Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Monday, April 11, 2011
Announcement
Due to the overwhelming activities in my life: finding a church, work, finding more work, training for more work, and other things I will be discontinuing my posts of NaPoWriMo's Poem a Day on this blog and all the other social media networks I use. I will continue to write in my dirty green notebook and in time will post the results on my livejournal. Happy writing to everyone else who is participating. Good luck!
Friday, April 8, 2011
Alison's Garden
NaPoWriMo Day 7#
Alison’s Garden
In Alison’s Garden a young boy lies.
His hands are pressed tightly against his eyes.
He counts aloud as seconds pass (one…two…),
his stocking absorbing the grass’s hue.
Alison waits behind a tree nearby.
Her light grey eyes reflect the cloudy sky.
She focuses her mind upon her plan
to try and catch a cricket in her hand.
She concentrates to keep questions at bay
such like those that plagued her nurse every day.
Once Nurse had had enough she bade her, “Go
to the garden and watch the flowers grow.
Some silent meditation will do you good.
Just do not wander off into the wood.”
(three…four…) Alison ceased becoming bored
once she’d unearthed the garden’s treasured store.
Here she could speak freely amongst the birds
and not fear if she had been overheard.
The rocks never minded her queries like,
“What is love?” and “How does the sun alight?”
She thought she heard her mother’s chiming voice
calling to her upon the wind, “Rejoice
my love for every single dawn.
And do not believe those who say you’re wrong.”
Alison oft retold tales from the past
whispered by her ill mother to the last.
By her bedside Alison listened rapt
as her mother unspun yarns so long trapped.
“There was a girl called Alice the Mighty
who lived with your grandparents by the sea.
She loved to sit in her garden and read
And dream of different worlds inside her head.
One day her cat, Dinah, saw a rabbit
and this one had a very nasty habit.
He could never keep time so he was late.
She followed him to the wood (seven…eight…)
She fell down a hidden hole, long and dark.
She grasped for purchase but only felt bark.
She stopped, unlocking a door in the tree.
Oh, my daughter, what worlds there were to see.”
Her mother’s tales comforted Alison
when nights were long after her Mum had gone.
The girl had always thought that she would find
her mother past the world she’d left behind.
A place filled with wonders: red and white queens,
the most mad tea party you had ever seen,
hatters, mice, Cheshire cats, croquet, glass vials,
singing flowers, changing sizes, and trials.
(nine…ten…) “Here I come!” the white-haired boy cried.
Alison, snapped from her daydreams, replied,
“Cabbot, I’m late!” through the trees she’s running.
The woods were calling and rain was coming.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Library Meeting
My fifth entry for NaPoWriMo was the haikus I posted earlier this week. Here is #6
Library Meeting/Allegro
Library Meeting/Allegro
646 Sewing, clothing, personal living
Surrounded by women adorned in this year's
most fashionable glasses, the meeting begins.
You can separate the Adults from the Young Adults
by the elders' preferences for lumberjack flannel and black cardigans.
The young favor argyle and band t-shirts (bravely worn by the
only man in the group). He does not wear glasses.
973 General history of North America; United States
The only article to distinguish the founding matron,
the fearless leader, of the pages is not what you might think.
No royal purple, no carriage nor demeanor separates her from
the rest of us, except her Delilah long hair
which she does not cut, to give her strength.
She leads the discussion during this gathering, this mock tea party.
In my opinion, meetings should be conducted only once everyone
has donned a silly hat.
Instead there are colorful lanyards, necklaces, earrings,
and oversized watches to distract the eye while laboring
over library standards.
Throughout the suggestions and mandates
the founding matron listens to all
with an impartial ear and a patient face.
No hushed tones nor whispers, "Shhhhhh", are heard.
530 Physics
As the meeting continues the pages are separated, for a time,
from the law of the library, entropy.
The library thrives only when patrons come to discover and destroy
the ordered world that we have built for them.
They are agents of chaos in their pursuit of knowledge.
The library mages and pages are the Lords and Ladies of Order,
finding space for the treasured knowledge amidst the cramped shelves
so that it may be perused, purchased or pilfered.
The tallest towers made from books are built every day
and knocked down again by the smallest pairs of hands.
As the meeting continues the pages are separated, for a time,
from the law of the library, entropy.
The library thrives only when patrons come to discover and destroy
the ordered world that we have built for them.
They are agents of chaos in their pursuit of knowledge.
The library mages and pages are the Lords and Ladies of Order,
finding space for the treasured knowledge amidst the cramped shelves
so that it may be perused, purchased or pilfered.
