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[perky review] Taxi, Go! by Patricia Toht and Maria Karipidou

~ jama ~ 13 Comments

Good Morning! It’s a brand new day, and everybody in the city has something to do, somewhere to go. Who will help them get there?

Speedy, spunky TAXI, that’s who!

Look, here he is now 😀.

Cabs are resting in a line.
Wake up, Taxi. Rise and shine!
Fill the tank, Check the tires.
Roof light on — now for hire!

Taxi . . . GO!
Get on your way —
today will be a busy day!

In Taxi, Go!, a zippy new rhyming picture book by Patricia Toht and Maria Karipidou (Candlewick, 2024), we follow spiffy red Taxi from morning till night as he transports passengers young and old to a variety of destinations.

After his morning fuel-up, he first picks up a woman who can’t be late for an important business date. Taxi races ahead, weaving left and right through an alley-way as “Heavy rain comes crashing down.” When sirens wail, Taxi has to STOP! for an emergency rescue (cat up a tree).

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2023 Poetry Friday Archive

~ jama ~ 4 Comments

1. “Hedonist’s List of Desert Island Essentials” by Vivien Steels

2. “Engineers’ Corner” by Wendy Cope

3. Interview with Andrea Potos on HER JOY BECOMES

4. “Touch the Air Softly” by William Jay Smith

5. “Class Photograph” by Julia Donaldson

6. “Sheltering Times” by Judith Heron

7. “What Not to Write on the Back Jacket of Your Debut Collection” by Helena Nelson

8. “Happiness” by Stuart A. Paterson

9. Interview with Patricia Toht on PICK A PERFECT EGG

10. WELCOME TO MONSTERVILLE by Laura Shovan and Michael Rothenberg

11. 2023 National Poetry Month Kidlit Events Roundup

12. “Hot Cross Buns” by Julia Goddard

13. ANIMALS IN PANTS by Suzy Levinson and Kristen & Kevin Howdeshell

14. A Charlotte Brontë Birthday

15. Poetry Chat with Charles Ghigna (THE FATHER GOOSE TREASURY OF POETRY)

16. TODAY I AM A RIVER by Kate Coombs and Anna Emilia Laitinen

17. “Blue” by Sidney Wade

18. Two poems from AUNT MARGARET’S PUDDING by Alison Brackenbury

19. TIERRA, TIERRITA/EARTH, LITTLE EARTH, by Jorge Argueta and Felipe Ugalde Alcantara

20. CHAMPION CHOMPERS, SUPER STINKERS AND OTHER POEMS BY EXTRAORDINARY ANIMALS by Linda Ashman and Aparna Varma

21. Paintings + Poems Sampler by Gary Bunt

22. “Sonnet #43, Kitchen Style” by Kim O’Donnel

23. “The Month of All” by Henry Grantland Rice and “Dinner Favors” by Arthur Macy

24. HOW THE SEA CAME TO BE: And All the Creatures In It by Jennifer Berne and Amanda Hall

25. “When I Am In the Kitchen” by Jeanne Marie Beaumont

26. BETTY AND THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR by Anne Twist and Emily Sutton

27. “In the Mood for Orange” by Lori Levy

28. “Ode to Left-Handedness” by Gregory Orr

29. PASS THE BABY by Susanna Reich and Raul Colon

30. Two poems by Alarie Tennille

31. Two poems by Gregory Orr

32. Brussels sprouts poems by Cynthia C. Naspinski, Bruce W. Niedt and Andrea Potos

33. ONE PERFECT PLAN by Nancy Tupper Ling and Alina Chau

34. “Miracle Fair” by Wislawa Szymborska

35. ON A FLAKE-FLYING DAY by Buffy Silverman

2022 Poetry Friday Archive

~ jama

1. Three Pooh Poems by A. A. Milne + Chocolate Crisps

2. “The Look” by Carol Ann Duffy

3. “The Invitation” by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

4. PHOEBE DUPREE IS COMING TO TEA by Linda Ashman and Alea Marley

5. “The Sound Collector” by Roger McGough

6. “Ode to My Toaster” by Allan Chochinov

7. “Happy Families” by Lindsay Macrae

8. “Biker Diner Serenade” by Edwin Romond

9. “What is the Pond Doing?” by Diana Hendry

10. SISTER, BROTHER, FAMILY: An American Childhood in Music by Willie Nelson & Bobbie Nelson

11. 2022 National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events Roundup

