A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt, Guests-Irene Latham and Niece, Anna

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)

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 . . .

Irene Latham and her 9 year-old niece, Anna

From Irene: I knew right away who to contact for this project: my 9 year old niece Anna. We’ve collaborated before on some stories through the mail – she writes a paragraph, then I write a paragraph, and on and on. When I told her this time we’d do art and poetry, she right away volunteered to do the art. Her piece is called “Imagination Window.” Don’t you love the bright colors? I knew immediately that I wanted to carry forward the imagination theme and used this poem as an opportunity to bring in some nonsense words… my 2016 One Little Word is “delight,” after all!

Side note: One of the best texts I ever received was one from my sister Lynn, who is Anna’s mother. When she was the mom of 2 boys and halfway through her 3rd pregnancy and we were wondering if we would ever buy anything pink (I have 3 boys), she went in for the ultrasound that would reveal the baby’s gender. Her text said, “IT’S NOT A BOY!” That “not a boy” is Anna. She’s pretty special!

The Art
“Imagination Window” by Anna

Anna's art
Imagination Window by Anna

Irene’s PoemSlide1

A photo of the collaborators.

irene anna (1) copy
Irene and Anna

Thanks to Irene and Anna for being a part of the series. Their wonderful collaboration certainly opened my imagination window!

Meet Irene: Irene Latham has written many poems inspired by art, some of which appeared in her National Poetry Month project ARTSPEAK! The 2016 installment of this project will be on the theme “Plant.Grow.Eat!” Irene’s excited to deliver to the world this spring two new children’s poetry books: WHEN THE SUN SHINES ON ANTARCTICA and FRESH DELICIOUS: Poems from the Farmers’ Market. Find out more at her website www.irenelatham.com.

Thanks to Tricia for hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup at The Miss Rumphius Effect. If you’d like to know more about Poetry Friday, click HERE for an explanation by Renee LaTulippe.poetry friday button

37 thoughts on “A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt, Guests-Irene Latham and Niece, Anna”

  3. That picture is just plain gorgeous. Both beautiful women. And that painting reminded me of Raschka’s art – particularly the Hello Goodbye Window. 🙂 Thank you, again, Penny for doing something so absolutely inspired.

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  6. I love everything about this! The imaginative art is awesome! Irene’s poem with her made-up words pairs perfectly. And that picture in blue! Just makes me happy to be alive!

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  7. I love this playful poem and the gorgeous watercolor window. My niece and nephew are all grown up now, and starting out into their own lives. We did a lot of fun things when they were younger, but I wish we had done a collaboration like this!

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  8. Love the four part art, cleverly created, and that “grunky grins and giggles”, Anna and Irene. It is also fun to hear that you collaborate with stories. Wonderful for you both. Thanks, Penny!

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  12. I love Anna’s art–it’s so vivid, as well as the sounds of the creatures’ names–such a fun poem. Thanks for sharing, Penny, and thank you Irene & Anna!

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