Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

Classroom Connections: Your Mama by NoNieqa Ramos

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age range: 4-7 years
theme / form: a celebration of mothers and daughters; picture book
NoNieqa Ramos’s website

Please tell us about your book.

As a PB and YA author, the process of being reviewed can be an emotional roller coaster! When a review comes in that speaks to the heart of your project, you have to savor it and celebrate. I am so proud of my starred review from School Library Journal, and I will share what they had to say about my picture book debut, YOUR MAMA (April 6, 2021), here:

“In a glowing tribute to mothers, here is one hip parent who spends quality time with her child. Illustrated banners throughout the tale begin with the words “Your Mama” and continue with a description which is pictured on the pages, such as, “Your Mama So Sweet,” “Your Mama So Strong,” and “Your Mama So Funny.” The rhythmic text is lively while vibrant, detailed illustrations reveal the many activities mother and daughter share, such as baking, road trips, birthday parties, and singing along with the car radio. “She got friends at work, at church, around the ‘hood. Life is good.” English text with a smattering of Spanish words fit with the illustrations of a brown-skinned Latinx mother and young daughter. This mama brings verve to everything she does, whether sewing costumes for her child, attending Parents’ Night at school dressed in a flowing orange dress, or taking her girl to the library. With long, wavy black hair; large gold hoop earrings; and heeled knee-high boots decorated with red roses; this mama has as much energy as her child.

An essential purchase, this contemporary, high-spirited salute to motherhood is a warm and welcoming valentine to family and love.”

What inspired you to write this story?

I wanted to celebrate the relationship of mamas and their daughters, and in particular, shine a loving light on Latinx mamas and women who are severely underrepresented in literature and media. This picture book is a love letter from a Puerto Rican daughter to her mama, shouting out her mother’s sweetness, kindness, humor, resilience, and strength.

How can a teacher use your book in the classroom?

Brilliant illustrator Jacqueline Alcántara, our publisher Versify, and I collaborated to create an educator’s guide, which will be available on my website www.nonieqaramos.com in the coming weeks. This guide has a poetry lesson on writing rhythmic verse and a coloring page. Educators can center books like YOUR MAMA around Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and during Women’s History Month to discuss the powerful force mothers, and specifically Latinx women, have been in history, the arts, and music. Children can write their own  love letters and odes to their mamas, tias, abuelitas, madrinas, and any special woman in their lives. 

I’m an educator with over fifteen years of teaching experience, so I Iove getting back into the classroom! Teachers can invite me to their schools virtually to do book talks and writing workshops for all ages!

Who are some powerful women in the Latinx community you’d like to shout out?

I’d like to celebrate Aida Salazar, award-winning author of THE MOON WITHIN and LAND OF THE CRANES. She is one of the original creators of Las Musas, the first collective of women and nonbinary Latinx MG and YA authors to come together to support and amplify each other’s debut or sophomore novels in US children’s literature. Her arts activism includes her #PeriodAwareness and #PeriodJustice initiative for #WomansHerstoryMonth. Please follow @aida_writes and @latinxluna on Twitter and Instagram to decolonize and celebrate our wombs and our menstruations with stories and community. Check out Las Musas for a plethora of powerful Latinx leaders and creators https://www.lasmusasbooks.com/!

Poetry in Everything: An Interview with Mark Karlins, Author of Kiyoshi’s Walk

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“. . . .unleashes the power of poetry. Kiyoshi discovers how to use his senses, his power of observation, and his imagination. Sensory language models the vitality and precision of creative writing. The artwork is soft, warm and captivating. See, hear, touch, taste, smell. . . and imagine poetry all around you.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Please tell us about your book.

Kiyoshi’s Walk is a story about the relationship of a grandparent and grandchild, and it’s also a story of a young child learning to experience the world with sensitivity and, from that sensitivity, to write poetry. 

