Fifteen Years: A Poem

Mike and I celebrated our fifteenth wedding anniversary yesterday. Since we were not able to go on a trip or get tickets to a concert, I decided to take the sentimental route and write a poem (which was especially out of the ordinary since Mike has always been the poet in our relationship, not me). It ended up being fairly epic because I wrote one stanza for each year of marriage, and, it turns out, fifteen years is longer than I realized.

I decided to publish it here for safekeeping and easy finding and also on the off chance that you'd like to read a lengthy poem about a rather ordinary life.

Fifteen Years

April 28, 2005

Fifteen years ago today

A boy and girl were wed, hooray!

Low on cash but rich in love,

Heaven smiled from above

When those two, in joyful bliss,

Shared their first devoted kiss.

2005-2006

In a house not even theirs,

They passed the summer without cares.

But one thing they did not suppose,

A dishwasher they’d never close

Again, in all their married life,

For now they’d wash each plate and knife.

2006-2007

In Year Two, they were divided:

The Y and U, now collided.

But Provo still remained their home,

And to the duck pond they would roam

On weekends and on summer nights,

A book and blanket seemed just right.

 2007-2008

Next spring brought a graduation—

Cap and gown and adulation.

They packed their stuff into a car,

Headed north, but not too far.

Their new place had two bedrooms, sweet!

And bright orange carpet for their feet.

 2008-2009

After many months of maybe,

They found out they’d have a baby!

Born on a hot day in July,

A little boy who didn’t cry—

At least not much, that is until

A brick flew past their window sill.

2009-2010

Another place was called for quick.

They thought Salt Lake might do the trick:

Commute was faster on a bike,

And there were parks for little tykes.

But just when they were used to three,

Max joined the little family.

2010-2011

They took a break from work and school

To see Niagara, wet and cool.

But Max was not the least impressed;

He closed his eyes and took a rest.

Aaron, too, thought it a bore

But could be bribed with fruit snacks more.

2011-2012

Another year, another boy:

This pattern seemed to bring them joy.

Now outnumbered, two to three,

Their home was full of mess and glee.

They tried a van that wasn’t right;

The duplex started feeling tight.

 2012-2013

The PhD was getting long.

“Just one more year”—their constant song.

They came up with a desperate plan

To help him end what he began:

A week or three of isolation

To write the dreaded dissertation.

2013-2014

But at last he got it done

And found a real job, which was fun.

The longed for time had come at last

To put a shared wall in their past.

They found the perfect home to buy

And kissed their rental house goodbye.

2014-2015

They didn’t have much time to spare.

Boy number four arrived with flair.

A fussy baby, he worked hard

To be the thrilling wild card.

An Aussie trip redeemed him some

When he slept ev’ry hour but one.

2015-2016

Their life was filled with much to do:

Soccer games, two kids in school,

Church and work, a new roof (cool!)

And don’t forget their local pool.

They started Pie Day for a treat

So all their neighbors they could greet.

2016-2017

The next year all their dreams came true:

A trip to France and Norway, too.

Eiffel Tower, River Rhine,

A hundred tunnels in a line.

And when they were back home and done,

They thought they’d plan another one.

2017-2018

Still they felt someone was missing—

One more boy who needed kissing.

They all adored him from the start.

He captured ev’ry person’s heart

And took each treat and ice cream cone

From his royal baby throne.

2018-2019

Their home was such a busy hive

With two adults and children five.

They thought they knew just what to do

To beat the cold and winter blues.

They packed the van and left the house

And said hello to Mickey Mouse.

2019-2020

But all their smiles turned to frowns

When Aaron’s blood counts dropped way down.

The hospital became their home

And many nights were spent alone.

But even with this toil and strife,

They still were quite fond of their life.

April 28, 2020

Now we’re back up to the present.

Fifteen years, and each one pleasant,

Have flown past with lightning speed,

But still on this they’re both agreed:

They’d do it all again today.

“I love you,” they will always say.

Eight of Our Favorite Poetry Collections

Last week I told you all about poetry snack time and promised to share some of our favorite books of poetry with you this week. Over the last year or so, we've sampled a fair number and variety of poems and poets. We've enjoyed almost all of them, but these are the ones we've read more than once, decided to purchase, or cuddled up with on a rainy Sunday afternoon. In other words, they've passed the test.

Red Sings From Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman
I loved this one long before we started doing poetry snack time. In fact, I can't believe I haven't purchased it yet. I just keep checking it out from the library over and over again because with each approach of a new season, I crave these poems all over again. They capture the quiet beauty and lively vibrancy in our incredible world.

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry, edited by J. Patrick Lewis
I feel like every family needs to own at least one good poetry anthology for quick and easy access. For our family, it happens to be this one. That's not to say there aren't other anthologies we would love to have (The Bill Martin Jr. Big Book of Poetry and The Random House Book of Poetry for Children are two that come immediately to mind), but with this one's focus on animals, it's pretty much perfect for our family. It runs the gamut, everything from Robert Frost to Walt Whitman to Jack Prelutsky, and they're all accompanied by gorgeous (and I really do mean gorgeous) photographs. If you check out this book, you'll soon follow my example and buy one for your own library.

Falling Up by Shel Silverstein
I couldn't make up a list of favorite poetry collection and not include at least one by Shel Silverstein. I just couldn't. His poems have delighted and amused my children far too much to not be given their due (even if no one needs a reminder that he's out there). I was fortunate enough to find hardbacks of both Where the Sidewalk Ends and Falling Up at the thrift store, and it is not unusual to find Aaron perusing (and laughing) through one of them. His poems sometimes cross the line into the totally bizarre, but I think that's why we love them so much. They're always a surprise. Plus, his poem "Spaghetti, Spaghetti" was the first one my kids memorized, so he'll always have a nostalgic hold on my heart.

The New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelutsky
If you can't get enough of Shel Silverstein, then you should definitely give Jack Prelutsky a try. His poems are similarly wacky, and we find ourselves reaching for them when we need a good laugh. He's also responsible for the poem, "I'm the Single Most Wonderful Person I Know," which was a timely reminder to Maxwell about the importance of humility.

Zoo by Ogden Nash
I didn't come to truly appreciate Ogden Nash until last summer when we checked out his collection of animal poems, and then I finally understood why Mike's siblings are so fond of quoting him. It's because he's so quotable! Most of these poems are quite short (three to seven lines), and my kids only had to hear them two or three times before they were reciting them back verbatim. The humor in them is at once simplistic and sophisticated, which means that both my kids and Mike and I can all read them with equal enjoyment. We especially love "The Panther," "The Shark," and "The Termite."

Mirror Mirror: a Book of Reverso Poems by Marilyn Singer
This one gets creativity points for sure. Each poem is a retelling of a classic fairy tale: first, from one point of view, and then, the word order is reversed to share a different point of view. So we've got Hansel/Gretel and the witch, Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf, etc. The poems are accessible enough that even if your kids are too young to understand the structure, they will still enjoy the poems. But if they can grasp the total genius of what's going on, well then, their minds will be blown, and you won't be able to stop them from poring over the side-by-side verses, comparing them, and realizing how just a simple change in the word order can drastically change the telling of the story.

A Child's Calendar by John Updike
This one is our most recent find, and, oh my goodness, it was love at first sight for me. It is a short collection, just twelve poems, one for each month, but it conjured up happy memories and feelings from my past that no poem has ever managed before. For example, this, from "June": "The live-long light / Is like a dream, / And freckles come / Like flies to cream." My heart just yearns for summer! (And those illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman aren't too shabby either.) After we read this collection during poetry snack time, I told my kids that we're going to memorize one poem each month. The one for March is up on our kitchen wall right now.

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Lewis Stevenson
This list would not be complete without this collection on it. Most of the ones I've mentioned so far are ones I've discovered and grown to love with my own kids. But not this one. No, this one is from my childhood. I can still remember pumping my legs hard on our swing in the backyard and hearing my dad recite, "How do you like to go up in a swing? / Up in the air so blue?" These poems are the essence of childhood. I'm glad they're irrevocably connected to mine and that now they'll be connected to my children's as well.

What are your some of your favorite poetry books? Poetry snack time is coming up again soon, and we'd love to try out some new collections!

Also, P.S., Episode 4 of The Book Blab will be airing on Friday, March 11th, at 9:30am MST. Suzanne and I will be chatting about 2016 releases. Come watch the live video feed right here on the blog!

Poetry Snack Time (the What, the Why, and the How)

I've been talking about poetry snack time ever since we did it for the first time last summer. I mentioned it in two posts, here and here, and I frequently share little glimpses of it on Instagram. I've had a few of you ask for more details, and so today, I'm sharing what has worked, what hasn't worked, and what we're doing now.

