sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Poetry Friday: Winter is Here

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It’s Poetry Friday and it’s also, here in Australia, the first Friday of Winter. And boy have I been complaining about winter. I really do not like being cold. Or wet. (Unless it’s the kind of wet that comes from swimming and visiting my fishy friends, or standing under a hot shower).

I have been trying to practice gratitude and remember the good things about winter:

  1. It does not last for the whole year.
  2. It brings rain, and we need rain for life.
  3. It is part of the great cycle of life.
  4. Coats and boots. I do like wearing warm coats and nice boots.

In the midst of shivering and whinging, I had an email from the convenor of a  poetry workshop I gave last week which was a wonderful, warm opportunity to share my love of poetry with passionate literacy educators on the other side of Australia. In her email, she shared  of her favourite childhood poems. And suddenly I was warm right though – because it was an old favourite I had completely forgotten.

And, since it’s a winter poem, it’s an apt one to share today.

The Elf and The Dormouse 

by Oliver Herford

Under a toadstool crept a wee Elf,
Out of the rain to shelter himself.

Under the toadstool, sound asleep,
Sat a big Dormouse all in a heap.

Trembled the wee Elf, frightened and yet
Fearing to fly away lest he get wet.

To the next shelter—maybe a mile!
Sudden the wee Elf smiled a wee smile.

Tugged till the toadstool toppled in two.
Holding it over him, gaily he flew.

Soon he was safe home, dry as could be.
Soon woke the Dormouse—”Good gracious me!

“Where is my toadstool?” loud he lamented.
—And that’s how umbrellas first were invented.

Written in  1894, this is still such a lovely poem.  I’m glad my new friend reminded me of its existence.

Now I’m off to warm my heart a little more, by dropping in my Poetry Friday friends. Today’s round up is hosted by Karen , who, funnily enough, is excited about summer!

May Reads

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May is over and June has begun, so it’s time to look back at what I read in the past month. It’s been a chaotic month, and I feel like I’ve hardly sat down, let alone read – but I actually managed to get through 24 books. Just shows what you can do when you snatch little pockets of each day to do what you love. Here’s what filled those pockets

Books for Kids

 

