sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Bird watching and more

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This morning I took my camera and went looking for birds. I lost count, but I spotted about 20 different species all within less than a kilometre of home.

There was a pigeon, just across the road from my house

Bronzewing pigeon

and a magpie, that wardled as it told me how it longed to slide down that slide.

Magpie

There were ducks – there are always ducks. These ones were almost too sleepy in the early morning sun to notice me coming along the path.

Two wood ducks

A family of coots. The babies are past the super-cute stage, but fun to watch:

Baby coot

and I loved the way this baby kept heading back to mum for a piece of whatever she was foraging

Baby coot being fed

And there were spoonbills, which are surprisingly quiet as they roost and roam about the trees over the swamp

Spoonbill
Spoonbill
Spoonbills

So I was happy, but sometimes it’s the little things you weren’t looking for that really make you smile, like this:

Spiderweb

or this

Feather

or even just the perfect sky above it all

Blue sky
Blue sky

Ahhhhh.

Ten Things To Do With a Verse Novel

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On my recent trip to Sydney, I spoke to two groups of teacher-librarians about ways to use verse novels in schools. I Roses are Bluepromised at the time that I would put this list up  on my blog. So, here goes:

Ten thing things you can do with Roses are Blue or my other verse novels:

1. Read them aloud. Because they are poetry, and first person, they are largely written to be read aloud, and are short enough to be  read in the classroom or library in just a few sessions.

2. Give them to reluctant readers. The white space, the relatively short length and the accessibility of the language make them unthreatening.

3. Give them to advanced readers, who will recognise them as poetry, and enjoy the layers of meaning and the poetic techniques. (Incidentally, reluctant readers may do these things too, in the same way the advanced readers may enjoy the short length!)

4. Use them to broach difficult themes and topics with children – either one on one or in groups. A child need not be going through these situations to want to know about them. Every child at some time wonders about bereavements, for example or faces challenges in their lives. Although they may differ from those of my characters, experiencing tough times with characters can be both enabling and comforting. Reading a verse novel can develop sympathy and empathy.

5. Use them to introduce the less tough topics they also deal with: friendship, family support, poetry writing, art, domino toppling, school projects, Mother’s Day – all these, and more, are dealt with in my verse novels.

6. Use them to explore poetry in all its many forms. Poetry should be a part of every person’s life. A pleasurable part!

7. Share them with adults. Adults need poetry and happy-sad books too.

8. Shelve and display them in the fiction section rather than hiding them in the nonfiction section. Let kids find them.

9. Use them to fulfil the requirements of the Australian Curriculum (or, if you’re overseas, your own national or state curriculum). Teacher’s Notes are available here.

 10. Enjoy them yourself.

 
Are you doing something exciting with my verse novels in your school?  I would love to hear about it.

Poems that Make Me Tingle #3

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When I was a child, we had a set of World Book Encyclopaedias which had a matching set of books for children, called Childcraft,   about all kinds of things. One of these was a collection of poetry, and I spent a lot of time reading and rereading this volume.  Not only can I still picture it, but I can still smell that book whenever I think of it.

Anyway, there were many poems in that book which I loved, but possibly my absolute favourite was this one:

 

The Purple Cow

by Gelett Burgess

I never saw a purple cow

I never hope to see one

But I can tell you, anyhow

I’d rather see than be one.

 

Why did this poem make me tingle? I suspect it was a combination of things – the absurdity, the ease with which I could remember it, and the illustration which accompanied it, a photo of a stunningly purple cow.

Apparently this poem, first published in 1895 went on to become the most quoted poem of the twentieth century. So obviously I wasn’t alone in loving this poem.

Happy-sad

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When I’m asked why I write sad books, I often reply that I don’t:  I write happy books with sad things in them, and I believe that. Roses are Blue seems sad, because there’s a girl going through a very tough time, and a mother who is permanently disabled, and there isn’t much there to be happy about. But ultimately, I hope I’ve written a story about hope. about finding happiness in the midst of these trying times. If a reader finishes reading that book, or Pearl Verses the World, or Toppling, and feels nothing but sad, then I  have failed in what I’m trying to do. I want to make people feel good, not bad.

Head HogHaving said that, it’s possible to make people happy without first making them sad. There are plenty of children’s books that do that, and I have written some of those which I am very proud of. Nobody feels sad about the story of Head Hog, or The Floatingest Frog. These are books which, I hope,make people smile.

So, why do I write the sad books then? (Again, I argue that they are actually happy books, but can see why people describe them that way.)

I have visited a lot of schools this year, which is a wonderful wonderful part of my job. I get to read from my books, talk about myself and meet the kids who read my books, or who might read my books. At every one of those schools, there is a child who has had really sad things happen in their lives. Sometimes those chidlren keep those sad stories hidden inside themselves, but sometimes they share them with with me.

It is an honour when a child trusts me or connects with me enough to tell me that they, too, have lost a grandparent, like Pearl does, or that they too have a family member with a disability. Last year a gorgeous girl and her classmates told me of her struggle with cancer, like Dominic in  Toppling.

Sometimes, chidlren tell me things that they haven’t told their friends or their teachers. And sometimes, I’m guessing, they don’t tell me, because they don’t want to talk about it, and that is fine too.

And, for every school I do visit, there are hundreds – thousands – of schools I can’t visit. But there are children in those schools, everywhere in the world, who have really sad things in their lives. In the end, don’t we all have tough stuff happen to us sometime in our life?

I put this sad stuff into my books because it’s real. I wish it wasn’t. I wish children didn’t have to have terrible things happen in their lives. I really do.

What I hope is that by writing about these topics, I might help children, in some small way, see that even in the midst of sadness, even in the midst of tough times,  there can be happiness.

Poem: A Townsville Swim

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Don’t go in

they said.No swimming

There are stingers

they said

and bull sharks

and, occasionally,

a lost crocodile.

Don’t go in,

they repeated

or you will die.

But, feeling rebellious,

I slipped off my shoes

crossed the gritty sand

and poked my brave brave toes

into the warm water.

Then, emboldened,

I crossed the road

and swam

in the hotel pool.

 

(Sally Murphy, 2014)

Poem: Run!

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Run!

 

Run rabbit, run.

It’s dinner time

and fox wants you

for his.

(Sally Murphy, 2014)

It’s been a long while since I tried my hand at a fifteen word or less poem, a weekly challenge from children’s poet and author  Laurie Purdie Salas. You can see this week’s photo prompt here, and in the comments section see the wonderfully varied responses.

sallymurphy.com.au