Austin Community College (where I teach) is sponsoring a two-month all-out literary extravaganza called The Big Read.

It’s actually an NEA program and ACC is one of this year’s participating communities.

The school chose the book Sun, Stone and Shadows: 20 Great Mexican Short Stories as the centerpoint of their program, and they’re hosting readings, panel discussions and bookclubs as a way to engage and inspire readers.

Lucky us that one of the stories — My Life with the Wave, by Octavio Paz — has been turned into a children’s book.
Yep. Thanks to author Catherine Cowan, ACC’s Big Read has a kids component.
I was the lucky reader plucked from the pile to take the picture book version to libraries this month and next, and it has been a joy.

Today, for example.

When I introduce the book, I say, "I have to warn you. You need a wild imagination to get into this book. Do you guys have wild imaginations?"

A 2nd grade boy called Seth rolled his eyes at me and said, "Ma’am, we’re kids!"

"So does that mean you automatically have wild imaginations?" I asked.

EVERYONE rolled their eyes at me now. Duh, Ma’am!

"But not grown ups?" I asked.

"Nope," said Seth. "Because of taxes and stuff."

And then later, when the kids were doing their own watercolors — inspired by the book — a girl called Irene waved me over to look at her painting. "Look," she said, "it’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!"

"Wow," I said. "Very cool. I’ve looked but I’ve never actually found one of those. Have you?"

"Yep," she said. "I got lucky one day."

Just like that.
All matter-of-fact.

 
I kind of know what she means.
I got lucky one day, too.

This was one of those weeks for me when all things converged.

Conversations overlapped, unspoken needs got answered, everyone (it seemed) held up mirrors for one another.

The topics at hand included success, cancer, sleeplessness, politics, houseguests, fear, running, education, food and technology. It was a busy week.

And still, the answer to pretty much every question was the same.

There is spiritual in the actual, sacred in the ordinary, ideas (as William Carlos Williams would say) in things.

This was a good reminder, when so many things seem impossible to grasp and my body either threatens to sink or implode or combust in the buzz of it all. It was a good reminder to look around and notice what beauty is at hand right here and now. It was a good reminder to eat my bowl of fruit and pour my cup of coffee, kiss my family and kiss them again, and do the work that makes my heart sing. It would be silly, after a week like mine, to ignore a reminder like that. 

The Inner History of a Day
by John O’Donohue

No one knew the name of this day;
Born quietly from deepest night,
It hid its face in light,
Demanded nothing for itself,
Opened out to offer each of us
A field of brightness that traveled ahead,
Providing in time, ground to hold our footsteps
And the light of thought to show the way.

(Read the rest here…)

(Hear a lovely interview with John O’Donohue and recitation of some of his poems in his warm Irish brogue here…)

Happy Friday, my friends.
Namaste.

I spent a little time hanging out in my Small One’s classroom this morning.
She’s in third grade and has a different teacher than her sister had, so I don’t know him well yet.

When I was there, they were working on math.

He had some simple addition problems up on the chalkboard but I realized pretty soon that they were just illustrations for the bigger point he was trying to make.

"Memorizing basic math facts is always a good idea," he said, "because you’ll be able to figure  things out quickly — even more complex things — for the rest of your lives." (This is when kids think, "Yeah, right, like you need to do math problems as a grown up. Ha.")

But then he went on to say, "But if you don’t have the basics memorized, that’s okay. There are a lot of strategies you can use." And he proceeded to share a bunch of them — everything from using fingers and hash marks, to adding 10 and substracting 1 if you’re supposed to be working with a 9. And so on.

"What really matters," he said, "is that you figure out which strategies work for you!"

Hallelujah, I thought.
(Me with the crazy little math tricks that help me figure out tips and tax and percentages and such…)
Praise the teachers who tell kids there is more than one way to do things ‘right’.

Hello friends…

When I blitzed about All the World a few weeks ago, I shared some of the reviews we’d gotten so far.
Since then, there have been a few more.

The book is out now, so some of the happiest buzz  just comes from people I know, seeing it on the shelf at their local booksellers. Sometimes they send me photos and since I’m just sitting here in my little nook in Austin, Texas, it thrills me no end.

Still, I’ll keep that sorta stuff to myself since you’d be understandably dis-interested in what my mother-in-law or second cousin or college roomate is snapping with her iphone.

Instead, I’ll share the bigger, happier bits of news that my editor shares with me:

All the World is the only picture book on this fall’s Top Ten Kids’ Indie Next List.

