I have hundreds and hundreds of picture books. I place them all around the house. In bookcases and on shelves, but also displayed on the piano, the media center, an entry table by the front door, and on all the flat surfaces in nearly every room of the house. Truly, I do not need more books. And yet… today when I went to the bookstore and opened A BED OF STARS by Jessica Love, I knew right away I would buy the book and bring it home. I love gorgeous writing, and the way a picture book can build page on page, transporting me as I read, causing both my heart and the world to become a quiet magical space of the book and me.
This is what I felt as I read A BED OF STARS. I’d gone to the bookstore to bring home a different book, but before I could find it, my eye landed on Jessica Love’s newest. I’d read the (cover reveal) article in Publisher’s Weekly, nearly a year ago, and I’d watched the author discussing the book on YouTube a few weeks before its publication. I knew what it was about. And yet it became so much more as I turned the pages…
It’s about together time and the special relationship of a father and son. It’s also about the desert, an overnight camping grip, and noticing. Small things, like a swallow and a crow, manzanita and sage, and the tiny tracks of beetles in the sand.
At their best, picture books are the interplay of text, illustrations, and design, a marriage of the visual and the verbal – together, more than the sum of each of their parts. It’s a form that invites readers to inhabit the world of the book in such a way that, once the reader/listener has finished the book, they’ll want to pick it up and read it again.
NAMASTE IS A GREETING by Suma Subramaniam, illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat is such a book. The words, like a list poem, provide the structure, while the art is free to build on that structure, imagining a narrative about all the ways namaste can be both a greeting and a way of living in community with others.
Derived from Sanskrit, namaste is a respectful greeting, its meaning having evolved over time and across cultures. As such, you can imagine that people have different opinions about how namaste should be represented in a book.
For that reason, I was glad to have the opportunity to read and hear what the creators of NAMASTE IS A GREETING had to say about their understanding of namaste based on their personal experience and heritage, and their intentional representation of that understanding in the text and art of the book.
You can learn more about the collaboration of author Suma Subramaniam and illustrator Sandhya Prabhat as they worked with their editor and the Candlewick publishing team to capture their personal relationship to the word and concept of namaste.
TeachingBooks Virtual Book Tour (Scroll down to listen to the author and illustrator discussing the process of woking on NAMASTE IS A GREETING)
As I write, it’s the last day of National Poetry Month in the US, so it’s not surprising that earlier today, I read an article about poetry in the Council Chronicle, a professional journal about language arts and literacy published three times a year by NCTE. The article,”The Power and Possibilities of Children’s Poetry” by Adrienne Samuels Gibbs quotes poet Terry Blackhawk reminding teachers that “There are so many exciting ways to build collaboration through poetry,” and poet and teacher Georgia Heard who adds, “… there are rules and forms – you have to know craft tools; but that’s the not the experience of poetry.”
I also listened to poet Maggie Smith, author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful, saying much the same, including that even when we may not always understand exactly what a poem means, we can pay attention to how a poem moves through us, how it sounds in our ears, how it makes us feel.
The words of these poets resonated with me because that’s been my experience. Poetry can be an integral part of a school community when it’s presented in a way that helps students experience the poem, rather than worry about dissecting the poem’s meaning.
Which says to me that there’s something in poetry for ALL of us. A connection, an entry point, a feeling that touches something deep inside that we might not be able to articulate. And, to be clear, this doesn’t mean that every poem is for every reader. It means that – in the same way we all have our own set of likes and dislikes when it comes to reading fiction, there will poems that speak to us and poems that don’t. And that’s okay.
Unfortunately, the same thoughts that can make reading poetry feel daunting, sometimes make writing poetry feel impossible. Which is why I love How to Write a Poem, by Kwame Alexander and Deanna Nikaido, with art by Melissa Sweet. Like a road map, young poets can discover a concrete way to begin…
Begin with a question
like an acorn
waiting for spring…
… Next, listen to the grass,
the flowers,
the trees –
anything
that’s friends with
the sun.
HOW TO WRITE A POEM invites writers to trust the words will come. That they are, in fact, “raining everywhere…,” dancing “with your joy…,” ” at the tip of your heart…,” “waiting to slide down your pencil into your small precious hand…”
Have you written a poem lately? It’s been about a month since I have and after reading How to Write a Poem, I feel inspired to get back to it. Maybe you will too?
