Poetry Friday: “Let Them Play With Words,” my Kids Discover interview

On April 23, 2026 By Matt Forrest EsenwineIn poetry15 Comments

As I mentioned last Friday (and the week before, as well), I was invited to visit two schools here in New Hampshire over the course of five days, as their writer-in-residence. I spoke to all the classes about poetry and creative writing, and we all worked on creating our own poems right on the spot.

But amidst all the goings-on of speaking, writing, and dreaming (and book-signing!), I also had the opportunity to sit down with one of the teachers, Thom Smith, for a blog interview! Thom, I learned, writes for Kids Discover, an online company that creates science and social studies-based nonfiction educational books.

He asked if I’d be interested in chatting about poetry and its value in the classroom – how to teach it, why we should teach it, why too many teachers are intimidated by it – and I said, Sure!

We talked about rainbows, dust bunnies, basketball and Poe – and a lot more, too, like allowing students to choose what they read, to choose what to write about, and to choose how to write about it.

Some kids love (or need) structure, so forms like ballad stanzas and cheritas will be what they gravitate towards. Others need wide opens spaces free of form, syllable count, and complete sentences! For them, free verse is perfect. It was quite a conversation, so I hope you’ll check out his blog post.

Today’s poem actually comes from Thom, himself. As a developing poet he has written on myriad topics, including an industry near and dear to many of us here in the Granite State:

Where Dairy Cows Grow

dairy cows wait, lined up in a row
in a barn, on the farm, where dairy cows grow;
.
they wait for the farmer to bring them outdoors
to a sky without walls, to a field without floors;
.
they live on a hill where their view is unmatched –
the mountains are glued to the meadow that’s patched
.
with buttercups, dandelions, big black-eyed susans… (continue reading HERE)

Irene Latham is hosting today’s Poetry Friday roundup at Live Your Poem, where she is celebrating her new book Some Starry Night by channelling Emily Dickinson!

(If we’ve not yet connected on Instagram, please find me! I’d love to keep in touch. From new releases to blog posts to poetry and more, Instagram is a great way to learn more about your interests, and to connect with the folks who interest you.)

My schedule of school visits for the 2026 Spring Semester is filling up!

I love sharing with students my love of poetry, the writing process, dinsoaurs, and lots of other things! So if you think you might be interested in having me visit your school – either in-person or virtually – check out all the presentations I offer below, then email me at Matt (at) MattForrest (dot) com!

I love chatting with elementary and middle school classes about writing: why poetry is fun to read and write, the importance of revision, and how imagination and creativity can lead to fantastic things! My presentations are tailored to fit the needs of the classes and students’ ages. One day I might be sharing details of how a picture book like Flashlight Night (Astra Young Readers, 2017) was created; the next, I’ll be showing students rainbow-colored bacteria, discussing dinosaur breath, or crafting origami sea turtles!

Student presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
How a Child Saved a Book
“Once Upon Another Time”
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
“I Am Today”
“A Beginner’s Guide to Being Human”
“Everybody Counts: Counting to 10 in Twelve Languages”
“A Universe of Rainbows!”

Adult presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
Free Yourself with Free Verse
Tight Language, Loose Narratives: Crafting a Non-Traditional Picture Book
The Journey of a Children’s Author

Learn more at MattForrest.com!

=====================================================

Order PERSONALLY-SIGNED copies of my books
from my local independent bookstore!

=====================================================

I’m also on BOOKSHOP:

And I’m very happy to be part of the BOOKROO family, too!

=====================================================

Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!

You can purchase personally-signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Astra Young Readers, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly EVERY book or anthology I’ve been part of!

Click here to view all my books and to order!

Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send a comment to the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH requesting my signature and to whom I should make it out. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)

======================================================

Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!

To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right! (I usually only post once or twice a week – usually Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day) . Also feel free to visit my voiceover website HERE, and you can also follow me via Twitter , Facebook, Instagram, and SoundCloud

Poetry Friday: Celebrating National Poetry Month with student poetry – Part 2!

On April 16, 2026April 17, 2026 By Matt Forrest EsenwineIn poetry10 Comments

National Poetry Month continues to roll on, and after last week’s post about my recent invitation to be a writer-in-residence at an elementary school in New London, New Hampshire, I’ve been looking forward to TODAY’S post, as well.

Because I hadn’t been invited to just ONE school – I visited two!

Over the course of a week, I spoke to all the classes about poetry: why I enjoy reading it, what you can do with it, and how to write it. I also shared some poems and used some fun poem-building exercises.

But I only spent 4 days at the New London school; one of those five days was spent at the elementary school in Sutton, NH, which is part of the district but has a much smaller student population. And yes, we wrote poems all day, too!

As I mentioned last week, one of the methods of poem-writing we used was the Most Boring Object Ever, where we pick a subject so boring, no one could possibly come up with a poem for it – and yet we do, every time! I’ve written extensively about the MBOE in past blog posts.

We also created poems in two other ways. For the 2nd and 3rd-graders, we utilized my friend Georgia Heard’s 6-Room Poem Organizer from her book Awakening the Heart (Heinemann, 2024), in which students pick a subject then write down different ways they envision the subject and how it makes them feel. Once their rooms are filled in, they have a poem! (Learn more HERE)

For the kindergartners and most of the 1st-graders however, we created color poems – a simple , fun way to get young minds thinking like poets. The class chose a color, and then used the five senses to describe the color. The end result: a poem!

One of the most wonderfully satisfying things for me when it come to my poetry workshops is the incredible imagination and word choice such young kids come up with, when you allow them to just think and mind-wander:

*^{Did I mention the New London school has an official school dog??}*

A poet’s mental struggle between the joy of sunshine and darkness of rain when contemplating spring.
The concept of the color “lake blue” (which the class chose themself) smelling “damp” and tasting like a “blue raspberry.”
The sensation that the color yellow feels like “paint” and “petals.”
The conceit of a “screaming snowman!”
The excitement a child gets when they ask if they can write a poem about a scary character they love – in this case, Old Bonnie from Five Nights at Freddy’s – and they’re told, yes!
My favorite line: “Color is my way.”
I LOVE THAT.

