Posts by slthomson@earthlink.net

Spring Poem

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Apr 16, 2021 in Poems | Comments Off on Spring Poem

Thanks to FotoRieth from Pixabay for the lovely image!

It’s a cold, gloomy, rainy,  SNOWY spring day up here in Maine…but it did give me a bit of inspiration for a spring poem, which I thought I’d share with you.

Party Dresses

 

Spring throws a party
and everyone’s going,
everyone’s wearing their best.
Daffodils nod their new golden bonnets.
Hyacinths brush up their purple-prink frills.
Tulips sashay in their deep crimson ballgowns.
Pansies slip on their soft velvet shoes.
Even the rain has been invited,
shaking her long silver hair.
Spring throws a party,
and everyone’s going.

What about you?
Come too!

Things Not To Do

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Apr 8, 2021 in Childhood, Children's Literature, Educators & Librarians | Comments Off on Things Not To Do

Let them read!

A middler schooler I happen to know was picking out a book from her school library the other day. The staff member frowned at it, announced to the room that it had rather mature themes, and then handed it to her after all.

Just…don’t.

If a book isn’t right for middle schoolers, don’t have it in the library. If a book is in the library and a student chooses it, don’t criticize it and embarrass her in front of all her classmates.

(The book was, by the way, entirely appropriate.)

I hear from educators all the time how important it is for kids to develop a love of reading. And then I hear about things like this.

Here are a few thoughts, from someone who may not be an educator or a librarian or a literacy specialist, but from someone who does care about books and kids.

Don’t tell kids they are reading the wrong books. Don’t criticize their taste, even if their taste runs to series fiction or fantasy or graphic novels or any of the other books we adults like to sneer at. Reading is reading. Reading books that you adore is the absolutely best way (perhaps the only way?) to develop a true love for the printed word.

Don’t shut up the library or severely limit its hours and then complain that kids aren’t reading.

Don’t refuse to allow them any class time to read and then complain that they don’t prioritize reading.

Don’t give them tedious reading logs to fill out, making reading a painful chore.

Don’t act embarrassed or uncomfortable when kids in the throes of adolescence want to read about (gasp!) sexuality.

Don’t tell them when and what and how to read.

Just don’t.

Astra International Picture Book Writing Contest

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Apr 2, 2021 in Events, PIcture Books | Comments Off on Astra International Picture Book Writing Contest

Open to all writers, published or unpublished, for picture book manuscripts of 1000 words or less. Contest deadline April 30, 2021. Find out more here!

What I’ve Been Reading

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Mar 26, 2021 in What I've Been Reading | Comments Off on What I’ve Been Reading

This excellent graphic novel is so painful, tender, sweet, funny, bitter, exasperating, and satisfying that it’s tough to describe it in a brief paragraph. Suffice to say, it’s exactly like love and friendship in the most emotionally intense time our our lives–high school.

Required reading for all who’ve survived first love and all who’ve managed to get themselves out of a relationship that was taking them someplace and making them into someone they didn’t want to be.