Monday, July 29, 2013

Three Minutes Eating Cotton Candy

Normanday #87: My zucchini got a blue ribbon.

Write for three minutes about…

the county fair.

Email what you wrote to woof at bright dot net by the end of the day August 4 (put “Norman is Charming” in the subject line). I’ll post as many of my favorite entries as I want next Monday. Include your first name (or, even better, use a pen name) and age (unless you’re tortoise-old).

Here is the single entry from last week when I asked you to write for three minutes about this photo.




























Tren Rewy Steb
a mountaintop view 
wind rushes in and lifts me 
feel like I can fly


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Briar’s Journal (July 1 to August 1, 2013)

Dream Entry*
December 14, 2007


There’s a news report that meteors will be hitting the planet around 4:00 p.m. They will likely destroy all life on Earth. Some of my friends are in a panic. Penny dives below the sea looking for underwater caves to hide in. The puppies bury their heads in their blankets. An agitated duck flaps around, squawking, “The sky is falling!” Bigfoot and Beverly are nonchalant. “No way to control it, so no reason to worry about it,” Bigfoot says. Morzant vows to stay on Earth with us rather than escape in his spaceship. I ask him why he doesn’t just fly us all to Zeenton. He explains there’s no room because his experiments take up all the space in his ship.

We decide to wait for the end in the library. We look out the window, watching for the meteors. The blue sky has friendly, puffy clouds drifting by. At few minutes past 4:00 p.m., just as I begin to think the danger must be past, a meteor torpedos towards us. When the meteor breaks through the roof, we all rush outside—except for Bigfoot and Beverly who don’t see the point—because we think it’s going to explode. Another meteor lands near us. We run in the opposite direction, only to have another meteor land at our feet. I can’t believe every single meteor is landing near us rather than other places on the planet. It’s like somebody is targeting us.

The meteors have all landed. I’m wary, certain they’ll explode any second. I’m also worried they may be radioactive. But they don’t blow up. They start to flap in the breeze. I look closer and see that the meteors are books. And now there aren’t just the four I watched drop from the sky. The whole lawn is littered with them.

Naturally, my book-loving friends gather them up and start to read.


The meteors BIGFOOT reads:

THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US
by Kasie West
[YOUNG ADULT]
HarperTeen-HarperCollins
July 2, 2013


A SUMMER OF SUNDAYS
by Lindsay Eland
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Egmont USA
July 9, 2013


45 POUNDS (MORE OR LESS)
by Kelly Barson
[YOUNG ADULT]
Viking-Penguin
July 11, 2013


REMEMBER DIPPY
by Shirley Reva Vernick
[YOUNG  ADULT]
Cinco Puntos
July 16, 2013


BLUFFTON: MY SUMMER WITH BUSTER KEATON
by Matt Phelan
[MIDDLE GRADE—GRAPHIC NOVEL]
Candlewick
July 23, 2013


A REALLY AWESOME MESS
by Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin
[YOUNG ADULT]
Egmont USA
July 23, 2013


RUNT
by Nora Raleigh Baskin
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Simon & Schuster
July 23, 2013


THE WEIGHT OF WATER
by Sarah Crossan
[YOUNG ADULT—NOVEL IN VERSE]
Bloomsbury USA
July 23, 2013



The meteors MORZANT reads:

MONSTERS AND LEGENDS
by Davide Cali, 

illustrated by Gabriella Giandelli
[MIDDLE GRADE—NON-FICTION]
Flying Eye Books
July 2, 2013


THE APPLE ORCHARD RIDDLE
by Margaret McNamara, 

illustrated by G. Brian Karas
[PICTURE BOOK—SEQUEL TO 

HOW MANY SEEDS IN A PUMPKIN]
Schwartz & Wade-Random House
July 9, 2013


DOG-GONE SCHOOL
by Amy Schmidt, photographs by Ron Schmidt
[PICTURE BOOK—POETRY]
Random House
July 9, 2013


WHAT FLOATS IN A MOAT?
by Lynne Berry, 

illustrated by Matthew Cordell
[PICTURE BOOK—SCIENCE STORY]
Simon & Schuster
July 9, 2013