The tallest towers made from books are built every day
and knocked down again by the smallest pairs of hands.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
NaPoWriMo Day #1 and #2
I'll try to hammer these out now since I have to sleep eventually. I might be restricted to only writing these poems on a dirty green notebook I've been carrying around with me since grad school. A lot of drafts get lost in there.
Day 1# - This poem is taken from my sting at committing to Laurie Halse Anderson's promotion of "WFMAD" (Writing Fifteen Minutes a Day) challenge in August of 2010. You can find her website and her list of prompts at her livejournal, Mad Woman in the Forest. You may also remember her as the author of such books as Speak, Catalyst, Prom, Fever, 1776, Wintergirls and Chains and Forge. She is not only an author whom I admire very much through her edgy writing for teens but also for her historical fiction for younger readers. I had the pleasure of meeting her at last August's American Library Association conference in DC.This poem was also inspired by imagining how assistants would audition for musicians in the days of Harry Houdini and also taken from watching, "The Prestige".
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Day #2
I believe this poem fits well with the themes of this blog, having to do with books. It's inspired by a story that was eventually turned into a film. My goal was to cast the villain in a more sympathetic light while remaining true to his character's instincts. I also have a huge crush for the actor who played this role in the film adaptation of the book. I've asked a lot of people which literary piece they think the poem is based on and I've heard a few good answers including the correct one.
The Vigil
Day 1# - This poem is taken from my sting at committing to Laurie Halse Anderson's promotion of "WFMAD" (Writing Fifteen Minutes a Day) challenge in August of 2010. You can find her website and her list of prompts at her livejournal, Mad Woman in the Forest. You may also remember her as the author of such books as Speak, Catalyst, Prom, Fever, 1776, Wintergirls and Chains and Forge. She is not only an author whom I admire very much through her edgy writing for teens but also for her historical fiction for younger readers. I had the pleasure of meeting her at last August's American Library Association conference in DC.This poem was also inspired by imagining how assistants would audition for musicians in the days of Harry Houdini and also taken from watching, "The Prestige".
The Turn
Magician’s assistant, just an average pink haired girl, looking for work.
Heard your name recommended through the networks of stage presence.
I do not know your real name but I have heard of your style
And of how you never smile
Unless you can pull the audience in with the use of your teeth and lips. Promises. Practice, Panache. Performance.
I was drawn in by your confidence and your ability to recognize a confident girl, who knows what she wants and goes after it.
My greatest want is you, in so many words, and in so many ways.
I am eager to learn your ways, to work with you, to figure out how one makes magic possible with trust and implied deceit. I know I am not the only one auditioning for this role, but armed with my references and dressed in my best pressed blue crinoline with my best submissive smile I can show you that I can match you on every level of performance.
I will show you tricks you have never seen nor thought possible. This is what my smile is saying. As I prepare for my audition, drawing you in with my grand gestures and willingness to trust you throughout your tests: sawing me in half, drowning me
Instead of sitting, waiting for you to make your decision I will give you a turn. For two can play the part of the magician.
If I can pierce through your smile, your façade, I won’t show my surprise or my efforts to care whether or not in fact I become your lovely lady, your assistant, your partner.
There are many of us out there, but none quite like me. But only if you can part the gossamer curtains of illusion will you be able to see for yourself.
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Day #2
I believe this poem fits well with the themes of this blog, having to do with books. It's inspired by a story that was eventually turned into a film. My goal was to cast the villain in a more sympathetic light while remaining true to his character's instincts. I also have a huge crush for the actor who played this role in the film adaptation of the book. I've asked a lot of people which literary piece they think the poem is based on and I've heard a few good answers including the correct one.
The Vigil
The Princess turns her gaze to look upon the tumultuous sea,
Praying to westerly winds to speed her missing love home.
Each night she wears the path from the castle to the cliffs a little deeper,
Believing every night, that this night will deliver a signal from his ship.
The waves, like her faith, ebb and flow every beacon-less night she endures.
Her only companion the wind and her memories of being enveloped in his love.
Though some believe him lost, she believes his homecoming is merely detained.
She has hope, blind as the night, of one day seeing a beam of light shine across the sea.
Miles away, while the Princess loyally maintains her vigil,
A man keeps his own, awaiting her eventual return.
Winds speedily beckon winter’s chill onward, seeping into his skin as it passes through
Penetrating his meditations within the empty castle’s walls.
In his chamber, he lights candles against the dark.
Meant to serve as a comfort to her, more than him,
should she make her way back before dawn.
