hotTEAs of Children’s Poetry: Guadalupe Garcia McCall

April 28, 2016September 25, 2017 ~ jama ~ 10 Comments

I am a wife and mother of three grown men who will always be my boys! I love to read anything and everything! I have three books out, UNDER THE MESQUITE (Lee & Low Books, 2011) is a contemporary novel-in-verse, SUMMER OF THE MARIPOSAS (Tu Books, 2012), is a fantasy featuring creatures from Mexican mythology, and the upcoming SHAME THE STARS (Tu Books, 2016) is a historical set in 1915 Texas during the Mexican Revolution.

☕ CUPPA OF CHOICE: A good cup of instant Mexican coffee, not too strong, not too mild. With sprinkle of sweetener and a bit of cream. It will wake me up and give me the fortitude to sit down and write!

☕ HOT OFF THE PRESSES: Summer of the Mariposas (Tu Books, 2012); Under the Mesquite (Lee & Low Books, 2011); The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong (Pomelo Books, 2014). Forthcoming: My new book, SHAME THE STARS, is due for publication in September 2016 from Tu Books and I couldn’t be more excited!

☕ FAVE FOODIE CHILDREN’S BOOK: Sip, Slurp, Soup, Soup, Caldo, Caldo, Caldo! by Diane Gonzalez Bertrand and Alex Pardo Delange (Piñata Books, 2008) is my favorite food related book because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE a good bowl of caldo. Caldo has the power to warm even the coldest heart!

☕ Visit Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s Official Website.

☕☕ JUST ONE MORE SIP: Check out this student video of Guadalupe’s poem “Cicada” from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science:

☕☕☕ CAN’T GET ENOUGH: Book Trailer for Summer of the Mariposas!

☕☕☕☕ STILL THIRSTY: Wonderful video of Guadalupe discussing the genesis and development of Summer of the Mariposas, which was selected for the 2015 Spirit of Texas Reading Program:

—————————————————————–

Laura Shovan’s Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary + Poetry Friday Roundup

April 21, 2016September 7, 2017 ~ jama ~ 54 Comments

*Please help yourself to some matzo with cream cheese and strawberry jam.*

HAPPY POETRY FRIDAY

AND

HAPPY PASSOVER!

Today we’d like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to Laura Shovan on the official release of her first middle grade verse novel on April 12! Hooray for Laura!!

The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary (Wendy Lamb Books, 2016) is a captivating story told entirely through a series of poems written by one fifth grade class over the course of a year. We meet 18 diverse, distinctive, quirky, totally believable kids navigating the changes that come with friendships old and new, first crushes, and other relatable challenges such as divorce and stepfamilies, death and illness of family members, being the new kid, homelessness, assimilation and identity.

Though each has his/her own hopes, dreams, and concerns, these students form a special bond over one big change that affects them all: their beloved school is facing closure at the end of the year. Inspired by their teacher’s political activism in the 60’s, they are determined to make their voices heard to help save Emerson.

Continue reading →

hotTEAs of Children’s Poetry: Margarita Engle

April 14, 2016September 25, 2017 ~ jama ~ 15 Comments

Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of the Newbery Honor verse novel, The Surrender Tree, Pura Belpré Award-winning verse memoir, Enchanted Air, and Charlotte Zolotow Award winning picture book, Drum Dream Girl. Other honors include multiple Pura Belpré Medals, Américas Awards, PEN USA Award, Jane Addams Award, Claudia Lewis Poetry Award, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor, and International Reading Association Award.

☕ CUPPA OF CHOICE: Café con leche (coffee with milk), made with a mixture of Cuban espresso (Café La Llave brand) and Italian roast (Starbucks brand). I love REALLY strong coffee, but I only drink it in the morning, so it doesn’t keep me awake at night. Maybe that’s why I do most of my writing early, before my brain runs out of caffeine.

* Cultural Note: many Latino children are introduced to café con leche at the age of two, so why aren’t there any children’s books about coffee? If I thought I could get it published, I would write one! My Abuelita (grandma) used to scold me for not serving my son coffee when he was little. She said, “¡Es un hombrecito, necesita su café!” (He’s a little man, he needs his coffee!)