ZOM-B ANGELS
by Darren Shan
[YOUNG ADULT—
FOURTH IN THE SERIES]
Little, Brown-Hachette
July 9, 2013


ZOM-B CITY
by Darren Shan
[YOUNG ADULT—
THIRD IN THE SERIES]
Little, Brown-Hachette
July 9, 2013


YOUR SKELETON IS SHOWING: RHYMES OF 

BLUNDER FROM SIX FEET UNDER
by Kurt Cyrus, illustrated by Crab Scrambly
[PICTURE BOOK—POETRY]
Disney-Hyperion
July 23, 2013



The meteors MORTIMER reads:

THE MOUSE WITH THE QUESTION MARK TAIL
by Richard Peck, with illustrations by Kelly Murphy
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Dial-Penguin
July 2, 2013


THE TRUE BLUE SCOUTS OF SUGAR MAN SWAMP
by Kathi Appelt
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Atheneum-Simon & Schuster
July 23, 2013



The meteors PENNY reads:

SYLO
by D.J. MacHale
[YOUNG ADULT—FIRST IN THE 

SYLO CHRONICLES]
Razorbill-Penguin
July 2, 2013


THIS IS W.A.R.
by Lisa Roecker and Laura Roecker
[YOUNG ADULT]
Soho Teen-Soho Press
July 2, 2013


REPLICA
by Jenna Black
[YOUNG ADULT]
Tor Teen-Tom Doherty Associates
July 16, 2013


EXTREMITIES: STORIES OF DEATH, 

MURDER, AND REVENGE
by David Lubar
[YOUNG ADULT]
Tor Teen-Tom Doherty Associates
July 23, 2013


THE FURY
by Alexander Gordon Smith
[YOUNG ADULT]
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
July 23, 2013


EARTHBOUND
by Aprilynne Pike
[YOUNG ADULT]
Razorbill-Penguin
July 30, 2013



The meteors THE DUCK reads:


FALCON IN THE GLASS
by Susan Fletcher
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Margaret K. McElderry-Simon & Schuster
July 9, 2013


RAVEN FLIGHT
by Juliet Marillier
[YOUNG ADULT—SECOND IN THE 

SHADOWFELL SERIES]
Knopf-Random House
July 9, 2013


OF BEAST AND BEAUTY
by Stacey Jay
[YOUNG ADULT]
Delacorte-Random House
July 23, 2013


ALL OUR PRETTY SONGS
by Sarah McCarry
[YOUNG ADULT]
St. Martin’s Griffin
July 30, 2013



The meteors NORMAN reads:

WHAT WE FOUND IN THE SOFA AND 

HOW IT SAVED THE WORLD
by Henry Clark
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Little, Brown-Hachette
July 2, 2013


THE GLASS PUZZLE
by Christine Brodien-Jones
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Delacorte-Random House
July 9, 2013


THE MUSIC OF ZOMBIES
by Vivian French, 

with illustrations by Ross Collins
[MIDDLE GRADE—FIFTH IN THE 

TALE FROM THE FIVE KINGDOMS SERIES]
Candlewick
July 9, 2013


RULES FOR GHOSTING
by A.J. Paquette
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Walker
July 9, 2013


MOXIE AND THE ART OF RULE BREAKING: 

A 14 DAY MYSTERY
by Erin Dionne
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Dial-Penguin
July 11, 2013


OF WITCHES AND WIND
by Shelby Bach
[MIDDLE GRADE—SECOND IN THE 

EVER AFTERS SERIES]
Simon & Schuster
July 23, 2013



The meteor BEVERLY reads:


AFTER THE RIVER THE SUN
by Dia Calhoun, 

with illustrations by Kate Slater
[MIDDLE GRADE—COMPANION TO 

EVA OF THE FARM]
Atheneum-Simon & Schuster
July 9, 2013


AFTER IRIS
by Natasha Farrant
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Dial-Penguin
July 11, 2013


SALT: A STORY OF FRIENDSHIP 

IN A TIME OF WAR
by Helen Frost
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
July 23, 2013


THE BOY ON THE BRIDGE
by Natalie Standiford
[YOUNG ADULT]
Scholastic Press-Scholastic
July 30, 2013