This signals, as it always does, that her absence was not missed as much as she.
As a Prince, if only in name, he believes that he too is deserving and capable of love.
But beneath his royally robed exterior, drawing from his most base instinct,
The hunter within indicates not to spend himself in pursuit, but to be still,
and the quarry will approach him in time.
In time, he believes she will care for him as he does for her.
But as more of his nights pass alone, he is aware of his undergrown heart withering
with fear that she will always spurn the hunter’s heart for the love of a dread pirate and
never accept the affections that flesh and blood can offer and a whispering wind cannot.
Despite this fear, and the Prince’s right to be angry and devious, he is not cruel to her.
He knows he cannot, nor does he try to impede her pacing pilgrimage to the cliffs.
Instead, he sends his four fastest ships from port to port to pursue and eradicate her past.
But his faith, as his patient body, grows thin with unfulfilled wanting.
Still he has hope, blind as his foresight that his faith will be assured when
the radiant light from her eyes and the sunlit warmth of her skin entwines with him.
At their corners of the kingdom they conjure their respective fairy tales and pine:
“If only (s)he would come to me,
Then we would be truly happy.”
Haikus
I only just head of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) a few minutes ago and I'm very psyched about doing it. I think it will help me get back on the wagon for writing poetry. So, for the sake of this month's artistic expression my normally bookish and library related website is being hijacked to publish entries fro NaPoWriMo. I know I'm a few days behind so I'll post four (hopefully) short poems to catch up. I did actually write a few poems today, though they were haikus. So it's a start...right? Write!
For more information check out the NaPoWriMo website!
Today's poems were haikus. I'll try to incorporate a wider variety of poetic form thanks to the Wikipedia page.
For more information check out the NaPoWriMo website!
Today's poems were haikus. I'll try to incorporate a wider variety of poetic form thanks to the Wikipedia page.
Children grow like lightning.
Is magic or science, then,
why we age slowly?
A uniformed man
walks by. His boots and smile make
the ground and me quake.
Reading “The Room” makes
me feel claustrophobic. The
World waits outside.
I fear I will wear
my second hand wedding dress
just for steampunk walks.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
ALA Day #1
I was very excited and anxious at the same time at the thought of attending my first professional conference for the American Librarian Association. I described it to friends who asked me what I was doing, "What's the ALA Conference?" It's where hundreds of librarians and awesome bibliophiles descend on DC to talk about books and wreak advocacy havoc. Well, maybe not that last part, but definitely a lot of cool and awe inspiring people converging into one place. A few people I spoke to said, "I hear those conference can get pretty crazy." This made me flash back to an invitation I'd received to go to the ALA Dance Party which was Prince themed. All I did was nod and smile in response. Unfortunately, I did not get to attend the Thursday, Friday, or Saturday events of the conference as I had agreed to be in a friend's wedding. This was also before I knew the dates of ALA and could not back out of the wedding as a result without causing offense. So as we begin, my launch date for the conference was Sunday, June 27th at 10:30 am.
I had planned on attending various events starting at 8 am. I was surprised with a visit from long time friends from Leesburg and that turned into late night conversations, bad science fiction, and chips and salsa until 2 in the morning. When I left the apartment at 8:30 am I made it into the conference, registered and breathlessly stumbled into my first event with the ALSC (Association of Library Services to Children), Celebrating the Spoken Word with Poetry for Young People, a program which discusses and sings the praises of using poetry to impact children and literacy. The speakers included Mary Ann Hoberman, Children's Poet Laureate; Stephen Young, Program Director, Poetry Foundation, Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest; Sylvia Vardell, Professor, Texas Woman's University, School of Library and Information Science. I recall the youngest speaker, Amber Rose Johnson, most vividly. She was the winner of the 2010 Poetry Out Loud Winner, and is a senior at at a high school in Providence, Rhode Island. The Recitation Contest involved the student picking and memorizing three poems of their choice and then delivering them in front of a panel of judges. I recall her second poem choice, Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, in honor of her parents and Margaret Walker's For My People. She recited the last poem for us and to hear her speak moved the entire room into a stunned silence. It's almost as if we weren't listening to poetry but rather the dreams and hopes of a young black woman speaking of the struggles of African Americans over the past few centuries.
Some of my takeaways from this event about poetry were:
I accompanied this librarian into the overwhelmingly crowded exhibit hall where we proceeded to chat. I told her I'd ran into the same man 4 times on the metro and throughout my morning at the conference:
"Have you played 'Cite the Librarian' Game?", she asked me.