But first, a little credit where credit is due: I did not come up with the idea for poetry snack time on my own. Please. All of my brilliant ideas have been stolen from other people. No, the idea was first planted when I listened to Sarah Mackenzie's interview with Julie Bogart. Julie mentioned something called Poetry Teatime, a (usually) weekly event for her kids where she combined yummy food and fancy table settings with beautiful (or silly or interesting) poetry.

I was intrigued with this idea in part because for years I felt intimidated by poetry. My dad had a few poems he used to read to us ("The Swing" and "My Shadow" by Robert Louis Stevenson, " "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer," and "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), but I wasn't the type to just sit down and become immersed in a poetry collection.

But as an adult, I pushed myself to explore poetry. I tentatively picked up a couple of verse novels and made the amazing discovery that I actually love poetry. Truly love it. Then I started to introduce it to my kids. We found a few favorite poetry collections, and they loved to page through them and select various ones for me to read. We also memorized several of our favorites. (I talked a lot more about this experience in this post: "How to Memorize Poetry With Your Kids.")

When Julie Bogart referenced poetry teatime, I knew it was something we had to try, but I also knew that my boys weren't going to go for anything as fancy and frilly-sounding as "poetry teatime." So the very first thing we did was change the name to Poetry Snack Time. Besides the change in name, I had three goals going into it: make it special without making it complicated, encourage good manners and adventurous eating, and introduce new poems and poets.

First, special but not complicated: I knew from reading Happier at Home that even the simplest things can feel special if they're outside the norm, so I bought some new plates and cups and reserved them specifically for poetry snack time. Now before you start thinking I spent a lot of money on fine china, think again. We're talking plastic picnic-ware: turquoise plates divided into sections and plastic cups with a zig-zag pattern. Nothing fancy or expensive, but they were different and therefore my kids assumed they were special. Each time we had poetry snack time, we set the table nicely (meaning, we spread out a tablecloth or set out place mats and laid out folded paper napkins), and my kids felt the out-of-the-ordinariness of it.

Second, adventurous eating and good manners: Hey, as long as we were going to the trouble of a special snack, I figured I might as well get some extra mileage out of it. Each time we have poetry snack time, we have a drink, two healthy snacks, and one treat. One of the healthy snacks is always a fruit or vegetable, and the other can be something like crackers, popcorn, nuts, yogurt, cheese, or chips (so maybe not necessarily "healthy" but not sugary, if that makes sense). The rule is you have to try everything that is being served, and the way we make this fair is by letting everyone have a turn as the snack chooser. Because of this rule, my kids have tried a variety of new things, and you can bet I use this to my advantage when it's my turn to choose the snack. Red peppers and hummus, kids.

As far as good manners, we use our napkins, speak when our mouths are empty, and ask for things to be passed rather than reach for them. In other words, common sense, but you'd be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't) how difficult it is for these things to become habits.

Third, new poetry and poets. We will always love Shel Silverstein, but I wanted this to be a time to explore some of the work of other poets as well. I haven't been very organized about this (as in, I don't have some master list I'm going off of: "Okay, now we'll read some of Emily Dickenson and then some Henry Wadsworth Longfellow..."). Basically, if I hear about a poetry collection, I check it out. I also spend a fair bit of time browsing good ol' 811 at the library. But although my methods are not sophisticated, they've worked. We've read some Marilyn Singer, Jack Prelutsky, Ogden Nash, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Updike, and Joyce Sidman, and we have discovered so many new favorites.

So those were my goals, and for the most part, they have stayed intact even as we've made other adjustments and changes.

But now let's move onto the actual logistics.

When we first started doing poetry snack time, I handed out one book of poetry to each child, and we spent the first seven minutes or so quietly reading to ourselves. Then we ate eat, and at the end, each person read their favorite poem aloud to everyone else.

After a few months of this, I realized something wasn't working. My kids looked forward to poetry snack time, but it was so hard for them to endure the seven minutes of poetry reading before diving into the delicious food that sat there tempting them. More and more, they spent the entire time asking me if they could be done reading and if it was time to eat yet and why did they have to read more when they'd already found the poem they wanted to share. I realized poetry snack time was having the opposite effect I wanted it to. Instead of enjoying the poems, they had become the detour between them and the food.

We took a break for a few weeks while I decided what to do. Our current method basically kept poetry and food separate (for obvious reasons . . . I couldn't let them ruin library books by eating Oreos and milk while perusing Robert Frost), but the whole point was to enjoy them together.

So I did what many of you are probably thinking should have been the obvious choice from the beginning: I now read while they eat. I know. Brilliant, right? Their hands and their mouths are occupied, and so the poems take center stage.