This multicultural tale begins with Kiyoshi’s question, “Where do poems come from?” and Grandfather Eto’s answer, “Let’s take a walk.” On their walk, Grandfather Eto writes several haiku, all of them based on commonplace sights and sounds—a pile of oranges at a fruit stand, the leap of a cat, the fluttering of pigeons’ wings. As Kiyoshi discovers that poems come from the way the world outside of us meets the world within each of us, he also finds the inspiration to write a haiku of his own. For those who see with the eyes of a poet, everything is poetry.

Grandfather and grandson. Are you, by any chance, a grandfather yourself?

I wrote Kiyoshi’s Walk before my grandson, Jesadha, was born. But now, yes, I am a grandfather, and the relationship with Jesadha is one of the most important in my life. I learn something from him every time I see him, and he keeps me laughing. He’s only two now and I’m looking forward to being able to share Kiyoshi’s Walk with him when he’s a few years older. I can see already how my little Jesadha has the heart of a poet. Maybe all children do, and, sadly as we age, we lose some of that poetry. Yesterday while we were driving in the car, we were listening to some classical music on the radio. At one point Jesadha piped up and declared that what we were listening to, some Strauss, was “a good song.” 

I have a feeling you could talk about Jesadha for a long time.

Yes. I have to watch myself. I could go on all afternoon about him. But it’s true, I also find children in general fascinating. That must be why I’ve been writing picture books for so many years. My writing of them first began in response to my own son and daughter.

Do either of them write poetry?

They did, throughout their childhoods and beyond. One of the things I try to express in Kiyoshi’s Walk is the importance of creativity in children’s lives—more specifically, in this book, the importance of writing poetry. I also show, through the grandfather, that creativity can be an important part of an adult’s life, and that adults can model that for their children. Writing, drawing, dancing, music, having a mind that is playful—all of that seems central to me.

Do you also draw, play music, or dance?

My drawing is pretty much at the scribble scrabble stage, only slightly better than Jesadha’s, but I do enjoy wielding a crayon. For music, I sing off-key. I love to dance and, although I’m not particularly good at it, do so with great gusto.

I wonder, who do you think is the audience for Kiyoshi’s Walk?

Lee & Low are marketing it for grades 1-3. I like to think of it, and I imagine they do too, as having a wide appeal, certainly also for children younger than first graders.

First of all, of course, the book is for children.

I also see it as a book that will work well in the classroom. It can serve as an excellent introduction to poetry writing, especially the writing of haiku. The book connects immediate experiences with writing, and this bridge can make writing (both poetry and prose) easier for children to appreciate. Even teachers can find a boost here. The book also comes with a Reader’s Guide to help supplement a teacher’s own knowledge of poetry writing. 

It’s a book for parents to share with their children by reading it and also by extending the story about writing poetry into poetry activities of their own. With my own children, I found that writing poetry together is a wonderful way to deepen our relationship. It’s also a different way of relating to each other than usual. And, finally, writing poetry helps to deepen a child’s relationship with language, particularly in terms of its flexibility.

Just one or two last questions. Were you happy with the illustrations?

Nicole Wong did the illustrations for Kiyoshi’s Walk. I love them. I truly do. Her illustrations are done with great delicacy and care. They’re wonderful and quite magical. I love seeing how she took my words and created from them her own visual narrative.

You sound happy about the results of Kiyoshi’s Walk.

Seeing your book get published is an interesting experience. What began as a few ideas floating around in my head and then became writing and rewriting in my study is now a physical object, a book. And, of course, I love books. Working with my editor at Lee & Low, seeing Nicole’s illustrations, holding the book, a physical object, in my hands—yes, it’s all been very satisfying.

I dedicated the book to two people who see with the eyes of poets—Jesadha, of course, and to my wife Mary Lee, who was, and always has been, my first editor. And just because.

Classroom Connections: Alone by Megan E. Freeman

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form / genre: middle grade verse novel; survival story
age range: 10 and up
Megan E. Freeman’s website

This exciting story of tenacity, determination, and ingenuity is hard to put down, and thank heavens nothing happens to the dog.
— NPR

Madeleine relates her own riveting, immersive story in believable detail, her increasingly sophisticated thoughts, as years pass, sweeping down spare pages in thin lines of verse in this Hatchet for a new age. . . . Suspenseful, fast-paced, and brief enough to engage even reluctant readers.
― Kirkus Reviews

The novel is gripping and the plot fast-paced…This is a tense, engrossing survival story on par with classics such as Hatchet.
— Booklist   

Please tell us about your book.

