Dreaming and Making with Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit lovely Laura at Writing the World for Kids for Roundup.

In these parts, today marks the beginning of spring break. Woohooo! We have some adventures planned for the break -- and some relaxation, too.... calm before the storm that is National Poetry Month. :)

Today I am celebrating the lovely, generous and wise Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, who has not one but TWO new books this month. Congratulations, Amy!!! I'm excited to share with all of you a bit from each.

First, DREAMING OF YOU by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, illus. by Aaron DeWitt, brought to us by Boyds Mills Press. This is a sweet bedtime book, and it's earned a starred review from Kirkus!

Amy IS a star, and always has been, so this feels particularly fitting - and I know how validating critical acclaim can be... it helps make us feel like our work is valuable, that someone "gets" it. And it can be the shot in the arm we need to keep going in this oh-so-challenging children's book industry. So, yay!

The book features animals and what they are dreaming about... kittens, turtles, fireflies... and horses! I have to share with you the verse about horses:

Horses are dreaming of wild, windy rides.

Horses are dreaming of wide open spaces.

Horses are dreaming of you telling secrets

into long ears as you nuzzle their faces.

Isn't that lovely and sweet and exactly what horses are surely dreaming about? It makes me want to write verses about what other animals are dreaming... and maybe what Ruby (our dog) is dreaming! (A rubber chicken, perhaps? That squirrel that always always gets away? The sway of the breeze and the swell of the sun as she rides with us on the boat?) Fun.

And now, I've got to share with you about WITH MY HANDS: Poems about Making Things by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, picutres by Lou Fancher & Steve Johnson, brought to us by Clarion Books. Amy is a maker, a do-er, so this book is like sharing an afternoon in Amy-land! I love it. Maybe because I am a maker and a do-er, too... my whole life I've been painting and doodling and stained-glassing and scrapbooking and collaging and quilting and stitching and baking and crafting. And there are poems in this book for many of these things! I'd like to share 2 of my favorites:

I am in love with the placement
of the text on the page!

Knitting

by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

My grandma

                       taught me

how to knit

                       and when it's cold

I like to sit

                       with needles

and a ball of yarn.

                        I think of sheep

out in the barn

                        wearing wool

that soon will be 

                         knitted by

someone like me.

                         And as my fingers

twisty-twirl

                         each stitch into

a knit or purl

                         I watch my window

fill with snow.

                         I listen

as my needles go

                         clicking-clacking

to and fro

                          and watch

my knitting

                           grow

and grow.

---------------

.... and the closing poem:

With My Hands

by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

When I make something new

I am never the same.

I can never go back

to the person I was.

For the thing that I made

is a part of me now.

I changed it.

It changed me.

I am different

because

I brought a new something

to lie with my hands.

If you are a maker

then you understand.

------------

I DO understand! I DO! Thank you, Amy. And here are a few of my latest creations...

a sign pointing the way (down)
to the lake!

...and here it is close-up, while the paint was still drying:

....and here is a garland of origami swans... my son has made and gifted these to me over the years, and I finally figured out a lovely way to display them!

....finally, here is a double-sided t-shirt quilt I've just made for our youngest son as a graduation gift (shh!). It includes t-shirts from all the concerts he's been to with his dad. :)

side "Rock"

side "Roll"

Happy making! Happy reading! Happy dreaming! xo