THE MORTIMER MINUTE: A Guest Post by Janet Wong

Earlier this month children's author April Halprin Wayland invited me to follow her in a Children's Poetry Blog Hop. Welcome to another installment of the Children's Poetry Blog Hop, aka The Mortimer Minute!

Here’s How-to-Hop, “Mortimer Minute” style!

• Answer 3 questions. Pick one question from the previous Hopper. Add two of your own. Keep it short, please! This is a Blog Hop, not a Blog Long Jump. This is The Mortimer Minute—not The Mortimer Millennium!
• Invite friends. Invite 1-2 bloggers who love children's poetry to follow you. They can be writers, teachers, librarians, or just-plain-old-poetry-lovers. 
• Say thank you. In your own post, link to The Previous Hopper. Then keep The Mortimer Minute going: let us know who your Hoppers are and when they plan to post their own Mortimer Minute.

Ready?

Mortimer: Is there a children's poem that you wish you had written? 

JW: “Puff” by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater. 

Mortimer: What do you have in your refrigerator?

JW: Yes, Mortimer: those ARE carrots you see there! Five pounds. Those carrots have been waiting for two weeks to get juiced. It will would be happening any day week now, except I’ll be on the road for two weeks (starting yesterday), speaking at conferences, attending book meetings, and visiting schools in Texas, Washington, and California. (Carrot $ has to come from somewhere.)

Mortimer: How can I (Mortimer) help you?

JW: In the kidlitosphere we have a thing called Poetry Friday. Bloggers put amazing posts up every Friday. A different host each week lists all these posts. I’m always enticed by a dozen posts but I rarely get around to reading more than 3. If I were to see “The Mortimer Minute” next to a couple of blogs next week, I would make a point of going there. You’d be giving me just the nudge I need. I mean, how could I NOT stop by a blog to visit you—for a minute?! 

My Mortimer Minute is almost up, so let me introduce the Hoppers who will follow me with The Mortimer Minute at their blogs next week!

Irene Latham

Irene Latham writes middle grade novels and poetry for all ages. Her recent works were inspired by her childhood love for exotic animals: DON'T FEED THE BOY is about a boy who wants to escape his life at the zoo and DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST (2014) is a collection of poems set at an African water hole.

Renée M. LaTulippe
Renée M. LaTulippe writes children's poetry and is co-author of LIZARD LOU: A COLLECTION OF RHYMES OLD AND NEW and seven early readers for All About Learning Press. Her children's poetry blog at No Water River features poetry videos, poet interviews, extension activities, and other poetry goodies. 

That’s it for this week. Thanks, Mortimer!