A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt Guests: Carrie Clickard and Her Nephew, Brent

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

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 seventh-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 one 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.

April is National Poetry Month! So  . . .

poetry friday button

National Poetry Month brings poetry to the forefront. And if you’re looking for poetry for kids, here is a great place to start. Irene at Live Your Poem is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup. Thanks, Irene. If you’d like to know more about Poetry Friday, click HERE for an explanation by Renee LaTulippe.

To find out how kidlit bloggers are celebrating poetry this month, head over to Jama’s Alphabet Soup where she’s rounded up links to a world of poetry fun.

Now onto today’s post. It’s my pleasure to share a creative collaboration from . . .

Carrie Clickard and Her Nephew, Brent

From Carrie: My nephew Brent and I have been kindred spirits in our reading, gaming and movie tastes since he arrived on this planet nearly 29 years ago.
We fell into passing pictures, poems and stories back and forth, which one of us would then illustrate just for fun. It was a great way to keep in touch after his family moved to California — and we still indulge our joint creativity when we can find the time.  “Dinosaur Planet” sprang out of our mutual fascination with space exploration, dinosaurs and “what if” questions.  What if dinosaurs were sentient and had an entire civilization before humans arrived? What if dinosaurs didn’t die off, they just left the planet?  We wrote the poem in stanza “turns”, me first, followed by Brent. The art can be blamed entirely on me.

The Poem by Carrie and Brent

The Art by Carrie

Art by Carrie

And it seems Brent has always loved dinosaurs. Here he is in a dinosaur “egg.”

And the Brent of now . . .  who might sail the stars and bring the dinosaurs home.

Many thanks to Carrie and Brent for sharing their talents with us today.

Meet Carrie: Carrie L Clickard is a published picture book author with Flashlight Press, Holiday House (Fall 2017) and two forthcoming books with Simon & Schuster in 2017-18. Her poetry and short fiction has also appeared in magazines such as: Spider, Ladybug, Muse, Highlights, High Five, Andromeda Spaceways,  Myriad Lands, Spellbound, Underneath the Juniper Tree, Clubhouse and Clubhouse Jr.
Visit Carrie at her website: www.clclickard.com

31 thoughts on “A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt Guests: Carrie Clickard and Her Nephew, Brent”

  2. Absolutely fanTAStic! This has the look and feel of a professional team. I’m so happy I stopped by today. All the colors of the planet and the tight rhyme leave me feeling playful and ready to go out in search of the dinosaurs. I think some kids would love to play in this story for a while. Thanks for sharing this collaboration with us.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. I echo the picture book, the poem and picture are wonderful, and certainly kids will love the idea that those dinosaurs they love so much are really somewhere else. How wonderful to hear of the trading back and forth through the years. Thanks Penny for hosting this terrific collaboration by Carrie and Brent.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. The poems wins the prize of my heart. Bravo and brava, Aunt Carrie (who is also great-) and Brent the super stellar cosmic poet.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. A stellar collaboration today, Penny! I love how Carrie and Brent stayed close across the miles through creative correspondence. And what a fun poem and illustration—great imagination, sweet, and just a touch of that Puff the Magic Dragon sadness at the end. Thanks for the adventure, Carrie and Brent!

    Liked by 1 person

  12. What a delightful perspective about dinosaurs being on a different planet. This is a great picture book idea! The illustration looks like a book cover! Love the lifelong collaboration between Carrie and Brent!

    Liked by 1 person

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