BROTHER, BROTHER
by Clay Carmichael
[YOUNG ADULT]
Roaring Brook
July 30, 2013


A BAG OF MARBLES
by Joseph Joffo, illustrated by Vincent Bailly
[YOUNG ADULT—GRAPHIC NOVEL]
Graphic Universe-Lerner
August 1, 2013



The meteors BRIAR reads:

RIGHT OF WAY
by Lauren Barnholdt
[YOUNG ADULT]
Simon Pulse-Simon & Schuster
July 9, 2013


STILL STAR-CROSSED
by Melinda Taub
[YOUNG ADULT]
Delacorte-Random House
July 9, 2013


OCD LOVE STORY
by Corey Ann Haydu
[YOUNG ADULT]
Simon Pulse-Simon & Schuster
July 23, 2013



The meteors OLIVER reads:

WHAT AM I? WHERE AM I?
by Ted Lewin
[EARLY READER]
Holiday House
July 1, 2013


IS IT BIG OR IS IT LITTLE?
by Claudia Rueda
[PICTURE BOOK]
Eerdmans Books
July 5, 2013


GHOST IN THE HOUSE
by Ammi Joan Paquette, 

illustrated by Adam Record
[PICTURE BOOK]
Candlewick
July 9, 2013


ROMPING MONSTERS, STOMPING MONSTERS
by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Kelly Murphy
[PICTURE BOOK—SEQUEL TO 

CREEPY MONSTERS, SLEEPY MONSTERS]
Candelwick
July 9, 2013


COLORS FOR ZENA
by Monica Wellington
[PICTURE BOOK]
Dial-Penguin
July 11, 2013


BULLY
by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
[PICTURE BOOK]
Roaring Brook
July 16, 2013


PLANES FLY!
by George Ella Lyon, 

illustrated by Mick Wiggins
[PICTURE BOOK]
Atheneum-Simon & Schuster
July 23, 2013


OPPOSITES
by Xavier Deneux
[BOARD BOOK]
Chronicle
July 23, 2013


GOOD NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT
by Mem Fox, illustrated by Judy Horacek
[PICTURE BOOK]
Orchard Books
July 30, 2013


READY AND WAITING FOR YOU
by Judi Moreillon, 

illustrated by Catherine Stock
[PICTURE BOOK]
Eerdmans Books
August 1, 2013



The meteors LENNY reads:


DOZENS OF COUSINS
by Shutta Crum, 

illustrated by David Catrow
[PICTURE BOOK]
Clarion-Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
July 2, 2013


MONSTERGARTEN
by Daniel J. Mahoney, 

illustrated by Jef Kaminsky
[PICTURE BOOK]
Feiwel and Friends-Macmillan
July 2, 2013


FILBERT, THE GOOD LITTLE FIEND
by Hiawyn Oram, 

illustrated by Jimmy Liao
[PICTURE BOOK]
Candlewick
July 9, 2013


GUS, THE DINOSAUR BUS
by Julia Liu, illustrated by Bei Lynn
[PICTURE BOOK]
Houghton Mifflin-Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
July 9, 2013


LINUS THE VEGETARIAN T. REX
by Robert Neubecker
[PICTURE BOOK]
Beach Lane-Simon & Schuster
July 9, 2013


SOME MONSTERS ARE DIFFERENT
by David Milgrim
[PICTURE BOOK]
Henry Holt
July 16, 2013


THE CASE OF THE MISSING DONUT
by Alison McGhee, 

illustrated by Isabel Roxas
[PICTURE BOOK]
Dial-Penguin
July 25, 2013


LION VS RABBIT
by Alex Latimer
[PICTURE BOOK]
Peachtree
August 1, 2013


SCAREDY SQUIRREL PREPARES FOR 
HALLOWEEN: 
A SAFETY GUIDE FOR SCAREDIES
by MĂ©lanie Watt
[INFORMATION]
Kids Can Press
August 1, 2013


THUMPY FEET
by Betsy Lewin
[PICTURE BOOK]
Holiday House
August 1, 2013



The meteors VIOLET reads:

