For Children
I have been reading mostly Novels in Verse for the past few months. Wonderful stories filled with images and beautiful words. Novels in Verse speak to my heart, and to my style of writing. They are my new obsession.
These are just some of the Novels in Verse I have read lately:
- All He Knew – Helen Frost (Middle Grade)
- Inside Out and Back Again – Thanhha Lai (Middle Grade)
- Long Way Down – Jason Reynolds (Young Adult)
- Audacity – Melanie Crowder (Young Adult)
- Skyscraping – Cordelia Jensen (Young Adult)
I have also been taking a very fun poetry class with poet Georgia Heard, working on poetic forms. We learned about Reverso poems; a form created by poet/author Marilyn Singer. You can read these poems in her three books of Reverso poems: Mirror Mirror, Follow Follow, and Echo Echo. Reverso poetry is very hard! You have to be able to write the same poem in reverse, changing only punctuation, changing whom the poem is addressed to, and having it make sense. Whew! It took me several tries, but here’s my little Halloween Reverso, just in time for Spring:
Nala and Buckley after their walk. Nala left us last year. She was 14. We still miss her. Buckley is deceptively cute in this picture. Don’t be fooled.
Published Poetry for Children
Midnight
Witch, Thank You! You light me up, show me off. You! Astride an ancient whisp-straw broom, all crackle pop and fire spark - a lone silhouetted shadow. I am the Pearl of the Night Sky! Full Moon. Full Moon! I am the pearl of the night sky. A lone Silhouetted Shadow, All Crackle Pop and Fire Spark, Astride an Ancient Whisp-straw Broom. Show me off! You - you light ME up. Thank you! Witch
Try one! Let me know how you did.