"What's that?", I asked.
She replied, "Where you look at someone and ask yourself if they're a librarian or not."
"He definitely doesn't look like a librarian," I said.
"You don't look like a librarian either," she retorted.
This comment actually stung to hear. Especially when it was followed by one of the vendors asking me what high school I was from. My attire didn't make me look that young I hope. I had my hair down and undone so that may have been why. My confidence was boosted by a homeless man later on the metro who asked me if I was a librarian or a teacher. He loved us so much, he said, that he eventually wanted to marry a librarian.
Once the librarian and I parted ways on the exhibit floor I spent the rest of the day picking up swag and running into Laurie Halse Andersen, famous young adult author of Speak, Wintergirls, Twisted, Prom, and Chains. I ran into her at her mini Q&A at the Live at your Library Stage. She read an excerpt from her new book Forge which is a continuation of the storyline from Chains following a pair of young African American teens during the Revolutionary War. I clapped softly after her reading and she whipped her head around to me and said, "Don't clap! It's only the prologue. You don't know if the rest is going to be good or if it will suck." She was smiling when she said this though. A very humble writer, Laurie also shared that, "These books are not copy-edited, please don't hate me. I really don't know where commas go." As a gift to herself she has promised that once she finishes her three books surrounding this topic she will read M. T. Anderson's (no relation) similar books beginning with, The Astonishing Life of Ocatavian Nothing.
Laurie tweeted a photo of us at her reading. See if you can find me! It's hard, trust me!
After Laurie's Q&A I spent a lot of time wandering the exhibit hall where I picked up various amounts of swag. I will detail everything I picked up later in Day 3 but suffice to say I scored a gem finding a recorded book narrated by James Marsters for FREE! I also visited Alliance Entertainment booth who were GIVING AWAY FREE CDs and cleaned them out. I think I walked away with maybe 10 or 12 CDs total of popular and eclectic music. Best find ever was Massive Attack's latest album.
My second volunteer program for ALSC was called "Good Comics for Kids" which was a panel of librarians, most of whom were dressed in steampunk attire, recommending good graphic novels for kids up to middle school. I met Erin Burns here, a library associate from DC Public Library, and she gave me insightful advice on how to survive searching for a job. She had been unemployed for 8 months having being laid off from a position that hired her for not having an MLS and then let her go for the same reason. Her best piece of advice was to have a support group whether it be religious, family, or friends. Have a network of people to bring you back up when you're feeling low and discouraged. Also, have an activity that gets you out of house and prevents you from getting overwhelmed. She described a program that combined dance, improvisational theatre, and a third element that sounded very fun.
My third and final commitment for ALSC was volunteering for the Newbery/Caldecott Banquet at the Renaissance Hotel near Dupont Circle. On my way to the hotel I ran into my friend Miranda, a fellow grad student from UMD, on the bus. She's currently living in Rochester, NY and came down for the conference since a friend was letting her use his apartment to stay in (fairly sweet deal) while he was away on business. We talked shop on the bus about life after grad school, job searching, and living in general. She hung out with me on my volunteer stint, which involved guarding the doors to the banquet hall to prevent anyone from coming in early. Thankfully there was a reception across the hall we could usher them into to get distracted with wine and talk. Around 6:48 when the doors were supposed to be open, the librarians in line were definitely getting cranky and I had flashbacks of working special events for Parking Services at JMU. While waiting and watching people walk by I looked to my life and saw Laurie Halse Andersen in a stunning floor length blue and green gown, very faithful to her organic lifestyle. I was shocked at seeing her there. I had tried asking her a question at her book signing but didn't get the chance (I was very very shy). Not so here when the first words out of my mouth were, "MISS ANDERSEN!" She looked at me in surprise, walked over and said, "First of all, call me Laurie." From there her entourage went to look for something and that left me speaking with her for 10-15 minutes about her books, the movies her books were turned into, the possibility of Wintergirls being optioned for a film (probably not), raising her chickens, her writing cottage, her writing style, and how much her books impacted me and my friend Sarah and our high school book club. Laurie smiled and was very gracious throughout our conversation even stopping to hug me twice before she left with her escorts. I was glad I was able to tell an author how much reading their books meant to me and to be completely honest about what I thought of them. Wintergirls was especially hard to get through. Laurie started a trend that most of the authors I would hear and speak to followed up on, giving their two cents about Twilight. Laurie herself said that she couldn't finish reading the books. In fact, she nearly threw one across the room. But her opinion was that if it got the kids reading then she had no complaints about the quality of the literature. Since Laurie's books deal a lot with girls' destructive relationships and the boys involved in them, we compared Bella and Edward to Laurie's characters. I told her how most girls could see themselves in Bella not because she was a relatable character, but because she was a tabula rasa with unrealistic expectations for a relationship and absolutely no sense of self or self-worth. At any rate, Laurie hugged me goodbye and left for the banquet and I was left with a very good end to my evening and my first day at ALA Annual 2010.
