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Happy Book Birthday to In the Middle of the Night by Laura Purdie Salas!
I met Laura a few years ago at NCTE and have followed her ever since. She is gentle, kind, and generous, everything a children’s poet should be. I am inspired by her every week on her blog. On Thursdays she posts an image with an invitation to write a 15 words or less poem. It’s a great space to show up in each week to read other poems and interact with the children’s poetry online community.
Laura is also a pretty awesome presenter. In November, 2018, we presented together on a panel at NCTE, Writing Poetry in the Wild. Here’s a link to the slides.
In her presentation, Laura encouraged us to look around and write about what we see. Well, that’s not exactly what she did to write this latest book. In the Middle of the Night requires more than just observation; it requires an imagination. The poems are all written in the point of view of some object doing something during the night.
Twenty-six poems share the wild adventures that toys, food, and other household objects have at night while you sleep. Everything from stuffed animals to clothing to writing utensils comes to life under the cover of night. An overdue library book searches for the perfect place to hide. A paper clip skydives with a tissue parachute. A fruit snack unrolls to create a tricky racetrack for toy cars. Come sneak away for some moonlit adventures!
In my class, I wanted my students to experience this fun idea and Laura’s poetry. From the Table of Contents, my students selected a few poems they wanted to hear. I always start with “What do you notice?” They noticed that the poems were written in first person (Cha-Ching! for that concept), and I reminded them that they are called mask poems. They noticed rhyming and rhythm patterns. With a little more prodding, they found alliteration and imagery.
In addition to working on close reading skills with poetry, we stretched our writing muscles. We used this activity sheet from Laura to write our own poems.
Laura has a Padlet for contributors’ poems here. We placed links on the Padlet to our Kidblog site. If you have a minute, stop by and place comments for my kids.
Click here to go to Laura’s web page.
Monday, 3/11 Mile High Reading
Tuesday, 3/12 Reflections on the Teche
Wednesday, 3/13 Poetrepository
Thursday, 3/14 Check It Out
Friday, 3/15 Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme
Sunday, 3/17 Great Kid Books
Monday, 3/18 Simply 7 Interview/Jena Benton blog
Tuesday, 3/19 My Juicy Little Universe
Wednesday, 3/20 Live Your Poem
Thursday, 3/21 Reading to the Core
Friday, 3/22 KidLit Frenzy
Reflections on the Teche 