~a penny and her jots~

It’s the last day of Rena Traxel’s A to Z Poetry Challenge. It has been so much fun…and such a great experience. I’ll miss it! Our letter today is “Z”.  Rena’s husband, Bill Boudreau, shared his zeppelin drawing to inspire to write a zigzag poem. I had never even heard of a zigzag poem, and had certainly never written one. As you read it notice that the last word of one line is the first word of the next. So if you drew a line from “like” words…you would have a zigzag!

by Bill Boudreau

Zeppelin

zeppelin, gently float

float, my cloud boat

boat wandering in puffy

puffy drifts among fluffy

fluffy waves and tails

tails of cumulus whales

whales with stratus fins

fins and shark spins

spins, swirls, cirrus shells

shells tossed on swells

swells lift my cloud boat

boat, zeppelin, gently float

It’s Day 25 of the 26 day A to Z Poetry Challenge hosted by Rena Traxel. Here is a quote from Rena’s website about today’s challenge.“ Y is for you. Today is all about you. I want you to spend the day thinking about yourself then write a poem. What is a self-portrait poem? It’s a poem about yourself.”

So, I did my first poem collection. Don’t be scared off by the word “collection”. My poems are short. 

Penny-A Rare Collection

Pretty Penny

Penny Wise

Lucky Penny

A Penny Found

Rare Coin

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Coin Toss

In God I Trust

A Penny on a Railroad Track

I have to start out by saying that my poem today will make ABSOLUTELY no sense unless you consider that it is a found poem. You don’t know what that is???? Ha! Neither did I until this morning. Rena Traxel explains all about it on her blog today as we come to Day 24 of the A to Z Poetry Challenge. Also, HERE is a link to The Found Poetry Project. Rena created an online version for us to use-how clever of her! Essentially we are give “source text” (simply put—a bunch of random text taken from a bunch of random sources)…Then we use the words to make up a poem. I went through and highlighted words I wanted to use and then added some words of my own to create my completely random poem. If you’d like to see my the “source text” Rena provided us, click HERE and scroll down to where it says Source Text.

A Found Poem-Boy Blue, Wolfy Fella and Cinder-gal

Boy Blue stomped his feet

Go away! I’m not yours to eat!

You bushy tailed canine,

You’re not going to dine

On me or Cinderella

Got that? Wolfy fella?

You say you’re NOT here gnaw and chew

On Cinder-gal or her wooden shoe?

Well, then don’t piddle and putter

Have some crunchy peanut butter

And some beans, corn, peas.

Although I doubt that will please.

As for me and my main squeeze

We will head for balm and breeze.

And sing from the rooftops

Because, Dude, we have “nice chops!”

So, “Later” you hairy bafoon

We’re off on our honeymoon!

When I saw this title I was happy! When I read the opening lines I was happier. But once I finished the book, I was the happiest of all!  Today for Perfect Picture Book Friday, I am doing another Rick Walton book. I have already reviewed Once There Was A Bullfrog and you’ll find that review HERE.

Pig Pigger Piggest

Written by Rick Walton

Illustrated by Jimmy Holder

Gibbs Smith 2003 Ages 4-8

Themes: Compromise, Fairy Tales

Synopsis: (From Rick Walton’s website) When three brothers–Pig Pigger and Piggest–meet three sisters–Witch, Witcher, and Witchest–the union is, well, rather stormy. And it’s one that grows in increments, too, from big to bigger to biggest, in as many unusual ways as you can imagine. (Look at all the pictures carefully!)

Opening Lines: Once upon atime, there were three pigs: a big pig named Pig, a bigger pig name Pigger, and the biggest of the three name Piggest. They all lived in the castle of their father, the king.

One day their father called them in. “Pig,” he said, “when you were born you were a little pig. And Pigger, you were an even littler pig. And Piggest, you were the littlest of my dear, sweet, dirty babies. But now you are great big pigs. And this castle isn’t big enough for the four of us. It is time for you to go out and build homes of your own.”

“Oh, yay!” the pigs said. “Homes of our own!” And off went Pig, Pigger, and Piggest.

Resources:Activities, Compare Three Things, Descriptives/Comparatives/Superlatives Word List, Discussion Questions, Draw a Descriptive/Comparative/Superlative Picture, Find Comparatives and Superlatives in Your World, Can You Find the Following in Pig Pigger Piggest?, Nursery Rhymes About Pigs, Play Hink Pink, Tell Your Own Three Little Pigs Story, Write Your Own Superlative Story

Why I Like This Book: Pig Pigger Piggest is extremely and funny. The story kept me engaged all the way through and invited me back for rereads. I think Rick Walton is unbelievably great at writing stories that fit with school curriculum. Just look at he list of resources, and they’re all from his website. He cleverly uses Descriptives/Comparatives/Superlatives all the way through the story. “And soon he had a tall-wall, thick-brick castle of his very own.  And soon he had a taller-wider, thicker-bricker castle of his very own.  And soon he had the tallest-wallest, thickest-brickest castle of all.”  The lively illustrations by Jimmy Holder are incredible and include funny details like: For Sale: Cheap Sheep, For Sale: Cheaper Sheeper, For Sale: Cheapest Sheepest in Kingdom. Read this book…if you wait one day you will be sorry. If you wait a week, you will be sorrier. If you wait longer, you will be the sorriest of all :-)

Susanna Leonard Hill features Perfect Picture Book Friday on her blog. This is a wonderful resource if you are wondering what books to give as gifts, needing material for a lesson, and mainly just perfect for those who love to read picture books. Here is a list of books by category. This is very handy for finding books for lessons in the classroom, or for finding books on a particular topic to discuss with your children at home. Each book listed has a link to a review and information about that book. There is also an alphabetical list.

