A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt-Guests Laura Purdie Salas and Niece, Lily

Posted on by Penny Parker Klostermann
Ants may rule the hill, but they don’t rule here! Art by Landon (Click to Enlarge)
Ants may rule the hill, but they don’t rule here! Art by Landon (Click to Enlarge)

Happy National Poetry Month!

Hello, Great Readers of our series! Just in case you haven’t visited before, let me tell you a little about A Great Nephew and A Great Aunt. My great nephew, Landon (a fifth-grader) and I (his great aunt) collaborate. I write a poem which he illustrates. We started this collaboration last fall and have had so much fun with it that we decided to invite others along. Landon and I will continue to have a new episode on the second Friday of each month. The other Fridays are filling up quickly with guests. I have created a page on my website to view all the episodes of A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt. Click HERE to visit the page and enjoy past episodes.

Today it is my pleasure to welcome  . . .

Laura Purdie Salas and her 10-year old niece, Lily

Laura said: I gave Lily four or five poems to choose from, and she chose “Things To Do If You Are a Tree.” This was fun for me because I got to see her notes on my poem (she picked up on the seasonal progression, which I was hoping readers would do), a rough pencil sketch, a colored first draft, and then her final art! I loved seeing someone else’s artistic process.

The Poem

Slide1

Lily’s Art

Art by Lily
Art by Lily

Here is photo of the talented collaborators.

laura and lily

It was such a treat to have Laura and Lily on the blog today. I have been a fan of Laura, her blog, and her books for quite a while.

photo by Katherine Warde
photo by Katherine Warde

Meet Laura: Laura Purdie Salas is the author of more than 120 books for kids and teens, including A ROCK CAN BE…, WATER CAN BE…, A LEAF CAN BE… (Bank Street Best Books, IRA Teachers’ Choice, Riverby Award, and more), and BOOKSPEAK! POEMS ABOUT BOOKS (NCTE Notable, Bank Street Best Book, Eureka! Gold Medal, and more). She loves to get kids excited about poetry, help teachers use poetry and mentor texts in the classroom, and help writers build writing careers.And sign up for her E-letter for writers HERE. To learn more about Laura and her work visit her in these places.
Website, Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest

Also, if you need advice about writing and publishing, be sure to check out Laura’s Mentors for Rent.  Mentors for Rent

rock

A ROCK CAN BE . . .  is Laura’s most recent book. Be sure to visit her website to learn more about all of her books.
Now it’s time to head on over to Ellen Leventhal’s blog, Elementary Dear Reader, for the Poetry Friday Roundup.poetry friday button

62 thoughts on “A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt-Guests Laura Purdie Salas and Niece, Lily”

  1. What a beautiful collaboration! It almost makes me long for fall so I, too, can “Knit a scarlet fall sweater”. On second thought, though, I’m happy that it’s still spring. Thanks for sharing!

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  5. Such a warmhearted and nurturing tree, Laura… except maybe for the kite-eating part. 😉 And Lily did such a beautiful job with the artwork! It’s no easy task illustrating a list poem. I wouldn’t know where to begin, but clearly Lily is not only an excellent artist, but an excellent problem solver as well.

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    1. Thanks, Michelle. It was interesting, because Lily loves to do her own thing, artistically, so taking on the task of illustrating someone else’s words was something new for her. Hoping she’ll collaborate with me again:>)

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  8. Pingback: Poetry Friday Roundup! (It is still Friday, isn’t it?) | Elementary Dear Reader

    2. It is amazing. My two daughters are talented in totally different things–one of them is very artistic. And now over the past year or two, my niece has shown all the wonderful creativity she has, too. Very fun!

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  16. Things to do if you are a poet: collaborate in producing awesomeness with another talented artist! Great work, Lily and Laura!

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  19. I love that Lily picked up on my favorite line, “Eat a kite for dessert.” You two are a winning combo!

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  22. Thanks so much for having Lily and me visit on your blog, Penny. My niece is SO artistic–it was really fun to see what she did. Pretty much like writing a book and waiting to see what the illustrator does with it!

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    1. Thanks for being a part of this series, Laura. Lily is amazing. I agree that it’s like writing a book and anticipating the minute you get a glimpse at what the illustrator has done to bring the text to life. That’s the way I feel each time I see that I have a drawing of Landon’s in my Inbox 🙂

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