Scrap of rhyme

I found a scrap of rhyme
Upon the dusty floor
On forlorn wooden pine
I thought more to explore.
It seemed to take a nap
Though I must be unkind
I gave the scrap a tap
The dust blew in my mind
I felt that rhyme scrap burn
From top of head to toes
My mind a flight a tern
The rhyming turn of prose.
I found a scrap of rhyme
Upon the dusty floor
How could it be a crime
I opened up the door

Denis Streeter 9/17/10

More on L.M. Boston

This is one trip I have to make to England. It is to the Manor at Hemingford Grey...better known to readers as Green Knowe. Diana Boston, the wife of the late Peter Boston, who illustrated his mother's books, will lead tours by appointment only. Check out this website for more information...

http://greenknowe.co.uk/

L.M. Boston

I have to rave about another children's writer that's really for all ages. Lucy Maria Boston (1892-1990), most famous for her "Green Knowe" books. These are seamlessly woven fantasies where the main character is the property of Green Knowe, about 40 mile north east of London...which the author bought when she was 47 and fell in love with. It has a history going back over 900 years. You can still visit the estate. If anyone wants to know where I get some of my imagination from...look here... I've always felt like a late bloomer, so she is especially inspiring. Her first book, "The Children of Green Knowe" was published when she was in her early sixties. The quote below is from a different book called "The Guardians of the House" (1974), at age 82, with perfect illustrations from her son Peter Boston...

If all this had been a dream, it was hard to shake
off, and indeed Tom was very much shaken. Fresh air was
what he needed, so he opened a door that gave onto a
balcony, and looked out. He was high up, and below
him was an enclosed garden he had not seen before.
It was closely surrounded and overhung by yew trees,
which gave the air a greenish tinge like sea water. You
could imagine it as a garden under the sea or as an
enlarged rock pool. The yew tree fingers could easily
be imagined as wrackweed waving under the tide, the
shadowed geraniums as sea anemonies opening under
the fresh flow after a dry day. The walls of the house
could be seen as a dry cliff and the birds passing
beneath him as fishes. Cool, after the steamy jungle.

page 26

I recommend starting with her first book, "The Children of Green Knowe"(1954). You'll soon be hooked under the sea garden of her spell.

Kelp in our sea

Shadowing kelp skins under onions of water
The porpoise snout the way through caravaned debris
Orchestraing tombstones of laughter while the rest were afraid
Oceaning waters of ourselves
The rest were tumbling dice
Somewhere between chance and faith
And darwinian survival
Oceaning ourselves to others
Our ways of difference seen afresh
Kelp in our sea, drifting, seeing
Possibilities, potential made real
Reaching beyond our grasp
Within the reach of others.

Denis Streeter 9/14/10

Untitled

Stung by a dust jacket
Don't judge a book by its cover
If it isn't worth the read.
Once you start you have to finish
No matter how long it takes
Those are the rules
Stung by a dust jacket


Denis Streeter & Scott LaRose

Geraldine McCaughrean

I want to highly recommend "The White Darkness" by Geraldine McCaughrean. I found a sale table paperback copy at the University Book Store. It is the first book of hers I have read...and she's been writing children's books for years. I wish I had discovered her sooner. This book is for all ages. The main character is a 15 year old girl who has fallen in love with the long dead Antarctic explorer Titus. She carries on conversations with Titus, which I know sounds really weird and mentally unstable, but it's incredibly intriguing and oddly humorous. When she goes to the Antarctica with her genius uncle, a total mystery himself, she find herself depending on Titus more and more for her survival. Full of surprises, beautiful descriptive writing of Antarctica and powerfully imaginative...storytelling doesn't get any better. I'll probably end up spending big money for a signed 1st edition British copy of this book. I've already loaned out my sale paperback copy.

I also highly recommend her book "The Death Defying Pepper Roux"(2009). This is a completely different type of book...a darkly humorous adventure by an excellent storyteller. Here's the first paragraph...

On the morning of his fourteenth birthday Pepper had been
awake for fully two minutes before realizing it was the day he
must die. His heart cannoned like a billiard ball off some soft
green wall of his innards. This had to be the day everyone had
been waiting for--and he was terrified he would disappoint
them, make a poor showing, let people down.

I checked out this book from the library and loved it so much, I ordered a signed British first edition online for big bucks. Trust me...I'm stingy when it comes to parting with my money...but oh my...what a book!

William Mayne

This is probably the first of many posts I'll write on William Mayne. Who is William Mayne? He's probably the best writer of books about children since 1953...when his first book was published...and has averaged about 2 books a year until his death in 2010...writing well over 100 chidren's books! He never compromised his writing style to fit some mold. He wrote because he had to write...it was his gift...his particularly genius. After having read about 20-30 of his books...and I intend to read them all...I'd say his greatest gift was to let his writing and plots unwind using all his senses so that you are experiencing them with the same unique freshness of the child and their landscape...a kind of poetry. The sad thing about his books is I think very few children will appreciate them today. He does not tell you what is happening, he lets you discover it...which can be rather difficult. Perhaps his best audience today would be poets, artists, and book critics. Here is the opening paragraph from his book "A Swarm in May" (1955):

John Owen stood in a narrow street full of narrow
shadows: they stood in the corners of every beamed and
overhanging house-front. There was light and dark up to
the saw-like stepped edge of each tiled gable, and beyond
that a blue night sky with very small shivering stars.

I've been gradually ordering his books online...and was thrilled when one arrived today! Few of his books are available in the library. Now his books are unpopular...no publisher would touch him. He was convicted of 11 counts of sexual abuse to young girls in 2006, sentenced to 2-1/2 years in jail at age 78, and put on the sex offender list for life. He was a bachelor nearly his whole life, having married briefly, and preferred the company of children over adults. I was shocked to hear of this dual life, but his writing is excellent. You have to keep things separated...there's his life and there's his writing. Try reading his "Hob and the Goblins"...excellent fantasy. I also recommend "Low Tide", "Drift", and "Antar and the Eagles"...all available at libraries. Most of all, pick up anything of his that catches your interest. You may find yourself addicted to his writing style, in spite of his personal history, and buying book after book online. They're cheap! More later on William Mayne...the best children's writer you've never heard of.


Here's another favorite William Mayne quote


http://denisianpress.blogspot.com/2011/09/sly-humor.html