When her grandson arrives in the early morning, the sun is rising and the mountains beside the sea “look like whale bellies.” Baba is already in the kitchen fixing a bowl of oatmeal that swims in butter, and “pickles, cabbage, and beets from the garden.”
This quiet routine is their shared ritual. Baba doesn’t speak English well and her grandson knows that some of her ways are different from his. He has learned that her life in Poland, where she was born, was difficult. That when it rains, she walks slowly, scanning the sidewalk for worms for the garden. They share these special meals and walk back and forth to school until one day, Baba must leave her chicken-coop-home to sleep at the end of the hallway in a room right next to the boy’s.
The roles have reversed. Now it is the boy who brings oatmeal, and the boy who tends – for the first time – a small pot of tomatoes growing outside Baba’s window. It is the boy who walks slowly, eyes glued to the sidewalk, picking up each worm he finds.
We’ve all had our share of bad days. Times when nothing goes our way. We’re late, we’re bored, someone cuts in line, even dinner disappoints. It feels like the whole wide world has turned against us.
Then, just when we think we won’t be able to stand another minute of it, this happens…
“Oh Cricket in My Room. cheet-cheet-cheet, cheet-cheet, cheet-cheet.
A bleaty tweet with insect feet!
You’re up, you’re down, you’re all around
I can’t escape your cheet-y sound!
Oh you Cricket!”
Could things get any worse? And then… well, you put things in perspective. Not every day will be like this one, right?
“Oh, Bad Day,
all day long
my way went wrong.
I’m so annoyed…
but not destroyed…
…My eyes are closed, and I suppose
a better day is on its way.”
It’s impossible not to smile. Sure, we’re all seen bad days, but – somehow or other – things eventually turn around.
With charming verse by Chelsea Lin Wallace, ODE TO A BAD DAY takes the sting out of the kinds of everyday annoyances we’ve all experienced. Hyewon Yum‘s sweet illustrations, rendered in watercolor and colored pencil, capture the emotional journey of the young protagonist while leaning into the undercurrent of humor that bubbles up and emerges by the book’s end.
ODE TO A BAD DAY is sure to remedy even the worst days and remind readers that a new and better day is just around the corner.
***
DIANNE: Welcome, Chelsea! Thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions about your newest book!
CHELSEA: Thank you for having me, Dianne! It’s such a pleasure to get to interview with you – my agent sister!
DIANNE: One definition I found described an ode as a form of lyric poetry that expresses emotion and represents the poet’s musings on a thing (or person). ODE TO A BAD DAY is exactly that, Lots of emotions about all the bumpy moments your sweet protagonist encounters in a day. I imagine you had fun coming up with those moments – from rusty bones to dusty teeth, soggy, squishy cereal to stinging knees. We’ve all had those kinds of day, even as we can’t help but smile at the young girl’s dramatic hyperbole. As writers, we know that inspiration for stories can be found just about anywhere. What was the spark that inspired this ODE?
CHELSEA:I will give you a hint: cheet-cheet-cheet! Oh, that cricket! My daughter was 7 yo when she was visited by a chirping cricket in her room and she couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. The DRAMA! She was furious and frustrated and we ended up tearing apart her room looking but we still couldn’t find the guy. After a while her anger turned into giggles because of how ridiculous the whole night had become. I started paying close attention to all the tiny and tremendous annoying moments in her day and the story unfolded. I knew I wanted to flip the ode on its head – essentially ode-ing to the moments we don’t like – because in many ways we can be just as grateful for the moments that challenge us as the ones that lift us.
DIANNE: What I love so much about your story is the way it makes space for the young protagonist to vent all manner of her complaints. At the same time, we – as readers – can’t help but feel our spirits lift at the humor of it all. Sometimes a missing pudding cup and yucky, slimy sauce on our spaghetti is the worst! Ha!
Do you have a favorite best “worst moment” that you knew you wanted to include? Were there some moments that were part of the drafting process that you eventually cut (either before or after the manuscript was acquired)?
CHELSEA: Ah! Well, I definitely had to include the cricket! My other favorites are boredom at the store and the missing pudding cup but a lot of that is credit to Hyewon’s utterly hilarious illustrations that made those moments over-the-top epic; the smug smile from the pudding cup kid is probably my favorite spread in the book. The hiccup ode is one of my favorites to read-aloud.