If the collection is short enough, I read it cover to cover and then take requests for a few favorites to be read again. If it's longer, then I pick and choose and jump around as I please.

As soon as I realized poetry snack time was going to stick around for the long term, I wanted a way to preserve some of the memories we were making. I picked up some poster board, cut it down to place mat size, and let the boys each decorate one. (Over the summer, Aaron and Maxwell had attended an art class where they painted paper and then cut it up to form collage-type art. We used the extra paper for these place mats.) Then I went to the copy store and had them laminated.

Now when we come to the end of poetry snack time, we have one final task: choose a favorite poem and write the name, author, and date on each of our place mats. Sometimes there's a standout favorite; sometimes we all choose something different. So far, we've been using the back of the place mats, but I anticipate the fronts being used eventually as well . . . littered with dozens of favorite poems and dates, a perfect hodge podge of memories.

I'm sure things will continue to change as this tradition evolves with us, but for now we've hit our stride. Next week, I'll share some of our favorite poetry collections so far, but in the meantime, if you have any questions for me, I'm more than happy to try to answer them.

Five Things I Started Doing in 2015 That Changed My Life For the Better

I wouldn't say 2015 was a groundbreaking year for me. It was a good (and, in other ways, a hard) year, but it wasn't one of those where I look back and think, Wow, what a crazy ride. I can't believe all that happened. Has it not even been a year since ______?

However, even without any monumental changes, there have been a few things I started doing consistently that now, stepping back, I can see that, even though they're small, they've blessed my life in a significant way. And let that be a lesson to me: small steps, consistently taken, sometimes have a bigger long-term impact than world-rocking ones (and, if I'm being honest, I actually prefer those types of changes as opposed to the ones that leave me reeling).

 
Listening to a Conference Talk Every Morning
Every April and October, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (of which I am a member) holds, what's known as, General Conference. Lasting for two days, it consists of four general sessions filled with dozens of talks from leaders in the Church. Those are some of my favorite days of the year. They're a time for me to be filled up spiritually, and I always come away with a stronger testimony and sense of purpose.

Around the time of last April's conference, I was trying to figure out how to give more priority to my spiritual life. I was reading my scriptures every day but usually that was happening at night and sometimes I could only get a few verses in before I fell asleep. I knew I really needed something at the beginning of the day to give it a boost and help me stay focused on the most important things. All of the conference talks are archived, and I decided to start listening to one talk every morning as I got ready for the day.

This has made a huge difference in my spiritual well-being. It hasn't replaced my daily scripture study but it's been a way for me to start the day off building my faith and thinking about my Savior, Jesus Christ, without having to find a quiet place to read my scriptures (which is pretty much impossible in the crazy chaos of the morning). Instead, I can just pull one up on my phone, put in my headphones, and listen while I'm making lunches or cleaning up the house or doing my hair. It was one of those habits that slid into my normal routine so easily that it was like it was meant to be there. (Two of the talks I've returned to the most from last conference have been Yielding Our Hearts to God by Neill F. Marriott and Faith is Not By Chance, but by Choice by Neil L. Andersen.)

Going on Weekly Dates
This has been something Mike and I have tried to do our whole married lives, but once we added children to the mix, it became much more difficult. Finding a babysitter stressed me out and often,  it felt easier to just stay home than try to coordinate all of the logistics to make an evening out happen. Plus, I harbored a little resentment because, when we did go out, I felt like I was the one who did the bulk of the planning, and it seemed like something we should both be invested in.

Then, early in the year, my sister-in-law, Sonja, mentioned that she and her husband were trying really hard to go on weekly dates. They traded off the planning every other month, and that sounded like a pretty awesome idea to me. I sold the idea to Mike as a competition (we would each take a month and keep track of the dates and whoever ended up planning the most dates would be the winner), but within just a couple of months, we stopped talking about the competition aspect of it. We were just having fun spending quality time together. Since we trade back and forth, I actually enjoy when it's my turn to do the planning because I get to do things that are fun for me, and when it's Mike's month, I relish not planning anything while knowing the dates will still happen.

Doing it this way has also helped us branch out from the standard "go out for dinner" or "stay home and watch a movie" dates we were used to. In the past year, we've gone to an art exhibit, been on a couple of hikes, gone to concerts and plays, and even done a room escape mystery.

Also, over the last nine months, we've discovered that we love middle-of-the-week, middle-of-the-day dates. They feel so indulgent.