      1. What Snail Knows, by Kathryn Apel, illustrated by Mandy Foot (UQP, 2022).  A really lovely verse novel about moving, friendship and family. Lucy and her Dad are always on the move, making it hard to make friends. But Lucy has Snail and, at her latest school, a human friend too. You can see my full review at Aussiereviews.
      2. Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie, by Julie Sternberg, illustrated by Matthew Cordell (Amulet Books, 2011).Another verse novel – I’ve been on a bit of a binge lately, reading as many as I can get my hands on. This one is a gentle story about facing change. When the narrator, Eleanor, hears that her beloved babysitter is moving away, she is devastated. But as she prepares for other changes, including the start of a new school year, Eleanor builds a relationship with her new sitter.
      3.  10.10 Poetry Anthology, edited and compiled by Bridget Magee. I won this book in a giveaway, which was particularly cool because I didn’t know I had entered it. It was a subscriber giveaway, drawn  from subscriber’s the lovely Bridget’s   Wee Words for Wee Ones Blog. All the poems are connected to the theme of ten – bot not all about the number ten. Instead there are poems about TEnderness, TENacity, TENsion and so on. Very clever. If you want a taste, you can hear one of Bridget’s own poems from the book here.
      4. Elmer Makes a Break, by Patrick Cook (Puffin, 1982). I rescued this from a library throw out trolley a few years ago, and it has been in my to read pile ever since. It was just the thing for a quick read on a cold May day. The humorous tale of a rat who wants an adventure, but gets more than he bargained for when he becomes a lab rat.
      5. Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne. I listened to the audio of this on a long drive in the country, and it certainly made the drive even lovelier. I love Pooh and his friends, and this was just a lovely trip down memory lane, to hear the voices done for me as I followed the adventures.
      6. Birdie, by Eileen Spinelli (Eerdmans, 2019)  Another verse novel fromt he U. S. Birdie is still dealing with the loss of her much loved Dad, so when her mother stars dating again, she is not impressed.  She is more open to her grandmother having a new boyfriend. At the same time she needs to deal with changes in her friendships. A lovely gentle story about grief and relationships and growing up.
      7. When We Were Very Young, by A. A Milne. Having read Winnie-the-Pooh, I couldn’t resist also dipping in to the rest of my collection of  Milne’s work. This was a favourite collection of poetry in my childhood, and I still adore it – it even inspired a Poetry Friday post this month – and has done before, too.
      8. The Ghost Locket, by Alison Rushby (Walker Books, 2022).  I do love a ghost story, and really enjoyed this one, set in London, where eleven year old Lolli deals with a sinister ghost lurking in the historic house run by her beloved Aunt Elsie.
      9. Tasmanian Devil, by Claire Saxby & Max Hamilton (Walker Books, 2022). My friend Claire writes the most beautiful, lyrical nonfiction ever. Yes, I’m biased because she’s my friend, but it’s true – she brings nature to life in exquisite ways. This time it’s the tassie devil, and the illustrative work of Max Hamilton is simply gorgeous too.
      10. Eleanor, Elizabeth, by Libby Gleeson (Second Look Press, 2016). Reading  Letters from Robin last month  left me wanting to rediscover not just teh works of Robin Klein, but also some of my other favourites from the 80s and 90s. This lead me to reread this one, from Libby Gleeson, one of my favourite authors for young people.  The story of Eleanor, who is unhappy about moving to the country, but finds comfort through connecting with her grandmother, whose diary she discovers and reads.
      11. Red, by Libby Gleeson (Allen & Unwin, 2012).  And another Libby Gleeson book, this time set in Sydney following a massive natural disaster. Red wakes up with no memory of who she is or why she is there. Her new friend Peri, himself homeless even before the storm, helps her unravel her past and what it is she must do next.
      12. Spi-ku:  A Clutter of Short verse on Eight Legs, by Leslie Bulion & Rebert Meganck (ill.) (Peachtree Publishing, 2021). I do not love spiders, but I did love learning more about them through this collection. Using a variety of poetic forms and accompanying nonfiction text, this is a fun way of exploring spider facts.
      13. Blubber, by Judy Blume (Athaneum, 1974). Another classic read. First published in 1974 but this was my first time reading. Still topical and accessible as a look at the impacts of bullying, and the pressures of peer groups.
      14. At the Pond, by David Elliott, illustrated by Amy Schimler-Safford (Candlewick, 2022). So much poetry this month! This one is a picture book length collection, with each poem introducing a different  pond-resident and, at the same time, moving through the day. The illustrations, with collage and paint, are just divine.

    Books for Young Adults

        1. The Black Flamingo, by Dean Atta (Hodder, 2019). Oh how I loved this book! Not only is it a verse novel, which (if you haven’t picked up on this) is my favourite genre, but it is is also just an amazing exploration of belonging, as Michael navigates his queer identity, his family dynamics, friendship and more.
        2. Roxy, by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman (Walker Books, 2021). What a ride! This book made me uncomfortable from the moment I realised it was being narrated by two prescription drugs – and yet this discomfort was the very point of the book, and kept me reading. The premise is that what humans know as drugs or opioids are really malevolent gods, and two of those drugs – Roxy and Addison – are competing to see which one can can produce a lethal result the fastest – playing with two siblings as their targets.  Confronting but very clever.
        3. Finding Jupiter, by Kelis Rowe (Walker Books, 2022).  I love receiving review copies and the way this takes me in such varied reading directions.  Ray does not want a relationship, so when she meets Orion she is not ready for the attraction she feels. Orion is also resistant, but he feels pulled towards Ray in a way he can’t explain. Their romance is rocky, but it’s the tragic past that links their families that makes things tricky.
        4. Came Back to Show You I Could Fly, by Robin Klein (Text Classics, 2017). First published in 1987, this book was just beyond my own teen reading years, so I have only ever read it as an adult, but I remember thinking it amazing in the 90s when I first read it. This reread did not disappoint. The characters of ten year old Seymour, q naïve and lonely boy, and Angie, a drug addict, and the way they form an unlikely friendship is really compelling and beautifully rendered. I wish I could write like that!

    Books for Adults

        1. His Last Bow, by Arthur Conan Doyle.  I started working my way through the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories last year, and this is the second last title. One to go. I am still enjoying the language and style, and (as I’ve said before) listening to them being read by Stephen Fry.
        2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Simon & Schuster, 2021).  This was recommended to me by one of my university students, who told me is one of the best books she’d ever read. High praise, and enough o make me curious. I really enjoyed this story – a glimpse at life behind the scenes in Hollywood’s glamour years, as well as an exploration of the challenges of being LGBTQI in this community, and of love in all its forms.

