Smorgasbord Posts from Your Archives – A Christmas image and poem from Bette A. Stevens
Christmas love and blessings to all! ~Bette A. Stevens
Archive for the ‘About the Author’ Category
HOLIDAY SALE: eBooks by Bette A. Stevens ONLY 99¢ November 23-27
Looking for great reading adventures this holiday season?
You’ll find 5✰ reads by Bette A. Stevens at great prices (eBooks only 99¢ each) for everyone on your list from November 23rd through November 27th at http://viewauthor.at/BetteAStevens
Happy Holidays & Happy Reading!
Bette A. Stevens, Maine author
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November Travelers (Haiku) by Bette A. Stevens + Thanksgiving Games & Activities for Families!
November is a month when the last leaves of a glorious season in Maine are soon to be whisked away. It’s also a month when families and friends gather to celebrate Thanksgiving across the USA. Whether you are planning to travel near or far, or maybe just to stay at home where it’s cozy and warm, I wish you all the Happiest of Holidays! ~Bette A. Stevens, Maine author
November Travelers
Haiku by Bette A. Stevens
November travelers
Await an autumn outing
Wind whisks them away
Kick back, relax and have fun with the kids this Thanksgiving. Click on the link below to download #free games and activities from KC Edventures for the whole family to enjoy together!
https://www.kcedventures.com/blog/27-free-thanksgiving-games-activities
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Respite for the Soul (Haiku & more Maine coastal photos) by Bette A. Stevens
Whenever we need a respite from the doldrums, Maine’s coast is calling…and no matter the season, Belfast, Maine is always a relaxing, scenic 45-minute drive from our 37-acre farmstead in Central Maine. The photo inspiring the haiku Respite for the Soul was taken at Moose Point State Park in Searsport, Maine. Photo collage below is from our latest visit to the nearby town of Belfast. Hope you enjoy the haiku and our visit to two of Maine’s coastal towns too! ~Bette A. Stevens, Maine author
Ocean waves calling
Visitors from near and far
Respite for the soul
Haiku by Bette A. Stevens
A Day in Belfast, Maine
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“October Sunset” Haiku by Bette A. Stevens
Here at “The Farmstead” in Central Maine, the splendor never ends as God blesses us with his bountiful beauty every day—season to season. This evening’s sunset inspired me to pen “October Sunset,” a haiku. What’s inspiring you today? —Bette A. Stevens, Maine author
October Sunset
Haiku by Bette A. Stevens
Ominous skies view
Evening extravaganza
Mourning daylight’s end
Twilight promises
Reassure restless critics
Splendor never ends
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“Autumn Parade: Haiku by Bette A. Stevens
Autumn Parade
Haiku by Bette A. Stevens
Medley of colors
Marching in seasonal time
An autumn parade
About the author
Inspired by nature and human nature, author Bette A. Stevens is a retired elementary and middle school teacher, a wife, mother of two and grandmother of five. Stevens lives in Central Maine with her husband on their 37-acre farmstead where she enjoys reading, writing, gardening, walking and reveling in the beauty of nature. She advocates for children and families, for childhood literacy and for the conservation of monarch butterflies—an endangered species (and for milkweed, the only plant that monarch caterpillars will eat).
Stevens is the author of AMAZING MATILDA, an award-winning picture book; The Tangram Zoo and Word Puzzles Too!, a home/school resource incorporating hands-on math and writing; and PURE TRASH, the short story prequel to her début novel, DOG BONE SOUP—coming-of-age story and family drama set in 1950s and 60s New England.
- Find out more about the author and her books at http://viewauthor.at/BetteAStevens
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#Book review – Dog Bone Soup by Bette A. Stevens
What Amazon says
Whether or not You Grew Up in the 1950s and 60s, you’ll find DOG BONE SOUP (Historical Fiction) to be soup for the soul. In this coming-of-age novel, Shawn Daniels’s father is the town drunk. Shawn and his brother Willie are in charge of handling everything that needs to be done around the ramshackle place they call home—lugging in water for cooking and cleaning, splitting and stacking firewood…But when chores are done, these resourceful kids strike out on boundless adventures that don’t cost a dime. DOG BONE SOUP is the poignant tale of a dysfunctional family struggling to survive in America in the 50s and 60s, when others were living The American Dream.
My review
In preparing to write this review, I read a couple of other reviews of this book on Amazon and Goodreads. I was interested to note one comment that likened this book to The…
View original post 435 more words
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Summer’s Last Song
Summer’s Last Song—Haiku by Bette A. Stevens
Summer’s Last Song—Haiku by Bette A. Stevens 
As summer draws to a close here at The Farmstead in Central Maine, the air feels crisper and days grow shorter; yet a few summer blooms remain to perform their last song as notes of autumn begin to appear in the background of the landscape, biding their time to take center stage. Oh, the wonders of the seasons.
Summer’s Last Song
Haiku by Bette A. Stevens
Serene autumn hymns
Play softly in the background
Of summer’s last song
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Limerick (poetic definition)
noun
Write a Summer Limerick & Get the Kids Writing Too!
HAVE FUN WRITING LIMERICKS
Summertime is fun time! And with ‘back to school’ just around the corner, it’s a great time to write limericks and get the kids writing too…
Whether you’re a writer, a reader, a teacher, a parent or simply want to share the love of reading and writing, get the kids together and give “Limericks” a try. You’ll be glad you did!
Some of my favorite things about summer are butterflies, long lazy summer days, gardens and sunshine. I love to sit on the porch with my camera at the ready just in case I spot an amazing monarch or any of our sensational butterfly friends dropping by to enjoy the view. So far this year I’ve spotted twelve monarchs and dozens of other butterflies too—and managed to capture several of these exquisite creatures with my Canon “PowerShot.”
Butterflies are very sensitive to the environment and with their natural habitat areas being increasingly eroded and with significantly greater use of chemicals, our butterfly population is in decline. Planting and cultivating milkweed (Monarch caterpillars need milkweed) and other blooms that our pollinators need for survival is one way that I can help.
Limerick (poetic definition)
[lim-er-ik]
1. a kind of humorous verse of five lines, in which the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other, and the third and fourth lines, which are shorter, form a rhymed couplet.
My limerick is about one of the monarch butterflies (captured by my camera) that fluttered through my garden so far this summer. I had fun writing two verses to tell my monarch’s story. Check out the link at the end of the post to find out more about poetic limericks.
A Monarch Butterfly Limerick
by Bette A. Stevens
There once was a monarch so fair
She fluttered and flit through the air
’Twas milkweed she needed
And so she proceeded
To search through the garden with care
Monarch knew she had nothing to fear
Her flutters would soon disappear
When milkweed she spotted
Her heart was besotted
Depositing monarch eggs there
WRITING POETRY WITH CHILDREN
Tips & Tools
When teaching (grades 4-8), I found that writing poems and sharing them was an exciting way get children of all ages hooked on writing. I must admit it—limericks are so much fun to write and to share! In the classroom we learn about using some of the tools in our writer’s tool box—literary devices like assonance (repeating vowel sounds) and consonance (repeating consonant sounds) to create a musical message. And of course, we had Scholastic rhyming dictionaries and thesauruses close at hand. It’s always exciting to discover alternative words (synonyms) that have just the right sounds and syllables to perfect our poems.
Whether you’re a writer, a reader, a teacher, a parent or simply want to share the love of reading and writing, get the kids together and give it a try. You’ll be glad you did!
Click the link to find out all about it How to Write a Limerick http://www.poetry4kids.com/blog/lessons/how-to-write-a-limerick/
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Bette A. Stevens, Maine Author 
Written
on 11/19/2017