I had to go back to my earliest drafts to find out what odes were cut – turns out a few! Originally I had one about a bully, a first day of school, and a cold. When I decided to arc this into a day the first day of school didn’t work anymore. The bully one morphed into the line-cutter (the specificity of that made it much stronger and way funnier), and the cold turned into an entirely new book! I will speak to that one in your last question.
DIANNE: Finding the perfect ending for a picture book is not always easy. The “Oh, Cricket in My Room” stanza was a lovely surprise that begins the ending of this bad day and cleverly “signs off” the very last spread. How did you come up with this terrific ending?
CHELSEA:I love this question! Truthfully I always knew that the cricket would be our last ode (since it was based on my daughter’s real experience at bedtime). It was Hyewon’s idea to introduce the cricket in the opening spread sneaking through the window! I LOVED that and suggested we see the cricket follow her throughout the day. The cricket became somewhat of a character in the story. So when she closes out the night with hope for a better tomorrow I felt it would be hilarious but also sweet if the cricket answers her “that day could happen tomorrow, right?” with a cheet-cheet-cheet.
DIANNE: Ah, yes! The cricket gets the last word! Genius!
What are you working on now? What can readers look forward to?
CHELSEA: Thank you for asking! I’d mentioned I had an ode about a cold originally in ODE TO A BAD DAY. That particular ode inspired my young daughter to write a bunch of odes all tied to being sick or hurt. That’s when it occurred to me that the concept of a bunch of kids getting hurt and sick at school needed its own book. It became THE BOO-BOOS OF BLUEBELL ELEMENTARY, brilliantly illustrated by Alison Farrell, and it’s coming out from Chronicle in the fall. This hilarious story in rhyme follows a cast of kids pouring into a school nurse’s office with various aches and ailments.
I have several more books coming out in 2024 and 2025 including a fun and funny story in rhyme called DARE TO BE DARING with Lian Cho (Abrams) and the recently announced WE ARE THE THEATER with Molly Idle (Abrams).
DIANNE: You’ve been busy! I can’t wait to check out these upcoming books!
***
Chelsea has some great extension activitites on her website to accompany ODE TO A BAD DAY:
Discover 2022’s most read poem by a contemporary poet, Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Kindness.”
Check Out the Poetry Collections and Picture Book Length Poems Below!
Collections:
WHERE I LIVE:Poems about My Home, My Street, and My Town
Selected by Paul Janeczko, illustrated by Hyewon Yum
Candlewick Press | 978-1536200942
Whether you live in the city or the suburbs, in a house or an apartment, the thirty-four poems in Where I Live will conjure up special memories of your favorite neighborhood.
Whether it’s cracks in the sidewalk, ice cream cones, or a day at the park, there’s a poem for you in this collection selected by the late Paul B. Janeczko.
Enjoy this interview with Liz Bicknell, Janeczko’s long-time editor at Candlewick, talking about the process of completing his last poetry collection following his death in 2019.
At the Pond is the 7th book in a series of poetry collections about animals in different settings and time periods (Farm, Sea, Woods, etc.). Flowing from one poem to the next, readers follow a variety of pond creatures from the “hello morning song” of a red-winged blackbird, to a water strider who writes “… his story/in rippling/hieroglyphics,” to the “majestic and absurb” great blue heron.
Short paragraphs of backmatter provide information about each creature mentioned.
Visit the author’s website to learn more about each book in the series.
Picture Books:
Some of my favorite picture books could be described as picture-book length poems and, for National Poetry Month it seemes appropriate to mention at least two newer favorites.
“Wake up! Sun’s up. It’s morning time,
and we just love our Mommy time.
She drags us out of bed time,
then it’s comb our bushy hair time
dressing time
breakfast time.
Pack up lunch, a tasty munch,
and off sister goes to school time.”
I love the pacing, changing rhythm, and page turns of this sweet picture book poem about busy-at-home days with Mommy. This book is a beautiful ode to moms and a fun read-aloud, charmingly illustrated by Ebony Glenn.
The story opens with a gender reveal party and the idea of a blue sign and a gender mark and a blue mood. Very quickly the idea of a patchwork is introduced – people are more than just onething, or one way.
