Poetry Friday - A DEFINING Moment

Hi Everyone, and welcome to Poetry Friday. Leave your links below and enjoy a special day of poetry!

         Irene Latham wrote me a few weeks ago to ask if I'd like to help reveal the cover of a new book coming in February 2020. Of course I shouted "YES!" and here we are, getting ready to welcome autumn on Monday and today a marvelous new book by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrations by Mehrdokht Amini.  

         All kinds of dictionaries come into the world. When I researched to find the first, I found that in 1604, the first book generally regarded as the first English dictionary was written as Robert Cawdrey, a schoolmaster and former Church of England clergyman. Yet, other sites give different names, ones you will recognize, like Webster. However you look at it, our world is filled with books that want us to learn and grow with words! And that's how poets do their thing, right, with words! 

Two I found at the bookstore where I volunteer!

         As for a second way of communicating a concept, a story, a feeling, artists make art with the medium of their choice. That is where Mehrdokht enters the collaboration with Charles and Irene. She painted their words, helping to create a new kind of dictionary for children from her palette. 

       Here's the publisher description:

How can we make the world a better place? This inspiring resource for middle-grade readers is organized as a dictionary; each entry presents a word related to creating a better world, such as ally, empathy, or respect. For each word, there is a poem, a quote from an inspiring person, a personal anecdote from the authors, and a "try it" prompt for an activity.

This second poetic collaboration from Irene Latham and Charles Waters builds upon themes of diversity and inclusiveness from their previous book Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship. Illustrations from Iranian-British artist Mehrdokht Amini offer readers a rich visual experience.

         Sounds fabulous, doesn't it? Because the book is filled with inspiration to write and act, I asked Irene, Charles and Mehrdokht a question about their own actions. At the beginning, one might ask "What if?" as in "What if we do this?" or "What if this was added?" or "What if we did a _______?" When Mehrdokht began her work for the book, perhaps she asked: "What if I took each word and?" or "What if this time, using _______ would work?"
        

         from Irene and Charles:  Beginnings can be difficult to track down, and we are not entirely sure how the idea for the book came to be. But we can tell you when it came to be: on a snow-filled Friday morning after a school visit cancellation (due to the district calling a "snow day") we received a note from Carol Hinz with a rejection of a poetry proposal we submitted, along with a message to submit more manuscripts or proposals we might have. We had hours to kill before our respective planes were scheduled to depart, so we sat across from one another and started brainstorming. One of the ideas that made its way onto paper was this one. We knew we wanted to do something to extend the work of Can I Touch Your Hair?, we knew we wanted to challenge ourselves to write outside our comfort zones, and we knew we wanted to include quotes (because we both collect quotes).

and from Mehrdokht: The first feeling I had when I was commissioned to do the “Dictionary for a better world” was panic! Prior to that, I had only worked in the field of picture books and this was the first time I was doing a middle-grade book for an older audience. I was used to making pictures on a more conventional, linear narrative but in this book I had to find a way to turn more or less abstract ideas into pictures. When I sent the first few sketches to the Art directors and was waiting for their response I was very anxious and secretly thinking that they wouldn’t like my style because it was very different to what I had done before. The moment their email came with their very positive and encouraging comments was my best moment in doing this book and it was as though a heavy burden has been lifted from my shoulder! The feeling of panic was turning into joy and curiosity and I started to relish the rest of the process. It was a real privilege and complete joy to work with such a wonderful authors and publishing team who made this project into a great experience for me!

Seems like a lot of words when what I am supposed to be doing is to reveal this cover of this new book coming in February of 2020. It's a long wait for Dictionary for a Better World - Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z, but it looks beautiful, don't you agree? Plus, it's exciting to imagine beginning to read such a dictionary.

ONE ADDED BONUS: A brief VIDEO OF CHARLES talking about the book!

Congratulations to Irene, Charles, and Mehrdokht! And thank you for the privilege of sharing this coming new book!