The Merry, Merry Month of May

Didn’t May just begin? Things have been busy around here in a good way.  May 1st kicked off Paula Yoo’s fifth annual NaPiBoWriWeek,  a fun challenge for writers to draft up to 7 picture books in 7 days. As Paula notes on her site, ”I am proud of you no matter how much or how little you write, just as long as you TRY!”

      Next, the New England SCBWI conference in Springfield, MA featured inspirational keynote addresses from Sharon Creech and Grace Lin. It was a bustling, energetic event where I felt fortunate to learn a lot, meet friends new and old, and chat with 12 X 12 members at the end of the day.  I enjoyed the gracious company of Stephen Fraser at lunch (PB-writing Fraser fans: he finds Jesse Klausmeier and Suzy Lee’s Open This Little Book very clever).

Doodle Day May 2013

As May continues, I try to post on weekdays with Alison Hertz at Doodle Day May just for fun.  I’ve been sharing mother and daughter “pass-the-paper” doodles like this fairy princess.  A great exercise for those interested in pareidolia!

A quick shout out to Nancy Viau who sought poems to pair with her fun photo challenge at WIT to round out National Poetry Month.  Nancy was kind enough to share my four line poem about feathered friends!

Last, a little love for my mom on Mother’s Day.  Her dynamite recipe for Whoopie Pies was recently featured in Good Housekeeping magazine.  Click on the link for her recipe. I’ve been eating these treats all my life, but somehow hers are truly extra special. Happy Mother’s Day!

Walking Through the Forest

We’re walking through the forest,
And looking at the trees.
I hope the ticks don’t bite me,
Cause I don’t want Lyme disease.
- Anonymous 10 year old fellow hiker

Family hike, circa 2003

We’ve been hiking our kids through the woods since before they could walk. Some of our most enjoyable strolls occurred when they were toddlers, close to the ground and prone to flop down and pick up all manner of flora and fauna.

What treasures we dragged home! Sticks, feathers, pinecones, flowers, leaves and rocks. Lots and lots of ‘special’ rocks.

Long Hill, Beverly MA

These days we proceed at a faster pace, and I carry only water and a camera. A new sign greeted us at a favorite trail this weekend, sporting emphatic warnings about the potential to contract Lyme disease.  Although some of us were more wary than others, we trekked on while chanting Grace’s an anonymous fellow hiker’s magical anti-tick spell.

I stopped often to listen, look and snap photos.  The sunlight was ever so slightly filtered by the bare but budding trees.  The forest floor was coming alive with neon green skunk cabbage, Solomon seal, and fiddlehead ferns.  We found a gloriously arched mossy stump that surely must be a fairy cathedral.

I came home tired but rejuvenated, and filled with fresh inspiration for a writing problem that has been jostling about in my mind.  Now I can begin writing with clarity and coherence.

If you can’t get out for a hike on this lovely May Day, perhaps you might enjoy reading about nature. I have three recommendations:

Adam Frank (NPR) offers a brief essay called How to Take A Walk in the Woods in which he writes, ”Refining our capacity to notice is an act of reverence that we can bring to everywhere and everywhen.”

From the U.S. Forest Service, a new picture book entitled “Why Would Anyone Cut A Tree Down” written by Roberta Burzynski and illustrated by Juliette Watts is available to read online.  Don’t miss Juliette’s beautiful work!  She is a scientific  illustrator with the U.S. Forest Service and has been illustrating professionally for more than 30 years.

And last, get thyself a copy of the incomparable Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s  lovely poetry book, Forest Has a Song (Clarion, 2013).  Even indoors, the beautiful poems will transport you into woodsy state of mind.

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Sparkle and Spin

Sparkle and Spin, 1957

Sparkle and Spin
Author: Ann Rand
Illustrator: Paul Rand
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1957/1991
Suitable for ages 4 and up

Themes: words, word meanings

Opening:  “What are words?  Words are how what you think inside comes out
and how to remember what you might
forget about.”

Why I like this book:  I was browsing the
picture book bins at our local used bookstore when this beauty jumped out at me.  What bold, beautiful, eye-popping designs!  Although I was not familiar with the name Paul Rand, a quick Google search revealed that he was a highly celebrated father of modern graphic design.  Rand designed crisp modern corporate identity logos for powerhouses like Ford, ABC, UPS, IBM, Westinghouse and Enron.

Here are more gorgeous samples from inside:

“And surely you’ve found,
words sometimes sound
exactly like what they’re
supposed to be.
There’s toot toot!
whee! and whoa!”

And if you spell fair: f  a  i  r
it could be where a carnival is.
But fare spelled: f  a  r  e
is what you pay on a train
when you’ve grown too big to ride for free.”

Activities:  Have some fun with words!

Here is a fun online game about homophones from Quia.

Or how about a game of onomatopoeia BINGO with these cute cards?

