HAPPY EARTH DAY every day! ~Bette A. Stevens, Maine author http://www.4writersandreaders.com
“We need Joy as we need air. We need Love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.”
~ Maya Angelou
Text & image source: Harmony https://web.facebook.com/Harmony-578149188866564/
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Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Monarch butterflies are a threatened species. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety filed a legal petition requesting Endangered Species Act protection for the monarch and its habitat.
AMAZING MATILDA written and illustrated by Maine author Bette A. Stevens:
~Click MATILDA’s cover to take a “Look Inside” on YOUR AMAZON~
“Award-winning picture book adventure follows a monarch butterfly through her life cycle and teaches kids important life lessons along the way!”
AMAZING MATILDA (Ages 5-11 + grownups love it too) Friendship, patience and persistence are among the lessons learned in this gem of a tale featuring an amazing monarch butterfly. This award-winning picture book adventure follows the monarch’s life cycle as Matilda embarks on a quest to make her dream of flying come true. Matilda emerges from her egg on a milkweed leaf, she stretches and yawns and wants to fly. Sparrow tells her to follow her dreams. Toad and Rabbit laugh at a creature without wings who wants to fly. You’ll be as amazed as Toad and Rabbit, as you follow Matilda from egg to imago.
DOWNLOAD a copy of AMAZING MATILDA by Bette A. Stevens (ONLY 99¢ April 22th–April 28th )—award-winning monarch butterfly picture book— at YOUR AMAZON
BEYOND THE BOOK—find resources at your finger tips: Have fun and learn even more about Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ monarch butterflies by downloading Bette’s FREE Click here: FUN & LEARNING with Monarch Butterflies PDF where you’ll find:
Celebrating International Haiku Poetry Day!
As I wandered out into the garden with my trusty camera early this morning, much to my surprise, an icy blanket at the edge of the rock garden had melted and a family of opening jonquils greeted me with their smiles. Being the first blooms of the season, they simply made my day and inspired me to write “A Spring Concerto,” a haiku (Japanese-inspired, non-rhyming three-line: 5-7-5 syllable poem).
Jonquils awaken
Shaking their heads in wonder
A spring concerto
Personally, I love designing posters to go with my poems and often use photos I have taken. As a former teacher (now retired) in grades four through eight, I know that kids of all ages love writing poetry and they enjoy illustrating their poems too. It’s simple and it’s so much fun to tell a story in the three short lines of Haiku. Of course, you can write as many stanzas as you wish. Today’s a perfect day for you to give it a try.
Get out your pen, get outdoors in nature, get inspired…and get the kids writing haiku too!
~Bette A. Stevens, Maine author/illustrator
(Haiku: m)
plural
Discover more about how to write haiku and other poetry:
Find out more about International Haiku Poetry Day
It’s National Poetry Month!
What’s inspiring you? ~Bette A. Stevens, Maine author http://www.4writersandreaders.com
Inspired!
While sipping breakfast tea and finishing a journal entry, I glanced up at the window and spotted striking black and white flutters darting among the lilac branches. The first feathered friend was a downy woodpecker. By the time I grabbed the camera, he had disappeared and a nearly identical but larger version, a hairy woodpecker, hung upside down, pecking the last of winter’s crumbs from the suet cage. They’re sure to be back to dine, but next time it will be on succulent spring favorites—buds and bugs. Inspiring. Ah, spring! ~ Bette A. Stevens
What’s inspiring you?
Beautiful! Enjoy… ~Bette A. Stevens, Maine author http://www.4writersandreaders.com
“A single grateful thought toward heaven is the most perfect prayer.”
~ Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
“May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day.”
~ Irish Blessing
“At the moment of commitment the entire universe conspires to assist you.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Every hour of every day is an unspeakably perfect miracle.”
~ Walt Whitman
~ Image by Selda Schretzmann
Texts & image source: The Garden Of Pensiveness https://web.facebook.com/The-Garden-Of-Pensiveness-367268523352486/
by Bette A. Stevens
Splendor of countless pigments
In gardens they combine
Echoing grandiose harmony
Serenity you’ll find
And so it is with people
Of every thought and hue
Diversity’s resplendency
Reflecting me and you
If you enjoyed this poem by Bette A. Stevens, please share it on your social media sites.
Early December at the Farmstead in Central Maine—finally have a covering of snow and temperatures cold enough to keep the white magic around for a while. Conifer branches adorned in winter’s white called out to this writer: “Capture a photo, we’re all spruced up in our new attire!” from near the barn’s entrance. I simply had to pen their remembrance in a poem—
Fresh Fallen Crystals.
Wishing you all a Season of Wonder!
~ Bette A. Stevens, Maine author
It’s the little things in life that mean so much. May your days be filled with wonders! ~Bette A. Stevens, Maine author http://www.4writersandreaders.com
Perfect happiness is a beautiful sunset,
the giggle of a grandchild, the first snowfall.
(even if the snow is just on our WP blogs)
It’s the little things that make happy
moments, not the grand events.
Joy comes in sips, not gulps.
~Sharon Draper
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things
Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
Door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things
Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into Springs
These are a few of my favorite things
When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I’m feeling sad
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Looking for that perfect gift—one that keeps on giving—for the children in your life?
AMAZING MATILDA by Bette A. Stevens
This 5✰ award-winning children’s book about a Monarch butterfly inspires kids to be all they can be.
ONLY 99¢ at YOUR AMAZON http://bit.ly/19Qr3Y0 through November 28, 2016
When Matilda emerges from her egg on a milkweed leaf, she stretches and yawns and wants to fly. Sparrow tells her to follow her dreams. Toad and Rabbit laugh at a creature without wings who wants to fly. You’ll be just as amazed as Toad and Rabbit are when you follow Matilda’s adventure from egg to imago. Science, art and wise lessons for children—they’re all wrapped up in a tale the kids will want to read/hear again and again!
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, a Boomer’s coming-of-age story set in 1950s and 60s New England.
Find out more about the author and her books at http://viewauthor.at/BetteAStevens
Come join us!
Sending lots of love your way
Bette A. Stevens, Maine Author 
Written
on 04/15/2017