Category: nonfiction

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Boom! Bellow! Bleat!

Boom! Bellow! Bleat!: Animal Poems for Two or More Voices
by Georgia Heard (Author) and Aaron DeWitt (Illustrator)

Booktalk: A collection of poems–peppered with an astounding variety of animal sounds–is meant to be read aloud together. The poems cover all major classes of animals: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects, even a crustacean! End notes provide more information on the animals and how and why they make the sounds they do.

Snippet:

A 2019 Cybils Poetry nominee

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

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Ordinary Hazards

Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir
by Nikki Grimes (Author)

Booktalk: Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night – and discovered the magic and impact of writing.

Snippet:
ON OUR OWN

No one warned me
the world was fill of
ordinary hazards
like closets with locks and keys.

I learned this lesson when Mom,
without her cousin to fall back on,
left us daily with
a succession of strangers
while she went to work.
One woman was indisputably
a demon in disguise,
full lips grinning slyly
as Mom waved goodbye
each morning.
“See you after work,”
Mom said on the first day.
The second she was out of sight,
Demon’s smiles melted like
hot paraffin.
Snatching up Carol and me,
she dragged us, kicking, to
the bedroom closet.
She shoved us in, quick as the witch
in “Hansel and Gretel”
jamming the key in the lock.

A 2019 Cybils Poetry nominee

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.