12. THINGS WE EAT by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong

13. Three Cups of Tea with Miss Emily

14. “What Do You Know of Eggs?” by Nancy Jentsch

15. “No. 115 Dreams” by Jackie Kay

16. “Mother’s Day Memo” by Anita Pulier + Poetry Friday Roundup

17. Joe Brainard’s “I Remember” + his art

18. “Remember” by Joy Harjo

19. VIENTO, VIENTITO/ WIND, LITTLE WIND by Jorge Argueta and Felipe Ugalde Alcántara

20. Platinum Jubilee Celebration with poem by Joseph Charles MacKenzie

21. “What You Missed That Day You Were Absent From Fourth Grade” by Brad Aaron Moldin

22. Paul McCartney 80th Birthday Celebration

23. “Queenhood” by Simon Armitage

24. “Prayer for Joy” for Stuart Kestenbaum

25. ON A GOLD-BLOOMING DAY by Buffy Silverman

26. SPINE POEMS: An Eclectic Collection of Found Verse by Annette Simon

27. “If You Could Do Anything Else, What Would You Choose?” by Brian Doyle

28. “I Opened a Book” by Julia Donaldson

29. “How to Escape from Prison” by Roger McGough

30. “Special Glasses” by Billy Collins

31. “The Aunts” by Linda Lee (Konichek)

32. MY POET by Patricia MacLachlan and Jen Hill

33. “A Thanksgiving Poem” by CJ Beaman + Poetry Friday Roundup

34. “In Praise of Dreams” x 2 (Wislawa Szymborska and Gary Soto)

35. THE ILLUSTRATED EMILY DICKINSON and THE ILLUSTRATED ROBERT FROST edited by Ryan G. Van Cleave, illustrated by David Miles

36. Christmas Tea with Madeline, Anne Shirley and Eloise

Brita Granström: a small fleeting moment, the wide blue sea

~ jama ~ 11 Comments
“Tea for Two” by Brita Granström

I had to catch my breath the first time I saw Brita Granström’s, “Tea for Two”: the soft light at the window framed by gauzy blue curtains, the expectant posture of the woman looking outside, the gorgeous blue tea set. Love how she captured the ethereal beauty of a fleeting moment in time.

Brita in her studio.

Living and working between the UK and her native Sweden, Brita is a fine arts painter as well as an award winning children’s book illustrator (most notably in collaboration with her husband Mick Manning).

No surprise – I’m totally enamored of her interiors, which depict people engaged in domestic tasks – arranging flowers, cutting rhubarb, rolling out pastry dough, cutting apples, relaxing with a crossword puzzle. Her “soft focus” approach gives her pictures a dreamy, haunting quality that pulls us into her visual narratives. We are witnessing ‘life as it happens.’

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nine cool things on a tuesday

~ jama ~ 23 Comments

1. Happy June! Welcoming a new month with the sheer loveliness of Matt Underwood’s woodblock prints.

Matt’s a painter, printmaker, and beekeeper based in Lincoln, England. He studied art and art history at the Salisbury College of Art and wildlife illustration at Carmarthenshire College of Art. He’s primarily inspired by the natural world and began drawing and keeping sketchbooks at an early age.

Because he doesn’t have a printing press, he practices the Japanese woodblock printing technique of using a bamboo baren (round flat disc covered with a dried leaf).

He shows his work regularly in London and throughout the UK, including at the Medici Gallery, the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, and the Royal West of England Academy of Art.

His work has also appeared in several books: Wildlife in Printmaking (Langford Press), Art for the Love of Sark (Gateway Publishing, Ltd.), and The Great Fen (Langford Press).

For more, visit Matt’s Official Website. You can purchase prints at his Etsy Shop.

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