I still have several dates available in May and early June, so if you think you might be interested in having me visit your school (in-person or virtually), just check out the info below, and send me a message!

Soeaking of teaching poetry, I hope you’ll head over to My Juicy Little Universe where Heidi Mordhorst is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup with a video conversation with friends and fellow teachers Jone Rush MacCulloch and Margaret Simon about reading, teaching, and celebrating poetry!

My schedule of school visits for the 2026 Spring Semester is filling up!

Student presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
How a Child Saved a Book
“Once Upon Another Time”
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
“I Am Today”
“A Beginner’s Guide to Being Human”
“Everybody Counts: Counting to 10 in Twelve Languages”
“A Universe of Rainbows!”

Adult presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
Free Yourself with Free Verse
Tight Language, Loose Narratives: Crafting a Non-Traditional Picture Book
The Journey of a Children’s Author

Learn more at MattForrest.com!

=====================================================

Order PERSONALLY-SIGNED copies of my books
from my local independent bookstore!

=====================================================

I’m also on BOOKSHOP:

And I’m very happy to be part of the BOOKROO family, too!

=====================================================

Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!

Click here to view all my books and to order!

======================================================

Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!

Poetry Friday: First school visit of the year yields more student poetry!

On October 23, 2025October 24, 2025 By Matt Forrest EsenwineIn poetry14 Comments

I love surprising students.

When schools invite me to visit, I often share the behind-the-scenes journeys of my books or unusual aspects like illustrations or STEM elements. These receive great reactions, when kids discover so many things about the creative process – and the world – they didn’t know.

But when a school requests a poetry workshop, kids are even more surprised – at how fun poetry can be!

I was invited recently to a school in Vermont to present a poetry workshop, and after sharing some of my favorite poems, why I love poetry in general, and all the myriad forms of poetry that exist, I had the students join together to create a crowd-sourced poem using my tied-and-true MBOE. (The Most Boring Object Ever)

As you may know from previous posts here, like THIS one and THAT one, I have the students offer up one particular object they think is boring and unworthy of a poem – and then we get busy!

In the case of the Vermont visit, a student suggested a fidget cube, also known as an infinity cube.

An infinity cube is a set of 8 connected cubes that can be folded into different shapes, and I thought this young girl’s suggestion would be perfect because it offered so many possibilities when brainstorming ideas for our poem!

So just like I always do, I asked students to describe it: what did it look like, feel like, sound like? What else could it be, if it wasn’t a fidget cube? What might it be if it was 100 times bigger or 100 times smaller?

And I tried my best to jot all the words and phrases down as fast as I could on their dry erase board!

You can see some of the students’ offerings in the photo – but honestly, if I’d had more space, I’d have included more. In fact, I had to erase some of the words in order to make room for the poem we created!

Utilizing some of the words and phrases I felt might work together, we came up with this original (first) version:

infinite puzzle
colors fold upon themselves
magnet in my hands

(this was quite ironic, as we’d discussed haiku earlier in the class, and I had just told them they needn’t worry about the classic 5-7-5 syllable rule!)

The real fun in writing these sorts of poems, though, is taking the phrases and imagery that had been brainstormed and then changing the poem to suit our own personal style. Here are a few suggestions I offered, to show them how juxtaposing words can create multiple poems from just one exercise:

magnetic puzzle
folds upon itself
the color of infinity

magnetic colors
fold into infinity
satisfying puzzle

colors of the cube
fold into a puzzle
in my hands
a little infinity

I then suggested they could use some of their ideas as a title, and quickly put this together to show them what I meant:

“The Color of Infinity”

Rectangle folds
into its cube children –
each small part
of a larger whole,
satisfying the puzzle.

I told them, once a young poet brainstorms their ideas and writes down whatever comes to their mind, they’re off and running! The poem might end up being about what they were planning – but it could be a poem about something else, entirely!

Someone might have seen the words “colors”, “cube,” and “puzzle,” and then been inspired to write a poem about rainbows, ice, or math problems! It doesn’t matter what the subject is or even how good the poem is – what matters is the act of thinking/imagining/connecting, and then writing down the words.

If you’d be interested in having me visit your school – either for a poetry workshop or book presentations – I hope you’ll email me at matt(at)mattforrest(dot)com and we can put some plans together!

Oh, and by the way, I spent this past week wearing all those cool new shirts Hardaddy.com sent me, and posted an Instagram reel to thank them. My son even joined in! From Heat Miser and Snow Miser to the Headless Horseman and Godzilla, these are some bright, funky, and wild shirts – so if you have time to check out the reel, be sure to hang on til the end! (I think you’ll get a chuckle)

Patricia Franz has today’s Poetry Friday Roundup at her blog Reverie, and is embracing autumn and the National Writing Project WRITE OUT’s theme, “Awaken the Senses!”

*^{NCTE poetry fans: Stop by whenever you’d like, and say HI!}*

I am booking school visits for 2025-26!

I love chatting with students about creativity, poetry, the writing process, dinsoaurs, and lots of other things! So if you think you might be interested in having me visit your school – either in-person or virtually – check out all the presentations I offer below, then email me at Matt (at) MattForrest (dot) com!

I love chatting with elementary and middle school classes about writing: why poetry is fun to read and write, the importance of revision, and how imagination and creativity can lead to fantastic careers! My presentations are tailored to fit the needs of the classes and students’ ages. One day I might be sharing details of how a picture book like Flashlight Night (Astra Young Readers, 2017) was created; the next, I’ll be discussing dinosaur breath or crafting origami sea turtles!

Student presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
How a Child Saved a Book
“Once Upon Another Time”
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
“I Am Today”
“A Beginner’s Guide to Being Human”
“Everybody Counts: Counting to 10 in Twelve Languages”

Adult presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
Free Yourself with Free Verse
Tight Language, Loose Narratives: Crafting a Non-Traditional Picture Book
The Journey of a Children’s Author

Learn more at MattForrest.com!

=====================================================

Order PERSONALLY-SIGNED copies of my books
from my local independent bookstore!

