Blog Tour: Nikki Grimes and A CUP OF QUIET

Photo credit: Marchel Hill 

I'm so happy to welcome Nikki Grimes to the blog today. I've been a huge fan of hers for YEARS. She's won nearly every imaginable award including a lifetime achievement award from NCTE for her poetry and from ALSC and from CSK for her entire body of work. She's a legend! So many amazing works from her poetry collections, novels in verse, picture books, and a memoir. So many of her works are landmark books, like her prose-poetry blending in Bronx Masquerade, her spunky girls Danitra Brown and Dyamonde Daniel, her novels in verse for middle grade readers like Garvey's Choice (now also a graphic novel), her golden shovel poem collections like One Last Word, her powerful memoir, Ordinary Hazards, her picture book biographies like Talkin' About Bessie-- I could go on and on and on. And she's still going strong! 

Her newest book debuts April 15 and I'm so happy to be part of the virtual book tour to help launch it. A Cup of Quiet is a lyrical picture book about a loving grandma and imaginative granddaughter as the little girl gathers all the quiet noises she discovers in her backyard garden and gifts that "cup of quiet" to her grandma. I asked Nikki four questions to explore a bit of background about this gem of a book Here are her thoughtful, interesting responses.

1. Where did the idea for A Cup of Quiet come from?

Silence and quiet have grown increasingly important to my work over the years, and so I have long been attentive to both, and have particularly mulled over the difference between the two. Silence is refreshing, but I relish the quality of quiet found in nature. I wanted to celebrate that. Nature's quiet—which can be quite noisy, if you're paying attention—is a source of both inspiration and calm. It is musical, rhythmic, and dynamic. It is, in fact, the very stuff of poetry. And it can be a great source of healing, if we allow ourselves to take it in. I wanted to write a story that would allow readers to experience a moment of that in a book. And who better to orchestrate such a moment than a grandmother?

2. The illustrations are almost as lovely and lyrical as the narrative.  Were you able to consult with the illustrator, Cathy Ann Johnson, in creating this book?

 

I never consult with my illustrators because I dare not interfere with their creative process. The minute an author does that, you risk inhibiting the artist's creativity. That's one bell you cannot un-ring. Anything you say creates a boundary the artist may not be able to circumvent and, thereby, limits the possibility of what an artist might have been able to create, or which wonderful, fantastical direction the art might have taken. Instead, I focus on being involved in the selection of the artist. If I trust that the style and sensibility of an artist's work is right for my book, then I trust them to interpret my story, and to bring their own, complementary visual narrative to the party. That is very much what happened here with the luminous work of Cathy Ann Johnson.

 3. You have so many loving grandmas in this picture book and in your poetry.  Can you share memories of special grandmas or grandma friends?

 

The grandma in this book is very much a grandmother of my imagination, as are many of the grandmothers in my stories and novels in verse. I only had one grandmother—my mother's mother—and she was nothing like the grandmas of my imagination, or the grandmother in A Cup of Quiet—except that she was equally stylish. But she was very practical, not given to playfulness, or games of imagination, or overt expressions of emotion. She had a sharp tongue and would routinely whip out a pithy cultural colloquialism that would stop you in your tracks. Say something that she considered silly, or foolish, and she'd cut you off you with "Why don't you use your head for something other than a hat-rack?" This was a pragmatic, no-nonsense grandma who had no time for hanging out in the garden with her granddaughter or talking about imaginary cups of quiet. So, I suppose I've lifted elements of grandmas I've encountered in stories and films, or observed in the lives of people around me. They all helped me conjure up the grandmother in A Cup of Quiet.

4. Which of your previous poems might you pair with this picture book?

"Pineapple Surprise" is a poem I wrote for Food Fight, an anthology of food poems edited by Michael J. Rosen.  I referenced it again in my memoir, Ordinary Hazards.

"Pineapple Surprise" is not a poem about nature, but it is a poem about a grandmother's love for her granddaughter, and how that young girl comes to appreciate the particularly thoughtful, time-consuming, concrete way her grandmother—my grandmother—chose to demonstrate that love.

As a grandma myself, I love this look at the intergenerational love between these two characters. A Cup of Quiet is a lovey book to read aloud-- with its evocative illustrations and perfectly paced narrative. It could prompt a walk together outside, a heightened awareness of the noises around us, and a closer bond between the two. Check it out! 

Now head on over to Live Your Poem where the lovely poet Irene Latham is hosting our Poetry Friday gathering. See you there! 

Let's get KOOKY!

Just in time for National Poetry Month, Janet and I are so excited to announce a new book for kids: MY Kooky Compendium of Thimblethoughts & Wonderfuzz! 

This is a companion book for Clara’s Kooky Compendium of Thimblethoughts and Wonderfuzz, with fun and funny prompts to ignite kids' imaginations and get them wondering and writing! 

do elephants like music?

things I wonder . . . 

what new holidays should we invent?

here's a list of happy sounds:

These prompts are organized around sub themes and topics to guide young writers in trying a variety of activities. Kids can write IN this book because most of it is BLANK. But around each blank space, you'll find kooky prompts and crazy questions to spur creativity and critical thinking. Here are four sample pages: 

Janet and I talk about it briefly here:

Let's grow young writers and encourage their wondering, their curiosity, their research, their writing, and their laughter! You can find the book at QEP Books and Amazon. Check it out!