This story about identity is a great conversation starter for a slightly older picture book reader about the many ways to be. Although we love to celebrate the varied talents and interests of the people close to us, we also all need time and space to experiment, practice, and grow into our own choices and dreams. We are alike and different. “… more than a single note… a symphony…”
Eva has no end of ideas. She’s a problem-solver, a solution-finder, and a maker.
“One summer day,
when everyone seeks relief from the scorching sun,
a new idea SNAPS into Eva’s head!
It SIZZLES with possibilities
and SPROUTS into something bigger until…
it LAUNCHES!”
Soon, Eva’s lemonade stand is open for business. She has all she needs: “the freshest ingredients, a welcoming smile, and a can-do attitude.” The only problem? Competition! Jake has opened his lemonade stand just across the street.
Fortunately, Eva excels at finding solutions. Unfortunately, so does Jake. He ups his offerings, lowers his price, and manages to attact more customers.
But Eva is no quitter! A new idea SNAPS, SIZZLES, SPROUTS! Her plan successfully manages to win back customers. But not for long. What will Eva do next??
Cooler Than Lemonade:A Story About Great Ideas and How they Happen by Harshita Jerath, illustrated by Chloe Burgett,will encourage young readers to embrace Eva’s can-do spirit and inspire them to meet new challenges with a determined, positive attitude. It’s persistence, idea generation, and young entrepreneurship at its best.
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It’s my pleasure to introduce friend and local Arizona author, Harshita Jerath, to ReaderKidZ!
DIANNE: Welcome, Harshita! Thanks for visiting ReaderKidZ.
You dedicate the book to your son, Neel, “whose idea bucket is always swirling with possibilities.” Eva’s idea bucket swirls with ideas, too. What was the inspiration for COOLER THAN LEMONADE?
HARSHITA:COOLER THAN LEMONADEwas inspired by my son, Neel. It was a scorching summer day of July 2019 when he pleaded to open a Kulfi, ice -cream stand at a farmers’ market. That is when the very first seed for this story was planted.
My son is a lot like Eva, the book’s main character. He keeps coming up with ideas, from selling his artwork to opening a lemonade stand. And while offering him guidance, I realized few children’s books provided entrepreneurial insights.
All the above combined led to the creation of this picture book.
DIANNE: This is a book about persistence in the face of challenges. But it’s also a book with layers. It’s about problems and solutions, innovation and entrepreneurship. Can you talk more about how the story “grew” as you revised? Did you always have in mind to include these additional elements, or did the layers come as a result of multiple revisions?
HARSHITA:The initial draft was set up in a farmers’ market, and a considerable part of the story was about the mom, whereas Eva seemed like a sidekick. Once I removed the mom, the story became buoyant and flowed.
As I continued revising, I realized the story was not about opening the Kulfi stand but highlighting Eva’s entrepreneurial spirit. And that is when I started to have fun with the story.
I immersed myself in entrepreneurial books and magazines. I became excited to introduce the concepts of idea generation, taking action, a friendly competition, marketing, promotion, embracing failure, pivoting when needed, and not giving up.
After I included all these ingredients to the story, I realized I had missed a crucial part of the story—the family influence. That is when I added a layer of sibling connection and introduced Aru, Eva’s younger brother and an ardent supporter of her innovations.
So, the different layers resulted from numerous revisions over several months.
DIANNE: Are you more like Eva – full of ideas and inspiration – or her brother, Aru, who helpfully supports and encourages Eva as she faces each new challenge?
HARSHITA:What an interesting question, Dianne! In the book, Eva comes up with innovative problem-solving ideas, while Aru, her little brother, is always by her side, rooting for her. I am more like Aru, who supports his sister Eva’s endeavors.
DIANNE: Can you share what you’re working on now? What can your readers look forward to?
HARSHITA: My next book is a Random House’s early reader Step into Reading book, that’s slated to come out in Fall 2024. The story is about a dog who gets a little too excited by the sweets laid out for the Diwali celebration. It’s a story about friendship and acceptance and is hundred percent inspired by my childhood pet.
Thank you, Dianne, for inviting me to your blog. I enjoyed responding to your thoughtful questions. If readers have any questions, they can always reach out to me at: me@harshitajerath.com.
DIANNE: Thanks, Harshita!
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Readers can learn about Harshita’s book by visiting her WEBSITE.