=====================================================

=====================================================

I’m also on BOOKSHOP:

And I’m very happy to be part of the BOOKROO family, too!

=====================================================

Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!

Click here to view all my books and to order!

======================================================

Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!

Poetry Friday: Still stuck in the past, but at least stuck with a slightly better poem

On May 29, 2025May 30, 2025 By Matt Forrest EsenwineIn poetry8 Comments

If you were here last week, you will likely never forget (nor forgive) the pain and misery I made you endure with my high school poetry.

I won’t do it again, I promise.

But my college poetry? Well, that’s another story.

As I mentioned last week, I re-discovered a bunch of old journals, and one of the other little nuggets o’ nostalgia I happened upon was a copy of my college’s literary journal from my senior year.

I’d love to tell you it contained some fantastic poetry of mine – but I really don’t like lying to my readers.

Truthfully, the poetry isn’t bad – it’s just not great. It’s certainly not what I would write these days. And it’s far more prosaic than anything I’d write, too.

It is, however, leaps and bounds better than the flotsam I subjected you to the last time you were here:

Again, much more prosaic/narrative/telling-not-showing than something I’d write now, but I do like the scene it creates and the emotion I tried to imbue. Notice I say, tried.

But we all need to start somewhere, and you can’t improve if you don’t keep practicing. I still had no idea at the time that I would eventually have more than a dozen books to my name and 40+ poems published in journals, magazines, and anthologies.

What’s really hard to believe, though, is that in a mere 20 years, I went from writing stuff like this to writing material that was good enough to catch editors’ attentions! It was 2009 when I decided to make a concerted effort to publish my children’s poems – and by the time 2015 rolled to a close I already had TEN children’s poems published.

So if you’re just starting out trying to learn poetry or find a way into children’s publishing, hang in there! Keep writing, keep learning, and keep failing. (Seriously – failure is a great teacher) Each time you experience a setback, take some time to analyze what happened and see how you can make improvements.

And before I forget:

Last week I thanked the folks at Reading Rockets for including A Universe of Rainbows on their 2025 Summer Reading Guide – and this week, I need to shout a huge THANK YOU to WeAreTeachers.com for once again including Flashlight Night on their annual Summer Reading List!

They say, “The nighttime adventure these children have will inspire students to click on their own flashlights—and their imaginations—and head out into the dark.”

Again, THANK YOU!!

Since today is Poetry Friday, you’d probably like to read some more (better) poetry, and Karen Edmisten has it for you! She’s hosting the roundup by featuring an apostrophe poem by Wendell Berry, to fellow poet Hayden Carruth.

I am STILL booking school visits for Spring 2025!

In need of a last-minute, end-of-year author visit? I still have some openings available in late May and June – so I’m offering a SUPER-SPECIAL DEAL! If you book me for an in-person visit to be held before the end of the school year, I will shave $200 off a half-day visit for you (up to 3 presentations) or $300 off a full-day visit (up to 5 presentations)

I love chatting with elementary and middle school classes about writing: why poetry is fun to read and write, the importance of revision, and how imagination and creativity can lead to fantastic careers! My presentations are tailored to fit the needs of the classes and students’ ages. One day I might be sharing details of how a picture book like Flashlight Night (Astra Young Readers, 2017) was created; the next, I’ll be discussing dinosaur breath or crafting origami sea turtles!

Student presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
How a Child Saved a Book
“Once Upon Another Time”
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
“I Am Today”
“A Beginner’s Guide to Being Human”
“Everybody Counts: Counting to 10 in Twelve Languages”

Adult presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
Free Yourself with Free Verse
Tight Language, Loose Narratives: Crafting a Non-Traditional Picture Book
The Journey of a Children’s Author

Learn more at MattForrest.com!

=====================================================

Order PERSONALLY-SIGNED copies of my books
from my local independent bookstore!

=====================================================

I’m now on BOOKSHO P!

=====================================================

I’m also very happy to be part of the BOOKROO family!

=====================================================

Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!

Click here to view all my books and to order!

======================================================

Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!

Poetry Friday: A 9-year-old “2025 International Homeschooling Poetry Contest” winner

On May 8, 2025May 9, 2025 By Matt Forrest EsenwineIn poetry14 Comments

This spring school semester has been a busy one for me!

By the time June rolls around, I will have visited in person nearly 20 schools across New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine – and virtually visited another dozen across the country!

As I’ve mentioned in past posts like last Friday’s, I love the fact that I not only get to share my books with young readers, but I am able to share the creative process with them – along with the process of creating a book, the importance of revision, why I love poetry, how we’re still learning about dinosaurs, and a host of other things. (You can learn more about my author visits HERE)

*^{From my visit to Pleasant Street School in Laconia, NH earlier this week, coordinated with the Children’s Literacy Foundation (clifonline.org)}* *^{(Photos courtesy Kathleen Grenier)}*

One school up in Canaan, VT (about 15 miles from the Canadian border) invited me to talk about writing and lead some poetry workshops in celebration of Poem in your Pocket Week – and they were in the middle of their Scholastic Book Fair, as well, so the students were really enjoying a week’s worth of literacy-focused fun.

(The local newspaper even ran a couple of photos about it! If you’d care to check it out, click HERE and scroll down to page 10)

Knowing how much I love sharing my love of writing and poetry with students as well as adults, you can imagine how excited I was to help judge the 2025 International Homeschooling Poetry Contest! This was (I believe) the third year I’ve been asked to be a judge for this contest, created by Christine Owens of A Year of Poetry Tea Time.

With different age groups of students (as well as adults) submitting poems, each judge focused on a different group; we chose our favorites, and the winners were just recently announced.

You can see all the winners’ names and poems HERE, but I wanted to share with you the poem that impressed me the most – a beautiful little rhyming poem by 9-year-old Emma from Indiana:

.
Morning

Dark and black the forest lay.
Warm, but shrouded by the mist.
Till the clouds with effort parted,
And with sunlight it was kissed.
.

NINE YEARS OLD, did I mention that?? This poem really caught me by surprise. Most students -particularly elementary-aged students like Emma – force their rhymes and almost let the rhymes lead their thoughts, if that makes sense. They are so concerned with the rhyme that the emotion or story gets lost.