I had planned on attending various events starting at 8 am. I was surprised with a visit from long time friends from Leesburg and that turned into late night conversations, bad science fiction, and chips and salsa until 2 in the morning. When I left the apartment at 8:30 am I made it into the conference, registered and breathlessly stumbled into my first event with the ALSC (Association of Library Services to Children), Celebrating the Spoken Word with Poetry for Young People, a program which discusses and sings the praises of using poetry to impact children and literacy. The speakers included Mary Ann Hoberman, Children's Poet Laureate; Stephen Young, Program Director, Poetry Foundation, Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest; Sylvia Vardell, Professor, Texas Woman's University, School of Library and Information Science. I recall the youngest speaker, Amber Rose Johnson, most vividly. She was the winner of the 2010 Poetry Out Loud Winner, and is a senior at at a high school in Providence, Rhode Island. The Recitation Contest involved the student picking and memorizing three poems of their choice and then delivering them in front of a panel of judges. I recall her second poem choice, Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, in honor of her parents and Margaret Walker's For My People. She recited the last poem for us and to hear her speak moved the entire room into a stunned silence. It's almost as if we weren't listening to poetry but rather the dreams and hopes of a young black woman speaking of the struggles of African Americans over the past few centuries.
Some of my takeaways from this event about poetry were:
- "Rhymers will be readers" = Literacy --> Poems --> Children --> READ.
- We should be looking at what poems do and how they use language when using them with children.
- The best poetry informs all of our senses.
- Having kids read poetry along with you, even if they're ESL kids and can only focus on one word, is a great way to get them to participate and into poetry
- Children who have at least 4 nursery rhymes memorized will be reading at higher grade levels by the time they reach elementary school.
- As quoted by the Amber Johnson, "A poem is a reflection of you, who you are, a reflection of the author, and a reflection of yourself."
I accompanied this librarian into the overwhelmingly crowded exhibit hall where we proceeded to chat. I told her I'd ran into the same man 4 times on the metro and throughout my morning at the conference:
"Have you played 'Cite the Librarian' Game?", she asked me.
"What's that?", I asked.
She replied, "Where you look at someone and ask yourself if they're a librarian or not."
"He definitely doesn't look like a librarian," I said.
"You don't look like a librarian either," she retorted.
This comment actually stung to hear. Especially when it was followed by one of the vendors asking me what high school I was from. My attire didn't make me look that young I hope. I had my hair down and undone so that may have been why. My confidence was boosted by a homeless man later on the metro who asked me if I was a librarian or a teacher. He loved us so much, he said, that he eventually wanted to marry a librarian.
Once the librarian and I parted ways on the exhibit floor I spent the rest of the day picking up swag and running into Laurie Halse Andersen, famous young adult author of Speak, Wintergirls, Twisted, Prom, and Chains. I ran into her at her mini Q&A at the Live at your Library Stage. She read an excerpt from her new book Forge which is a continuation of the storyline from Chains following a pair of young African American teens during the Revolutionary War. I clapped softly after her reading and she whipped her head around to me and said, "Don't clap! It's only the prologue. You don't know if the rest is going to be good or if it will suck." She was smiling when she said this though. A very humble writer, Laurie also shared that, "These books are not copy-edited, please don't hate me. I really don't know where commas go." As a gift to herself she has promised that once she finishes her three books surrounding this topic she will read M. T. Anderson's (no relation) similar books beginning with, The Astonishing Life of Ocatavian Nothing.
After Laurie's Q&A I spent a lot of time wandering the exhibit hall where I picked up various amounts of swag. I will detail everything I picked up later in Day 3 but suffice to say I scored a gem finding a recorded book narrated by James Marsters for FREE! I also visited Alliance Entertainment booth who were GIVING AWAY FREE CDs and cleaned them out. I think I walked away with maybe 10 or 12 CDs total of popular and eclectic music. Best find ever was Massive Attack's latest album.
