New book coming out July 15

Hi everyone,

I just learned that my book with LYNNE KULICH and TIM RASINSKI is coming out sooner than I thought. The Fluency Development Lesson: Closing the Reading Gap, a Professional Development Book published by Benchmark Education, is set for a July 15 pub date. The cover is posted on Amazon.

More about it soon. With one more potential 2024 release yet to go, I’m going to have a pleasant and busy fall.

How children’s poetry has changed, again

Hi everyone,

I recently started work on a new collection of poems, even though I have no reason to think it will find a home in today’s publishing world. Why? Because the poems are funny. Traditionally, poems for children tended to be rather serious and didactic. Along came Silverstein and Prelutsky and changed all that. They gave poets permission to be funny, even silly, because children want, need, and delight in be tickled. I owe both of those poets my gratitude. I began my career with a number of collections of humorous poems. The first one, Somebody Catch My Homework, sold the first printing in weeks and was into its third printing in months.

I followed Somebody Catch My Homework with The Boy Who Counted Stars, A Thousand Cousins, and The Alligator in the Closet, all filled with funny poems. During the years since then, I’ve seen a swing back toward poems that teach. These days we tend to write to fit into classroom lessons, to advance a child’s education. The poetry can be well done and much of it is, but I’d guess that the number of books written mostly to amuse and encourage a desire to read more books is a smaller percentage of the whole than it was for a while.

LIFE’S NOT FAIR!
(from Alligator in the Closet)

I changed the roll 
An hour ago
So there’d be plenty there.

I’m telling you
The roll was new,
We even had a spare.

So now I go,
And don’t you know,
The roll’s completely bare.

I have to yelp
And cry for help!
Life just isn’t fair!

THE TROUBLE WITH MY HOUSE
(from The Boy Who Counted Stars)

I haven’t any windows
And I haven’t any doors,
I haven’t any ceilings
And I haven’t any floors,
I haven’t got an attic
And I haven’t any halls,
I haven’t got a basement
And I haven’t any walls,
I haven’t got a roof
And that’s the reason, I suppose,
Why rain keeps falling on my head
And dripping off my nose.

WHAT MAKES IT ALL WORTHWHILE
(from A Thousand Cousins)

I do my homework every night,
I climb in bed by nine,
I say, “Yes, ma’am” and “No, sir,”
And I never beg or whine.
I make my bed
And clean my room
And hang my clothes away.
I shine my shoes
And wash my hair
And shower every day.
Mama says that I’m as good
As any son could be,
And Daddy tells my brother
To try to be more like me.
Which makes my brother crazy,
Which makes me sweetly smile,
Which makes him scream,
“I’ll get you for this!”
Which makes being good worthwhile. 

I miss those days and want to be funny again, if I remember how, even though it may be harder to find an editor who can find a place for it. Even if I can’t, I will still love writing funny poems for an audience of children who may or may not ever hear them.