*^{Care to learn more about my author visits? Just click the photo!}*

Moreover, their rhythm often gets thrown off, too, because they’re trying to say too much or don’t understand how to rearrange their words or revise their words to get everything to work together.

But THIS…wow. This is an excellent demonstration of the student’s knowledge of meter and rhyme, as well as poetic devices like descriptive imagery and personification. It may only be four lines long, but those are four very impressive lines. Well done, Emma!

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is being hosted by Sarah Grace Tuttle, who is sharing her National Poetry Month project of completing 20 poems in protest of President Trump and his policies. So head over to her blog for all the poetry links and fun you can handle!

I am STILL booking school visits for Spring 2025!

I love chatting with elementary and middle school classes about writing: why poetry is fun to read and write, the importance of revision, and how imagination and creativity can lead to fantastic careers! My presentations are tailored to fit the needs of the classes and students’ ages. One day I might be sharing details of how a picture book like Flashlight Night (Astra Young Readers, 2017) was created; the next, I’ll be discussing dinosaur breath or crafting origami sea turtles!

Student presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
How a Child Saved a Book
“Once Upon Another Time”
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
“I Am Today”
“A Beginner’s Guide to Being Human”
“Everybody Counts: Counting to 10 in Twelve Languages”

Adult presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
Free Yourself with Free Verse
Tight Language, Loose Narratives: Crafting a Non-Traditional Picture Book
The Journey of a Children’s Author

Learn more at MattForrest.com!

=====================================================

Order PERSONALLY-SIGNED copies of my books
from my local independent bookstore!

=====================================================

I’m now on BOOKSHO P!

=====================================================

I’m also very happy to be part of the BOOKROO family!

=====================================================

Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!

Click here to view all my books and to order!

======================================================

Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!

Poetry Friday: A story created from a school visit, and a school visit supported by a publisher

On May 1, 2025May 2, 2025 By Matt Forrest EsenwineIn poetry11 Comments

Last month, I kicked off National Poetry Month with a Poetry Friday post about my new poetry anthology, A Universe of Rainbows: Multicolored Poems for a Multicolored World (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2025). In that post, I mentioned how cool it was that my publisher helped support one of our local schools here.

When I was asked by the Children’s Literacy Foundation of NH and VT if I was available to do a school visit on April 1 (publication day!) at Maple Ave. Elementary School in Claremont, NH, I contacted the folks at Eerdmans, and we arranged to provide the school’s library and each and every classroom with a copy of Rainbows!

(Many thanks to the local newspaper, the Eagle Times, for sharing the details about the donation!)

Claremont has been at the unfortunate center of our state’s education funding debate for decades, and I knew the school could use the help – so I was very happy when we were able to pull everything together. The kids at the school seemed pretty happy, too!

The reason I mention this visit is because at the conclusion of most of my presentations, I have the kids collectively create a story starter – a scene that begs the question, “What happens next??”

I’ll ask students to offer up suggestions of animals, colors, places, activities, and weather – and we end up with a story waiting to be told. In this particular case, it turned out to be a cyan bear and a periwinkle goat playing soccer in a tornado on Mars! (Yes, 4th-graders actually volunteered those colors all on their own!)

I explained to the students that if I asked each of them to tell me a story about this, each of them would have a different answer because we are all differernt. I hoped they would think about that and possibly use our crazy little scene as a story prompt at some point.

Little did I know that as soon as I left, they got right to work!

Here’s the story the 4th-graders all wrote, collaboratively:
.

The Cyan Bear and the Periwinkle Goat

……….^{Once upon a time in 1947, on a soccer field, there lived a cyan bear and a periwinkle goat. They stayed away from each other, but one day Bear was hungry.}
……….^{Goat was out in the field during lunch, but Bear thought he saw a mouse in the field. The mouse scurried off the field into an abandoned anthill.}
……….^{The bear glanced at the goat and charged. The goat grabbed the soccer ball and kicked the ball into Bear’s face. Bear winced and ran away into the soccer goal.}
……….^{After he ran into the soccer goal, he broke through the fence. Then he turned around and charged back at the goat. Suddenly, Goat started running and finessed the bear into thinking he was going right, but he went left. The bear tripped and sank into the mud.}
……….^{The bear came back out of the mud and then he started to charge at the goat again. The goat jumped onto Bear’s head and ran away to safety.}
……….^{Bear went back to the goal to have a break and think about what to do next. As the bear was thinking, Goat was already preparing a plan.}
……….^{After Goat was done with the plan, Bear turned around and got angry. Bear saw in the distance that the Goat built a ginormous metal suit. The metal suit was so strong that Goat kicked Bear into outer space.}

……….^{After Bear was kicked into space, he gave up and just sat on planet Pluto. (In this story, Pluto graduated to a real planet.)}
……….^{Goat took a nap for a while and somehow Bear came back to Earth. Bear then grabbed a toolbox from the shed and took out a bunch of supplies. He started disassembling the metal suit. When all of the metal suit was disassembled, the bear got on his hind paws and started growling.}

……….^{Goat woke up and kicked Bear back up to Neptune where it was raining diamonds. He got hit by multiple diamonds. He saw a weird rock in the sky and he realized it was coming towards him! It was a meteorite!}
……….^{Back on Earth, Goat broke his legs when he kicked Bear, so Mouse came back to investigate. After examining Goat, Mouse grabbed a needle from the shed to help Goat heal.}
^{……….Mouse decided to create springy legs and sent them to Neptune for Bear. Bear came back to Earth where there were exactly one million fish pies waiting for him, courtesy of Mouse.}
^{……….Bear did not like fish pie. So Bear walked up to Goat and told him never to come back to the soccer field again if he didn’t want to get eaten.}
^{……….Goat walked out of the soccer field and grabbed a large bear-friendly cake and brought it back to Bear. Even though Bear was hangry and tired he ate the cake and they became friends. Most of the time.}

^{– Started by Maple Avenue 4th and 5th grade classes and finished by Lisa Holz’s 4th-graders}

Fantastic job, kids! I’m so glad you felt inspired to write an entire story about our bear and goat friends.

