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The Denver Post has now set up a page on their Neighbors Forum to display the entries and give the week’s subject. Just go to www.denverpost.com/haiku.

This week’s topic is Summer in Colorado. Send a one stanza haiku to lifestyle@denverpost.com (or file it online on the forums) to enter.

The editor’s favorite wins a $25 gift certificate to the Tattered Cover bookstore.

Last week’s winner about the subject cats was won by Jim Vettling of Greeley:

Tom went out one night
Forgetting the shelter spay
He could just consult

Good luck!

Did you notice that the title of this post is a haiku?

That haiku you write
May award you 25
Dollars for great books

The Denver Post is running a weekly haiku contest. So how about you and your children entering a haiku poem to win a $25 gift certificate to the Tattered Cover bookstore, a wonderful local bookstore? (If you don’t live here don’t worry, you can order books from them online if you win.)

Every week The Denver Post will submit a new topic to readers of the newspaper - the topic for the week of June 4 is cats. I will let you know in a special post here at A Readable Feast what the next topic is since the contest isn’t posted on the newspaper’s website.

If you want to participate, you should submit a snappy, one-stanza haiku to lifestyle@denverpost.com.

I’ll never forget my fifth-grade English teacher, Mr. Cesstone, telling us to stop using the word "nice" and find other ways to convey what we were writing about. So, inspired by Mr. C. and Jane O’Connor’s book Fancy Nancy, let’s explore some plain and boring words versus fancy and exciting ones:

How can you make your writing more enticing? Get a good thesaurus or go to thesaurus.com. Then experiment and have fun with words and writing haiku.

(Feel free to submit your haiku below as well as turning it into the folks at the Denver Post. Good luck!)

Ironies of ironies, Nathan’s teacher at summer school is making them write in a journal! They have to do at least three sentences on a topic of their choice every day. Plus they have weekly homework, a spelling list, and have to read 20 minutes outloud every day, too. I like how this is dovetailing with what I’m doing here, in my Mother’s Journal, and with our library’s summer reading program. But it’s a lot of work for Nathan, especially for a seven-year-old who has daily karate and twice weekly baseball practice or games. (And we haven’t even started math class yet!)

I believe we’ll have plenty of time to do all the fun things we usually do in the summer, like trips to museums and playdates to the park. I’m especially looking forward to a few trips to the Denver Zoo this summer. In preparation, we’ll be reading three wonderful books from Slyvan Dell Publishing:

Turtle Summer: A Journal for My Daughter - This is a companion book to Mary Alice Monroe’s novel, Swimming Lessons, the sequel to The Beach House. In the novel, the readers witness a young mother, Toy, writing a journal for her daughter, Little Lovie. This is the journal Toy is writing, a scrapbook journal that explains the nesting cycle of sea turtles and the natural life along the southeastern coast, including local shore birds, shells, and the sea turtle hospital.

I like the idea that this is a kid’s companion book to an adult novel. It’s like sharing something growup with your child. (Click here for information on Turtle Summer, learning links and teaching activities).

ABC Safari - A great animal ABC book for younger children. Once you’ve discovered all the animals, turn to the “For Creative Minds” educational section for sorting cards and animal fun facts. (Click here for information on ABC Safari, learning links and teaching activities).

The Rainforest Grew All Around - The Denver Zoo has a rainforest exhibit, which we adore (especially the cool snakes and lizards). This book is almost as good as the exhibit, especially because it gives the song, "The Green Grass Grew All Around" an clever rainforest treatment. The “For Creative Minds” educational section is filled with facts about rainforest plants and animals, how they live, and the products we use that come there. (Click here for information on The Rainforest Grew All Around, learning links and teaching activities).

The book even includes a recipe for Rainforest Cookies that uses several ingredients from the rainforest.

Continue Reading »

After slamming the Fairy Chronicles books on her blog, the Library Lady has several fairy book recommendations that sound positively enticing. The books, like No Flying in the House, will be on my personal to-read list this summer (and if the kids are nice, maybe I’ll share).

But what’s interesting is her insight into the world of children’s book publishing:

What we are seeing here is another case of what I’d call Eragon Syndrome. Someone self-publishes a truly dreadful book (in this case a series), some slick marketer sees the opportunity to market these books to a certain audience (in this case moms with little girls into fairies) and buys it. They slap some pretty-pretty covers on them, do some marketing (big ad in a recent Publishers Weekly–that’s what caught my eye). They add some nonsense about "positive values" (kids need magical powers to do good?–that’s a heckuva message!), get some blurbs by gullible parents and "reviewers" who themselves are writers of hack series, and POOF! a best selling series.

I continue to be appalled at the failure of parents to give a damn about the quality of the literature they offer their kids. They spend a fortune on fancy clothes and the best foods, but when it comes to the nourishment they give their children’s MINDS, they are willing to settle for the mediocre.

I can relate having sold Usborne Books for a couple of years. I’d see moms who’d spend a couple of hundred dollars on Mary Kay, Pampered Chef or Gold Canyon. Yet they’d only dole out $20 for great books for their kids.

There’s nothing wrong in spending money on yourself (I love my MK, PC and GC ladies, too.) But why be cheap when it comes to your child’s reading materials? Yes, there are free books at the library. But it’s wonderful being able to own a book, carry it around, and go back to it time and time again.

Do you believe in buying quality books for your kids? Or do feel as long as they’re reading, I don’t care what it is?

Instead of writing prompts, exercises, or assignments, Lisa Garrigues uses the phrase "writing invitiations" in her book Writing Motherhood. I’m borrowing her terminology since we’re doing summer vacation writing - I hope we’ll be "inviting" children to write rather than forcing them to.

I’m also stealing another of her ideas - writing about names (Chapter 6 for those of you who are reading Writing Motherhood). After all, what is the first thing a child does on a worksheet, test or writing assignment but write their name?

Note to parents: Please have your child date and title the page with subject of the writing invitation.

As to writing length, I’ll let you decide what your child can handle. The amount of time or pages should be determined by the child’s age, writing ability and attention span. For younger children, one or two pages or five to 10 minutes may work. For older children, you may want to make it more challenging (more pages or time) or keep the assignment open ended and let them determine how many pages they’d like to write that day.

Keep me updated on your progress in the comments below.