Making lunches for the boys
A few months ago, Janssen mentioned that she was packing lunches for both of her older girls, even though only one of them is in school (an idea she got from Miranda). When I read her post, I had one of those lightning bolt moments Gretchen Rubin talks about. What a genius idea, and why had I not been doing such a thing all along? I was making a lunch for Aaron every morning anyway so it wouldn't be that difficult to just pack lunches for Maxwell and Bradley at the same time.

I started that very day, and I haven't looked back. It was one of those habits that fit our lifestyle and our schedule so perfectly that it took virtually no effort on my part to adopt.

And it has transformed my life.

I know, that sounds so dramatic, but I promise you I don't make such a statement lightly. Think about it. What is usually one of the worst times of the day? Lunchtime, right? (The only time of day that could possibly compete with it is the 4:30pm witching hour.) My kids tend to go a little psycho around 11:30am, which tends to make me go a little psycho. But by making the lunches in the morning, when things are relatively calm (and I'm just listening to my conference talk), I've eliminated the stress and craziness of that time of day entirely.

And if we ever decide to go to the park or a friend's house, I can just grab the lunches on our way out the door.

I'm telling you, transformative.

 
Learning to knit
Early last spring, a sweet older lady in our neighborhood taught me how to knit. It had been something I'd wanted to learn how to do for a long time. I started with a dish cloth (isn't that what you always start with?). Then I moved onto a pillow. And right now, I'm halfway through making a vest for Bradley (I'm using small needles, so it's taking me a long time.)

Everything about knitting is calming and relaxing to me (well, except for trying to decode the pattern, but luckily, my teacher hasn't abandoned me). I love the feeling of the soft yarn sliding through my fingers, the methodical click of the needles, and watching the finished product magically grow beneath my hands. It's the perfect thing to do while listening to an audiobook or watching a movie or just sitting tucked up on the couch watching the falling snow. I'm constantly planning out future projects, all while continuing to enjoy the project I'm currently working on.

Plus, learning to knit was one of my actual goals for 2015, and it felt so good to be able to check it off after wanting to learn for so long. I thought I would have to take a class or find some tutorials on the internet, but instead I formed a wonderful friendship with someone in our neighborhood, and that has had its own blessings.

Poetry Snack Time
When I first heard about "poetry tea time" on the Read-Aloud Revival, I decided to try it with my kids, just for fun. The idea is that you combine reading poetry with eating, and that just sounded like a winner combination to me. However, these types of things are often hard for me to stick with simply because, since it's not something we do every day, it can be tricky to know when to fit it in.

But again, as with everything I mentioned above, this tradition took hold with virtually no prodding from me. My kids immediately fell in love with it and look forward to it every time. Over the summer, we did it once a week. Now we do it about once a month (or every other week if we're lucky). I've tried not to force it into our schedule because it's meant to be fun, not essential.

We've tweaked a few things since we started, and I keep meaning to write a full post about it. Hopefully soon.

And that's it. I'd love to know what things YOU started doing in 2015 (big or small!) that changed your life for the better.

Poetry Memorization With Kids

Last year, I started memorizing poems with my kids. We started with "Spaghetti, Spaghetti" by Shel Silverstein and went on from there.

Sounds so simple, right? 

But would you believe me if I told you that reading and memorizing poetry with your kids actually is simple . . . and fun, too? I don't know if I would have believed that a year ago since at that time I was strategically avoiding any and all poetry collections. But several things prompted me to change my mind, and now my kids and I love to sit down with a hefty volume and read poem after poem after poem.

Today I have a new post over at What Do We Do All Day. I'm pretending to be an authority on the subject and am sharing 7 tips for how to memorize poems with your kids (but trust me, these tips work).

You can read the full article here.

What is your favorite kid-friendly poem?

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

There was a time in my life when I was afraid of verse novels. You might even say I avoided them. But then I read Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, and I was completely won over by this format of novel-writing. I wish I could remember what inspired me to read it in the first place because whatever (or whoever) it was deserves a lot of credit.

So when I saw all the attention Brown Girl Dreaming was getting on Newbery 2015 lists and found out it was also a verse novel, I ran to get my hands on a copy (which is fairly difficult to do when you're #78 on a library wait list).

For years, I have counted Out of the Dust among my very favorite books, but Brown Girl Dreaming is threatening its position. I definitely enjoyed it, and some of the poems moved past just being enjoyable and truly touched me.

Jacqueline Woodson grew up in the 1960's (yes, it's a memoir in verse). Since part of that growing up takes place in South Carolina, you can imagine that the Civil Rights movement is an important component of the story. But it's also just about the happenings, both tragic and heartwarming, that make up this thing we call life. At its heart, however, it's about Jacqueline's journey to becoming a writer, which after reading her beautifully flowing verse, you'll be surprised there was ever a time when it didn't come easily to her.

