GIVEAWAY UPDATE:

The winner of a copy of Lizard Lou is…

HANNAH HOLT!

Congrats, Hannah! A book will be sent to you by the publisher. I hope you and your kids enjoy it!

PHEW! GLAD YOU FOUND US!

Today’s guest and I have been wandering around all discombobulated, bumping into furniture and whatnot, so it’s a good thing you showed up when you did. We have lots to do and see, and I feel a bit like a mix of the March Hare and the White Rabbit, so let’s get to it!

Betsy is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup today at Teaching Young Writers. And that is a good place to find yourself!

GIVEAWAY!

This week I had happy news! A book of poetry I co-authored with Marie Rippel of All About Learning Press — Lizard Lou: a collection of rhymes old and new — was awarded the silver medal for poetry in the 2012 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards! This is the book that brought me into the world of children’s poetry in the first place, so I am particularly tickled (partickled?) to have our work recognized.

To help me celebrate, the publisher is kindly sending out a copy of Lizard Lou to a lucky winner! The 112-page hardcover book features 43 new poems by yours truly and 35 traditional rhymes and poems, curated by Marie, by renowned children’s poets including Leroy F. Jackson, C. J. Dennis, Vachel Lindsay, Ralph Bergengren, and more. Even Emily Dickinson makes a cameo appearance! Oh, and it’s spruced up by delightful black and white illustrations by Donna Goeddaeus.

You don’t have to do anything special. Whoever leaves a comment will be put in a hat…ooh, I better get a bigger hat to fit all of you in there. The winner will be chosen by Random.org and announced on the NWR FB page and on this post next Friday. Yay!

Shout-outs to two other winners you may know: Carol-Ann Hoyte and Heidi Bee Roemer won bronze in the poetry category for their anthology And the Crowd Goes Wild, and Charles Ghigna won silver in the pre-school picture book category for his book Little Seeds. Congrats, peeps!

PODCAST DEBUT!

On Wednesday, I was a guest on kidlit writer/illustrator/guru Katie Davis‘s fabulous podcast Brain Burps About Books. What a hoot! The episode is entitled “How to Inspire the Creative Juices,” and we chat about Italy, inspiration, ancient tombs, and Julie Hedlund’s Writers’ Renaissance Retreat that will take place in Florence, Italy, April 7-13, 2013. Alas, I am not able to spend the whole week with them, but I will be popping by the retreat on the last day to film a group poem for the blog, with the magnificent Duomo as the backdrop. Yum! Give a listen to the podcast right here!

 

 

 

AND NOW FOR THE STAR OF THE SHOW…

Carrie Finison!

Carrie has been meandering hither and yon while I yammered on, but once we sweep her out of the corners, she’ll be ready to regale us with…oh, here she is now! Please enjoy Carrie’s tale of a strange land called “Idunno,” then stick around for the interview, too!

 

 

IDUNNO

My brother’s always losing things.
We’re not sure where they go.
Whenever Mom asks, “Where’s your stuff?”
He mumbles, “Idunno.”

His homework went to Idunno,
Along with half his socks,
His basketball, his bat, his books,
And pencils by the box.

His brand-new hiking boots are there,
His compass and bandana.
I asked my Dad, “Where’s Idunno?”
He said, “Next to Montana.”

Tonight when Dad called, “Homework time!”
We couldn’t find my brother—
He’d vanished, vamoosed, disappeared.
“Where is he?” asked my mother.

I have a hunch he’s gone to find
His stuff in Idunno,
But since I don’t know where that is,
I just said, “I don’t know.”

 [heading style=”1″]GUEST POET SNICKERVIEW™ ~ CARRIE FINISON[/heading]

What’s Up with Carrie

Carrie: who are you, where are you, and how long have you been a rhyming fool?
I am a writer of stories and poetry for children in Arlington, Massachusetts, where I live with my husband, son, and daughter. I’ve always been interested in poetry as a reader and lover of words, but didn’t start writing poetry for children until around 2007 when I was reading a lot of rhyming picture books and magazines to my son (then 2) and I thought, “I’d like to try to write this.” Writing for children and teachers had been a part of my job as a producer at an educational software company, but I’d never tried my own creative writing. I have also been, at various times, a newspaper reporter, a world traveler, a house cleaner (I still haven’t managed to shake that title), a horseback rider, an amateur photographer, a swing dancer, and many other things.

