Tide Pool Poems

Following our tide pool hands-on study at the Oregon coast and the books we read, both the kids have been interested in doing projects involving tide pools.

Oggie made a Tide Pool Book with me a while back, second book on the subject as a matter of fact. And since then has moved on to other things that interest him, while still retaining a special place for tide pool in his heart (the recent sidewalk chalk art being one).

After considerable thought about what sort of a tide pool project she wants to do, inspired by the How To Write Poetry books we've been reading, knowing what an inspiration A Kick In The Head has been, Ana was firm about making a Tide Pool Poems book.

I was thrilled about the idea, but did not want to steer or direct it in any leadership role, nor co-write it which might stamp out her signature in this maiden venture.

However, knowing that it can be overwhelming and intimidating to tackle such a project all on her own, this being her first of this kind, I asked strategic questions and guided her with enough information and suggestions so she can realize her vision, always standing by to lend a hand if she is stuck.

How many poems do you want in the book?
What creatures/features/things are you going to write about?
What poetic forms do you want to use?
Will there be illustrations in the book?
What style of illustrations do you want to use?

When she answered those questions to her satisfaction, the book started taking shape in her head.

One poetic form per tide pool creature, one illustration to go with each poem, a title page plus an About the Author page, and six poems in all. She had it all laid out in a scrap sheet of paper, with some preliminary notes about illustrations and poem ideas.

Which poetic form to use, and for which animal, was entirely up to her and I have no idea why or how she arrived at the final result.

She worked on one poetic form at a time when the creative streak hit her over the last few weeks.  She referred to A Kick In The Head by Paul B. Janeczko for the poetic forms, sample poems, and inspiration. And brainstormed with me about the tide pool creature in focus, throwing out ideas and weird verses until things started to fall in place.

We did sit together and jot down rhyming words first like pool, cool, fool/nose, close - of course, we went down the letters of the alphabet bool, cool, dool, fool, gool and so on till we can extract a few we can use; and we also looked up the definition of some of the sea creatures in the dictionary/encyclopedia to find words that might be interesting to use (like spiny echinoidea, nudibranch and so on).

What did the author have to say after the poems were complete?
"Haiku was the hardest. Couplet and Tercet were the easiest and most fun to write. Limerick was the silliest. Acrostic took the longest to write. Concrete poem was not as easy as I thought it would be."

All that was left to do was create the illustrations and put the poems in a book.

The illustrations for each poem was either cut-paper collage or just a drawing colored in as the mood dictated. Picture on the left and the poem on the right was the format Ana settled on for each page of the book.

Of course, the title/cover page of the book had to be gorgeous - so we did glue-and-chalk-pastel work. (Top picture.) I applied the glue to Ana's pencil sketch, "fixing" it as I could not help myself.

And it was my job to write the About the Author page, which is always fun to make up, while Ana drew the profile picture of herself to go with it.

Here are the six original Tide Pool Poems by Ana. (Clicking on the picture below pops up a larger image that might be easier to read)

Georgia's Life, A Brief Hand-written Biography

Georgia's Life
by Ana

Ages 3+


Highlighting a few facts about the artist Georgia O'Keeffe's life, the author has presented a wonderfully simplistic, easy to read and colorfully illustrated book.

The first page sparingly informs us the year Georgia was born and the year she died, with a colorful rainbow background, making it more of a celebration of Georgia's life.

Compared to some of her other works which were put together rather quickly and casually, this book by the young author clearly appears to have been a labor of love.

And, being privy to inside information, I know that the author-illustrator studied at least half a dozen picture books on Georgia, absorbing not just the facts, but the artwork in those books as well before she set out to write and illustrate this book.

The first few pages of illustrations are original and charming, complementing the text well.  The later pages certainly seem to have been strongly influenced by Georgia herself or other artists who had similar style, possibly in the books she read for research.

My favorite page? Well, hard to choose, but, possibly the page where Georgia declares she is going to be an artist. Something about the little girl holding a picture - a picture of a flower nonetheless, flower for which Georgia was famous - spoke to me.

And, the author's favorite page? The one where we read, "Georgia also painted shapes and colors from her mind." Why is it her favorite? Because the illustration just came to her in a flash of inspiration: use shapes (like squares and rectangles) to create a picture, but, not an abstract picture - but a definite dog.

I was a bit disappointed that this book was so short. I would have liked to see another half a dozen pages at least, in the same vein.

Anyway, without further ado, here are the pages from this short but wonderful book, starting with the cover, all the way down to bibliography.

The Little Penguin

The Little Penguin
by Ana

While the author is not new to us, having read many of her works (about two dozen to date, over the last year), Og was pleasantly surprised when the book was "released" on Christmas Day, when he eagerly opened one of his presents from under the tree.

In this special Christmas publication (well, sole manuscript) made for (and presented to) her brother, the author shares a simple story of a little penguin.

The spare text and colorful illustrations makes this a favorite bed-time read in our family. Some of the words may not be appreciated by adults with a strong sense of propriety, but, as a parent and a reader, I did not find them objectionable at all as we are quite open about human bodily functions and human body parts.

I particularly liked the "New Next: Penguins Love", and the "Sneak Peek" sections. Reading "About the Author" made me want to know more about her.

While some of the author's early works were too short and failed to stay on topic, they were indeed delightful  fantasies. Her recent works seem to tend towards realistic fiction and even some non-fiction.

With the author's permission, here are quite a few pages from the book, as we own the sole copy of it. (Click to enlarge)

 It almost seems like art work is the focus in her recent books, with the text supplementing and complementing the art, which involves mixed-media, fabric, cut-paper, feathers and such embellishments.