MORTIMER IS IN THE HOUSE!

Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Amazing Amy (for those who don't know, this is a reference to a book you really should read: GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn. Our Amazing Amy is nothing like that Amazing Amy!) at The Poem Farm for Roundup!

 Last week Janet Wong, who happens to be one of my favorite poets, tagged me for the Children's Poetry Hop with the oh so adorable Mortimer:

Here’s How-to-Hop, “Mortimer Minute” style!

• Answer 3 questions. Pick one question from the previous Hopper. Add two of your own. Keep it short, please! This is a Blog Hop, not a Blog Long Jump. This is The Mortimer Minute—not The Mortimer Millennium!
• Invite friends. Invite 1-2 bloggers who love children's poetry to follow you. They can be writers, teachers, librarians, or just-plain-old-poetry-lovers. 
• Say thank you. In your own post, link to The Previous Hopper. Then keep The Mortimer Minute going: let us know who your Hoppers are and when they plan to post their own Mortimer Minute.

Ready? I'll start with one of Janet's questions... and end with a couple of stories Mortimer will not like all that much. Sorry, Mortimer!

Mortimer: What do you have in your refrigerator?

IL: Leftovers. I love to cook. I also love leftovers. My fellas? They do NOT love leftovers. So, yes, I have a collection that builds over the week... and I eat leftovers for Saturday and Sunday lunches (while the guys make themselves sandwiches).

Mortimer: What is the best part about writing poetry for children? 

IL: The opportunity it provides to look at the world with a child-like sense of wonder, and how it makes me feel connected with the world and children and wonder and love -- and with the child who still lives inside me.

Mortimer: Funny poems or beautiful ones?

IL: Oh, beauty! I love a meaningful poem, one that touches me emotionally. Sometimes that can be a funny poem, but in general, I go for the beautiful ones. 

And now, I am happy to announce that I've tagged Jone MacCulloch to join the Children's Poetry Blog Hop.

Jone contributes each Friday to the Poetry Friday community.  She also interviews and features poets on a monthly basis. During the school year, she’s a teacher librarian and the rest of the time she’s either writing haiku and other poetry, or playing with her camera.  Her passion for poetry is shared with her students and staff and on her two blogs.  She’d rather write poetry than memorize it. 

 

Her blog Check It Out 

features the work of her students, poetry books for children, and poet interviews. Her school's "Poetry Postcard Project" for National Poetry Month is in its sixth year.

 

Her blog Deowriter

 

 is her online notebook for haiku and other poetry forms. You can find out what happens in the library and books she's reading through twitter @JoneMac53

.

She also heads up the Poetry category of the CYBILS awards... and she is the author of a lovely book of haiga (haiku + photographs) SOLACE IN NATURE. Look for her post October 11.

Okay, someone hold Mortimer's ears. One of my earliest memories is of my father butchering and stringing rabbits on a line. (My parents went through this farming/self-sufficiency phase...) Not a sight for young eyes let me tell you. A few years later, when I was 8 or 9, my parents agreed to let me keep some rabbits as pets. I was quite the animal-loving gal -- still am, though I sorta traded in the vast menagerie for a smaller one that's easier to maintain with the humans we added to our lives. We kept the rabbits at the back of the property, because of the smell. I was very good about checking on them and feeding them and playing with them -- until a freak ice storm hit our area (Folsom, LA, just north of Lake Ponchartrain). When I went out to check the rabbits, they had turned to popsicles. I cried and cried. Learned a lot that day...

THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT is still one of my most favorite children's books. And WATERSHIP DOWN. And TO RABBITTOWN by April Halprin Wayland. And THE VELVETEEN RABBIT.

So many wonderful rabbit books! Readers, can you name some more titles? Now I am wanting to have a little rabbit reading party. Thanks, Mortimer. :)