Please share the first poem you ever wrote. And don’t say “Idunno,” ‘cuz that’s not a place and I know you do! (Neener neener.)
My mother recently unloaded two huge boxes of my old stuff onto me. It’s been fun to poke through these boxes and come across remnants of the past. I found a book I made in fifth grade – I believe the assignment was to create an autobiographical alphabet book where each page/letter reflected some aspect of yourself. Here’s the poem I wrote as the introduction to the book:

In this book from A to Z
you will find a part of me.
The book’s dedication has gone to me,
because I have written it most thoroughly.
This book is mostly about
me, yes me, without a doubt.
For it tells of my sister, mom, and dad
and all the things I ever had.
I really want you to read this book,
so go ahead, take a look.
And I will leave with out a trace,
for you have not the time to waste.

Do you like how I dedicated the book to myself? In spite of that faux pas, I was sort of proud of my fifth-grade self for this little rhyme.

Is your family as geographically challenged as the one in the poem? How do you all find your way to the dinner table? Leave a trail of unmatched socks?
There is one member of our family who is particularly challenged in that area, but for the sake of family harmony I won’t mention which one. I’ll just say that I’m usually the “finder” in the family. However, I do have my own areas of weakness. The ringtone on my phone is “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2, because I can rarely find the thing.

“Idunno” was inspired by a day when I was trying to get my son out the door for a soccer game. Where are your cleats? Idunno. Where are your shin guards? Idunno. Socks? Water bottle? Sweatshirt? Idunno. These are the moments that inspire poetry.

As for the dinner table, it’s often piled high with projects, so it’s sometimes a matter of actually finding the table before we can sit at it. Luckily we also have an eat-in kitchen.

People might not know this, but I do because I stalked you: you have a talent for editing/critiquing poems. Do you have formal training in writing poetry and/or a Ph.D. in nitpickery?
I don’t have formal training in writing poetry, but I have been a nitpicker my whole life. As a child, I enjoyed correcting strangers on their pronunciation. (“Mommy, he said ‘somethin’ but it’s really someTHING!”) My mother seemed embarrassed, but I’m sure these people were only too grateful to receive these elocution lessons from a three year old in line at the bank.

My career in criticism continued in middle school when I joined a club at the town library called “Junior Critics.” Our job was to read the new middle grade books that came into the library, discuss them, and write up recommendations for other kids. Oh, and the librarian paid us in Oreos. Dream job, right?

In college, I decided to major in English (was there ever really a question?) and continued with the literary criticism, this time for letter grades instead of cookies. I took a few poetry analysis classes, which is my only formal poetry education.

I still have so much to learn about writing poetry. I’m currently in a wonderful online poetry critique group, Poets’ Garage – basically a group of rhyming nitpickers like me. These people will pick a poem to shreds…but in the friendliest way possible and all in the spirit of improving it. It’s the perfect place to be.

Your poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies. Did you need a compass to find the path to publication? (Can I borrow it?)
Renée, my compass is only occasionally accurate, but you are certainly welcome to try it out. GPS would be so much better, wouldn’t it?

I started writing poems down in 2007 and sent a batch in to Babybug in late 2007 – that’s what I was reading a lot of at the time and so that kind of short poetry for very young children was “in my ear” so to speak. They were all rejected. I didn’t send anything else for over a year, but I kept writing down poems when I had the chance. I finally sent out more poems in early 2009, one batch to Babybug and one to High Five. My daughter was due early in the year and I had a long list of things to get done before she arrived – and as a New Year’s resolution moved “send out poems” to the top of the list. As it turned out, she was three weeks late so I had plenty of time. From that batch, one poem was accepted by Babybug and one by High Five. That was the boost I needed to keep going.

My poems have appeared in Babybug and High Five magazines, and Stories for Children ezine, and I have more work forthcoming in Ladybug and Highlights. In September, my poem “Superfan” was published in And the Crowd Goes Wild, a sports poetry anthology.

I find that writing for magazines suits me right now because I have limited time to focus on longer stories. As I go about my errands and work of the day, I can keep a couplet or two in my head and turn it around and around, or jot it down on the back of my shopping list. I also like having many pieces out on submission at once. It helps keep my mind off any one thing.