This is what I did when I heard about that: !!!!!!!!

Because the Indie Next List is by and for independent booksellers, and you know how we feel about independent booksellers. Seated at the same table as librarians when the extra big and caramely desserts come around. Really. They are our people, people…

Also, we were given a starred review in Publishers’ Weekly. It was very, very, very nice and said things like my text and Marla’s art "create an empathic, welcoming whole."

The people who write these reviews make poetry of their jobs, I swear they do.
It’s really moving and inspiring to me.

The Publishers’ Weekly review was the book’s fourth star — which feels like an honest to goodness constellation — and it’s a daunting honor to be included on such careful, thoughtful lists.

(Other reviews for All the World include this one in Horn Book (I cried)).

Run, don’t walk, people.
Registration is now open for the biggest conference of the year (the biggest conference ever??) this side of New York City.
Seriously.

As you may know, Austin, Texas, is not a place to take other places’ grandness sittin’ down.
So it’s no wonder that our resident miracle worker — Regional Advisor Tim Crow — has created Destination Publication — an all-out, all-day affair, January 30th, 2010.

I am sooooo excited about this conference because it includes the the following folk:

1. My dear friend and genius illustrator of my new book All the World, Ms. Marla Frazee
2. My dear friend and genius author of the new book Operation Yes, Ms. Sara Lewis Holmes
3. My dear friend and genius author of Hattie, Big Sky and Two Bobbies, Ms. Kirby Larson
4. Amazing editors from not one, not two, but three houses
5. Not one, not two, but three amazing agents
6. Plus, a bunch of the most accomplished authors I know.

I’m going to join Marla for an author-illustrator chat but I’m also just going to be soakin’ up all the goodness.
You should, too.
C’mon.
You know you want to…

It’s stunning to me how quickly our family pace changes when August turns to September each year.
It may just be indication of how seriously we take our summer downtime, but I fear it’s also that we squeeze almost too much into our lives September through May.

The thing is, we love what we do — all of us.
The Shakespeare and swimming, the pick up basketball games and women’s groups, the library events and 10K runs.
We love it all.

It’s just that there are four of us and 7 short days each week and sometimes, in order to get to do what we love, we have to hurry. Which is fine occasionally, but boy-oh-man, you wouldn’t want to make a habit of it.

I am ever mindful of the need to sloooooow it down, catch my breath, reassess and say the occasional No, Thank You.
But sometimes, I need a little reminder. We all do.

Here were mine this week:

My Tall One’s first formal Scrabble game.
Scrabble is a sloooow game, requiring patience, good humor and total presence.
I love it…

And this poem, by Marie Howe:

Hurry

Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave?   
To mine? Where one day she might stand all grown?   

Read the rest of the poem here… and subscribe to American Life in Poetry while you’re at it.
Make time for it.
You’ll be glad you did…

1. Amy Bowllan is hosting a series called Writers Against Racism at School Library Journal.

It is really really really (times ten) good.

I kind of wanted to binge on it, but after reading the moving and thoughtful post by my dear friend (and Poetry Princess) Tanita Davis I decided they needed to be absorbed one at time. I’m working my way through my friends first (Tanita, Varian, Francisco, Don), and then will make sure I catch all the others.

I would pull out lots of inspiring quotes and excerpts for you, but I really just want you to go read them yourselves.
But, okay.
Just this one:

"Racism is no match for a strong family." — Don Tate

2. Now then. Speaking of Tanita, she’s one of two Poetry Princess authors on my current Read As Soon As Humanly Possible list and I think you should add them to your list, too:

Mare’s War, by Tanita Davis —
The story of a woman who served in the Women’s Army Corp during WWII and the road trip she takes with her now-teenage granddaughter. Is that a cool premise or what? Plus, it’s told in alternating viewpoints — my favorite! Tanita’s a poet’s storyteller so I’m sure Mare’s War is going to be a lovely and wholly satisfying read…

Operation Yes, by Sara Lewis Holmes — 
Air Force families, improv theater and one amazing teacher make me want to say Yes! Sara’s been a military mom to two amazing young people for 20-some years, so she knows what she’s talking about here. Plus, she is a write-from-all-the-way-down-at-the-bottom-of-her-heart kind of gal and although I haven’t read it yet, I’ve got my tissues ready…

3. I loooooved this article about Spike Jonze in last weekend’s NY Times Magazine. It’s about making the film version of Where the Wild Things Are. You may think it’s a bad idea to make a movie of one of our most beloved children’s books ever, and I’m not totally convinced myself yet. But what gets said in this piece about creative freedom and risk-taking and a deeply-rooted respect for the emotional terrain of childhood is pretty profound. Don’t you think?

