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Catch your child reading… It’s a win-win! ~ Bette A. Stevens, Maine author/illustrator http://www.4writersandreaders.com
Archive for the ‘Reading with Children’ Category
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Write a Limerick!
Write a limerick?
Why not! I thought it would be fun to share a limerick this week and invite you to write one too. Mine is about me and a spider.
When teaching (grades 4-8), I found that starting a new school year by writing poems and sharing them was an exciting way get students hooked on writing. I must admit it—limericks are so much fun! In the classroom we learn about using some of the tools in our writer’s tool box—tools 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 teacher, a parent or simply want to share the love of reading and writing, get the kids together and give it a try. Read on to discover what inspired me to write my spider limerick and have lots of fun writing and reading with the kids!
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/
More about Bette’s Spider Limerick
Before I wrote this limerick, I had been watching several spiders weave their webs on the outside screens of our back porch all during the spring and summer. Spiders are fascinating creatures to watch from a safe distance. But, up close and personal they frighten me. The photo for the limerick was taken by me (safely inside the screen). Nature and my own human nature inspired me to write this one:
There once was a tall timid writer
Who spotted an intrepid spider
She jumped up and screamed
Then she suddenly beamed
“Why, I’ll write a fine book about spiders!”
~ Bette A. Stevens
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5 Reasons Why You Should Read to Your Kids
It’s never too late to share the gift of reading. You’ll be glad you did! ~ Bette A. Stevens, Maine author/illustrator http://www.4writersandreaders.com
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SENSATIONAL SUMMER: A Monarch Butterfly Poem by Bette A. Stevens
Illustrations for the poem “Sensational Summer” are from Bette’s award-winning children’s picture book, AMAZING MATILDA.
Much like a Monarch butterfly, the summer is quickly flying past us here at The Farmstead in Central Maine. In fact, it won’t be long before these amazing butterflies begin their great southern migration to Mexico, where they’ll aggregate (cluster in dense tree cover) to keep warm, enabling this generation of monarchs to winter over before they mate and begin the next generation’s migration north for the 2017 season. Matilda (a Monarch butterfly and the main character in my picture book AMAZING MATILDA) and I wish you and yours a sensational summer! ~ Bette A. Stevens, Maine author/illustrator
We invite you to take a look inside AMAZING MATILDA, A Monarch’s Tale and check out other books by Bette A. Stevens
[EXPLORE BETTE’S BLOG]
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THE WHISPERER by Pamela Zagarenski
Inspiring children’s book review. A must-have for the bookshelf of this reader. Inspiring kids, one story at a time… ~ Bette A. Stevens, Maine author/illustrator http://www.4writersandreaders.com
DOG BONE SOUP—ONLY 99¢ thru MAY 31st!
“Adventures and misadventures to the likes of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry…”
DOG BONE SOUP by Bette A. Stevens
ONLY 99¢ for 7 days: May 25–31, 2016
Grab a copy today on YOUR AMAZON!
SUMMARY
DOG BONE SOUP is not only the title of Bette A. Stevens’s debut novel; it ranks high among the paltry meals that the book’s protagonist, Shawn Daniels, wants to forget. Plodding through mounting snow and battling howling winds, Shawn is ready to leave it all behind—living in poverty, Dad’s drinking, life in foster care, the divorce, the bullies—it’s a story about survival, struggle and the human spirit—rising about it all.
Travel with Shawn Daniels through the guts and the glories of life. You’ll find them all in DOG BONE SOUP—a Boomer’s coming-of-age saga.
5✰ REVIEW
“DOG BONE SOUP is a fascinating literary study of poverty and family dysfunctional in the 1950 & 1960s. It is written in a fast-flowing, entertaining style that kept my turning pages, one after another.
“Despite the odds stacked against them, two brothers—Shawn Daniels and Willie—manage to survive, escaping the rants of a drunken abusive father and the hardships of rural life, cutting out on daily adventures and misadventures to the likes of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry. DOG BONE SOUP is about making the best of what you have. It’s a story about survival, struggle, and the human spirit—rising above it all. As with all great literature, it is underscored with life lessons particularly memorable to this generation.
“This is true-to-life Americana; a story any Baby Boomer, rich or poor, can connect with and enjoy.” ~ Frank Scozzari, author
Tell your friends all about it…
And don’t forget to grab a copy of DOG BONE SOUP for yourself—only 99¢ at YOUR AMAZON today!
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 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 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.
DOG BONE SOUP by Bette A. Stevens
“Rising above it all!”
ONLY 99¢ for 7 days: May 25–31, 2016
Grab a copy today on YOUR AMAZON!
[Explore Bette’s Blog]
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HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!
Wishing everyone a Happy & Blessed Mother’s Day.
~Bette A. Stevens, Maine author/illustrator
Author Bio
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 (milkweed is the only plant that monarch caterpillars will eat).
Stevens’s children’s book, THE TANGRAM ZOO and WORD PUZZLES TOO! was first published in 1997 by Windswept House Publishing, Mt. Desert, ME; a second edition was self-published by the author in 2012. AMAZING MATILDA , Stevens’s second children’s book, self-published in 2012 won a 2013 Purple Dragonfly Book Award (Honorable Mention for Excellence in Children’s Literature – Ages 6 and older category) and also placed #9 on The 2013 Gittle List for Self-published Children’s Picture Books. Stevens has written articles for ECHOES, The Northern Maine Journal of Rural Culture based in Caribou, Maine. In 2013, the author published her first book for the YA/Adult audience: PURE TRASH, a short story of a boy growing up in rural New England in a family whose poverty and alcoholism mark him as a target for bullying by young and old alike. This short story is a prequel to Stevens’s début novel DOG BONE SOUP released January 2015.
[Explore Bette’s Blog]
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HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! Mama I Miss You… (poem by Bette A. Stevens)
Wishing everyone a “Happy Mother’s Day” and sharing a poem written in 2014 to celebrate my beautiful mother on her birthday. ~Bette A. Stevens, Maine author/illustrator
It will be nine years ago on August 8, 2007, when I called Mama to wish her a Happy Birthday and, as usual, we talked for hours. It was the last birthday we got to ‘celebrate’ together. Mama left us for her heavenly home the following April and there hasn’t been a day since that I haven’t thought about her and missed her. Mama’s strength of character, her poise, wit and unconditional love live on within all those whose lives she touched. The photograph (circa 1951) of Mama and me was taken in California.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mama. I miss you.
[Explore Bette’s Blog]
Reading to Big Kids..Don’t Stop, Be Readin’…Hold on to that Feelin’
May is NATIONAL GET CAUGHT READING MONTH—perfect time to discover and share why reading aloud with kids of all ages is so important! ~ Bette A. Stevens, Maine author/illustrator http://www.4writersandreaders.com
I posted this piece a while back…
With my son’s 4th grade year coming to an end, I find this information more timely than ever.
I love picture books, and I often write about them. In my post, Top 10 Reasons Picture Books Rock, I touch upon the importance of continuing to read aloud to your child even AFTER he/she is able to read independently. Please note that although children may be ready for early readers and chapter books, I implore parents to continue reading picture books with/to your children. There is no better way to connect at the end of a hectic day than to get lost in a picture book together. This ritual is one you can continue well into their teen years (yes, really, I promise). A child should not be denied this sacred time with you, just because he has “grown up”. Reading and/or…
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Bette A. Stevens, Maine Author 
Written
on 08/13/2016