National Poetry Month/Poetry Friday: More “Poetry Cubed!” #5 entries, and a chance to win!

The rumors are true! The news isn’t fake!
The dinos are loose, and they can’t bake a cake!

Ok, well, that’s not actually part of Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books) – but the couplet just popped into my head as I was putting this post together, so I felt obligated to include it.

But yes, it IS, indeed, true that my second picture book is now in stores everywhere!

If you’d like to win a copy signed by both me and my co-author, Deborah Bruss, be sure to check out this past Tuesday’s post, where you have FOUR chances to win! Today, I have more “Poetry Cubed!” poems to share – and each one of them is also an opportunity for someone to win a signed copy!

If you’ve ever seen “Chopped!” on The Food Network, you know that chefs try to outdo each other by creating dishes using specific and sometimes rather strange ingredients. So for this contest, I’ve taken the premise of the TV show and applied it to poetry! Here’s how it works:

• Use the 3 images below as inspiration to write a poem. (1 poem, to the 3rd power – “cubed!”)
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• The poem can be any form, any genre, any number of lines, rhyming or not. Most importantly, remember: #WriteLikeNoOneIsReading! This is about having fun and being creative!
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• Include a reference to all three images in the one poem – either via concrete imagery or something more abstract. (And since this is poetry we’re talking about, we play fast and loose with this rule!)
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• Email your poem to me at Matt (at) MattForrest (dot) com and I’ll share them here throughout the month. Out of all poems submitted, one writer will be chosen at random to receive a personally-signed copy of Don’t Ask a Dinosaur!

Here are the three images (click on any to enlarge):

Today we have two more poems to share:
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Spring Is What You Make It

It was an awesome birthday party
despite the April storm.
Perhaps because the lights went out,
we made foolish fun,
pretending retro times of pre-electric,
but we still didn’t miss the outhouse
with the creaky door.
Most guests brought out the sleighs
and harnessed the horses,
picked up others who had neither.
The sleighs skimmed over the roads
with daring, hoping this recent storm
had laid enough inches needed
for a holiday sleigh ride.
The lure of sleigh bells
kept us searching for more lanterns,
lighting them for the guests
who put the horses in the barn,
stomped their way across the yard,
up the stairs of the porch.
Cups of cider warmed them,
and from the fact that so many came,
and in a winter wonderland,
we were warmed by their gusto.
I thought I would have a surprise,
like a spectacular dinosaur cake or
an adventure video game that returns
to that dino age (like Jurassic Park).
But this time traveling really happened,
and now that I’m ten,
I’ll ask for snow again for my birthday next year.

– © 2018 Linda Baie, all rights reserved

(NOTE: Many areas of the country – including Linda’s and mine – have been hit with April snowstorms, which makes one wonder if the definition of “spring” got changed and no one told us)

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senryu

birth, death, in-between
happiness and pain, you find
a light of millions

– Anonymous

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Once again, two vastly different approaches and imagery to three very simple pictures. Gosh, I love this contest! (And in case you’re wondering, we have a friend who prefers not to attach name to text; hence, the lack of identification)

There is less than a week and a half left to the month, so be sure to email your poems soon – I’ll share more poems next Friday, and then announce the winner on May 4!

For today’s complete poetry roundup, head on over to The Opposite of Indifference, where Tabatha Yeatts is hosting Poetry Friday. Oh, and it might take me awhile to reply to any comments, as I’m spending the weekend at the New England SCBWI conference in Springfield, Mass., starting today…but I will definitely be reading them all and reading all your “Poetry Cubed!” entries!

