It’s really a miracle that Pete Fromm survived the winter he accepted a job to maintain a salmon breeding pool way off the grid in Idaho. His job takes 0-15 minutes each day (once it’s freezing, he has to clear away ice, and once the salmon hatch, he has to check on them and count…
On the blog: A slice about cats in the Christmas tree A haiku about playing Monopoly for six hours Two haiku about the prairie landscape, here and here A haiku about warm winter days A haiku about my very old dog, Roxy And a found haiku from a current read In reading: I’ll be honest:…
On the blog: A few haiku found in quotations from NCTE A slice about taking photos of cats (with lots of photos of cats) A prairie haiku My son and husband also write haiku with me Two haiku inspired by waiting in the hall during a wrestling match The inevitable writer’s block haiku A haiku about…
On the blog: A haiku about my teenaged ambitions, as reflected by the books I’ve kept A haiku about a pomegranate Two haiku about trying to find a haiku moment in a basketball gym Three haiku about trying to avoid the obstacle of wildlife on my commute Three haiku found in hiking field notes A slice…
On the blog: A slice about my son’s new favorite book I play with Poem Generator to write haiku I attempt a traditional haiku In reading: My son and I just finished another Gordon Korman read-aloud, this one a favorite from my own teen years. In fact, we read my very own copy from 1987!…
I’ve been reading graphic novels like mad for Round 1 of Cybils judging. There are around 120 titles nominated for Graphic Novels Round 1, and I am trying to read them all! I do allow myself to abandon after 30 pages if it’s clearly not a serious contender for a finalist, and I’ll be honest:…
On the blog: Five things I always enjoy about NCTE Normally I would have written a daily learning post to share what I was learning and wondering each day at NCTE, but my hotel didn’t have free WiFi, and I discovered that I am intermittently frugal. I didn’t mind paying $2.50 for a bag of…
On the blog: A slice in praise of the slow, contemplative vacation In reading: Sheets has been making the rounds in my Theory & Practice of Teaching Reading class, and I was glad to get my turn to see what the fuss was all about. It’s a good pick for middle school and high school…
On the blog: A slice about the coffee shop where I write on Tuesdays In reading: Jarrett Krosoczka’s Hey, Kiddo will certainly be one of my top ten favorite graphic novels this year. It revisits the territory of his popular TED Talk and develops the outline of his life that he shared there into a…
Mapping Manhattan is Becky Cooper’s love letter to New York City. Cooper hand printed simple maps of Manhattan, blank except for Broadway, Houston, and Central Park, and walked the length of Broadway to distribute them to her fellow New Yorkers and to invite them to fill in the maps with their memories, their Manhattan. In…
the dirigible plum 