Now head on over to Rose's blog, Imagine the Possibilities, for our Poetry Friday gathering! 

Guest Post: Joan Bransfield Graham and AWESOME EARTH

I'm so happy to share this space with poet Joan Bransfield Graham as she debuts her new poetry collection, AWESOME EARTH: Concrete Poems Celebrate Caves, Canyons, and Other Fascinating Landforms. It is illustrated by Tania Garcia and published by Clarion/HarperCollins on Feb. 18. Here Joan writes about how this book came to be and what influenced her writing of it. 

From Joan: 

At the end of Mary Oliver’s poem “The Summer Day,” she asks, 

young Joan

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with this one wild and precious life?” As someone who grew up on a barrier island at the southern tip of New Jersey, where the waves whispered, “See the world, go beyond the horizon,” I wondered will I ever see what is on the other side of this huge ocean?  Yes!

Eventually, I found that not only did I want to see the world, I wanted to capture it, write about it, photograph it, embrace it. With poetry and photography, you can capture a moment in time, a place, a new perspective. 

The inspiration for this book happened one day when I was in my yoga class.  The teacher asked us to do the “Mountain” pose (Tadasana), to feel its power and majesty.  And I did!  I started to write a poem in my head in the voice of the mountain, a mask poem.  What I scribbled down on a scrap of paper, evolved into my “Mountain” poem. Later I thought about all the amazing landforms on our Earth and realized what better way to write about all these awesome shapes than with shape itself--concrete poetry. This picture book combines poetry, science, art, and the art of words to explore what creates landforms from “Mountain,” “Glacier,” and “Volcano” to “Island,” “Hills,” & “Hoodoos” -- artistic wonders that cover our Earth’s surface.

I did a great amount of research and had learned much from all of my travels.  I have snorkeled in Bora Bora and the Galapagos Islands, hiked on the Great Wall of China and in Machu Picchu in the Andes Mountains. I’ve sailed on the Yangtze River and on the Nile.  I’ve gone black water rafting and cave tubing in Waitomo, New Zealand & much more. What I wrote as sidebars became back matter, along with my glossary, and my additional resources. Of the 16 photos that I submitted, they were able to fit in six.

Artist Tania García, from Barcelona, Spain did a fantastic job with a palette of luscious, jewel-toned colors, creating a glorious, inviting environment for the poems! I love the cover, the whole jacket! ¡Muchas Gracias, Tania—magnífica! And, of course, abundant accolades to my editors Ann Rider (now retired) and Lynne Polvino and the whole team at Clarion/HarperCollins for their awesomeness! 💖

 

Joan with her painting 

Interestingly, many years ago after my second year of teaching, I took a Summer Session Abroad through the University of San Francisco. Majorca, an island in the Balearic archipelago off the east coast of Spain, is almost directly across the ocean from where I grew up. I lived with a Spanish family there and took classes in Landscape Painting and Drawing.  Later I toured through Spain and Portugal and visited Barcelona.  I certainly did get to see what was on the other side of that huge Atlantic Ocean and am so grateful.

Now I am 15-20 minutes from the Pacific Ocean in California. I’ve lived in the north, south, east, and west US and have visited about 50 countries. I want to see as much of our planet as I can and want to open the world for curious, creative children everywhere to enjoy and embrace this Awesome Earth we all share.  As I say on my website, “A good poem surprises your senses, shakes you awake, stirs your emotions, and startles your imagination. Each poem is an act of discovery. Poetry helps us widen our vision and our hearts.”

 

Thanks for helping me celebrate, Sylvia, and for all you do to bring a “passion of poets” together—such an incredible community! Enjoy all of your many travels! ❤️

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AWESOME EARTH -- BLOG/MEDIA TOUR, Feb. 17 – Feb. 21— Pub Date: Feb. 18

Monday, Feb. 17-- Poetry for Children -- Dr. Sylvia Vardell, Professor Emerita, Texas Woman's University, Past President of IBBY, author, and publisher, a look behind-the-scenes (here!).

Tuesday, Feb. 18 – Georgia Heard, poet, educator, author, and inventor of Heart Maps ®, 2023 NCTE Excellence in Poetry for Children Award here and here.

Wednesday, Feb. 19-- Simply 7 Interviews -- Jena Benton Lasley, Alaska SCBWI Illustrator Coordinator, author-illustrator, poet, teacher; interview, plus giveaway:  .

Thursday, Feb. 20-- The Miss Rumphius Effect -- Dr. Patricia M. Stohr-Hunt, Chair, Education Dept., University of Richmond, VA; President, VA Association of College and Teacher Educators (VACTE):  

Friday, Feb. 21-- Jama’s Alphabet Soup — Jama Kim Rattigan, Virginia-based author, blogger, foodie, alphabet lover, picture book nerd; review of book, recipe, plus giveaway: