51) The Little Book of ‘Shroom Poetry
52) The Little Book of Fairy Poetry
53) The Little Book of Dragon Poetry
54) The Little Book of Mermaid Poetry
55) The Little Book of Troll Poetry
56) The Little Book of Wizard Poetry
57) The Little Book of Magic Poetry
58) The Little Book of Witch Poetry
59) The Little Book of Mythic Poetry
60) The Little Book of Legends Poetry
Looking at my list of Little Book titles I thought I might as well make it 50!
42) The Little Book of Bronze Poetry
43) The Little Book of Zoo Poetry
44) The Little Book of Circus Poetry
45) The Little Book of Fairy Tale Poetry
46) The Little Book of Cooking Poetry
47) The Little Book of Insect Poetry
48) The Little Book of Bird Poetry
49) The Little Book of Flower Poetry
50) The Little Book of Reptile Poetry
1) The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry
2) The Little Book of Festive Poetry
3) The Little Book of Sparky Poetry
4) The Little Book of Easter Poetry
5) The Little Book of New Baby Poetry
6) The Little Book of Wedding Poetry
7) The Little Book of Birthday Poetry
The Little Book of School Time Poetry
9) The Little Book of Feasts and What Not Poetry
10) The Little Book of Holiday Poetry
11) The Little Book of Harvest Poetry
12) The Little Book of New Year Poetry
13) The Little Book of Yule Tide Poetry
14) The Little Book of Aminal Poetry
15) The Little Book of Adventure Poetry
16) The Little Book of Summer Poetry
17) The Little Book of Winter Poetry
18) The Little Book of Spring Time Poetry
19) The Little Book of Autumn Poetry
20) The Little Book of Pet Poetry
21) The Little Book of Seaside Poetry
22) The Little Book of Mountain Poetry
23) The Little Book of Woodland Poetry
24) The Little Book of Rainy Day Poetry
25) The Little Book of Sports Poetry
26) The Little Book of Science Poetry
27) The Little Book of Nature Poetry
28) The Little Book of History Poetry
29) The Little Book of Weather Poetry
30) The Little Book of Dinolicious Poetry
31) The Little Book of Ugg Poetry
32) The Little Book of Rock Poetry
33) The Little Book of Traveling Poetry
34) The Little Book of Oceanic Poetry
35) The Little Book of Icy Poetry
36) The Little Book of Electric Poetry
37) The Little Book of Farm Poetry
39) The Little Book of Flying Poetry
40) The Little Book of Space Poetry
41) The Little Book of Iron Poetry
The Little Book of Electric Poetry - ten poems about electricity for children
The Little Book of Farm Poetry - ten poems about farming for children
The Little Book of Flying Poetry - ten poems about things like aviation, kites and birds for children
The Little Book of Space Poetry - ten poems about space and it’s exploration for children
The Little Book of Iron Poetry - ten poems about Iron for children
I often wonder why I do this challenge - I find ideas easy - I have so many of them and I find they spawn. The Little Books are hurtling away at a great speed and just little things my 6 yr old says can spark new ideas.
I am now sketching away to produce a comic for her - it’s called Pirate Plants and came about as she thought I said I was watching The Pirate Plants instead of the documentary The Private Life of plants. Bizzarly the documentary itself had already got me thinking hard about plants and stories.
Anyway - I think I probably already have 30 ideas but plan to spend an hour a day on stuff maybe some of my older ideas though.
1) The Little Book of Summer Poetry
2) The Little Book of Winter Poetry
3) The Little Book of Spring Time Poetry
4) The Little Book of Autumn Poetry
5) The Little Book of Pet Poetry
6) The Little Book of Seaside Poetry
7) The Little Book of Mountain Poetry
The Little Book of Woodland Poetry
9) The Little Book of Rainy Day Poetry
10) The Little Book of Sports Poetry
Yes me of the zillions of ideas is going to do the Picture Book Idea Month challenge yet again - this is where I come up with an idea a day for kids picture books. I like doing this challenge as it jump starts me when I’m lagging.
Not that I have done anything with any of my kids stuff other than make books for my girls. I have friends who want printed copies of the Little Books and I have come up with a plan to aplique some of the baby board book stories I’ve actually written. I am also in the middle of drawing the pictures to It’s Raining but I just can’t get excited about selling stories - I get excited over children and their reactions to my poems and stories.
I like the community on twitter, facebook, blogs and all the rest that surrounds the childrens book industry. I feel they really are (most of the time) looking to entertain and educate children. When I set up the monster blogs it was to infect the human race with story telling, communication and “litrature”.
My only sadness with the challenge is it is dominated by the US and so sometimes I’m perplexed by how say their book start schemes work. However I have started to find inspiration here in the UK namely through Angela Topping who we met at The Cheltenham Poetry Festival and Pie Corbett who did an inspirational talk at one of the schools in my area.
Having had issues with writing and reading myself I feel I want to inspire children to want to read - this to me is the important bit - I worked so hard to learn to read as I could see there was all these ‘films’ locked up in the books, all these cool facts about dinosaurs locked up in the books and if I could learn to read then I would have access to those things.
I feel picture books are incredibly important for this - I used to sit there before I could read (which took until I was 12) and make up my own stories from the pictures - this was an important step in my education even if the teacher didn’t see it that way.
The pictures helped draw me into the stories and I still remember struggling through Tim and The Hidden People because I found the pictures so enchanting and wanted to know what the actual story was.
Anyway basically I like picture books, I think they are important and my eldest loves my stories - though I think this is more the fact I can improvise when we’re stuck at bus stops and retell the same stories to her again and again. I did panic a bit I have to confess that I was doing the wrong thing in making up stories and poems for her - even though that has resulted in me reading in our local Waterstones to kids and being asked for poems about the village I live in. I suppose it is also part of the reason I have ended up running writing and poetry workshops - me of the can’t spell brigade.
I am very excited as I’ve just found out my workshops for outreach have been given funding. This is I think mixed up with me doing these writing challenges and making the monster blogs and probably many other things besides. (it is also the reason I’ve ended up with my art work on display in Cheltenham too!)
Of course this still means I have more ideas than I can possibly do anything with and I have to watch I don’t keep side tracking myself!
So yes I am doing PiBoIdMo again this year and I am happily awaiting the moment!
When the baby first arrived It slept and fed most the time But soon Jeany The sister of the big sis kind Was teaching it To be a child of a like mind She started with some baby sign Communicating… Saved her and the baby time Now when there’s mischief and crime Of the chocolate eating king Mummy and Daddy know Just who they’ll find A duo of roughies Who are really quiet kind And will share their loot with you If the thought enters their mind!
This is another that pre-existed, I made this up when my little girl was a toddler and would scream the house down at hair wash time! This used to calm her down.
Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! Won’t you rescue me! Mummy, Mummy Mummy’s Being Oh so mean! Daddy, Daddy Daddy! You won’t believe She’s trying to make me Be Oh So CLEAN!!!!
Mummy, Mummy, Mummy! Won’t you rescue me! Daddy, Daddy, Daddy’s! Being Oh so mean! Mummy, Mummy, Mummy! You won’t believe He’s trying to make me Be Oh So CLEAN!!!!
This already existed before the poetry challenge MoP it is a lou la bye I made up for my little girl - my husband has a simpler version that he sings and that if we try we can wrap round each other which is lovely but I didn’t think it would transfer to a poetry book well!
My lou la bye, my lou la bye My lou la bye, my lou la lee
My little one now go to sleep Little one now don’t you weep Little baby go to sleep
Lou la bye my lou la bye My lou la bye, my lou la bye Lou la bye my lou la bye My lou la bye, my lou la bye
My Little one, my little-lee Can’t you tell that it’s time for sleep So close you eyes and drift away So tomorrow we might play…
And play and play Those days away In golden sun And childhood games
My lou la bye My lou lay lee It’s time for little ones to sleep
The Moon is there in the sky The sun it has said goodbye So close your eyes You sleepy head Don’t you know it’s time for bed
My lou la bye My lou lay lee It’s time for little ones to sleep
My lou la bye My lou lay lee It’s time for little ones to sleep My lou la bye my lou lay bye
Lou la bye my lou la bye My lou la bye, my lou la bye…