Daniel read with me at Te Papa as part of my Hot Spot Poetry Tour. He was nervous before he started, but he was really, really glad he did, at the end. He read very well indeed. He sent this new poem in for my highlight-of-the-year challenge but I wanted to post it now because I think it is tremendous. It was a great occasion. And Daniel catches it beautifully.
The New Zealand Book Council have done a very lovely piece on me and my blogs and my new books and have included Gemma‘s fabulous word-biscuit poem. I felt utterly chuffed to read all the good things they said about Poetry Box.
Poetry Box, remember, is nothing without y o u !
Here is the link.
I had such fun reading all the poems that took a Treasury title as their starting point. Many of you know I collected titles for my next collection at all my events and school visits on my tour so I can’t wait to start writing those .. but it won’t be until next year. Lots of writing projects for next year which I am very excited about.
I loved the way your poems took the title and then went off in all directions. Just what poems and poets like to do! Some played with how they looked and all sounded good! Lots of sizzling imagination too!
I LOVED all the poems you sent me, but I couldn’t post them all. If you missed out this time do try again. I have picked Noah from Adventure School to send a copy of A Treasury of NZ Poems. Noah was inspired by Margaret Mahy’s poem, ‘The Dictionary Bird.’ His poem is full of delicious sounds and scrumptious words just as her poem is. Congratulations to all the young poets.
Inspired by Harry Ricketts:
Inspired by Greg O’Connell:
Inspired by Stephanie Mayne:
By Ollie, Year 6 aged 11, Gladstone Primary School, Auckland
Inspired by Bill Nagelkerke:
Inspired by Pauline Cartwright:
Spaghetti
Sloppy curly spaghetti
Very good for lunch
Yummy slurpy spaghetti
My brother goes munch
Toasty cheesy spaghetti
I love it in my tum
Messy messy spaghetti
Tum tum spaghetti yum yum
Ruby T age 6, Year 2, Ilam School
Spaghetti
Slippy spaghetti slides down my chin
Slimy spaghetti makes me grin
By Gemma and Daniel, Adventure School
Russley School sent in a bunch of terrific poems. Here are a few of my favourites:
Inspired by Roger Hall:
Inspired by Joy Cowley:
Inspired by Greg O’Connell:
Inspired by James K Baxter:
One Breath Poems (inspired by Greg O’Connell – to be recited in one breath!):
I also received a tremendous bunch of poems from Room 8 at Adventure School. Again it was very hard to pick just a few to post.
Inspired by Pauline Cartwright:
Inspired by Bill Nagelkerke:
Inspired by Peter Bland:
Inspired by Stephanie Mayne:
Inspired by Paula Green:
Inspired by Margaret Mahy:
Inspired by Greg O’Connell:
Inspired by David Hill:
I posted this a few months back way before the book was out but now that it IS out you have a chance to do the challenge.
The Day No One Was Angry is written by Toon Tellegen and has gorgeous illustrations by Marc Boutavant. Toon is from The Netherlands, and like Glen Colquhoun, was a doctor before he began to write books. He is a well loved children’s author in his home country. Marc lives in Paris and has illustrated lots of children’s books.
The book is made up of twelve short chapters that feature animals and different kinds of anger. It reminds me of reading Joy Cowley’s Just One More and Kyle Mewburn’s Melu. There is folk-tale-ish-ness about the tales. I love the way you see an emotion in so many different ways. Sometimes you laugh and sometimes you frown. Stories can be like poetry and poetry can be like stories.There is a hyrax, and elephant, a lobster, a hedgehog, a toad, a cricket, a squirrel an aardvark and many more.
Try writing a poem about an animal or two that have to cope with something that makes them angry. Your story might make the reader laugh or sad or think. Just like in this book.
How will it end? Test out three endings and then pick your favourite.
Thanks to Gecko Press I have a copy of the book for one young poet.
If you have already sent a poem for this, send it again!
DEADLINE for your Animal-Anger Poem Challenge: WEDNESDAY December 2nd
Send to paulajoygreen@gmail.com. Include your name, year, age and name of school. You can include your teacher’s name and email. PLEASE say it’s for the Animal-Anger Poem challenge.
I will post my favourites and have a copy of the book for a poet thanks to Gecko Press (Year 0 to Year 8).
Teddy One-Eye: The autobiography of a teddy bear by Gavin Bishop, Random House, 2014
Gavin Bishop is one of our most beloved authors and illustrators and he has a new book out. It feels like a brother or sister to his fabulous memoir Piano Rock. I met a number of teachers on my tour who have used Piano Rock a lot with their classes. I can see why.
Like Piano Rock, the new book is gorgeously produced by Random House (it is hard cover) and has equally beautiful illustrations. Illustrations that belong in the time of the teddy (the 1950s)!