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The Dinosaur Tour blog tour is rolling full-steam ahead! As part of our book’s kickoff, several kidlit bloggers are sharing DAAD reviews, interviews, and contests. It’s been a busy week, since the book officially debuted this past Tue., so here’s a list of all the bloggers participating:

April 6:       Michelle H. Barnes (Interview w/month-long writing prompt)
April 8:       Kate Narita (Book trailer & activity sheet spotlight)
April 11:     Deborah Kalb (Interview w/Matt & Deb)
April 13:     Yours Truly! (Interview w/illustrator Louie Chin)
April 16:     KidLit Exchange (Blog post re: process of illustration)
April 17:     Momma’s Bacon (DAAD review)
April 17:     Yours Truly!
April 18:     Bonnie Ferrante (DAAD review)
April 19:     KidLit Exchange (DAAD review)
April 19:     Brenda Davis Harsham (DAAD micro review)
April 25:     Bonnie Ferrante (Interview w/Matt & Deb)
May 2:        Unleashing Readers (DAAD review)
May 30:      Bookseedstudio (DAAD review/interview) 

I hope you’ll stop by these blogs and learn something new about our book!

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“DON’T ASK A DINOSAUR”
is now available everywhere!

Where will we be? When will we be there? Funny you should ask:

• Thur., April 26, 10:30am:  Pillsbury Free Library, Warner, NH, Dinosaur Storytime with Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People!
• Sat., April 28, 10:30am: Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, MA, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People reading/signing
• Sat., April 28, 2pm: Barnes & Noble, Framingham, MA, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur reading/signing (with Sara Levine, Fossil by Fossil: Comparing Dinosaur Bones reading/signing)
• Sun., April 29, 2pm:  MainStreet BookEnds, Warner, NH, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People reading/signing and discussion
• Sat., May 5, 10am: Barnes & Noble, Burlington, MA, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People reading/signing
• Sat., May 5, 1pm:  Barnes & Noble, Nashua, NH, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and Flashlight Night reading/signing
• Sat., May 12, 11am:  Gibson’s Bookstore, Concord, NH, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People reading/signing
• Wed., May 15, 12pm: Concord Hospital Gift Shop, Concord, NH, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People signing
• Sat., May 19, 11:30am-3pm: Barnes & Noble, Salem, NH, National Storytime at 11am, followed by Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People reading/signing
• Sat., June 2, 1-3pm: Books-A-Million, Concord, NH, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People reading/signing

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The 2018 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem!

A little seed is on an adventure…the 2018 Progressive Poem is underway! Here’s the list of all the writers/bloggers participating, so you can follow along:

April 1 Liz at Elizabeth Steinglass
2 Jane at Raincity Librarian
3 Laura at Writing the World for Kids
4 Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty
5 Jan at bookseedstudio
6 Irene at Live Your Poem
7 Linda at TeacherDance
8 Janet F. at Live Your Poem
9 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
10 Matt at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme
11 Brenda at Friendly Fairy Tales
12 Carol at Beyond LiteracyLink
13 Linda at A Word Edgewise
14 Heidi at my juicy little universe
15 Donna at Mainely Write
16 Sarah at Sarah Grace Tuttle
17 Ruth at There is no such thing as a Godforsaken town
18 Christie at Wondering and Wandering
19 Michelle at Michelle Kogan
20 Linda at Write Time
21 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
22 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference
23 Amy at The Poem Farm
24 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
25 Kiesha at Whispers from the Ridge
26 Renee at No Water River
27 Buffy at Buffy’s Blog
28 Kat at Kat’s Whiskers
29 April at Teaching Authors
30 Doraine at Dori Reads

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Thank you so much to all the librarians, bloggers, and parents who are still discovering “Flashlight Night!” 

• NY Public Library’s “100 Best Book for Kids 2017” AND “Staff Pick!”
• KIRKUS Starred review!
• Amazon “Best Books of the Month,” Sept. 2017!
• “Best Reads of 2017,” Unleashing Readers

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Purchasing personalized signed copies ONLINE? Yes, it’s true!

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new way to purchase personalized signed copies of not only Flashlight Night, but ANY of my books or anthologies I’ve been part of!

I’ve teamed up with the good folks MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH to present an option for people who would love to have a signed copy of one of my books but don’t live anywhere near me. MainStreet BookEnds has ALL but one of my books available for ordering…and the best part is, you can get them personalized!

Just log onto my website and click the cover of whichever book you want, and they will get it to me to sign and send it off to you. Try doing that with those big online booksellers! (Plus, you’ll be helping to support local book-selling – and wouldn’t that make you feel good?)

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