Hi everyone,
I’m honored to announce that I’ve just received the ILA/MLA Celebrate Literacy Award. Two awards were given for 2023. Here’s the announcement.
I’m grateful to SAM BOMMARITO and GLENDA NUGENT (co-editors of Missouri Reader, and Sam just finished a term as president of MLA) for nominating me for the recognition. I believe that a video is being created to explain more about the award. I’ll let you know if I see it. I am truly delighted.
Hi everyone,
This morning at nine o’clock central standard time I’ll zoom with LAURA ROBB on an interview with SAM (DR. SAM) BOMMARITO to be posted on his excellent blog at https://doctorsam7.blog/about/ sometime soon. During his 50 year career in education Sam taught every grade K through graduate school. Bommarito is retired from full time teaching but continues to be active in the literacy world. He is Co-Editor of the Missouri Reader, he has served on various International Literacy Association boards/committees, and is a past president of both the St. Louis and the Missouri ILA boards. For our interview we’ll be discussing our book for Corwin, GUIDED PRACTICE FOR READING GROWTH, which is written to support reading improvement for students who have fallen seriously behind their reading level.
When I reported the other day that THE DIRT BOOK has been named by the New York City Public Libraries to its annual list of best books for children, I think I mentioned that the list contains 145 books for all genres Yesterday I look more carefully and learned that there are only six books of poetry on the list: by Joyce Sidman, David L. Harrison, Nikki Grimes, Pablo Bernasconi, Maria Jose Ferrada, and Ibi Zoboi. https://www.nypl.org/books-more/recommendations/best-books/kids?year=2021&f%5B0%5D=terms%3APoetry
I’m going to add a few more title suggestions for my holiday list and move on. Like those posted yesterday for older kids, these have all won something and/or been on state or national reading lists. I’ll start with a pair of nonfiction poetry collections, COWBOYS and PIRATES, illustrated magnificently by DAN BURR. These books present fact-based poems about the life and times of the namesakes, with back notes that provide further information as well as a bibliography for additional reading.
CAVE DETECTIVES is about a real cave discovered in Springfield, Missouri on 9-11 and how, during a thorough exploration, it slowly revealed its secrets. It contains some of the oldest ice age fossils of any cave on the North American continent. I felt privileged to write this book and am proud to say that a copy of it was buried in a 100-year time capsule in a city part.
MAMMOTH BONES AND BROKEN STONES tells the story of the search for who we are. Where did we come from? When? How? There have been a number of answers suggested from the findings of archaeologists in both North and South America. I am especially happy with how the book turned out. This one is for an older reader or a precocious student with a good vocabulary and an interest in science.
I’m going to stop here. If anyone has a question about anything else of mine, let me know. I hope these lists are useful. With warmest wishes for Christmas and the holiday season, David.
Hi everyone,
Tim Rasinski and I did a 27-minute video Saturday morning to wrap up the Fairfax County Virginia project and this Thursday, Tim, Mary Jo Fresch, Laura Robb, and I are set to do a 60-minute webinar for California Reading. On Friday or December 1, Laura and I look forward to an interview by Missouri’s Sam Bommarito on his great blog. Guess I’d better get a haircut.
For now, it’s a new week. I’ve set out the trash, got the coffee going, and am settling down to work on a poem for the upcoming Laura/Tim/David book for Teacher Created Materials.
Hi everyone,
I’m delighted to say that the new issue of MISSOURI READER is out. Thanks to co-editors Glenda Nugent and Sam Bommarito, the feature article is mine, and just in time for National Poetry Month in April. Seventeen poets and teachers are featured in my article, each with suggestions on how to introduce poet into the classroom and beyond in ways that are sure to engage students.
This issue also features an interview by Evan Robb talking to Laura Robb and me about out book, GUIDED PRACTICE FOR READING GROWTH.
To see the issue, here’s the link. I hope you’ll take a look.
This will include a listing of various ways teachers, librarians, families, and poets focus on poetry, especially during April. I’ll have a few suggestions of my own but I am eager to include your ideas too. If you send me tried and true ways to celebrate poetry that I can use in the article, I’ll give you full credit and list your contract information (if you want it) and one book of poetry you’ve written or that is a favorite that you recommend. You can post your contribution(s) on this page.
Thank you in advance. I’m on a very tight deadline for this so please respond by the end of this coming week. Thanks to all. This will be a unique contribution to poetry lovers everywhere, in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Children's Author David L. Harrison's Blog 