Celebrate words and poems by writing an acrostic!

And a bit more:   This pristine book was discarded from the Stratham, NH Memorial School Library.  Its date due card was blank.  Was it never once checked out?  How sad.  It is a treasure!  But Chronicle Books has recently re-published SPARKLE AND SPIN so it is readily available online and in stores.

I’ll be heading back to that used bookstore soon to look for two additional books published by the Rands:  LITTLE 1, A Book about Numbers, and LISTEN LISTEN (which is currently selling for $399.00 on eBay!).

Perfect Picture Book Fridays are the creation of the children’s book author Susanna Leonard Hill. Susanna maintains a complete list (alphabetically and by theme) of all reviews with new books being added every Friday. It’s a wonderful resource if you’re looking for book activities or books with a particular theme.

Book Lovers with Patience and Fortitude

In celebration of Women’s History Month, I have enjoyed reading some wonderful posts about exciting new picture book biographies featuring incredible pioneers like Clara Lemlich, Elizabeth Blackwell, and Molly Williams.

Jeanne Harvey Walker’s marvelous blog True Tales and a Cherry on Top featured a peek into Miss Moore Thought Otherwise, the story of Anne Carroll Moore, an advocate for children’s rooms in libraries, special book collections, story time, and book borrowing privileges for children in 36 branches of the New York Public Library.  In the comments, Laura Purdie Salas mentioned her visit to the hallowed halls of the NYPL, and her photo-op with the steadfast guardians of the steps, Patience and Fortitude.  I smiled, remembering that I had also posed with Patience, back in 2009.  Suddenly, I had a spark of inspiration!

Although I am a relative newbie to the Pinterest phenomenon, I’ve created a Pinterest board dedicated to snapshots from writers, illustrators, poets, and book lovers who have made a pilgrimage to NYPL and posed “between the lions” so to speak.

So here’s my open invitation to you!  Send me your photo, share with your friends, and let’s see if we can create a fun collection of pins.  Laura graciously stepped right up to the plate and snagged the inaugural pin.  I’d love to add yours to the collection!

http://pinterest.com/catballoumealey/writers-with-patience-and-fortitude/

Pareidolia: I Saw A Swon in Cupcake Badr

I love to bake, especially when I have company in the kitchen. One day Grace and I were preparing cupcakes when the phone rang.  I asked her to keep stirring for a minute while I answered.  She continued to swirl the mixture determinedly until she dropped the spoon, grabbed paper and pencil and scrawled this urgent note:

I saw a swon in cupcake badr 

Pareidolia  (parr-i-DOH-lee-ə) is a psychological phenomenon involving a random visual or auditory stimulus being perceived as familiar or meaningful. If you’ve ever seen the face of the man in the moon, or glimpsed a surprised face peering from your electrical outlet, you’ve experienced pareidolia.  Played Beatles records backwards listening for secret messages? Also pareidolia.

Our brains are wired to make sense of multiple inputs and organize randomness into patterns to recall data easily.  To some degree, even computers using facial recognition technology are triggered to make the same error, as Rebecca Rosen chronicled in the Atlantic.

For a little creative relief, try staring at some tree bark, a cloud, or even your grilled cheese sandwich and see if you can look beyond the obvious.  I’d love to hear what you find!

A Milestone Birthday Blizzard

For Grace, turning 10 on the 10th

I didn’t think you’d mind
That the sugar bowl was low.

I headed out with cake pans
and scooped batter from the snow.

We frosted it with flurries,
Sprinkled birdseed decorations,

Then found a twig-ish candle
To complete the celebration.

Happy Birthday Gracie!
You sang along with cheer.

Birthday blizzard celebrations
Then and now, year after year.

Happy Groundhog Day Phyllis!

Let’s see what our good friend Phyllis from Susanna Hill’s charming book Punxsutawney Phyllis is up to for Groundhog Day 2013!

Phyllis was a tad grouchy when emerging from her den, lured by Pig Newtons and cream-phylled cookies. When we informed her that tomorrow was SuperBowl Sunday, she got all excited to cheer for her favorite team, the New England Patriots!

(I think Phyllis has a little crush on QB Tom Brady)

                                 She seized the TV remote and refused to come outside to check on  the status of her shadow.

                                                                                                                                                              Even her friend red squirrel couldn’t persuade her to come out and play!

                                                                                    We were worried how Phyllis would take it when we told her the Pats were not in the big game this year.  She promptly buried her head in the peanut bowl, refusing to listen.

After nibbling a few nuts, Phyllis regained her composure and headed out to check the all important winter forecast conditions.

North of Boston:  Sunny and 26 degrees with a gentle west-northwest breeze!  Optimal shadow conditions.

In short, six more weeks of winter, folks.

Have a lovely, extended nap Phyllis. We will see you soon! Check on groundhog conditions throughout the northern hemisphere at Susanna’s blog.