AKISSI: FELINE INVASION
by Marguerite Abouet, 

illustrated by Mathieu Sapin
[EARLY READER—GRAPHIC NOVEL]
Flying Eye Books
July 2, 2013


THE VERY BIG CARROT
by Satoe Tone
[PICTURE BOOK]
Eerdmans Books
July 3, 2013


VAMPIRE BABY
by Kelly Bennett, 

illustrated by Paul Meisel
[PICTURE BOOK]
Candlewick
July 9, 2013


ZOMBELINA
by Kristyn Crow, 

illustrated by Molly Idle
[PICTURE BOOK]
Walker
July 9, 2013


CHICK-O-SAURUS REX
by Lenore Jennewein, 

illustrated by Daniel Jennewein
[PICTURE BOOK]
Simon & Schuster
July 23, 2013


VAMPIRINA BALLERINA HOSTS A SLEEPOVER
by Anne Marie Pace, 

illustrated by LeUyen Pham
[PICTURE BOOK—SEQUEL TO 

VAMPIRINA BALLERINA]Disney-Hyperion
July 23, 2013





* The dream entries from Briar’s journal contain premonitions of books that will be published in the future. Briar’s dream self foresees the books’ summaries and knows which will likely appeal to each of her friends. Briar always wakes up before she can see whether her friends will enjoy the books.
 

Monday, July 22, 2013

Three Minutes at the Top of the World

Normanday #86: Is my kite up here?

Write for three minutes about this photo.


Email what you wrote to woof at bright dot net by the end of the day July 28 (put “Norman is Ready for a Road Trip” in the subject line). I’ll post as many of my favorite entries as I want next Monday. Include your first name (or, even better, use a pen name) and age (unless you’re tortoise-old).

Here is the single entry from last week when I asked you to write for three minutes about…

…who wrote to ask you to visit Hutchinson, Kansas, and why.


Tren Rewy Steb
I recognized the handwriting on the envelope. My aunt’s Ps look like fancy musical notes. The letter inside told me she was desperate for me to bring a batch of beigeberries to Hutchinson, Kansas. Was it really time for the Kansas State Fair already? Every year she competes in the choose-a-berry pie-making contest. She loses every year, and every year after she loses she vows that next year will be the year she’ll finally win. Last year her blueberry pie didn’t just lose the contest, it made one of the judges break out in hives.
 “I’ve tried strawberries, raspberries, and huckleberries. I even made a pie with grapes,” she cried. “Next year you’ll bring me beigeberries and I’ll be sure to win.”
Beigeberries are rare. The only place they grow on the entire planet is in the town where I live, in a little field behind my house. You’d think a berry named “beige” would be boring and flavorless, but beigeberries are delicious. They’re also tiny. Very, very tiny. A whole pie will need at least a million beigeberries. I’d better start picking. 

Thursday, July 18, 2013

WINDBLOWN (Picture Book)

by Édouard Manceau, translated by Sarah Quinn
Owlkids Books, 2013

A Book Review by
Violet the Telekinetic Puppy

I’m Violet and I’m going to tell you about a book that is about seven pieces of paper that are different colors and different shapes. The book also has a chicken and a fish and a bird and a snail and a frog. And do you know what? The chicken and the fish and the bird and the snail and the frog are all made up of the seven pieces of paper that are different colors and different shapes and that probably sounds strange but when you see the pictures in the book you will understand how the shapes can be moved around to look like different animals. At the end of the book the wind blows the shapes into a pile of shapes for the reader to use to move around to make other animals or toys or cars or food or houses or whatever the reader can imagine the shapes can make up by being put together in different ways.

I like this book a lot and it is really clever how the same seven pieces of paper are put together in different ways to make different pictures. The author of the book also made the pictures in the book and he drew some extra lines with the animals that he made from the different shapes. He drew antennae on the shapes that look like a snail and he drew some clouds around the shapes that look like a bird and he drew some scales on the shapes that look like a fish. He is a really good artist and he has a really good imagination.

I wanted to see if I am a really good artist and if I have a really good imagination so I cut out seven pieces of paper that are different colors and different shapes and put them together to make a picture. I drew extra lines too just like the author of WINDBLOWN did. Here are the seven pieces of paper that I cut out:







 




Do you like my shapes and the colors of my shapes?

