This wonderful plaque introduced the artwork done by the third grade at Walker School, inspired by my poetry! Tiles made by the children at Walker School I love readers! Some members of the rocking Chute Middle School Drama Class, with their teacher, who performed their adaptation of Bronx Masquerade. May 2011 P is for Poetry. That's the best tag-line for April, which was National Poetry Month. To celebrate, I posted scads of poetry on Facebook, was included in 30 Poets/30 Days on Gregory Pincus' gottabook.blogspot.com, contributed to Poetry Tag Time, the first e-book anthology for children, edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, enjoyed seeing my poetry on YARN, the Young Adult Review Network, and had my poetry featured on a number of other sites besides. What fun! April was also a joyous month because it included my favorite holiday: Easter. I was thrilled to create two special poems to open and close Good Friday services, and to read a poem from Mary's perspective for the Easter Sunday service, as well. And why not? God gave me the gift of writing in the first place, so its only right that I offer it back to him. This last month marks another milestone. I've been selected as one of this year's judges for the National Book Award, Young People's Literature category. What an honor! There will be lots of lovely reading in the months ahead. I can't wait! Speaking of books, I got my hands on the bound galley for Planet Middle School, my newest novel in verse coming out with Bloomsbury this September. I also completed Halfway to Perfect, book #4 in the Dyamonde Daniel chapter book series, as well as the manuscript for Chasing Freedom, a book of historical fiction. Whew! When I wasn't writing, I was on the road, first to Baltimore, Maryland where I visited schools, then off to Chicago for more of the same. Chicago was unique, though. School District 65 in Evanston-Skokie did an extensive study of my body of work in four of its schools. Students created writing and art projects inspired by my books, and Chute Middle Schools' Drama class created a killer adaptation of Bronx Masquerade. Most impressive, though, was the culminating community event. Students from each of the schools performed their favorite poems, and entire families performed as well. It was awesome to see moms and dads trade lines of poetry with their children! Evanston was also memorable for a fun night of reading poetry at National Louis University's Center for Teaching Through Children's Books. Great audience! I even had a few Facebook friends came out for the occasion. My visits to Baltimore and Chicago were made even sweeter by time spent with good friends, Deborah Taylor from Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore) and Junko Yokota of National Louis University. And what about my blog? Well, I didn't forget that, either! I squeezed in a call for a poetry award from the ALA, and a piece about female illustrators. All in all, April was a banner month. I ended it in my garden, doting on the first blooms of the season, looking forward to the adventures of the month ahead. FROM NIKKI'S JOURNAL "The Day After" The day and I mourn, wretched in the Son's absence. Imagine the East drenched in darkness forever, no light spilling from his tomb. "Rumors" Angels saw her leave. Well, that's the story they tell. Take a look yourself. The door was left wide open, no sight of him or his ghost. Until next month ...
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