Perfect for fans of Hatchet and the I Survived series, Alone is a harrowing middle grade novel-in-verse from a Pushcart Prize–nominated poet that tells the story of a young girl who wakes up one day to find herself utterly alone in her small Colorado town.

When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She’s alone—left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned.

With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the books she can read. After a rough start, Maddie learns to trust her own ingenuity and invents clever ways to survive in a place that has been deserted and forgotten.

As months pass, she escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild animals. But Maddie’s most formidable enemy is the crushing loneliness she faces every day. Can Maddie’s stubborn will to survive carry her through the most frightening experience of her life?

What inspired you to write this story?

When my daughter was in fifth grade, we were in a mother-daughter book club and we read Island of the Blue Dolphins. In the discussion afterward, we talked about how challenging it was for Karana to survive on the island alone, and I started thinking about what it would be like for a contemporary middle school student to find themselves in a similar situation. I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, and it became the seed that grew into ALONE.

Could you share with readers how you conducted your research or share a few interesting tidbits you learned while researching?

I had to learn what would happen in a town if all the power went out and how it would affect things like heating and cooling and running water. I talked to an expert who works at a water conservancy district and learned that if an entire power grid shut down, it would also impact the ability to have running water and indoor plumbing, since water management systems depend on electricity to operate. I had to figure out what my main character, Maddie, would do about cleaning and cooking and flushing the toilet when the power goes out and there is no running water. 

I also had to research emergency communication plans and learn some of the language that is used in planning for national emergencies. Through online research I was able to find actual federal documents that are used in planning for national emergencies. By reading those documents, I learned terms and phrases and planning strategies that would be used in a real emergency situation. 

What are some special challenges associated with paralleling your book with a classic? 

In Island of the Blue Dolphins, once Karana’s tribe leaves the island, she has no way to communicate with them. Any interactions she has with other humans happen only when people occasionally come to the island to hunt and fish. But my story is set in the 21st century, so Maddie and her family would have cell phones and telephones and computers and all sorts of ways to communicate with each other. I knew that I had to figure out a way to not only isolate Maddie geographically, but also isolate her technologically, so that she could have no connection to the outside world and the outside world could have no connection to her.

What topics does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

Maddie has to overcome all sorts of challenges, and she has to rely on herself for everything from food to first aid to entertainment to comfort. She essentially has to become her own parent, doctor, chef, consoler, and protector. And all the while, she struggles with wondering if she’s making the right decisions or if she should be doing something differently to try to get out of her situation. Some themes to explore might be perseverance, resilience, family (including divorce and stepfamilies), independence, hope, and fear. Maddie also comforts and entertains herself in many creative ways, inventing games to play alone, reading books, making art, and exploring on hikes and bike rides. 

It could be fun in a classroom for students to imagine what they might do if they found themselves in Maddie’s shoes:

  • What might be exciting about being all alone in a town? 
  • What might be frightening? 
  • Which of Maddie’s choices do you agree with and which ones would you make differently? 
  • What kind of animal would you want to be stranded with?

Some higher level questions could include:

  • Maddie finds a lot of comfort in reading books from the library, and she is surprised to discover that she loves poetry. Why might poetry be comforting during challenging times?
  • The poet Emily Dickinson creates a metaphor for hope by comparing it to a bird (“Hope is the thing with feathers”). What other metaphors might describe hope? What are some metaphors that could describe fear, loneliness, perseverance, and love?
  • The poet Mary Oliver asks the readers of her poem “The Summer Day” what they will do with their “one wild and precious life.” Why do you think she calls life “wild and precious”? What other adjectives could be used to describe life? How would you answer Mary Oliver’s question?
  • Maddie’s feelings about her family are complicated, and they change over the course of the story. How do family dynamics impact a person’s perception of themselves and their place in the world?