Well.
Mercy.
I had quite a day yesterday.

Our book came out.

There was this awesome post at Jama Rattigan’s alphabet soup and this awesome interview
at 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

There were these world balloons from my sister.

But the highlight was popping into a bookstore to do a little recognizance while my Tall One was at swim team.

(Does a book release mean that the book is actually out there, y’know, in stores?
Inquiring minds wanted to know.)

My Small One and I stole in stealthily.
We feigned interest in cookbooks.
We sauntered toward the children’s section.
We stopped and looked at the maps.

And then…
she spied it first.

I followed with my cell phone open:

Wahoo!

And just as I was about to buy myself a copy to celebrate, I ran into a woman I know who happens to be a teacher.
So she bought one!
For her class.
I signed it to Tina and the Golden Lions.

Wow.

Please let this serve as my official thank you note to Jama and Jules and Tina  and my sister and all of you who cheered and whooped and hollered with me. It made for a really, really, really special day.

Plus (as if that’s not enough), yesterday marked the launch of my brand new much improved way prettier and more functional web site!!!!

My very dear friend Shannon Lowry of Round Robin Press designed it in her lovely, whimsical and inimitable way (thank you, Shannon!)… my other very dear friend Sarah Bork Hamilton is the mighty fine eye behind the bio pic (thank you, Sarah!)… and  faster-than-a-speeding bullet Jenny Medford of Websy Daisy built the site (thank you, Jenny!).

I hope you’ll stop by for a visit and to sign up for my email list so I can keep you apprised of happenings.
Not like daily tweets or anything.
Just the very occasional happening.
That I think you might be interested in.
I promise…

Yesterday was my Tall One’s birthday.
She’s eleven.
Which blows my mind.
Naturally.

Today is my book’s birthday.
Which also blows my mind.
Of course.

In fact, I’m a little too throat-lumpy to say much about it right now, except that I will be forever grateful to Marla Frazee who created art that truly breathes and sings for this book, and to Allyn Johnston, our  everso perceptive and attentive editor who did everything just plain right.

And speaking of gratitude.
I cannot believe what Jama Rattigan did to welcome All the World this morning.
Jama — thank you.
When is someone going to give that woman a "Most Generous Person on the Internet" trophy????
Seriously.

And because my coffee cup runneths over in a big fat way, there’s also this from 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast.
Jules — thank you.
You can kinda see why I’m getting all teary over here… and chuckley, too, because Jules is just flat-out funny.
(Which is only one of the approximately 700 reasons they’ve been nominated for Best Kidlit Blog at Book Blogger Appreciation Week!)

I am going to go do breakfast dishes and make beds and other grounding activities now because otherwise I might just up and float away and my family might be sad to come home and find me gone…

Namaste…

This week was my week to talk about books I read over the summer.
I think I might have to carry on and do a few more next week since Darcy Pattison’s declared it
Random Acts of Publicity Week.

Some people come up with the swellest ideas.

(Plus, I missed posting on Thursday and if I was going to do a week on books I really should’ve done a whole week.
I don’t know what happened to Thursday.
Did you guys have a Thursday at your house?
I think there might have been sun spots or something that zapped Thursday clean away.)

So, this may or may not be my last summer reading post.
Either way, I can say with conviction that I have really, really loved Donald Hall for quite some time.
And this summer I got that confirmed him by reading his memoir, Unpacking the Boxes.

It’s not so much that I admire every single thing he’s ever done or yearn for a life exactly like his (though there is a sacred sense of the idyllic in his New Hampshire writing life); it’s more that the honesty of growing into and through the poet that he became is disarmingly beautiful and moving.

There is loss and sorrow, of course, because he’s 80 and life works that way — in his case, the greatest grief reserved for his beloved wife, the poet Jane Kenyon who died of cancer. But there’s also tremendous good humor and lovely observations of the ordinary. It reminds me of the beginning bits of Stephen King’s  On Writing, where he just recounts who he was as a boy as sort of breadcrumb clues to who he became. Only Hall’s feels completely without pretense and, while not necessarily self deprecating, pure.

Today, on Poetry Friday, I thought I’d share Hall’s poem Ox Cart Man, which he later adapted and turned into one of my favorite picture books. Enjoy…

Ox Cart Man

by Donald Hall

(Read the rest here….)