☕ HOT OFF THE PRESSES: Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir (Atheneum, 2015); Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music, illustrated by Rafael Lopez (HMH, 2015); The Sky Painter: Louis Fuertes, Bird Artist, illustrated by Aliona Bereghici (Two Lions, 2015); Orangutanka: A Story in Poems, illustrated by Renee Kurilla (Henry Holt, 2015). Forthcoming: Lion Island: Cuba’s Warrior of Words (Atheneum, August 2016) — a verse novel about the nonviolent freedom struggle of indentured Chinese laborers; and Morning Star Horse/El Caballo Lucero (HBE Publishers, Autumn 2016) — a middle grade historical fantasy about Cuban children at San Diego’s Raja Yoga Academy.

☕ FAVE FOODIE CHILDREN’S BOOKS: Three Golden Oranges by Alma Flor Ada, illustrated by Reg Cartwright (Atheneum, 2012); Apple Pie 4th of July by Janet Wong, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine (Harcourt, 2012); Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, illustrated by Hayelin Choi (Readers to Eaters, 2014).

☕ Visit Margarita Engle’s Official Website

☕☕ JUST ONE MORE SIP: Short poems related to the [above] photograph of myself drinking café con leche beside my father’s painting of my mother picking pomegranates. She was wearing sandals, but he left them out, and I have chosen to speculate about the reason.

Coffee Tanka

each hot sip
of café con leche
carries me
traveling back to childhood
watching as grownups savor time

Pomegranate Tanka

my father
paints her harvesting pomegranates—
barefoot
the reality of shoes
too modern for this lush garden

☕☕☕ CAN’T GET ENOUGH: Enjoy this book trailer for The Sky Painter!

☕☕☕☕ STILL THIRSTY: Speaking of Margarita’s parents, she explains the romantic story of how they met in the first of this series of videos:

———————————————————————————

friday feast: chatting with burleigh mutén about miss emily

August 22, 2014September 1, 2017 ~ jama ~ 46 Comments

“Truth is so rare, it is delightful to tell it.” ~ Emily Dickinson

I’ve been curious about Emily Dickinson’s relationship with children ever since learning that she used to lower baskets of gingerbread to the neighborhood kids.

That’s why I loved Burleigh Mutén’s delightful verse novel Miss Emily (Candlewick, 2014). It gave me a good sense of how Dickinson might have interacted with four of the children in her life: her niece and nephew Mattie and Ned (who lived next door at the Evergreens), and the pastor’s kids Mac and Sally, who lived across the street.

This fun and suspenseful adventure, where Emily and the children disguise themselves as gypsies to catch a glimpse of the midnight circus train, is told from Mac’s point of view. It is clear the kids all adore Miss Emily and she, them, united as they are in imaginative play and a singular brand of friendship.

I’m so pleased Burleigh is here today to tell us more about writing and researching Miss Emily. I daresay “the children’s laughing goddess of plenty” herself would be quite pleased with this story, as it celebrates her fondness for children and the importance of remaining true to one’s inner child: therein lies the truth about who we really are and should always strive to be.

Look sharp! The circus train is here. All Aboard! 🙂

* * *

Continue reading →

margarita engle’s sweet scent hunger

April 19, 2012September 8, 2017 ~ jama ~ 32 Comments

#15 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2012.

“In Latin America in general, and Cuba in particular, poets have been the inspiration behind struggles for independence, struggles for freedom of all sorts.” ~ Margarita Engle (PW Interview, 2009)

I think most of us will agree that for some things, only poetry will do.

Verse can capture the full range of human emotion in its purest form, distilling its essence for all time. This is what award-winning author Margarita Engle does so brilliantly in her historical novels-in-verse, which I love for their cultural richness, soaring lyricism and enduring power. Each of her books is a work of incomparable beauty, a crystallized portrait of unvarnished truth and harsh realities culled from a complex situation enmeshed in the broader canvas of Cuban history.

With just a few strokes, Margarita is able to break your heart at the turmoil and horrors of war and revolution, the social injustices endured by oppressed women, the unspeakable atrocities of slavery. History is personalized, anguish is personified, with her focus on strong role models, individuals in terrible circumstances who have overcome unimaginable obstacles.

So, we are uplifted and inspired by wilderness nurse Rosa la Bayamesa, who chose to respond with kindness and compassion while her country was being torn apart by successive wars, or by poet slave Juan Francisco Manzano, whose courageous actions and fortitude prove that the heart and imagination can never be suppressed. Ultimately, our faith is restored in the untold resilience and shining beauty of the human spirit. The voices in her poems blend to make unforgettable music — a clear, unfettered song of hope and freedom triumphing over adversity.