Okay, maybe I'm just so new to verse novels that I'm ignorant to any and all flaws, but I was completely blown away by this book. I found myself wanting to dogear every single page, which kind of defeats the purpose of dogearing. Some of the poems left me breathless, like this one entitled, "Ghosts":

In downtown Greenville,

they painted over the WHITE ONLY signs,

except on the bathroom doors,

they didn't use a lot of paint

so you can still see the words, right there

like a ghost standing in front

still keeping you out.

I've read my share of books (fiction and nonfiction) that explore Civil Rights issues, but that poem hit me hard and fast in a new way. In a mere seven lines, it shows how stamping out the sins of the past isn't as quick and easy as painting over a sign. The prejudices linger and hearts continue to hurt. I think it's partly the genre itself (the line breaks, the formatting on the page, the words that are said and unsaid) that is able to nudge those familiar emotions and feelings in a new way, but I was continually impressed with Jacqueline Woodson's imagery and voice, which seemed completely her own (but, like I said, I definitely need to explore this genre further to see if I'm just a sucker for anything written in verse).

The thing I love about a book like this is that, when taken as a whole, it creates a beautifully complete story, but I can also open the book at random and read a poem here, turn a few pages and read another poem there, and each one is enjoyable and complete in and of itself. It's one of the books that's going on my Christmas list this year, in part because I know that it will give something new to me every time I pick it up, whether I have time for just one or two pages or the entire thing.

One of my very favorite individual poems was called "Other People's Memory," which talks about how everyone in the family remembers Jacqueline's birth as happening at a different time of day. Grandma Georgiana swears it happened in the morning, but Jacqueline's mother says it took place in the afternoon, and Jacqueline's father says she was born when it was almost night. I wanted to share an excerpt here, but I couldn't narrow it down to one stanza. It just didn't have the same impact when separated from the rest.

I read most of this book on the 14-hour plane ride to Australia. By the end, in my nearly delirious state, my own thoughts were coming in short, clipped phrases, so I thought, Hey, I'm going to write a poem about what it's like to be on this jet for fourteen hours--a gripping subject to be sure, but one that (luckily for you) I won't be sharing here.

The book ends with a poem called "Believe," which includes these two lines:

I believe in one day and someday and this

     perfect moment called Now.

I think that's really what Jacqueline Woodson set out to do with all the poems preceding this one--capture and share the "one day"s and the "someday"s, but most of all those "perfect moment"s that makes up the present.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

I distinctly remember the first time I saw this book. I was probably 14, which means the book was close to new. I was in our (very small) local library. The book was on display. I picked it up, opened it, saw the format (a collection of poems), and snapped it shut with the thought, "Why would they give the Newbery to something like this? something that has no plot?" (As a side note, I have to say I'm impressed I even thought of giving it a chance since I think this is quite possibly the ugliest book cover I've ever seen. First of all, the photograph, while authentic, is not a believable Billie Jo. There's no way that girl is 14 years old, irregardless of the fact that she is not tall and her hair may or may not be red. Also, I was more than a little irritated to see this credit on the jacket flap: Jacket design by Elizabeth B. Parisi. You mean someone was actually given credit for coming up with the worst book cover in Newbery history? You mean slapping an (inaccurate) photograph on the front and tacking the title above it in a very nondescript font earns you the right to have your name forever tied to this book? Shameful. Sorry for the rant. Just had to put that out there because I'm sure that terrible cover is deterring many a young girl from reading this fabulous book.)

And as to the book itself? So wonderful I can't even describe it. I didn't even know I liked free verse. Turns out, I do. A lot. It brought the characters to light in a completely new and totally vivid way. In between readings, I would have phrases repeating themselves in my mind almost like the lyrics to a song getting stuck in your head...but in a delightful, memorable way. I loved learning more about the Dust Bowl, and I loved Billie Jo.

My very favorite line in the whole book was from the poem entitled "Hope" where she said "the earth remembered how to yield." Maybe it was just because she had set up the imagery of this barren land where everything was so dried out and nothing could grow, but that line has stayed with me more than a week after finishing the book.

If you have not read this book, you are missing out. Don't let the format scare you. There is definitely a story line with characters you grow to know and love. Writing this makes me want to go back and read some parts over again before I return it to the library. Very memorable. Very worthwhile. Very enjoyable.

This review was written before the birth of this blog.