The book is an autobiography of a teddy, but it is also an autobiography of a boy (partly Gavin) as well as being a time machine as you get to go back to another time. I loved that! Boy gets to read Janet and John books (just like I got to read Janet and John when I was little). He gets to go the diary with his pocket money when he was 6. He loves doing spelling (just like I did!). He gets to eat homemade (not shop bought!!!!) Louise cake, beetroot chutney (well it got made in the kitchen even if he didn’t eat it himself), and roast mutton.
You even get bits of history in this back-in-time travel. Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing reach Mt Everest’s peak and Yvette William’s is New Zealand’s first woman to get an Olympic medal. There is even teddy-bear history to be discovered too! 2002 was marked as the 100th anniversary of the first teddy bear made.
Teddy One-eye is special because there is a special story story about him (this may or may not be true!). I love the way the Grandmother reminds everyone that Teddy One-eye is special and he needs to be looked after well. The teddy certainly knows what is going on in the world around him and he gets to be very good at reading. Boy loves him, then little baby brother loves him — but he gets to spend days or years or months in all kinds of surprising places (the pot cupboard, a plastic bag).
Reading this book means you get to do all kinds of wonderful things: fall in love with a raggety (at times) teddy bear, go on adventures and go back in time. I loved the way this book made me think about my own toys and my own childhood and what I loved to do and what was important. It has scary bits, funny bits and even slightly sad bits.
Bravo Gavin Bishop! This book is a treasure trove. I loved it very much indeed.
Under the Ocean: Explore and discover New Zealand’s sea life Gillian Candler with illustrations by Ned Barraud Craig Potton Publishing
Ned: ‘Ned is a talented illustrator with a passion for sea creatures. His work has been published frequently in the School Journal, and he illustrated Moonman (Nov 2014). He works at Weta Digital as a texture artist and lives in Wellington, spending lots of time exploring the seashore with his three young children.’
Gillian: ‘Gillian was a secondary-school teacher before moving into educational publishing with Learning Media in Wellington, where she worked on a wide range of publications for children, including books about science and the environment. She currently works as a writer and an educational publishing consultant from her home in Pukerua Bay. Gillian is passionate about understanding and appreciating New Zealand’s wild places, however close to home they might be.’
For fans of the sea, this is a great book to discover things about our oceans from rays and sharks to tubeworms and sea cucumbers.
Like all good nonfiction books, it has lots of very interesting facts. Here are some of my favourites:
‘Common dolphins work together to herd fish so that is easier to catch them.’
‘Sea cucumbers find food in the mud on the sea floor.’
‘Blue cod can rest on the sea floor by standing on their fins.’
‘Whales need to come up to the surface to breathe, but unlike humans they can choose when to breathe.’
The book also has tips on what we can do. How we can behave near sea creatures. How we can care for the sea environment.
Ned’s illustrations for the book are exquisite. The coral and seals and seahorses come to life on the page so beautifully.
I recommend this book highly for classrooms and any children who love discovering facts about things. Wonderful!
Ned and Gillian have also written these books:
Some of Seba Dilaimi’s class performed two poems at my event at the National Library but she missed seeing them as she was sick. So I popped into her class to meet her, read a few poems, answer some questions and check out the ones they had written. (we wrote a cool bird poem too!)
Inspired by my picture poems (shape poems or concrete poetry) in The Letter Box the class had done a whole batch of their own and they were magnificent! Just magnificent!
I am posting them here for you to see because you might be inspired to try some too. I loved them all. Looking at them and reading them made me want to get cracking and do some more of my own.
Thanks … I really loved visiting your class. Happy poetry days!
This Junior-Chapter book was published by Gecko Press in May and I have only just read it. I gobbled it up in one sitting and just loved it.
There is much to love.
The gorgeous illustrations by Eva Eriksson (she’s Swedish).
The beautiful look of the book created by Gecko Press.
The terrific story by Rose Lagercrantz (she’s also Swedish).
This is the first sentence of the book: ‘This is a story about Dani, who’s always happy.’
Things happen that make it much harder for Dani to be happy, but whenever things get extra tough she fills her mind with all the best things. Especially when she is feeling alone and nobody at school likes her that much because her best friend has moved away. Apart from a boy called Cushion. And that is part of the problem! Dani likes to rewrite the endings of sad books to give them a happy ending, so I was wondering how this book would end! You will have to discover for yourself as a reviewer should never give this away!
The sentences are diamonds and pearls and emeralds on the page. Not flash and complicated. Just shining and lovely.
The story shows how you can hold onto happy thoughts when the world about you turns to custard (or tomato sauce!). It is an altogether gorgeous, moving story.
I have written poems inspired by another poem. Sometimes a word or an image or the whole poem itself. This was a perfect challenge to celebrate A Treasury of NZ Poems for Children.