    Nonfiction for Adults

        1. Ten Steps to Nanette, by Hannah Gadsby (Wavesound, 2022). I love listening to audiobooks, because it helps me on long drives, and also when doing dull stuff like housework. But there are some books that I believe should be read on audio because of the value of the author’s voice – and this is one of them. Listening to Hannah Gadsby tell her story is an absolute privilege. Not always easy,  because of the subject matter, but always riveting and heartfelt and very moving. Superb.

    2. Let Go, by Hugh van Cuylenburg (Penguin, 2021). From the author of The Resilience Project, which I read twice last year, this one is a good complement, exploring the additional challenges to resilience which the pandemic, social media and more can throw up, and new insights into van Cylenburg’s own journey.

    3. The Ballroom Murder, by Leigh Straw (Fremantle Press, 2022).  The true story of a murder that happened in Perth in 1925, when a young woman, Audrey Jacob, shot dead her former fiancé – in  he middle of a charity ball at Government House. Drawing from newspaper accounts, court records and other historical documents, this is an intriguing story.  Mine was a review copy – the book is not released until August.

  2. 4. Fathoms: The World in the Whale, by Rebecca Giggs (Scribe, 2020). Youc an tell from the cover that this is a book about whales – but it is about so much more, too. Framed against an exploration of the whale and humans’ relationship to whales, this books is philosophical, sad, and hopeful in turn. beautiful reading.  

This brings my total for the year to 68 books read so far – nearly half way to my goal which, I guess, means I’m on track.

 

 

That’s it from me, but I’d love to hear what you’ve been reading.

Poetry Friday: Stairs

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This week on a car trip I listened to the audiobook of Winnie the Pooh and laughed anew at the stories I loved as a child. I especially always love that Pooh is a poet, and makes up poems when he’s feeling sad, or glad, or just because. They are often nonsensical but always fun to repeat.

This lead me, in turn, to pick up my copies of A.A. Milne’s poetry books and revisit them. I was home alone and found myself reading them aloud, because that is what I felt like doing (As an aside, being home alone can be just fabulous for thing like reading!).

And I came back to how much I love many of those poems, but always always this one:

Halfway Down

Halfway down the stairs
is a stair
where I sit.
there isn’t any
other stair
quite like
it.

(you can read the rest of the poem, which is copyright,  here)

Why this poem? I think because, growing up, we had a big staircase and those stairs were the scene of a lot of games. I grew up in a country hotel and we lived upstairs while my parents ran their business downstairs. the stairs were not grand, but to a child they were exciting, and adventurous, and I spent many hours trying to master jumping to skip more than the bottom three, or to slide down the bannister (sorry Mum). But also, just sitting on the stairs, reading, or waiting for Mum, or dreaming.

So, it seemed this poem was written just for little me. And when I read it now I still get the tingle of rightness of this being for me, about me. Do you have a poem from your own childhood that does this – or, like me, more than one such poem?

I am pretty sure I have shared this clip before, but what’s not love about Robin the Frog sharing my favourite poem?

 

These days I don’t love stairs so much, but on my beach walks, I do need to climb down (and then, of course, back up)these amazing stairs.Photobombing dragonfly

And now I’m off to find more poetry that makes me smile, because it’s Poetry Friday, hosted today by Carmela at Teaching Authors.

 

Poetry Friday: Verse Novels are Awesome

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Yesterday I had the very great pleasure of being part of  the School Library Association of Victoria’s online Reading Forum, with a panel discussing one of my great loves – verse novels.  Panellists included  the amazing Kathryn Apel (poet extraordinaire), the equally amazing Zana Fraillon (whose prose I always adore, and whose first verse novel I cannot wait to get my hands on), Kelsy Peterson (amazing librarian from Brighton Grammar School) and Ruth Nitschke (from the fabulous National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature). And the attendees were librarians, teacher-librarians and other educators from across Victoria and further afield.

What an event! So much love for verse novels from the presenters and the attendees. One thing I loved was that we did not  meet and plan who would say what, and yet we were such a great combination, with common threads running through without being repetitive. I know many of the attendees were already fans of the verse novel, but I also got the feeling that they were leaving with big to-read lists and even more passion for sharing verse novels with young readers.  Winning!