For today’s poem, I thought I’d share one of the poems from Universe that I shared with the Claremont students that day, “Garden of Stars,” written by my friend Georgia Heard:

*^{©2025 Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, all rights reserved; click to enlarge}*

Mary Lee Hahn is hosting today’s Poetry Friday roundup at A(nother) Year of Reading, and features an original poem inspired by emerging poet Whitney Hanson and the list of President Trump’s “banned words” (I can’t believe I’m using the phrase ‘banned words’ here in the United States).

I am STILL booking school visits for Spring 2025!

I still have some opening available in late May and June!

I love chatting with elementary and middle school classes about writing: why poetry is fun to read and write, the importance of revision, and how imagination and creativity can lead to fantastic careers! My presentations are tailored to fit the needs of the classes and students’ ages. One day I might be sharing details of how a picture book like Flashlight Night (Astra Young Readers, 2017) was created; the next, I’ll be discussing dinosaur breath or crafting origami sea turtles!

Student presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
How a Child Saved a Book
“Once Upon Another Time”
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
“I Am Today”
“A Beginner’s Guide to Being Human”
“Everybody Counts: Counting to 10 in Twelve Languages”

Adult presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
Free Yourself with Free Verse
Tight Language, Loose Narratives: Crafting a Non-Traditional Picture Book
The Journey of a Children’s Author

Learn more at MattForrest.com!

=====================================================

Order PERSONALLY-SIGNED copies of my books
from my local independent bookstore!

=====================================================

I’m now on BOOKSHO P!

=====================================================

I’m also very happy to be part of the BOOKROO family!

=====================================================

Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!

Click here to view all my books and to order!

======================================================

Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!

Poetry Friday: Wrapping up National Poetry Month with more student poetry (and we have a GIVEAWAY winner!)

On April 24, 2025April 24, 2025 By Matt Forrest EsenwineIn poetry12 Comments

If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, you know I love doing school & library visits, sharing my love of reading, writing, and book creation with students of all ages.

Of the many different presentations I offer, one is a poetry writing workshop, where kids can learn about all sorts of various forms of poetry and then we crowd-source a poem right there, on the spot, in about 10-12 minutes.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I usually ask students to brainstorm around the concept of the MBOE: the Most Boring Object Ever. In other words, an object they feel is so simple, mundane, and uninteresting that it can’t possibly be worthy of a poem – and yet, it is!

Take, for example, my recent visit to Alton Central School (NH).

The 1st Graders decided a blank piece of paper would be a good MBOE, so we cam up with a list of ideas about what a blank piece of paper is, how one might describe it, what it could be used for, etc. I then helped them put together some of the best ideas into a cohesive poem:

Blank Paper

Waiting on my desk
a story, a poem,
a picture, a map –
adventure awaits!

The 2nd Graders thought an old banana peel would be cool, so we did the same thing – and came up with this:

Banana Peel

Slimy, squishy
on the ground –
what is this
that I have found?

Sticky, stinky
on the street,
brown banana.
Time to eat!

I do have to admit, that last line was mine, ha! I don’t normally try to get the kids’ poems to rhyme, but when one of them mentioned the banana being on the street, I thought they’d appreciate the gross factor – you should have heard the collective groan! For the 4th Graders, the MBOE was a water bottle:

Water Bottle

I am a bottle of water
ready for your
next adventure –
deep woods, beach,
field day –
keeping you healthy
until we’re back home.

As I said, 10-12 minutes is all it takes to find a subject, brainstorm some ideas, and get them on paper. And I remind the kids that this is where revision takes over – they can all write their own poems, or revise the ones we wrote together to their own liking. But you have to get the words down on paper, first! As the old saying goes, you can’t revise a blank page.

Another school I visited recently was in Canaan, VT – waaaaay up near the Canadian border – and the kids had a great (and somewhat sinister) time putting together their poem!

School librarian Kaitlin Wood had invited me to visit to celebrate National Poetry Month and Poem in your Pocket Week, so I shared several of my poems and then the 4th & 5th Graders went to work brainstorming ideas about their MBOE, a paper clip.

We talked about what a paper clip looks like, might be used for, where you might find one – and the students got really dark really fast, with suggestions like poking people, picking locks, and starting fires, yikes! But I wrote everything down and eventually we created the narrative poem you before you:

Paper Clip

Late night,
…..school closed –
paper clips drops homework on the floor,
picks lock. I sneak inside,
treasure awaits – Answer Key!

I turn to leave, set Answer Key
ablaze, but suddenly
Principal pokes me!
His own box of paper clips in his hand.

…..

^{I’ll be signing copies of “Rainbows” as well as my other books, plus the kids can make a constellation craft and origami sea turtles!}

That’s a 10-minute poem the kids got a real kick out of – and Kaitlin told me that even some kids who don’t normally particpate in classroom discussions were jumping into the fray, which made me feel great.

If you think your school’s students might benefit from one of my workshops, I hope you’ll check out the details below, and please email me if you have any questions!

Heidi Mordhorst is hosting today’s Poetry Friday roundup at My Juicy Little Universe with some student poetry of her own AND she’s adding a new line to the annual Progressive Poem, so check out how it’s been growing!

GIVEAWAY WINNER!

If you commented on last week’s interview with Nikki Grimes, then you were entered in a random drawing to win a copy of her newest picture book, A Cup of Quiet.

…and the winner is…

Marjorie Maddox!!

Congratulations, Marjorie! Send me an email with your address and I’ll get your books in the mail asap. Thanks for commenting!

