N'Port Lit Fest 2018

       This post is a quick recap of the highlights of my trip to the Newburyport Literary Festival today. I love the festival, and make the trip down every year. There is always far too much to chose from. It is an abundance of riches sprinkled throughout a town that is also.
      In the morning I attended a fun session of middle grade readers interviewing four middle grade authors. I hadn't read any of the books being featured but came away with a strong interest in reading Shadow Weaver by MarcyKate Connolly, and especially Like Vanessa by Tami Charles. It is considered historical fiction set way back in 1983!





     My next session was in the children's room at the Newburyport Public Library where I took some time to check out a few books that caught my fancy.
      I  discovered a picture book that I want to shout about: Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris. I'm going to have to confess that I've never been much of an Eggers Fan. His humor just isn't for me. Well, I have long believed that the best picture books are must reading for adults as well as children, and Her Right Foot is must reading for every American! It is simply brilliant, and the message could not be more important or timely. Please read this book. Here's the trailer:



and something from the Horn Book:

https://www.hbook.com/2018/01/blogs/calling-caldecott/her-right-foot/#_

     After a delicious lunch break eating Al fresco for the first time this year, I attended a session on flash fiction and ended my day with a great big bang of poetry when I attended a reading called The Yoking of Love and Loss given by Rachel Hadas and Mark Doty. Mark's finale reading his poem memorializing Tamir Rice will stay with me forever. Gut wrenching. Here's a link to the poem, but hearing Mark read it is to feel it tenfold.

https://aprweb.org/poems/in-two-seconds

     Thanks to all of the volunteers in Newburyport who made this day possible.

One Could Do Worse ...

     I taught a poetry unit to three fourth-grade classes this month and because they are studying New Hampshire all year I tied the lesson into their study of their home state. I introduced them to Robert Frost, and just one of his poems, Birches, because the birch is the official state tree. We listened to the whole poem several times, but also enjoyed the animated excerpt below.




     Each student generated a cloud of words and phrases in response to other things that are common or iconic in the Granite State,

and eventually they each wrote a poem of place.


     Working with young poets always brings surprising rewards. This time, I unexpectedly found myself coaching the kids to get out in nature and experience her gifts with all of their senses. I shared a poem of mine that resulted from a walk in the woods. I may have been a bit of a scolding nag when it became clear that many of them had never collected rocks, smelled lilacs, or touched a birch tree.

      My great reward came at the end of Friday afternoon when a generally quiet and subdued nine-year-old girl came up to me, and confided in her soft voice, " I found a birch tree in my yard, and I swang from it."

     Poetry to my ears.