My second volunteer program for ALSC was called "Good Comics for Kids" which was a panel of librarians, most of whom were dressed in steampunk attire, recommending good graphic novels for kids up to middle school. I met Erin Burns here, a library associate from DC Public Library, and she gave me insightful advice on how to survive searching for a job. She had been unemployed for 8 months having being laid off from a position that hired her for not having an MLS and then let her go for the same reason. Her best piece of advice was to have a support group whether it be religious, family, or friends. Have a network of people to bring you back up when you're feeling low and discouraged. Also, have an activity that gets you out of house and prevents you from getting overwhelmed. She described a program that combined dance, improvisational theatre, and a third element that sounded very fun.
My third and final commitment for ALSC was volunteering for the Newbery/Caldecott Banquet at the Renaissance Hotel near Dupont Circle. On my way to the hotel I ran into my friend Miranda, a fellow grad student from UMD, on the bus. She's currently living in Rochester, NY and came down for the conference since a friend was letting her use his apartment to stay in (fairly sweet deal) while he was away on business. We talked shop on the bus about life after grad school, job searching, and living in general. She hung out with me on my volunteer stint, which involved guarding the doors to the banquet hall to prevent anyone from coming in early. Thankfully there was a reception across the hall we could usher them into to get distracted with wine and talk. Around 6:48 when the doors were supposed to be open, the librarians in line were definitely getting cranky and I had flashbacks of working special events for Parking Services at JMU. While waiting and watching people walk by I looked to my life and saw Laurie Halse Andersen in a stunning floor length blue and green gown, very faithful to her organic lifestyle. I was shocked at seeing her there. I had tried asking her a question at her book signing but didn't get the chance (I was very very shy). Not so here when the first words out of my mouth were, "MISS ANDERSEN!" She looked at me in surprise, walked over and said, "First of all, call me Laurie." From there her entourage went to look for something and that left me speaking with her for 10-15 minutes about her books, the movies her books were turned into, the possibility of Wintergirls being optioned for a film (probably not), raising her chickens, her writing cottage, her writing style, and how much her books impacted me and my friend Sarah and our high school book club. Laurie smiled and was very gracious throughout our conversation even stopping to hug me twice before she left with her escorts. I was glad I was able to tell an author how much reading their books meant to me and to be completely honest about what I thought of them. Wintergirls was especially hard to get through. Laurie started a trend that most of the authors I would hear and speak to followed up on, giving their two cents about Twilight. Laurie herself said that she couldn't finish reading the books. In fact, she nearly threw one across the room. But her opinion was that if it got the kids reading then she had no complaints about the quality of the literature. Since Laurie's books deal a lot with girls' destructive relationships and the boys involved in them, we compared Bella and Edward to Laurie's characters. I told her how most girls could see themselves in Bella not because she was a relatable character, but because she was a tabula rasa with unrealistic expectations for a relationship and absolutely no sense of self or self-worth. At any rate, Laurie hugged me goodbye and left for the banquet and I was left with a very good end to my evening and my first day at ALA Annual 2010.
Newbery/Caldecott Banquet. Snazzy fest with dinner!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
And it begins
In honor of the upcoming Banned Books Week beginning on September 26th, I bring to you an author who is already feeling the heat. I've read most of Ellen Hopkins poetry lexicon and they are phenomenal. I would highly encourage middle school readers to read her works and enjoy the way she uses poetry to tell a compelling "close-to-true" story about a girl with a serious drug addiction, one that interferes with her well being as well as her baby's.
From the ALA newsletter:
Author talk canceled until school reviews her book
A visit by a best-selling author to Whittier Middle School in Norman, Oklahoma, was canceled after a parent questioned the content of one of the author’s books. Author Ellen Hopkins was scheduled to speak to 8th-graders September 22 about her career, writing process, and books. But she was notified that her visit was canceled because a parent at the school requested a review of her book Glass, the second in a series about a teen dealing with drug addiction. Hopkins said it's ironic her visit was canceled this week because the ALA's Banned Books Week begins September 26....
Oklahoma City Oklahoman, Sept. 22
From the ALA newsletter:
Author talk canceled until school reviews her book
A visit by a best-selling author to Whittier Middle School in Norman, Oklahoma, was canceled after a parent questioned the content of one of the author’s books. Author Ellen Hopkins was scheduled to speak to 8th-graders September 22 about her career, writing process, and books. But she was notified that her visit was canceled because a parent at the school requested a review of her book Glass, the second in a series about a teen dealing with drug addiction. Hopkins said it's ironic her visit was canceled this week because the ALA's Banned Books Week begins September 26....
Oklahoma City Oklahoman, Sept. 22
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