Summer Reads: Chapter & Verse (The Book of the Maidservant)

It's Poetry Friday. The leaves aren't falling yet in Maryland. Here at Author Amok, we are still enjoying some late-summer reading. Poetry Friday regular Tabatha Yeats-Lonske is here to share her Chapter and Verse selection.

I'm also guest-posting this week. You can find my Today's Little Ditty rant against rhyme (at least in the elementary classroom) at Michelle H. Barnes' blog.

This week's host is
Renee LaTulippe
at No Water River!

Tabatha's pairing of a novel and poem is the ninth post in a series called "Summer Reads: Chapter and Verse." Guest bloggers and I have matched books we read this summer with a poem that complements the novel.

So far, we've paired:

THE GIRLS AT THE KINGFISHER CLUB (Historical YA)

with Edna St. Vincent Millay's "First Fig"

DARIUS & TWIG (Contemporary Urban YA)

with Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool"

STARGIRL (Contemporary YA)

with Eileen Spinelli's, "Poem for a Bully" and "Advice to Rapunzel"

Shared by guest blogger Janet Wong

THE IMPOSSIBLE KNIFE OF MEMORY (Contemporary YA)

with W.M. Rivera's "The You That's Left"

THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN (YA Urban Fantasy)

with Sarah Beasley's "Grief Puppet"

WALK TWO MOONS (Classic contemporary MG)

with blackberry poems by Galway Kinnell, Sylvia Plath, and Crescent Dragonwagon

ENTHUSIASM (YA Romance)

with Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnet III"
Shared by guest blogger Kathy MacMillan

WE WERE LIARS (YA Suspense)

with Margaret Atwood's "This Is a Photograph of Me"

Welcome back to Author Amok, Tabatha!

Tabatha reading with Penelopeep
(Peep for short).

My match-up pairs the poem "Listen" by Barbara Crooker with MG historical fiction The Book of the Maidservant by Rebecca Barnhouse. The Book of the Maidservant traces the journey of Johanna, servant to holy woman Dame Margery Kempe, as they travel from England to Rome in the 1400s. (Read a review here.)

Note: Dame Margery Kemp was a real person. You can read about her at the Online Reference Book (ORB) for Medieval Studies.

Available at ABE Books.

You can see how tough life is for servants, how easy it would be to give up, but Johanna never does. When she finally finds a field of blankness before her, she takes advantage of it. And as much trouble as other people can be, one of the toughest things Johanna has to do is make peace with is herself. Like the moon, though, people get the chance to bloom again.

The poem: 

Listen,

I want to tell you something. This morning
is bright after all the steady rain, and every iris,
peony, rose, opens its mouth, rejoicing.
I want to say, wake up, open your eyes, there’s
a snow-covered road ahead, a field of blankness,
a sheet of paper, an empty screen. Even
the smallest insects are singing, vibrating
their entire bodies, tiny violins of longing
and desire. We were made for song.
I can’t tell you what prayer is, but I can take
the breath of the meadow into my mouth,
and I can release it for the leaves’ green need.
I want to tell you your life is a blue coal, a slice
of orange in the mouth, cut hay in the nostrils.
The cardinals’ red song dances in your blood.
Look, every month the moon blossoms
into a peony, then shrinks to a sliver of garlic.
And then it blooms again.

Barbara Crooker, from Line Dance

I read this poem on Poetry Friday blogger's Margaret Simon's blog, Reflections on the Teche. 

Here's the link for author Rebecca Barnhouse's website: http://www.rebeccabarnhouse.com/book-of-the-maidservant.html

Tabatha is enamored of words and fascinated with the world. Her blog The Opposite of Indifference showcases her love for art, music, and poetry. She is working on a project involving another of her interests, botanical medicine. Her book about Holocaust survivors has just been released as a Kindle edition. 

Tabatha, I have some favorite books set in the same time period: CATHERINE, CALLED BIRDY by Karen Cushman and Kevin Crossley-Holland’s MG series that begins with THE SEEING STONE. Thanks for recommending THE BOOK OF THE MAIDSERVANT. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Readers, I am proud to say that Barbara Crooker—isn’t the poem Tabatha shared beautiful?—has published work in the journal I edit, Little Patuxent Review. Crooker's poem “Rufous-Sided Towhee” appeared in our science-themed issue. We are reading submissions *right now* for an issue about food. Please send your poems through Submittable, but be sure to read LPR’s guidelines first. 

To get an idea of the work we publish, check out LPR's YouTube channel, where you will see contributors reading their work. The deadline is November 1. The Food issue will go on sale in January.

Do you have an idea for Summer Reads: Chapter and Verse? I'm still looking for guest bloggers. The series will continue until summer ends on Monday, September 22. For more information, find a full explanation of this series and a sample Chapter and Verse pairing at this post.

Summer Reads: Chapter & Verse (Enthusiasm)

Happy last Poetry Friday of August.

Despite having one child back at school, and the other starting on Tuesday, I am -- like many of you -- hanging on to summer. Hanging on as in, you could not pry my fingers off of Labor Day weekend or even bribe me with chocolate. If summer were coffee and we were down to the grounds at the bottom of the cup, I would drink it and savor every little nib of coffee bean.

Recommended end-of-summer read.
This re-issue of the book, signed by
Stephen King and Ray Bradbury,
is available for £375.

But before I lick the bottom of the cup of delicious iced-coffee that is summer, let's visit Jone at Check It Out! She is hosting today's Poetry Friday round-up.

This is the seventh post in a series called Summer Reads: Chapter  Verse. Guest bloggers and I are pairing books we've read this summer with a poem that complements the novel.

So far, we've paired:

THE GIRLS AT THE KINGFISHER CLUB (Historical YA)

with Edna St. Vincent Millay's "First Fig"

DARIUS & TWIG (Contemporary Urban YA)

with Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool"

STARGIRL (Contemporary YA)

with Eileen Spinelli's, "Poem for a Bully" and "Advice to Rapunzel"

Shared by guest blogger Janet Wong

THE IMPOSSIBLE KNIFE OF MEMORY (Contemporary YA)

with W.M. Rivera's "The You That's Left"

THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN (YA Urban Fantasy)

with Sarah Beasley's "Grief Puppet"

WALK TWO MOONS (Classic contemporary MG)

with blackberry poems by Galway Kinnell, Sylvia Plath, and Crescent Dragonwagon

I'm really excited about today's post. We have a guest blogger visiting. And her summer read? I don't know how I missed this book. It's got romance! It's got intrigue! It's got poetry! And it features a character who is an enthusiastic Janeite (as in Austen).

A little bit of back story. As you know -- because you heard me screaming with joy back in June -- my middle grade novel-in-verse is being published in spring of 2016 (read my announcement here). One of the best perks of being a debut author is meeting other debut authors. Today's guest blogger, Kathy MacMillan, is coordinator of The Sweet 16s. We are a group of middle grade and young adult authors debuting in 2016. You can visit our website-in-progress here.

Lucky me, not only was I invited to be one of the administrators for the group, but Kathy lives in nearby Baltimore. We are planning to meet for real and in person this fall.

I am so looking forward to working with the wildly creative and funny people in The Sweet 16s as we all finish up our edits, commiserate about our hopes and fears, and prepare to publicize our books. I hope to introduce you to more of the gang in the coming months.

Welcome, Kathy, to AuthorAmok!

My Book: ENTHUSIASM by Polly Shulman

"There is little more likely to exasperate a person of sense than finding herself tied by affection and habit to an Enthusiast."  But that's exactly Julie's lot: her best friend Ashley is a decided Enthusiast, with passionate interests running the gamut from canning to fashion.  But when Ashley's fancy lands on Julie's own passion—the novels of Jane Austen—Julie finds herself swept along on Ashley's quest to find True Love worthy of an Austen heroine.  Whether crashing a dance at a local prep school (in vintage gowns, of course) or untangling the misunderstandings wrought by the objects of their affection, these smart and funny heroines star in an engaging and satisfying read.

Doesn't the title invoke Jane Austen?
Read a review at TeenReads.

Paired with:

Sonnet III

from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese

Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!
Unlike our uses and our destinies.
Our ministering two angels look surprise
On one another, as they strike athwart
Their wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, art
A guest for queens to social pageantries,
With gages from a hundred brighter eyes
Than tears even can make mine, to play thy part
Of chief musician. What hast thou to do
With looking from the lattice-lights at me,
A poor, tired, wandering singer, singing through
The dark, and leaning up a cypress tree?
The chrism is on thine head,—on mine, the dew,—
And Death must dig the level where these agree.

I chose this sonnet for several reasons:

1) It *had* to be a sonnet. One of the plot points in ENTHUSIASM centers around the identity of the writer of a certain (wildly romantic, take-your-breath-away) sonnet that appears tacked to the tree between Julie and Ashley's houses—but which girl is it meant for?

2) The poet sees her beloved as someone who is far above her, and is amazed that his attention would turn to her.  In ENTHUSIASM, Julie's insecurity lends her the same attitude—even when the proof of her beloved's affection is right in front of her.

3) Both the sonnet and the book remind us that the art forms we often think of as old, dusty, or stodgy are actually capable of conveying deeply felt passion, and that those passions have been felt by human beings across time.

Portrait of Elizabeth Barrett Browning by Michele Gordigiani.
Source: The Guardian

Kathy MacMillan is a writer, librarians, storyteller, interpreter, and Enthusiast.  Her debut YA fantasy novel will be published by HarperTeen in 2016.  Find out more about her work at www.kathymacmillan.com.  

Thanks for the great recommendation and pairing, Kathy.

Do you have an idea for Summer Reads: Chapter & Verse? I'm still looking for guest bloggers. The series will continue until summer ends on Monday, September 22. For more information, find a full explanation of this series and a sample Chapter & Verse pairing at this post.

I'll see you next week, everyone, when Poetry Friday is HERE.

Poetry Friday Announcement: A New Series

Hey there, Poetry Friday crowd. I'm starting a new series today. Anyone can join in. If you'd like to  guest post, leave me a note in the comments.

Find more Poetry Friday
posts at Poetry for Children.

My favorite part of summer isn't the beach (we haven't been there yet), the hot weather (I prefer blizzards, thank you), or no school (can I have my routine back yet?) It's summer reading.

My nephew, demonstrating that a book
can be enjoyed anywhere, even
sitting on the floor by Auntie's front door.

I've been on a Sharknado-worthy reading binge, chomping up novels, gliding through the library looking for delicious fantasies, never roaming far from shore without an audio-book to satisfy my story-hunger.

Sometimes, I have to remind myself to slow down and *enjoy* what I'm reading. Taste the flavors. One way to stop my book-hopping and think about each novel I'm reading is through poetry.

The idea for this series dates back to my years teaching high school. My ninth graders were about to do a unit on Betty Smith's classic coming of age novel, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN.

Find it here.

I wanted to add more poetry to my lessons, so I used the poem "The Lake Ilse of Innisfree" by William Butler Yeats to help introduce the themes of the novel. The class talked about dreams, especially dreams of place.

When we finished A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, we went back to the poem. What a rich discussion we had. The students' ideas about dreams and the importance of place had developed as they read the novel. Circling back to Yeats' poem gave them a way to focus their thoughts.

How about you? During your summer reads, have you come across a book that made you think of a favorite poem? That's what this series is all about.

Summer Reads: Chapter & Verse

To participate, you can go simple and share a pairing of book and poem. I'll post as is, giving you credit for the contribution!

If you want to step it up, include a paragraph about the book you read and a few lines about why you paired it with a particular poem.

For those of you who really want to dig in and discuss your Chapter & Verse, write a blog post of 500-750 words. Tell us what you liked about the novel you're sharing. Expand on what made you think of this poem as you were reading the book. How does one complement the other? Explain how reading the poem with the book deepens your understanding of novel, poem, or both.

Here is a sample pairing from my own summer reads.

Author Amok's Chapter & Verse

Find it here.

Genevieve Valentine's retelling of "The 12 Dancing Princesses" is a historical YA novel, set in 1920s New York. Here, the dancing princesses are society sisters. The Hamilton girls are locked in their ritzy home by a misogynistic father who is embarrassed by his large family and lack of male heirs. The girls sneak out several nights a week to dance at New York's speakeasies and get a taste of life outside their father's walls.

I'm pairing THE GIRLS AT THE KINGFISHER CLUB with Edna St. Vincent Millay's most famous poem.

First Fig
By Edna St. Vincent Millay

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!

The Hamilton girls are burning the candle at both ends. What I love about this pairing is how the poem emphasizes the balance between frenetic joy and risk. That's what keeps drawing the twelves sisters back to the dance floor. It can't (and doesn't -- gasp!) last forever.

If you'd like to share your Summer Reads: Chapter & Verse, leave me a note in the comments or send an email to mrspoems@gmail.com. I'll post another sample next week.

Have fun out there, book sharks!

Find it here.

Poetry (Summer Stinks!) Friday

My friends, have I mentioned how much I hate summer?

