Posts by Nancy Bo Flood
A Poem for Mothers
Sharing a poem by Julia Kasdorf
Read MoreJane Yolen
Can you tell us how your recent book When Nana Dances came to be? My co-author on this book, Maddison Stemple-Piatt, is my granddaughter. She was ten years old, in ballet…
Read MoreWe Belong, a Book Recommendation
In We Belong, with bright digital illustrations and a bouncy, engaging rhythm, Laura Purdie Salas introduces the reader to the many ways we are different as well as the many ways we all belong.
Read MoreNikki Grimes
When I asked Nikki to take part in my National Poetry Month celebration, I knew the possibilities of books to discuss were many. Nikki writes in poetry and sometimes prose, from picture books to middle grade novels to young adult books.
Read MoreSensory Images and Metaphor
Working with students in their classroom, after talking about creating sensory images and the use of metaphor, I read one of my favorite poems, “Seven Ways of Looking at Eagles,” written by Tonia Scabby Face, Lakota, a middle-school student at Red Cloud Indian School.
Read MoreWong and Vardell on Poetry
Today, in celebration of National Poetry Month, I’d like to share this video from Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell, talking about the book Good Luck Gold & more by Janet and sharing a poem from Jen Bryant, “Laugh,” in Pomelo Books’ Things We Do.
Read MoreApril Halprin Wayland
My friend, poet and teacher April Halprin Wayland, shares one of her poems with us, “Exercising My Voice.”
Read MoreJoy Harjo
A poem by Joy Harjo, poet, activist, educator, 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, Mvskoke [Creek] Nation
Read MoreJFK and Poetry
May I share a quote from John F. Kennedy that I keep above my desk?
Read MoreWater is Magic
Let us continue Celebrating Water.
Read MoreWater’s Children
Water: a book, a poem, a brief essay … a continuation of the celebration of water.
Read MoreWalking for Water
Water is precious. Water is life. Water is unfair, but this doesn’t have to be.
Read MoreMental Health: The Giver
Lois Lowry: “I think it’s something that literature does, that writing does, that speaking about things does. It keeps our hearts from breaking.”
Read MoreMental Health: Reading Paulsen’s Autobiography
A few weeks ago, someone was asking about books that touched upon—or included—domestic abuse/ family violence. Paulsen’s book is an autobiography.
Read MoreWriting the Story of Mental Illness for Young Readers
I have been pulled toward the subject of suicide since I was a teen despite its stigma, and worked on my first suicide hotline when I was eighteen. That’s because as an adolescent I struggled not only with depression but with some periods of suicidality, and I understand the dangerous power and seduction of it when one is suffering mental despair.
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