Category: Poetry

Happy Halloween!

10/26/2012

We're busy working on our costumes and gearing up for Halloween here in the LRC, but what excites me most about this holidays isn't the costumes or the candy--it's the scary stories! If you'd like to celebrate with a ghastly ghost story, a wonderful witch tale, or a zany zombie antics stop by the LRC to grab a book from one of our displays.

You can also find a selection of our Halloween books over at our pinterest page.

If you'd like to do more than just read scary stories, consider taking part in the new Halloween tradition of All Hallow's Read. To celebrate just give out scary books this Halloween to delight and terrify your friends. Author Neil Gaiman explains the tradition in the video below:

For more information, visit the All Hallow's Read site where you can find book recommendations and extras including a mini book of the poem The Raven for you to print out.

If you don't have time to read a whole scary book, take a break to read a pulse-pumping poem! Poets.org has a selection of Halloween poems along with poet costume ideas (Dress as William Carlos Williams and push a red wheelbarrow full of candy), poets' graves to visit, and ideas for a poetry themed haunted house.

So this Halloween, treat your mind as well as your sweet tooth and stop by the LRC to grab a book!

April is Poetry Month!

4/5/2012

This is a good time to introduce new poetry books. Take a look at these offerings and come by to check out these and other books to help you celebrate poetry in your home or classroom. Award winning poet Joyce Sidman gives these reasons for reading poetry:
1. Capture the moment.
2. Choosing joy.
3. Easing the heart.
4. Everything is connected
To read more about her rational follow this link:
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/newsletters/newsletterbucketextrahelping2/893901-477/why_i_write_poetry_a.html.csp

Never Forgotten, illustrated by the incomparable team of Leo and Diane Dillon, this story is spoken by the Griot (African storyteller) whose words have the rhythm of drum beats. In lyrical verse, it tells of Dinga the blacksmith whose wife dies leaving him to raise their son Musafa. Elements of folklore weave through the story as Earth Mother, Fire Woman, Water Maiden and Wind Spirit nourish and seek to protect the boy when he is kidnapped by slave traders. The spirits follow Musafa across the Middle Passage to find him enslaved and working as a blacksmith like his father before him. This message returns to Dinga who celebrates "With the Mother Elements by his side, Celebrating the son who was taken, But never forgotten." The Griot reminds us that Musafa was one of millions. Patricia McKissack gives voice to the taken and the left behind.

Peaceful Pieces: Poems and Quilts About Peace explores the meaning of peace."Can peace creep up on us, seep into our souls, or do we have to search it out, coax it, give it space?" Anna Hines explores the subject of peace at home, in the world and within one's self. Each evocative poem is illustrated with handmade story quilts.

In Amazing Faces, Lee Bennett Hopkins has collected a multicultural array of people who reveal the universal emotions we all share. Whether happiness, sadness, excitement or pride, these feelings express the experiences that make us human and let us make connections to others. "A young soldier returns home-----keeping miles of memories sealed within One heartbreaking boyish grin."

Guyku a Year of Haiku for Boys

Haiku at its most fun. Throughout the seasons, boys frolic and play. In winter “Two splotches of white / on a black tree trunk. I aim / my next pitch—strike three!”
Bob Raczka captures moments in nature complemented by Peter Reynold's delightful cartoons in which each seasons is depicted in a single hue.

Dear Hotdog by Mordicai Gerstein celebrates ordinary things from toes to toothbrushes. Three children spend their day; they play, eat, and enjoy everyday things. Illustrated by the author, these are poems in which young readers will see themselves. "Leaves" tells us, "In spring, yellow-green and tiny, you pop out and dress big trees in baby clothes."

Step Gently Out--this title is good advice for being mindful of the beauty in the smallest creature. The stunning close-up photography of Rick Lieder reveals the lattice of a damselfly wing or lets you share the dew sparkling web with a spider. Helen Frost leads you on this journey of discovery with her words, "In song and dance and stillness, they share the world with you."
Watch her world below.

Step Gently Out | A nature picture book for all ages from Step Gently Out on Vimeo.

I Lay My Stitches Down by Cynthia Grady is a moving tribute to the African American spirit. She says this in the introductory page, "Quiltmaking and poetry share similarities in craft. In one, color and shape are organized into an overall pattern; in the other, sound and structure create the pattern, Each poem...is named for a traditional quilt block and reflects a metaphorical patchwork of circumstances encountered by enslaved people in America."

MCDS Library

Happy Halloween!

Book Spine Poems

April is Poetry Month!

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