Summer is an Epic Fail

It is hot. The heat makes people sweaty and cranky. And it's like someone stuck a too-bright light-bulb into the sun. Summer is primo migraine season. You will not see me outside without my super-cool prescription sunglasses.

Don't let the smile fool you. The summer light
is slicing painfully across my face like a laser.

And then there are the bugs. I am, basically, mosquito bait.

When I retire, I will be moving to Maine. Mr. Shovan thinks he would prefer Arizona. I queried a friend who resides in that state: Is it true when they say "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." This is frequently how real estate and travel agents extol the virtues of Southwest (dry) heat versus Midatlantic (sticky) heat.

He said, in reply: Do you like the way it feels when you open the oven and all the heat blasts into your face? No.

Today, though, the reason I hate summer has nothing to do with the weather. The reason I hate summer can be summed up in two words: Summer Reading.

My son has summer assignments for three classes: English, Religion and U.S. History. Together, these assignments add up to 570 pages of reading, two five-paragraph essays (for one class), three short essays, a multiple choice test, 20 short-answer questions, and a PowerPoint presentation. Huh?

We are suffering here, people.

Let me backtrack by saying, in case you forgot, that my rising junior is dyslexic. He is a great student, but he thrives on structure. Summer is the opposite of structured.

When did he decide to show me these lovely assignments that would take him all summer to accomplish? This week. When should he have started? February.

All of this work is overwhelming. Thank goodness, I am a licensed education professional. I can organize reading plans and chunk assignments like a drill sergeant when the need arises (as it has, along with the temperature). So, we are doing school in August.

Julia, the younger sister, is not thrilled. She prefers show-tune singing, knitting mommy. She does not respond well to: Drop and give me 20 pages in that math workbook.

But she rolls with it, as many sibs of LD kids learn to do. Sometimes the whole house has to stop and build up the scaffolding needed to support her brother. It's a cyclical part of our lives that I know other parents (and teachers) of LD kids understand.

Even the strongest of us need support from time to time.
http://www.nps.gov/stli/historyculture/places_restoring.htm

My sweet hubby is suffering too. It took me and Robbie all afternoon to figure out some software that enables him to listen to his history textbook (he reads along, highlighter in hand). We got it working 15 minutes before Dad walked in the door.

So, Chinese take-out for dinner and thank goodness I can be a stay home mom when I need to be. Today, I needed to be.

Fortune cookie writing contest!

It's stressful, but I wouldn't change a hair on the kid's head. I have learned so much from the way he learns. Parents of LD kids have to be flexible. We have to have a toolbox ready to go when our guys (and girls) stumble.

Here's the cool news: I've been an advocate for my own twice-exceptional kid and for other parents with 2-e kids for years, but now I'm going to do it AS A JOB! This summer, I've been training to become an Independent Educational Consultant. And the person who is mentoring me -- she specializes in working with LD kids. How perfect is that?!

I won't get into the details of what an IEC is right now. The short version: helping LD students with the college search and application process so they go off to a "good fit" school.

Is there a poem at the end of this rant? Of course there is.

This is from the middle grade novel-in-poems I have been working on for FIVE YEARS. If life with the kiddo calms down, I plan to do one more big revision this summer and then start sending the manuscript out. The latest title for the novel is THE LAST FIFTH GRADE OF EMERSON ELEMENTARY. Here a poem in the voice of one of my Emerson ES fifth graders.

Window

During math, I’m like a dog

that wants to play outside

but no one will open the door.

No matter how many math games

we play in Mr. Keller’s class

I can’t hold still. I get itchy.

I look at trees through the window,

toss something at my friend’s desk.

Want to play? He shakes his head.

I bite my nails, chew erasers,

look out the window. Green grass.

I tap my feet, click my teeth,

dream up stories about dogs

living wild in the woods.

If I concentrate, I can see

yellow eyes in the trees

looking back at me.

Photo by Julia

I've given you a lot to reflect on, friends, fellow parents, and poetry lovers. You may wish to visit Reflections on the Teche for more summer rants, raves and rhymes as we head into the last month of the season. Soon, I'll be saying TGIF (Thank God It's Fall).

UPDATE:

Parents, I thought you might like to see the result of yesterday's madness. Here is our new and improved August calendar.

We have the usual doctor visits and summer parties. What's new? Blue post-its with the day's assignment (for each teen).

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in it." Call me crazy, or anal, or OCD, but now we can see that the summer assignments are do-able and everyone feels a lot better. Phew!