Some of the takeaways for those of you who missed it:

  • Verse novels are awesome.
  • They exist on a range of topics, for a range of age groups and can appeal to readers of all interests.
  • Verse novels are awesome.
  • They offer poetry in a way which is accessible and relatable, but offer depth and empathetic experiences.
  • Verse novels are really awesome.
  • They can be used in the classroom for writing, for building reading skills and for exploring curriculum, but they can equally (and perhaps most importantly) be read for pleasure.
  • Verse novels are totally awesome.
  • White space! I think we all mentioned the white space in verse novels as being important, but it what was Zana said that really resonated with me – reminding us that the white space is both physical and metaphorical. That is – it is in what is not said, in the spaces, that a lot of meaning and connection is allowed to bloom.
  • Verse novels are totally, absolutely awesome.

Okay, maybe I’m repeating myself on the awesome bit, but this was truly the message that the evening got across – both from the presenters and from the participants.

I logged out with a huge smile on my face, and a new list of to-reads. I am constantly surprised by how many verse novels I haven’t yet read – but also delighted because that means more reading joy in my future.

You can find the recommendations from Kelsy on her padlet here.  I also cannot wait to get my hands on Zana’s The Way of Dog. I am lucky to have already read all of Kat’s verse novels, including the wonderful What Snail Knows, which I reviewed here.  And, of course, a massive shout out to the amazing NCACL Verse Novel resource, where you can learn more about all the wonderful verse novels for children and young adults which  have ever been published in Australia.

The other reason I’m smiling, is because today is Poetry Friday – so there is lots more poetry goodness ahead as I browse my friends’ poetic offerings. Rose is hosting this week’s  the roundup here.

 

 

 

Poetry Friday: The Science of Poetry

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Last week’s post was a bit of a passionate rant about how important it is to share poetry, and to do so in ways that are pleasurable.

All week I have been wondering why I didn’t mention a little piece of research that I came across during my doctoral studies and which I often cite. So, here it is: reading poetry does magic stuff to your brain that reading prose doesn’t.   In short, a study using fMri (a brain scan technology) found that when participants read their favourite poetry the parts of their brain related to memory and physical reaction (like shivers down the spine) were activated. For a better explanation, you can see this news report here or, if you want the more detailed scientific paper, you can search an academic library  for the full article by Zeman, Milton, Smith and Rylance (abstract here) .

 

I love it when science proves what we poetry lovers already know – that poetry is a whole body, whole self activity. Because while we don’t need scientific proof, that evidence is great for sharing with poetry doubters.

And, while I must confess that I have not written a poem of my own this week, I figure this is a good time to share a poem which definitely gives me all the feelings.

A Quoi Bon Dire

Beautiful Sa Pa.

by Charlotte Mew

Seventeen years ago you said
Something that sounded like Good-bye;
And everybody thinks that you are dead,
But I.

So I, as I grow stiff and cold
To this and that say Good-bye too;
And everybody sees that I am old
But you.

And one fine morning in a sunny lane
Some boy and girl will meet and kiss and swear
That nobody can love their way again
While over there
You will have smiled, I shall have tossed your hair.

 

Why this poem? It is  a little sad, but, for me, it warms my heart with its observations (even celebration)  of love, and how we can hold that love long after someone has left our lives. It may be a romantic love, but in my case, this week marks anniversaries of two losses – my sister and my father – and it doesn’t matter that are gone six years and one year respectively – I love them just as much now as I did when I could see them.

I’m off to read more poetry and more thoughts about poetry because today is Poetry Friday. The roundup is being hosted Jama  So if you want to activate your  brain, head over there and do some reading of your own:)

 

And the Winner Is….

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Thank you to everyone who entered my book giveaway and came along to celebrate the double birthday of Worse Things and Pearl Verses the World.

 

The winner was determined randomly – I entered all entrants into a spreadsheet in the order they commented, then used Google’s random number generator to select a winner. The winning number was entry number one:

 

And this entry belonged  to Gail Erskine. This is well deserved as Gail is an amazing educator and advocate for children’s books.   Your book will be winging its way to you very soon Gail!

 

If you entered and didn’t win, I’m sorry – but hopefully you enjoyed entering. Both books (and my other verse novels) are still in print and therefore available in good bookstores and online – or at your local library!

 

Thanks again everyone. 

sallymurphy.com.au