
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 sixth-grader) and I (his great aunt) collaborate. I write a poem which he illustrates. We started this collaboration in the fall of 2014 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 share a creative collaboration from . . .
Buffy Silverman and Daughter, Emma
From Buffy: When Penny asked me to be a guest on her great-nephew-and-great-aunt blog, I hesitated. My kids are in their twenties—neither one draws anymore, and there are no grandkids, grandnieces, or grandnephews on the horizon. At first I thought I’d pull out some of my son’s and daughter’s artwork from elementary school and use that for inspiration. Then I realized that my daughter Emma still makes artwork—just not with crayons or markers anymore.
Buffy’s Poem
Emma’s Artwork
Many thanks to Buffy and Emma for this bee-boppin’ collaboration! I think I’d love to attend the Monster Hop 🙂

Meet Emma: Emma Conner is a computer scientist and an avid knitter. When she was a student at Oberlin College, she knitted a monster a day for a winter term project. Emma welcomes inquiries about freelance knitting and website projects.
Meet Buffy: Buffy Silverman is the author of more than seventy nonfiction books for young readers. Her nature-inspired poetry is featured in anthologies and magazines. Visit her online at www.buffysilverman.com. (When Emma was in high school she designed and built Buffy’s website. Emma plans to overhaul it as soon as Buffy can decide what she wants changed!)
Thanks to Jama Rattigan for hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup today at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. She just happens to be featuring my first published work today—a poem titled Buttons. If you’d like to know more about Poetry Friday, click HERE for an explanation by Renee LaTulippe.
Beautiful knitting and beautiful poem, too!!
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I love the poem. It is so much fun to read. I like the knitted monsters, too.
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What a talented family! Thanks for sharing Buffy and Emma’s fantastical work today, Penny.
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Such a fun, engaging poem and fantastic knitted beasts!
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What a wonderful collaboration. I loved Olives rhythmic moves and dives. Clever poem. But, I especially loved the knit Olive creation and all of the monsters. Such talent!
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Knitted monsters! I love it! Great collaboration and opens up all sorts of possibilities for the artist role!
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This poem is so much fun, and what adorable little monsters! Thanks for making me smile.
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Glad you got a smile! That’s what I hope this series brings. Buffy always makes me smile. What talent!
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What a fun way to come back together as mother and daughter! The teeny tiny details in Emma’s knitting show such skill! It is not easy to make something so small! Buffy, I was surprised to read that nonfiction is your forte…your peppy poem is a fun fiction performance!
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Thanks for coming by, Carrie. Buffy’s talent for poetry is so diverse! Whenever I read her poetry I come away impressed.
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Thanks, all, for the kind comments. It was a lot of fun to write a poem to go with the monsters!
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Monster Hop = perfection! What utterly cool knitted beauties and what a totally fun romp of a poem. Thanks at least 8 times, Buffy and Emma!
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I figured you’d be taken with the knitted characters, Jama. Aren’t they super?
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What perfectly adorable monsters! No wonder Buffy was inspired to write such a fun poem. Thanks for sharing it here. I love it.
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Thanks for coming by, Rosi. Those adorable monsters are inspiring for sure 🙂
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Buffy’s poem is so much fun to read and going to a Monster Hop with knitted creations allows for a blast from the past. Hooray for the combo.
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Thanks for stopping in, Carol. Glad you enjoyed the collaboration.
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Buffy, your poem had me boppin’ in my seat! Can Olive teach me that sashay-and-swing-with-a-flippity-dip move? Such a pleasure to get to know talented Emma too. I also used to knit a whole bunch in my 20s, but never at the impressive level of a monster a day. I do have a whole bunch of teddy bear outfits to show for it, though– and quite a few sweaters… only half of which actually fit.
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PS, are those red & white striped little guys Totoros???!
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Emma has knitted Totoro, but I don’t think these were intended to be totoros. The brown dude, however, is Calabash from Evan Dahm’s Rice Boy (I stuck the purple monster earrings on Calabash for some unknown reason.)
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Didn’t Buffy use some fun language, Michelle? I love the “trilluped and chirruped” line.
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This is so fun! I don’t know which I love more–the poem Olive or the knitted Olive! I also have a special fondness for the monster that appears to be eating a small friend.
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Ha! That one is especially charming, Liz 🙂
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GAH!!!! Knitted monsters!!!! WANT!!!!! Those are fabulous, and clearly inspiring as evidenced by Buffy’s bopping octopus. That is one creative family. LOVE!
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That’s what I was thinking, Renee . . . WANT! I can’t imagine what she could do with a dragon. Thanks for stopping in 🙂
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Buffy is such an amazing poet! And Emma’s knitted monsters are perfect! Love this.
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I agree, Iza. Buffy is an amazing poet and obviously Emma is amazing, too!
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Buffy and Emma, Love Olive’s moves and grooves. She’s an adorable knitted octopus. p.s. When I was in college, I lived in a dorm of knitters. 🙂
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Thanks for coming by, Robin. So were knitting needles a requirement for living in that dorm 🙂
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No, but there were a good number of knitters.
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Great collaboration! A monster a day is quite the term project! That explains a lot…… 🙂
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I agree. I would love to see all of the monsters she created for the project.
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