Sometime you can follow the pattern of a poem and sometimes you can play with that pattern and make it even more of you own. Both ways work!
W o w !!! I loved all these poems. It was impossible to pick a poet to give a book to. But after thinking hard I have decided to give a copy of the Treasury to Angus from Adventure School and Kereru class at Mahana School. Congratulations everyone I picked to post. If I didn’t pick you this time, do try my last two challenges and all the challenges next year.
A sad poem from Ashlee (I love this poem by Chris Tse which is why I talked about it on my other blog. Ashlee’s poem works beautifully as some very sad images grow inside it):
Hi Paula, I have written a poem about SAD. I hope you like it. My poem was inspired by Chris Tse’s “The saddest song in the world” (from nzpoetryshelf.com)
from Ashlee S, Year: 4, Age: 8, School: Redwood School (Tawa) Wellington
Ewen’s version of a very famous poem. Lots of poets all around the world have been inspired by William Carlos William’s poem. I love the way a poem so simple can puff out into something so much more. Great job Ewen.
Hi Paula, This is my poem inspired by The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams. This was a really fun idea… Thanks! From Ewen
By Ewen aged 12, Year 7, Cobham Intermediate School, Christchurch
Gemma’s poem follows the pattern of Mary Mary Quite Contrary.
Nursery rhymes are a great jumping pad for poems. Gemma’s made me laugh! Peter Millet has had fun doing poems like this in his books.
Gemma, Gemma…
Gemma, Gemma – What a dilemma
Why is your room a mess?
With books and toys and other great joys…
Does my head in, I must confess!
Mummy, Mummy – You are so funny
My room is perfect for me.
The books and toys are sources of joy
And placed there on purpose, you see!!!
By Gemma, Age 8, Year 4, Adventure School
An alphabet poem. What a cool idea. I really want to do an alphabet book of poems. I also love the idea of classes writing a poem together which is what I always do when I visit schools.
A Nonsense Alphabet
A group poem by Kereru (Years 3 to 6), Mahana School
Inspired by Edward Lear
A is an apple
Shiny and clean,
Juicy and fresh
Red and green
a!
Yummy round apple!
B is a broccoli
Round and green
Who didn’t feature
In most kids’ dreams
b!
Evil little broccoli!
C was a cabbage
Round and green
Sitting in the soil
While watching the screen
c!
Bushy lime cabbage!
D was a dog
Who caught a pig
In a rocky river with fish
He loved to dig
d!
Hairy digging dog!
E is an eagle
Soaring through the skies
They feast on dead cows
That are surrounded by flies
e!
What an intelligent eagle!
F was a fox
Who was really funny
Pouncing on trampolines
and eating a bunny
f!
Hunting jumping fox!
G was a grackle
Sometimes they glide
Catching and digging worms
Flat on their side
g!
Gliding flying grackle!
H was a horse
Galloping up and down
Trotting in the arena
All around town
h!
Beautiful bay horse!
I was an icecream
Melting in the sun
But it was yummy
And it didn’t weigh a tonne
i!
Scrumptious delicious icecream!
J was a jaguar
Pouncing while hunting birds in the sky
Cute and fuzzy
Eating blueberry pie
j!
Dangerous fierce jaguar!
K was a kangaroo
That lived with the king
And had a koala
With a bell that dinged
k!
Jumping punching kangaroo!
L is a lizard
Slithering along
Dropping its tail
Singing a song
l!
Lovely lively lizard!
M was a monkey
That loved sailing in a boat
Singing with his
Shiny new furry coat
m!
Sparkling playful monkey!
N was a nose
Sniffing up rust
Smelling like roses
Who could you trust?
n!
Big strong noses!
O was an octopus
Who had to blink
Swimming around seaweed
And squirting out his ink
o!
Inky, lots of legs octopus!
P was a puppy
Chewing up his toy
Leaving fur around the house
Playing with a boy called Roy
p!
Fluffy cuddly puppy!
Q was a Queen
She’s such a scene
Picking on slaves
Acting so mean
q!
Frizzy afro Queen!
R was a rabbit
Bouncing happily around
Eating green grass
From the soft ground
r!
Happy white rabbit!
S was a starfish
Moving slowly in the sea
With a crab in one tentacle
And a golden key
s!
Slippery soft starfish!
T was a tiger
That has lots of strips
Living in caves
And having lots of fights
t!
Fluffy big tiger!
U was a unicorn
Fluffy pink and white
Prancing and dancing
Man – he’s so bright
u!
Fluffy, cuddly unicorn
V is a valley
Echoing every sound
Lonesome beneath the shadows of the hill
The encroaching forest surrounds
v!
Vacant valley!
W was a wolf
That had a fluffy coat
Who was hunting for fun
And ate lots of oats
w!
Fuzzy cute wolf!