Is your opus focused mainly on poetry, or do you write other stuff, too?
I have been participating in Julie Hedlund’s 12×12 picture book challenge this year, which has been a blast. About half of my manuscripts are in rhyme and the others are in prose, but even in my prose I like to use lots of made-up words, sound words, and rhymes.

I also do freelance writing for educational publishers, mostly content development for software products. Some of this is fiction, some nonfiction. Other times I work on developing online quizzes or glossary entries, all those little bits and pieces a student might read when using a piece of software. It’s nice to occasionally get paid for writing.

What do you do when you’re not wandering aimlessly around town?
I love to read and my husband gave me a Kindle a couple of years ago, which makes it much easier for me to pick up a new book when I’ve finished one – usually in the middle of the night since that’s the only “quiet” time around here. I also like hanging out with my family – hiking, biking, baking, and gardening. My ideal day would be spent at the ocean with a boogie board and a good book, followed by a seafood dinner and a movie. (Except I’d probably fall asleep during the movie.)

If you could take a road trip with any children’s poet (living or otherwise), who would it be, where would you go, and what would you do when (if) you got there?
There are so many fabulous children’s poets out there. Lately I’ve been seeking out everything I can read by Phyllis Root, Alice Schertle, and Amy Ludwig VanDerwater (at the Poem Farm). But the person I think I’d want to take a road trip with is Margaret Mahy. I’ve been scouring the library and stores for her picture books and I love how oddball-ish and wacky some of her ideas are, but at the same time relatable. I was sad to learn she had passed away earlier this year. If I could go back in time and somehow meet her, I’d love to spend a day with her in New Zealand, which seems so rugged and wild and beautiful. We’d scramble around on the rocks and she’d tell me stories and then, after dinner, we’d sip wine by the fire and I’d find a way to curl up inside her mind for a little while and absorb some of her thoughts and experiences. That sounds a little weird and creepy…but also sounds like something that might happen in one of her stories. (We like weird and creepy at NWR!)

Quick: a rhyming couplet using the word “geography.”
Oooh, I love writing to a prompt. Here’s one:

Adrift at Sea
Day 12: I now realize it would have been prudent
To be a more careful geography student.

(Ooh…you’re good!)

I came up with some others, too, and will post them on my blog on Friday.

Can we come visit you and peruse your wares? (Online, of course, not at your house! We’re not convinced you could find your way to the door to let us in, and we get cranky when left out too long.)
Yes, please come visit online. Anyone who shows up at my house will be put to work organizing the cupboards and basement so we can more easily locate our stuff. Actually, if anyone WANTS to do that, you are welcome!

I just started a blog where I’ve been posting picture book reviews, as well as some thoughts on creating stories for children. I hope to be posting some poems there, eventually, too. And I’ll even give you the address so you know exactly where to find it.

Website:  www.carriefinison.com
Blog:  storypatch.wordpress.com

Thanks for stopping by, Carrie, and for adding “Idunno” to No Water River’s growing video poetry library!
Thank you, Renée! I’m so glad you found me.

 

[heading style=”1″]Extension Activities: “Idunno”[/heading]

• Writing:
  • In Carrie’s poem, “Idunno” becomes a made-up place where lost things go. Brainstorm a list of possible names for a made-up place — like No Water River! Choose your favorite, then make a list of ideas about what happens in this place, who lives there, what it looks like, and so on. Turn your list of images and ideas into a poem about your place.
  • Teachers of younger students, this exercise could be done as a group poem.
• Reading: 
  • Homeschooling Downunder has a marvelous list of geography picture books that take kids around the world, from New Jersey (Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon) to Japan (A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno) and everywhere in between.
  • Try Amazon’s list of books about maps and mapping skills.
  • Travel the world with the classic This Is… series by Miroslav Sasek.
• Arts and crafts (and a bit of science):
  • All different types of make-your-own-compass activities at these places: Crafty Crow for a simple compass experiment, Disney for a pirate compass, I Can Teach My Child for a paper plate compass experiment, and Discovery Cube for a complete lesson plan and compass-making instructions (PDF).
  • Artists Helping Children has lots of globe and earth crafts, while Activity Village has geography crafts and activities for younger kids.
• In the kitchen:
  • easy earth cookies, treasure map cupcake cake, decorate your favorite cookie or cake like a compass

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Video Location: Right here. Or maybe over there. Idunno.

See more poems in my poetry video library.

 

“Idunno” copyright © 2012 Carrie Finison. All rights reserved.