My debut poetry anthology, A Universe of Rainbows: Multicolored Poems for a Multicolored World (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2025), is now available! Check out the trailer here:

For all the posts about A Universe of Rainbows:

^{Sept. 25, 204: On her Fuse 8 blog at SLJ, Betsy Bird praises the book as “a veritable who’s who of poets”}
^{Dec. 28, 2024: Kirkus Reviews follows, stating the book is a “unique take on the ever-captivating rainbow”}
^{Jan. 19: I share the inspiration behind Rainbows in a guest-blog for Tara Lazar’s StoryStorm}
^{Feb. 1: School Library Journal calls Rainbows “delightful”}
^{Feb. 6: I describe what it took to create my first poetry anthology at Poetry for Children}
^{Feb. 27: Poet/blogger Buffy Silverman says Rainbows is a “wonderful book to bring poetry and science together”}
^{Feb. 28: Publisher’s Weekly praises Rainbows‘ “vivid illustrations” and “eloquent verse”}
^{March 4: School Library Journal publishes their list of “9 Poetry Titles to Inspire Young Minds“}
^{March 7: Tracey Kiff-Judson praises Rainbows’ “luscious language” and “stunning artwork”}
^{March 11: I share the process I took to create Rainbows in a guest-post for Writer’s Rumpus}
^{March 13: Emily Schneider at Imaginary Elevators shares why she loves the book, saying it “sets a high bar for authors and artists aspiring to link science and the arts without sacrificing aesthetic and linguistic distinction.” Thank you, Emily!}
^{March 26: Shelf Awareness premieres the “Trailer of the Week”}
^{March 31: The day before publication, Maria Marshall interviews Yours Truly along with Rainbows contributors Charles Ghigna, Allan Wolf, and Joyce Sidman}
^{April 1: While I’m celebrating here, author Erin Dealey is featuring an interview with me at her blog, Deborah Kalb is featuring another interview with me, and Jena Benton hosts me for a Simply 7 Interview at hers! Whew!}
^{April 2: Podcast Day! I chat with Matthew Winner on his Children’s Book Podcast and Dr. Dianne Schnoor invites me to return to her Adventures in Learning podcast}
^{April 3: I share a video reading of my poem about the peacock mantis shrimp, “Elegant Danger,” at Poetry Boost}, and ^{Kathy and Dorothy at Celebrate Picture Books celebrate National Find a Rainbow Day!}
^{April 4: Poetry Friday member Jilanne Hoffman features the book on her blog; Maria Marshall returns with her review of Rainbows}; ^{and my friend Jama Rattigan shares her review at her blog Alphabet Soup!} ^{Also, on her A Year of Poetry Tea Time YouTube channel, homeschooling crusader Christine Owens shares an 8-minute review of Rainbows – wow!}
^{April 11: Robyn Hood Black features Irene Latham’s and Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s poems on her blog, Life on the Deckle Edge, and Jone Rush MacCulloch shares an interview with me at her blog}
TOMORROW, Sat., April 26: Join me on National Independent Bookstore Day at Innisfree Bookshop in Meredith, NH starting at 10:30am! Book signings, a craft for the kids, and lots of fun!

I am booking school author visits for Spring 2025!

I love chatting with students about creativity, poetry, the writing process, dinsoaurs, and lots of other things! So if you think you might be interested in having me visit your school, please check out all the presentations I offer, then email me at Matt (at) MattForrest (dot) com!

I love chatting with elementary and middle school classes about writing: why poetry is fun to read and write, the importance of revision, and how imagination and creativity can lead to fantastic careers! My presentations are tailored to fit the needs of the classes and students’ ages. One day I might be sharing details of how a picture book like Flashlight Night (Astra Young Readers, 2017) was created; the next, I’ll be discussing dinosaur breath or crafting origami sea turtles!

Student presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
How a Child Saved a Book
“Once Upon Another Time”
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
“I Am Today”
“A Beginner’s Guide to Being Human”
“Everybody Counts: Counting to 10 in Twelve Languages”

Adult presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
Free Yourself with Free Verse
Tight Language, Loose Narratives: Crafting a Non-Traditional Picture Book
The Journey of a Children’s Author

Learn more at MattForrest.com!

=====================================================

Order PERSONALLY-SIGNED copies of my books
from my local independent bookstore!

=====================================================

My very first poetry anthology, A Universe of Rainbows (Eerdmans, 2025) arrives April 1, 2025 –
but you can pre-order NOW!

I’m now on BOOKSHO P!

=====================================================

I’m also very happy to be part of the BOOKROO family!

=====================================================

Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!

Click here to view all my books and to order!

======================================================

Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!

Poetry Friday: Children’s poetry anthology “40 Poems for 40 Weeks” arrives!

On December 12, 2024December 12, 2024 By Matt Forrest EsenwineIn poetry3 Comments

It’s been quite a year for me and poetry anthologies!

Bless the Earth (Convergent/Penguin, 2024) from Nancy Tupper Ling & June Cotner was published in April; Charles Waters’ and Irene Latham’s The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets (Carolrhoda Books, 2024) arrived October 1; and just last week I was celebrating Schoolapalooza: A Silly Symphony of Schooltime Rhymes (Moonshower, 2024), an A-Z anthology of school poems from Ryan G. Van Cleave.

But with barely two weeks left of the year, do you suppose that’s all there is? Not at all!

40 Poems for 40 Weeks (Routledge) is a special book from my good friend David L. Harrison and Tim Rasinski who have put together a unique collection of poems and Word Ladders (a very cool construct Tim developed) to help teachers integrate poetry into their classes throughout the school year.

The book also includes background info on each poet, so teachers and students can get to know the contributors better and find more of our work.

When David asked me if I’d be interested in participating, I knew I wanted a child-friendly poem that kids would get a kick out of. I hope they do!

Peas

I don’t like peas. I really don’t.
Yes, I should eat them – but I won’t.
They’re very tasty, so I’m told,
but I would rather eat green mold
on slimy yogurt six months old
while standing naked in the cold
than even think of eating peas,
so please don’t ask me, please, oh please.
I’d rather chew a garden hose
or dine on tiny termite toes –
or even what’s inside their nose –
than have this meal which you propose.
I’ve been quite clear just where I stand;
I hate them frozen, fresh, or canned.
I’ll eat the gum stuck on your shoe,
an orange that is turning blue,
some homemade caterpillar stew
with rancid tripe and haggis, too;
I might chow down on all of these,
but I really…
………………..…really…
………………………………….…don’t like peas.

Congratulations to David and Tim! If you’re looking for more poetry, you’ll find it at today’s Poetry Friday roundup at A Word Edgewise, where Linda Mitchell combines poems from Edward Lear and Anne Sexton with Christmas carols to create something brand-new!