X was a xerus
Running and dancing around
Collecting up nuts
From the mossy ground
x!
Bushy burgundy xerus!
Y was a yo-yo
That went around and around
You can do it anywhere
Even on a mound
y!
Tubby round yo-yo!
Z is a zonkey
He was so stripy brown
When he went dancing
He always boggied into town
z!
Party rocking zonkey!
Some children from Ormond School in Gisborne were inspired by my poem, ‘When I am Cold,’ in The Letterbox Cat. I loved the way they have played with my ending and found surprising things to add. Great job. I loved them all but have picked just a few to post.
When I Am cold
When I am cold
I get rat bumps!
When I am very cold
I get chicken bumps!
When I get very, very cold
I get penguin bumps!
When I get very, very, very cold
I get elephant bumps
When I am very, very, very, very cold
I get moa bumps!
When I am very, very, very, very, very cold
I get into my black and white onesie,
put on fifty socks, a pair of gloves and then snuggle up into bed!
By Georgia
When I Am Cold
When I am cold
I get penguin bumps!
When I am very cold
I get chicken bumps!
When I am very, very cold
I get elephant bumps!
When I am very, very, very, cold
I get moa bumps!
When I am very, very, very, very cold
I get an infinity blanket
and sit down and watch T.V!
By Noah
When I Am Cold
When I am cold
I get ghost bumps!
When I am very cold
I get pig bumps!
When I am very, very cold
I get lion bumps!
When I am very, very, very, cold
I get snail bumps!
When I am very, very, very, very cold
I sit beside the fire!
By Joshua
When I Am Cold
When I am cold
I get skeleton bumps!
When I am very cold
I get zombie bumps!
When I am very, very cold
I get penguin bumps!
When I am very, very, very, cold
I get ghost bumps!
When I am very, very, very, very cold
I get dragon bumps!
When I am very, very, very, very, very cold
I get muddy bumps!
When I am very, very, very, very, very, very cold
I have a drink of hot chocolate!
By Taylor
Geena’s spring and cat poems were inspired by poems in The Letterbox Cat. It is very special when you inspire someone. I especially loved the sea cat and the hushing waves. Such good detail in this poem. And some pop-out words. Thank you so much!
Hiya Paula- After you came and visited Arrowtown School, and gave me a copy of your fantastic The Letterbox Cat, all your great poems have given me some great poems of my own, so I wanted to share some of them with you.
This one is inspired by your ‘Hello Spring’ poem. Thanks for the great idea!
Sprouts
A small peep of sun is all I need
My small green leaves must get light I plead
One bright spring morning, cool dew rests on my shoots
Oh my Roots!, could it be?
Is it the sun I see?
And sure enough the sun beams back at me.
By Geena S
This poem is inspired by all your lovely cat poems in your book, so I thought I would write one about the lovely sea.
The Sea Cat
The sea is where you’ll find my cat.
You’ll see him jumping over bubbling waves,
like a blackbird flying across the indigo blue sky.
He loves everything about the Sea,
he loves the salty smell,
the hushing sound of the tumbling waves
and the sweet bliss of the smooth wet sand beneath his paws.
He leaps at passing crabs
and pounces at the forever moving sand,
as the water retreats beneath him.
My cat is a free Seagull.
His home is the Ocean
Because the Ocean is where he belongs.
By Geena S, Year 8, Arrowtown School
Another poem inspired by one of mine. I loved the way Glazie has played with rhyme such as ‘onion’ and ‘minion.’ I loved reading this!
This is so cool. Like Gemma, Daniel has taken an old favorite and made it his own. Very imaginative. A tip top poem!
By Daniel, Year 1, aged 5, Adventure School
Another poem inspired by me. I love the way words loop and slip and play in Jack’s poem. It is very good to read aloud. Bravo!
Room 8 at Adventure School in Whitby sent a terrific bunch of poems to me that were inspired by other poems. I loved them all but I have picked just a few to post. Such imagination and such great vocabulary. The poems all sang in my ear too! It was a real treat to get these poems. Wow!
The last term is skating to an end so I need to give you time to do a final challenge and me to post my favourites.
I have had a year of such highlights, I am inviting you to write a poem about one of yours.
A favourite thing or time or experience or sight or sound or view or person or book or film or memory or discovery. You choose! You can do more than one if you like.
Good detail will help your poem, so go hunting!
Use your ears to make sure every line sounds good!
You can use imagination and invent a highlight or make your real one bounce in different ways.
DEADLINE for your Highlight Challenge: Thursday December 11th ( I will post Dec 12th)
Send to paulajoygreen@gmail.com. Include your name, year, age and name of school. You can include your teacher’s name and email. PLEASE say it’s for the Highlight-Poem challenge.
I will post my favourites and have a book prize for a poet (Year 0 to Year 8).
Poetry Box 