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 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.
April is National Poetry Month! So . . .
National Poetry Month brings poetry to the forefront. And if you’re looking for poetry for kids, the Poetry Friday Roundup is a wonderful place to start. Dori at Dori Reads is hosting today.. Thanks, Dori. 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.
I call my poem a zig-zag poem because the word that falls at the end of a line begins the next line — this creates a zig-zag effect.
My Poem
Landon’s Art
Notice the name of Landon’s airship. Notice the acronym after the S.S. Does it ring a bell?
As our followers know, Landon hides the same object in the majority of his drawings for this series. It is hidden in his art above. It’s really not much of a secret anymore since most readers know what to look for . . . but it’s still really fun to try and find it. The object is very powerful when in an artist’s hand. As a special treat, Landon created a drawing about the object and today I’m sharing a time-lapse video of Landon finishing up the drawing of his trusty pencil sword!
Recently, I got to visit Landon and his family and we took an updated picture of the Great Nephew and the Great Aunt.
Thanks so much for joining us today. I appreciate all of you who read this series. See you next week when I’ll have guest collaborators.
Meet Great Aunt Penny (the one who blogs here): Penny Parker Klostermann is the author of There Was an Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2015) and the upcoming, A Cooked-Up Fairy Tale, (Random House, 2017). She loves all kinds of books, but especially loves very silly picture books that make her laugh. She has been known to hug her favorite picture books and seriously hopes that someday her books will gain huggable status too.
Penny grew up in Colorado and now lives in Abilene, Texas-the Storybook Capital of Texas!
A very fun poetic form. I’m going to play with this one. And I love the zeppelin. Such talent running through those genes!
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Thanks for coming by, Dori. I hope you have fun playing around with the zig-zag form.
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What a clever and fresh poetic form. Very inventive. Landon’s art is so cute. Thanks for the picture and the post.
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Thanks for coming by, Rosi. Landon’s airship was just the ticket for my poem!
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I’m an even bigger fan of Landon now! He’s become such a talented young man and you two complement each other so well. I really like how you incorporate the scientific names for various clouds in such a whimsical poem. Very nicely done. When does the collaborative effort come out in published form?
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Thanks, Linda. Wouldn’t it be fun to have our collaborations published? Maybe we’ll come up with something that heads in that direction.
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I like how the zig zag gives a playful repetition throughout the poem and the playfulness continues with Landon’s artwork
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Thanks, Kay. I appreciate you stopping by 😀
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A fun and playful poem. Your nephew is so tall now! His art is growing more mature, but still child-like, and I love that he still hides pencils.
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I know! I can’t believe how much he has grown since we started the series. He was shorter than me back then. I love that he hides pencils, too. He knows how to make his art appealing.
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He has a charming style, and a real future!
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Simply Marvelous!! I feel as though I was riding in the Zeppelin. Nice job Penny and Landon.
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Thanks, Nana Janna!
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Fun post, as usual. Landon really hid that object well in this one. I zoomed and zoomed till the zeppelin was as big as my head. Then I spotted it!!Cool….
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Glad you found the object! At first I thought he’d forgotten it. I had to zoom like you. Thanks for coming by 😀
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Love the shape and flow of the zig zag form, Penny. Wonderful! I think my Kindergarteners would have fun writing with this structure, too. Many thanks for this zigging, zagging gift!
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Zig-zagging could be fun and challenging with Kindergarteners. I hope you try it. Thanks for coming by 😀
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Wow – I love that artwork! Landon is a fantastic artist, so creative!
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Yes! He is super talented. A natural for sure. Thanks for dropping in, Jane 😀
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Penny,
Love that photo of you and Landon…..great idea to post it.
HAPPY EASTER TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.
Renata
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Hi Renata! Thanks so much for coming by. I hope you’re doing well and I hope you have a Happy Easter ❤
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Penny, Landon’s art is starting to change a little. He is learning simplicity maybe? Who knows … it may just be new tools available now but I love his new creation and I love your zig zag technique… way cool.💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💚
Sent from my iPhone
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Thanks, Jane! He did a wonderful job. He experiments with a lot of techniques, I think. Thanks for following the series 😀
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I think this collaboration need to turn into some kind of book, maybe a ‘how-to’ for teachers? The drawing is lovely and clever, just like the zig-zag poem. Even if I do know ‘what’ to look for, it is sometimes still a challenge, like in this zeppelin today. Great stuff!
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Thanks, Linda. I had fun with the zig-zag but it took a lot of revision to make sense. I wanted to blend the sky and ocean because so often clouds take the shape of waves and ocean creatures. I know what you mean about finding the object. It’s not always easy 😀
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Love your zig zag poem! Very clever and so much fun to read aloud. Landon’s zeppelin is awesome — made me think of The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship. Perfect name for the airship too. 🙂
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I loved the name Landon picked for the airship. And isn’t his airship cool? We texted back and forth about it. He sent pictures and I sent pictures…of fabulous airships. As usual, Landon came up with the perfect illustration for my poem.
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Very cool airship for sure. You two are simpatico. 🙂
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Landon continues to impress with his skills. Did you create your poem form with the zig-zag structure and repeated words. I love it and want to try it. Love the tails of cumulus whales!
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I didn’t create it. I wrote it for a challenge years ago and the host of the challenge wasn’t sure if it was even a recognized form. So I Googled it and found this: http://mariesworld.freehostia.com/mypoetryforms.html#_edn1
So maybe Maria Claudia Faverio’s created it.
If you try one, let me know.
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Such a cool poem, Penny!! Great illustration and video too – I can’t believe how old Landon is!!
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Thanks, Lori. I wrote it way back when we did the poetry challenge with Rena Traxel! It’s since been revised. I can’t believe how old he is either! Kids grow up way too fast.
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Loved the new duo photo – and the zig zagging zeppelin is zpectacular!
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Thanks! Love zpectacular! Nice adjective and it’s in keeping with all the z-z-z-zs 😀
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