Moon Alert

FYI: Be sure to step outside tonight to enjoy the full moon.

Recently when browsing the children's section in the library this title caught my attention White Is The Moon by Valerie Greely. It is a simple circular tale that takes the reader though the day and through a range of colors using images of the natural world. I thought the format of the story with its repetition and rhyme would be helpful in teaching children how to write a simple poem. Note how on each page one animal is introduced and then it pops up in the verse on the next page.

The following are the first four pages from the book.

White is the moon

Shining bright

Sees an owl

In the night

Brown is the owl

With steely stare

Sees a fox

Standing there

Red is the fox

Sly and fast

Sees a frog

Hopping past

Green is the frog

With glinting eyes

Sees the sun

Slowly rise

Another book I'd like to recommend for adult writers is Word Magic for Writers by Cindy Rogers. This is a great writing source to help the writer discover how to craft beginnings that will hook the reader, middles to compel the reader to stay with the writing and endings that leave the reader eager to read more of the author's work. The book shows examples of how to employ many literary sound devices and techniques that empower writers to move their writing from ordinary to the extraordinary. Throughout the book examples of fine writing were quoted from well known writers such as Roald Dahl and Natalie Babbitt.

In Ralph Fletcher's A Writing Kind of Day he ends his poem book with the following poem. Perhaps his words will inspire you to write a poem tonight under the full moon.

A Writing Kind of Night

It is clear tonight,

a writing kind of night.

There's a moon stirring up

mysterious metaphors

in my imagination.

The heavens are jam-packed

with planets and black holes

that are still undiscovered,

and magnificent poems

that are still unwritten.