Going Barefoot for National Garden Month

Among all the other month-long celebrations, April is also National Garden Month with people planting and pruning all around me. Since we moved into this home last December, we are working to get the landscaping renewed and refreshed—watering and fertilizing and planting perennials. We put in a whole new lawn in the backyard where a large shade tree had killed all the grass (and we’re cutting the tree back a bit, too, of course). One of my favorite parts of this process is walking barefoot on the new, soft, cool lawn (of St. Augustine grass).

Going barefoot is such a treat in childhood—freeing and often forbidden (unless you can't afford shoes-- which is another story). A new poetry collection celebrates those barefoot feelings and experiences: Barefoot; Poems for Naked Feet by Stefi Weisburd, illustrated by Lori McElrath-Eslick (Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press, 2008). It includes 27 poems in a variety of forms with appealing watercolor illustrations expanding each one. Many of the poems address the fun, obvious aspects of feet at play, in babyhood, in shoes, jumping, dancing, walking, at the beach, in the pool, plus footrubs, pedicures, and even Mehndi painting. What a fun example of a topic that children can explore in concrete ways from multiple perspectives.

Here’s just a sampling:

Shoe Tattoo
by Stefi Weisburd

Tight shoes,
ribbed socks,
leave lines
embossed.
Streams and hills,
fields of wheat.
A tiny landscape
on my feet!

From: Barefoot; Poems for Naked Feet by Stefi Weisburd, illustrated by Lori McElrath-Eslick. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press, 2008, p. 27.

This is Stefi’s first book for young people, although she has published much notable poetry for adults. Watch for more from this fresh voice.

For more poetry about body parts and movement:
Adoff, Arnold. 1979. I am the Running Girl. New York: Harper & Row.
Brown, Calef. 2000. Dutch Sneakers and Flea Keepers: 14 More Stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Cole, Joanna, comp. 1989. Anna Banana: 101 Jump-Rope Rhymes. Illus. by Alan Tiegreen. New York: HarperTrophy.
Creech, Sharon. 2004. Heartbeat. New York: HarperCollins.
Dotlich, Rebecca Kai. 2003. In the Spin of Things: Poetry of Motion. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.
Grimes, Nikki. 2000. Shoe Magic. New York: Orchard Books.
Mayo, Margaret. 2002. Wiggle Waggle Fun: Stories and Rhymes for the Very Very Young. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.
McCord, David. 1999. Every Time I Climb a Tree. New York: Little Brown.
Sierra, Judy. 2005. Schoolyard Rhymes: Kids’ Own Rhymes for Rope Skipping, Hand Clapping, Ball Bouncing, and Just Plain Fun. New York: Knopf.
Wolf, Allan. 2003. The Blood-Hungry Spleen and Other Poems About Our Parts. Ill. by Greg Clark. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.
Wong, Janet. 2007. Twist: Yoga Poems. McElderry.

Try going barefoot again this month!

Picture credit: BestWebBuys

Juanita Havill and GROW

Time to plug my TLA poetry panel again. Coming to Texas next week: Juanita Havill. In 1986, Juanita Havill introduced readers to a young African-American girl named Jamaica in her first published picture book, Jamaica's Find. She was a hit! Over a dozen years later, together with sometime-friend Brianna, brother Ossie, and assorted teachers and classmates, Jamaica has continued to entertain readers in at least six picture book stories. Juanita Havill has authored at least 10 other picture books, as well as three novels for young readers. Her work has been recognized with several Child Study Children's Book Awards from Bank Street College, Children's Choices citations, and the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer award. Her previous poetry collection, I Heard It from Alice Zucchini, and Other Poems about the Garden, (Chronicle Books, 2005) was described as a “a bountiful harvest of lyrical poems” by School Library Journal, with “flawless rhythms and storytelling narratives.” Her newest work, Grow, A Novel in Verse, continues the garden theme in a verse novel about a girl struggling with who she will be and become, nurtured by a neighbor who works to create a garden in a public space. As they plant and weed and tend the garden, neighborhood relationships evolve and grow, too. Here’s a sample poem:

Bolting Lettuce
by Juanita Havill

Some of the big early tomatoes
are red,
round, and juicy.
Radishes picked
and crunched,
their spicy cool
oozing
in my mouth.
If we give it
half a chance,
the lettuce
will bolt.
(Berneetha’s word.)
When she tells me
about bolting,
I think I feel
what the lettuce feels.
People have finally quit
pulling the leaves off
here and there,
cutting me down to size.
They let me have my head,
let me grow, grow, grow
into what
I’ve been wanting
to be all along—
a flower.

From Grow, A Novel in Verse (Peachtree, 2008; p. 123-124)

Check out my previous posting on April 29, 2007 for Children’s Poetry for National Garden Month for more poetry books about gardens and gardening.

For even more poetry connections, go to the Poetry Friday Round Up hosted by Cloudscome at A Wrung Sponge.

Picture credit: Amazon