Here is the picture I made out of the shapes and some extra drawn lines:






 




Can you tell what the animals are? If you can’t tell what the animals are I will tell you that they are a bird and a turtle.

Lenny and Oliver like the book WINDBLOWN too and they wanted to try to make pictures too so they used my seven pieces of paper that are different colors and different shapes and put them together to make their own pictures and they added some extra lines too. Here is the picture Lenny made with the shapes and some extra lines:

 
Lenny said to make sure you know he doesn’t like cats but that he couldn’t help making a cat with some scaredy-cat mice because that’s what the shapes wanted to be.

Here is the picture Oliver made with the shapes and some extra lines:











I think that Lenny and Oliver are good artists with really good imaginations, don’t you? And I think WINDBLOWN is a really good book that you will like.

Good-bye.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Three Minutes Planning a Trip

Normanday #85: I traveled by carrier pigeon.

You’ve just gotten a letter asking you to come to Hutchinson, Kansas. Write for three minutes about…

…who sent the request and why.

Email what you wrote to woof at bright dot net by the end of the day July 21 (put “Norman is Ready for a Road Trip” in the subject line). I’ll post as many of my favorite entries as I want next Monday. Include your first name (or, even better, use a pen name) and age (unless you’re tortoise-old). If you’re a published children’s or young adult writer, include a biography to be posted with your entry.

Here is the single entry from last week when I asked you to write for three minutes about…

…being at the swimming pool.


Cranberly
Swimmingly haiku 
Cool and refreshing
The water surrounds me now
I float blissfully

Treading, head bobbing
Squinting in the midday sun
I feel so weightless

I am so happy
Swimming in a crisp, clean pool
At peace with the world

Monday, July 8, 2013

Three Minutes at the Pool

Normanday #84: I rescue moths from the filter.

Write for three minutes about…

…being at the swimming pool.

Email what you wrote to woof at bright dot net by the end of the day July 14 (put “Norman Doesn’t Like to Swim in Chlorine” in the subject line). I’ll post as many of my favorite entries as I want next Monday. Include your first name (or, even better, use a pen name) and age (unless you’re tortoise-old). If you’re a published children’s or young adult writer, include a biography to be posted with your entry.

Here is the single entry from last week when I asked you to write for three minutes about…

…your favorite part of summer.


Tren Rewy Steb
The lightning bugs are out all day fluttering about on the patio, hopping from shrub to lawn. It’s not until it’s finally dark outside that I see their yellow-green lights. I wonder if they glow in the day, too, but that their lights don’t show up in the day. They flash slowly. I follow one as it lifts in the air, glow slowly fading. I can see the bug’s silhouette hovering and try to follow it until it winks on again. Against the backdrop of a border of evergreens, the bugs look like Christmas lights. I see the bugs flicker in the neighbors’ yards, too—a galaxy of stars in the suburbs.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Three Minutes in Summer

Normanday #83: I wish there were lightning bugs in winter.

Write for three minutes about…

…your favorite part of summer.

Email what you wrote to woof at bright dot net by the end of the day July 7 (put “Norman Likes Fireworks” in the subject line). I’ll post as many of my favorite entries as I want next Monday. Include your first name (or, even better, use a pen name) and age (unless you’re tortoise-old). If you’re a published children’s or young adult writer, include a biography to be posted with your entry.

Here is the single entry from last week when I asked you to write for three minutes about…

…the time an elephant asked you to do him a favor.


Tren Rewy Steb
“Can you help me?” he asked.
I wasn’t too busy, so I agreed. Plus, I was curious what an elephant would want from me.
He showed me a string he had tied around his toe. It was supposed to help him remember something, but it wasn’t working.
I tried to jog his memory:
Is it to remind you to get milk at the grocery store?
No.
Return a library book?
No.
Do your homework?
No.
Wish your best friend happy birthday?
No.
Walk your dog?
I don’t have a dog.
Feed your fish?
No.
Practice your ukulele?
What?
Is it to help you remember to practice your ukulele?
Is what to help me remember to practice your ukulele?
That string.
What string?