I am booking author visits
for the 2024-2025 school year!

I love chatting with students about creativity, poetry, the writing process, dinsoaurs, and lots of other things! So if you think you might be interested in having me visit your school, please check out all the presentations I offer, then email me at Matt (at) MattForrest (dot) com!

I love chatting with elementary and middle school classes about writing: why poetry is fun to read and write, the importance of revision, and how imagination and creativity can lead to fantastic careers! My presentations are tailored to fit the needs of the classes and students’ ages. One day I might be sharing details of how a picture book like Flashlight Night (Astra Young Readers, 2017) was created; the next, I’ll be discussing dinosaur breath or crafting origami sea turtles!

Student presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
How a Child Saved a Book
“Once Upon Another Time”
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
“I Am Today”
“A Beginner’s Guide to Being Human”
“Everybody Counts: Counting to 10 in Twelve Languages”

Adult presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
Free Yourself with Free Verse
Tight Language, Loose Narratives: Crafting a Non-Traditional Picture Book
The Journey of a Children’s Author

Learn more at MattForrest.com!

=====================================================

Order PERSONALLY-SIGNED copies of my books
from my local independent bookstore!

=====================================================

My very first poetry anthology, A Universe of Rainbows (Eerdmans, 2025) arrives April 1, 2025 –
but you can pre-order NOW!

I’m now on BOOKSHO P!

=====================================================

I’m also very happy to be part of the BOOKROO family!

=====================================================

Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!

Click here to view all my books and to order!

======================================================

Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!

Poetry Friday: Celebrating NCTE – and “Schoolapalooza!”

On December 5, 2024December 5, 2024 By Matt Forrest EsenwineIn poetry19 Comments

Whew! Between Thanksgiving last weekend and NCTE the weekend before, it’s been a buussyyy couple of weeks. And Christmas is less than 20 days away? How did that happen?!

Anyway, I was planning to share a recap of the NCTE convention today, when I realized an exciting new children’s poetry anthology to which I contributed just came out this past Tuesday.

So we’re doing both!

First, let’s talk NCTE: what a whirlwind weekend, it was, with an early-morning session Sat. Nov. 23 at 8:15am (well-attended, too!) followed by the Children’s Book Award Luncheon with Georgia Heard and TWO book signings in the afternoon. One was for The Thing to Remember about Stargazing (Tilbury House, 2023) and another for my upcoming poetry anthology A Universe of Rainbows: Multicolored Poems for a Multicolored World (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2025).

One of the highlights for me was finally meeting my Universe editor, Kathleen Merz, face to face!

During the Sat. morning session, my partners Charles Waters, Laura Purdie Salas, Michelle Schaub, and I shared some of our poetry and picture books, and how educators can use these types of short-form writing to encourage students to ask questions, begin writing, and create conversations with each other.

*^{From l-r: Me, Laura, Michelle, Charles}* *^{(Click to download our PowerPoint presentation!)}*

If you missed attending, you can still check out our PowerPoint slides (although it’s admittedly not the same as being there with us) along with a one-sheet review of our comments at Laura’s website HERE.

Prior to Sat., Charles, Irene Latham, and I gathered as many of our children’s poetry friends together (those who write, read, and teach it!) at the Omni Hotel lobby lounge Fri. night. We weren’t sure how many folks might attend, so you can imagine how pleasantly surprised we were when the lobby was filled with poetry lovers:

HUGE thank you’s to everyone who attended and said hi, as well as to my online friends I finally got to meet in person and my other poet/author/ illustrator friends I only get to see now and then. And especially to my publishers Tilbury House and Eerdmans for organizing my book signings – and the awesome folks at Lerner Publishing, who sprang for hors d’oeuvres and apps during our Friday Night Poetry Meet-up!

(Eerdmans also covered the cost of my registration, so thank you for that, as well, my friends!)

The NCTE has already put out a call for proposals for NEXT year’s convention, scheduled to take place in Denver, CO – so you know I’ve already got some ideas cookin’ inside this brain of mine. I’ll be sure to keep you posted!

Now, then…a new anthology!

I’ve been blessed to be part of several new children’s poetry anthologies this year, and the latest is Schoolapalooza: A Silly Alphabet of 26 Schooltime Poems (Moonshower, 2024), which was published just a few days ago, on Tue., Dec. 3.

I got a chance to sneak a peek at the book last week, when I happened to stop by our local library and the children’s librarian showed me what had just arrived in the mail!

It’s such a cool book – and cool concept – I hope you pick up a copy to see for yourself. (and please let me know what you think, if you do)

I’ve never had my name on the cover of a book that wasn’t completely my own, so I’m quite honored that I was chosen to be featured right there with friends like Jane, Heidi, Charles, Irene, Marilyn, Ryan – well, you get the idea!

So of course, today I just HAD to share my contribution:

^{– © 2024, Bushel & Peck, Laura Vitória Jäger, Matt Forrest Esenwine, all rights reserved}^{(click to enlarge)}
.
.Categorized from A-Z, this collection of 26 poems includes poems about everything from calculators to school buses, from synonyms to – well, irony – this book is fun, surprising, and thanks to back matter that explains the book’s poetic devices, educational!

(Speaking of poetic devices…you’ll notice I tried to cram as many as I could into that one poem, ha!)

And just look at this line-up of contributors:
.

It really is a fun, creative look at school, and a book I think both kids AND adults will appreciate. (And if you do pick up a copy and enjoy it, please leave a review somewhere – Amazon, Goodreads, etc. – so others will know!)

Looking for more poetry? Head on over to The Apples in My Orchard, where Carol Labuzzetta is hosting today’s Poetry Friday roundup with a “seasonal transitions” poem she was inspired to write while visiting her ailing father more than 900 miles away.

I am booking author visits
for the 2024-2025 school year!

I love chatting with students about creativity, poetry, the writing process, dinsoaurs, and lots of other things! So if you think you might be interested in having me visit your school, please check out all the presentations I offer, then email me at Matt (at) MattForrest (dot) com!