It is Day 22 of our A to Z Poetry Challenge. Today is the letter “V”. “V” is for a lot of things…but Renee LaTulippe over at No Water River is all about “V” for Video. She has the most wonderful Poetry Video Library. Make sure you visit…you won’t want to leave. Also, make sure you don’t miss her interview. Our incredible organizer, Rena Traxel asked all the right questions, and Renee gave all the right answers. On top of that, Renee shares her own poem, Ugly Pants.

Rena challenged us to write a poem about a vampire, keeping in mind all the performance tips that Renee shared with us. I wrote two very short poems.

Yea! Day 21! I cannot believe it. We are already to U in the A to Z Challenge that Rena Traxel organized for National Poetry Month! For the letter U, Rena talked about the universality of poetry…how it touches us…how it taps into life’s common experiences. She challenged us to write a poem that depicts our universe. The minute I read about the challenge today, I thought about how writers are able to express their universe creatively. I’m not sure everyone can relate to “my universe”…because frankly…sometimes, I think what I think in my universe is pretty strange. But today, I’m just putting it out there in a trail of thoughts that ended up in a poem.

In My Universe

In my universe, Bunny is an underground spy

with a watchful eye

on Drake

the snake

who has forced a worm to squirm

under interrogation—

crawly humiliation.

In my universe, Bunny thumps snake, THWACK! on the head…

no—Drake is not dead

but shocked

to be clocked

by a fuzzy-type spy-guy.

Evil termination,

reptile incarceration.

In my universe, Bunny and a tortured worm can win

once, and then again.

I dictate

what’s on my slate

in my own verse universe.

True authentication

of my imagination.

Today, for our A to Z Poetry Challenge, Rena challenged us to tweet and share our poetry on Twitter. You can find the details right HERE on her blog. I chose to write a short acrostic poem for a Twitter share. Tweets must be short and sweet, so I kept it that way. I even had room to share Rena’s Twitter handle, blog address and a couple of hashtags: #poetry #poem. It was really fun!

Surf

Swell

Under and up

Ride

Fabulous

Rena Traxel is challenging us in all sorts of ways with her A to Z Poetry Challenge. It has been really wonderful for my growth in poetry, as well as writing in general. It is Day 19 of the challenge and I keep wondering if I can pull another poem out of the hat. I promised myself when I began, that I would not allow myself to use any of my “old” stuff. I committed to writing something new for each day of the challenge. I am one of those “rule-to-the-tea” followers, so I have honored my commitment. I have come up with some poems I’m truly proud of, and I have eked out some poems that are a little embarrassing to post…but I post them anyway hoping my readers will get a laugh, at least. Today is a very ekey poem…but it made me laugh as I wrote it. I wrote it last night right on the tail end of my Day 18 poem. I thought, “Hey! I’m just going to do this thing and get it over with.” Our challenge had to do with S’s. A sonnet to be specific…and the word Shakespearean was mentioned too. So with Google as my friend, I revisited some Shakespeare and sonnetized.

I Love Me Some Sonnet (Giggle)

Resources: Creative Writing: Have child write about a fear. Have child write about finding new friends. Have child write about what imaginary friend they would like to find on the moon. Science: Moon resources: These are excellent for learning the phases of the moon.  Moon Phases Calendar, Shapes of the Moon, Excellent Moon Simulation. This site shows the moon landings: Google Moon. Art: Use the website HERE for instructions for painting on tin foil. Using black tempra paint to resemble illustrations in book, have kids paint the giant snail or other items from the book. Or have them paint what creature they would like to see if they set off on an adventure to the moon.

Why I Like This Book: This is probably the first book I have reviewed where the illustrations captured my attention even more than the text…and they completely captivated me. Fellow 12 x 12er, Carter Higgins, discusses the illustrations HERE on her blog, Design of the Picture Book. You really should head over and see Carter’s site. She shows the back cover of the book, too, which is a treat. Here is a blurb from her description of Willoughby and the Moon. ”This book made me do a double take. It’s slightly unassuming, but then, just in the right light, it sparkles. The illustrations are primarily black and white, but rivers of glossy silver pack quite a visual punch. The pages are rich in texture; the silver shines alongside its matte black and white counterparts. Also, in addition to flat color, halftone patterns pepper the shadows for an extra layer of lovely. In design, contrast refers to the differences in two elements. Black versus white is a stark, simple, and highly effective design choice.“

If you choose to read others reviews of the story, a lot of readers seem to think, as I do, that the story is a bit different. From Kirkus: “strangely comforting and beautiful.”  I’m not sure if I can even explain how it happened…but I ended up being satisfied that in one imaginative night, a curious Willoughby faced his worst fear by helping a giant snail he befriended on the moon. See, you’re probably saying, “Now what?” You’ll just have to read it and see if you share my feelings about the book.