Month: April 2017

Children's picture book

Red

jeanninegerkman

The other day I taught a poetry class at the Young Writer’s Club at the Portola Valley Library. I asked the students to pick a color and describe it with all of their senses. These were children ranging from first grade to fifth grade and they came up with amazing poems. One did an acrostic, another described blue in terms of a velvety dress, another described the taste of green as ‘rainwater’, another picked smooth stones and water as her metaphors. Just delicious! Here’s what I came up with for the color “red”…

Red

Luscious lips lick candy apple

Crunchy, crispy, lip-smacking

Cinnamon, gumdrops, tomato juice

Smooth, silky, sticky, hot

Strawberries in sunshine

Chili peppers in salsa

Red

Children's picture book

Armadillos Amble by Jeannine Gerkman

jeanninegerkman

My upcoming book has twenty-six two-word sentences from A to Z in the form of a rhyming poem. Each sentence is an animal doing an action matching its letter. At the bottom of each page is a description of the action (verb) and a fun fact about the animal.

I’m doing the illustrations myself using Book Creator on my I-Pad.

For example, under “Armadillos amble’, the page reads: “To walk slowly. Armadillos don’t see very well. They wander around and when an armadillo finds food (like ants in an anthill), he uses his long sticky tongue to chow down.”

Armadillos amble. Bears browse. Camels cuddle. Donkeys drowse.

Elephants eat. Foxes flop. Giraffes glide. Horseflies hop.

Ibex itches. Jaguars jump. Kangaroo kicks. Lemurs lump.

Monkeys mimic. Nenes nod. Owls ogle. Puppies plod.

Quails quiver. Rhinos relax. Snails slither. Tiger tracks.

Uriel ungulates. Viper vexes. Whale whooshes. Exmoor exits.

Yaks yawn. Zebras zag.

Book Reviews

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman and Henning Koch

jeanninegerkman

This isn’t a picture book, but it was SO delightful, I just had to share. The heroine of the story is an 7 year old whose fiercest friend is her crazy grandmother who has created an entire world with her bedtime stories. It made me laugh so hard, my sides hurt. There is a similar feel as “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee – young children trying to make sense of a difficult world. It completely drew me in, I didn’t stop reading until I reached the end. It is a very satisfying book.