I love chatting with elementary and middle school classes about writing: why poetry is fun to read and write, the importance of revision, and how imagination and creativity can lead to fantastic careers! My presentations are tailored to fit the needs of the classes and students’ ages. One day I might be sharing details of how a picture book like Flashlight Night (Astra Young Readers, 2017) was created; the next, I’ll be discussing dinosaur breath or crafting origami sea turtles!

Student presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
How a Child Saved a Book
“Once Upon Another Time”
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
“I Am Today”
“A Beginner’s Guide to Being Human”
“Everybody Counts: Counting to 10 in Twelve Languages”

Adult presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
Free Yourself with Free Verse
Tight Language, Loose Narratives: Crafting a Non-Traditional Picture Book
The Journey of a Children’s Author

Learn more at MattForrest.com!

=====================================================

Order PERSONALLY-SIGNED copies of my books
from my local independent bookstore!

=====================================================

My very first poetry anthology, A Universe of Rainbows (Eerdmans, 2025) arrives April 1, 2025 –
but you can pre-order NOW!

I’m now on BOOKSHO P!

=====================================================

I’m also very happy to be part of the BOOKROO family!

=====================================================

Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!

Click here to view all my books and to order!

======================================================

Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!

Poetry Friday: More students, more poetry!

On April 18, 2024April 19, 2024 By Matt Forrest EsenwineIn poetry14 Comments

Last week, I shared a poem I helped a group of students write, based on the Most Boring Object Ever.

This week, we did it again – with different students and completely different MBOE!

Yesterday I visited the students at Sant Bani School in Sanbornton, New Hampshire and discussed writing, picture book creation, and poetry – starting the day off with a poetry workshop for the 6-8 grades.

As I did at the previous school, I shared various forms and styles of poetry and explained why I love the compact, intense nature of the genre. I then worked with students to brainstorm ideas around something I like to call the MBOE: Most Boring Object Ever.

The way I figure it, if you can write a poem about a chewed-up pencil or a rusted paperclip, you can write a poem about nearly anything – and that’s what we did on Thursday with a used hair tie.

The small, black, circular hair tie was perfect because it’s so plain and simple, it lent itself to all sorts of imaginative descriptions and possibilities. I asked students to “re-name it”, wondering what else this seemingly simple object could possibly be.

Students suggested it could be anything from a stretchy weapon to the entrance to a black hole – all great ideas! So I wrote them all down on an easel and then we looked for connections, weeding out the ones that didn’t seem to fit.

Once that was done, piecing together this “Re-Name It” poem, as I call it, wasn’t very hard at all! We came up with one poem – but by simply moving words around, different poems (and images and feelings) emerged:
.

Black Hair Tie

Into the infinite portal:
black hole reflection.
I am the weapon
of universal chaos.

Black hole portal
into infinity, looking glass
of chaos.
I am the universal weapon.

A weapon of chaos:
reflection, never-ending,
in a black hole universe

Another 15-minute poem, complete. It’s amazing how quickly these come together when students start getting into it! (And remember, if you think you might like to have me visit your school – either in person or virtually – please let me know! Details below…)

Speaking of poetry…

^{THIS SUNDAY: I hope you’ll join me, Nancy Tupper Ling, June Cotner, Padma Venkatraman, and many others as we celebrate the official launch of “Bless the Earth” at Peter Reynolds’ bookstore, The Blue Bunny in Dedham, MA from 2-4pm! (Did I mention there will be COOKIES???)}

Speaking of student poetry – Heidi Morhorst is celebrating Earth Day a wee bit early as she shares some wonderful poems by students at today’s Poetry Friday roundup – so head on over to her blog My Juicy Little Universe for all the poetry links and fun! .

.
ALSO: Author Lydia Lukidis stopped by a couple of weeks ago to chat about her new picture book, Dancing through Space – and we have a giveaway!

The link I shared last week was bad, so I’m extending the giveaway by one more week – if you’d like to enter to win a FREE COPY of the book, be sure to check out her interview and leave a comment!

~~ 2024 SCHOOL VISIT dates still available! ~~

I still have a few dates still available for author visits for the 2024 spring semester! If you think your school might be interested in having me visit, check out all the presentations I offer, then email me at Matt (at) MattForrest (dot) com!

I love chatting with elementary and middle school classes about writing: why poetry is fun to read and write, the importance of revision, and how imagination and creativity can lead to fantastic careers! My presentations are tailored to fit the needs of the classes and students’ ages. One day I might be sharing details of how a picture book like Flashlight Night (Astra Young Readers, 2017) was created; the next, I’ll be discussing dinosaur breath or crafting origami sea turtles!

Student presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
How a Child Saved a Book
“Once Upon Another Time”
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
“I Am Today”
“A Beginner’s Guide to Being Human”
“Everybody Counts: Counting to 10 in Twelve Languages”

Adult presentations include:

The Making of a Picture Book
The Journey of an Author
The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
Free Yourself with Free Verse
Tight Language, Loose Narratives: Crafting a Non-Traditional Picture Book

Learn more at MattForrest.com!

=====================================================

Order PERSONALLY-SIGNED copies of my books
from my local independent bookstore!

=====================================================

I’m now on BOOKSHO P!

=====================================================

I’m also very happy to be part of the BOOKROO family!

=====================================================

Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!

Click here to view all my books and to order!

======================================================

Thank you to everyone for your support!

FLASHLIGHT NIGHT:

NY Public Library’s “100 Best Book for Kids 2017” AND “Staff Pick!”
KIRKUS Starred review!
Kansas NEA Reading Circle Recommended Books!
“Best Reads of 2017,” Unleashing Readers
Finalist, 2019 New Hampshire Literary Awards
Positive reviews from Horn Book, School Library Connection, School Library Connection, Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, and Shelf-Awareness!

DON’T ASK A DINOSAUR:

“Rollicking rhyme!” – Booklist
- “A wild romp!” – Parenting NH Magazine
- “Cute…intriguing…4 out of 5 stars” – Tulsa Book Review
- “Rhythmic…funny and informative” – Unleashing Readers

======================================================

Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!