie!
What better way to launch the New Year than with a Book
Giveaway!
And not of just any book.
Katherine Paterson described story as “one heart in hiding
reaching out to another.”
"A good book,” venerable Atheneum editor Jean Karl shared,
"…respects a child’s capacity to become.”
But when a children’s book offers us the true and remarkable
stories behind the stories we’ve come to love – as does Danielle
Higley’s THE stories BEHIND THE stories (Bushel & Peck
Books, 2021), how could we not reap EXTRA heaps of Heart
and Hope?
Think: twenty-nine writers’ hopeful hearts waiting to be
discovered.
I guarantee our Giveaway Book will fortify you fully so you
can keep keepin’ on in 2023.
And Good News! It will also inspire one lucky Young Reader
because the publisher honors its Book-for-Book Promise: for
every book sold, Bushel & Peck donates one book to a child in
need.
Be sure to enter our Book
Giveaway! Instructions follow this post.
To nominate a school or organization to receive free books from
Bushel & Peck, click here.
In her Author’s Note, Danielle Higley shared an important insight
she gleaned while researching the how and why her chosen
children’s book creators told their stories. Yes, creativity and
imagination played a role.
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” – and then promptly
built a bigger world.
· A young librarian patron queried Beverly Munn Cleary,
“Where are the books about kids like us?” and her answer,
fortunately, was Henry Huggins.
· Dr. Seuss believed, “Nonsense wakes up the brain cells… If you
can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in
whack.”
But most treasured children’s books were born from extraordinary
persistence and grit.
· Beatrix Potter self-published The Tale of Peter Rabbit when
multiple publishers rejected the manuscript.
· Librarians offered a storm of protest, though to no avail,
because the children in Gertrude Chandler’s original Boxcar
Children series “were having too good a time without any
parental control.”
· Every day for thirteen years, Christopher Paul Curtis worked
on a General Motors assembly line, taking turns with his partner
to hang thirty doors in a row to earn a thirty-minute break to write
his stories.
From Mother Goose rhymes and Clement Clarke Moore’s The
Night Before Christmas to Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and
the Olympians and Jeff McKinney’s Wimpy Kid series, each of
the true tales behind the featured books magnifies the treasure
these beloved stories hold.
David Miles’ beautiful illustrations, many collage-like boasting
photographs and original art, the many meaningful author and
illustrator quotes throughout and the shared research resources
on the last pages enrich the book’s enjoyment.
Thanks to Bushel & Peck Books for generously gifting one of
our lucky TeachingAuthors readers with a copy of THE stories
BEHIND THE stories.
Thanks, too, to Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core for hosting
today’s Poetry Friday.
May Heart and Hope accompany you through the New Year!
Esther Hershenhorn
P.S.
I need to shout HURRAH! for my writer Amy Neeren and her
recently-released debut chapter book Nellie in Knots published by
Bushel & Peck Books! The story behind her story offers bushels
of Heart and Hope.
. . . . . .
To enter the giveaway drawing for The stories BEHIND THE stories, use the Rafflecopter widget below. (Note: if the widget doesn't appear, click on the link at the end of this post that says "a Rafflecopter giveaway" to enter.)
You may enter via up to 4 options. The more options you choose, the better your odds!
If you choose option 3, you MUST leave a comment on TODAY’S blog post or on
our TeachingAuthors Facebook page. If you haven’t already “liked” our Facebook page,
please do so today!
If you prefer, you may submit your comment via email to: teachingauthors [at]
gmail [dot] com.
Note: if you submit your comments via email or Facebook, YOU MUST STILL
ENTER THE DRAWING VIA RAFFLECOPTER BELOW. The giveaway ends January
20, 2023 and is open to U.S. Residents only.
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Good luck!
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