Right as Rain by Lindsey Stoddard

"That day, with my nails still full of dirt I swore to myself I'd never bury anything that deep again. But that was ten years ago, when my parents laughed and talked to each other in normal tones. 

When we were a family of four. Before that night."

Change is hard. Don't be sorry.

Be something great while you are still so young.

Counting is what I do when I want to erase my brain ...

The events of 'that night' are presented in this story as alternate and flashback chapters. As a reader you gradually work out something truly terrible has happened 350 days ago and now the family are moving from Vermont to New York City where mum has a new job. Every mention of Rain's brother Guthrie is in the past tense. His room has been shut tight for 350 days. Dad has retreated to the bedroom. 

"His hair is sticking up on one side, his beard is grayer and scruffier and longer than I've ever seen it, and his flannel shirt is off by a button."

Rain has to leave behind her home, her room and her very best friend. She may also have lost the chance to compete as a runner and she is so fast she could have been the winner. 

"One in four. That's the same odds as marriages that survive the death of a child."

Their new home is a tiny apartment and right from the start Rain knows someone else lived there - a girl who was Frankie's best friend. How can there possibly be a way Rain and Frankie can ever be friends. And the new school is huge and loud and:

"Students need to complete twenty-five hours of community service before June eighteenth to be promoted to seventh grade."

The teacher does reduce the requirement to ten hours but this still means Rain has only eighteen days to complete this assignment. Luckily, she does make friends with Frankie and also with a quiet, but very kind girl in her class, named Amelia. Rain and her mum volunteer to make lunches at a local church and this gives Rain a first-hand experience of homelessness. And there is a wonderful neighborhood center near their homes and the three girls go there as volunteers. The owner Ms Dacie is a very special lady who provides safety and kindness for everyone, but her lease is about to expire and there is no money to keep her center open.   

Ms Dacie's place has a large overgrown garden off to the side. Before everything changed Rain's dad was a very keen and very successful gardener. Rain puts these ideas together and she comes up with a wonderful way to involve the community, help her dad (and Mum) and save Ms Dacie's safe space. Meanwhile the class teacher has set a poetry assignment (which made me link this book to Ode to a Nobody). And of course Frankie, Rain and Amelia are competing in the relay at the track meet against kids in Grade eight - the are only in Grade six. 

Right as Rain has very heavy themes but it is all told with a lightness of touch and small moments of sweet humour such as when Rain uses forbidden words (damn, shut-up, and stupid) and when she eats wonderful new Mexican foods in her neighborhood and drinks the world's most delicious hot chocolate. There are also truly special moments of kindness in this story and also emotional intelligence. 

You might also like to read or reread The One and Only Ivan; Bridge to Terabithia and The Crossover (Kwame Alexander) before dipping into Right As Rain as these are the library books that Rain is reading through her first weeks at this new school. 

Poem 4

363 days gone

1 Christmas

4 gardening seasons

3 report cards

55 ski runs

51 Friday family dinners

3 pairs of worn-out sneakers that have run through, run away, run to erase

the length of 130,680 songs that I've counted in my head,

wondering,

if maybe you could just still be there, at the concert

listening.

The number of our memories together between now and the dirt is 

a big who-knows.

But I won't let those sneak off and out.

And if they try, I promise. Promise. I'll say no stay. 

How to Write a Poem by Kwane Alexander and Deanna Nikaido illustrated by Melissa Sweet

 

"Close your eyes, open the window of your mind and climb out, 
like a seedling reaching for tomorrow."

Every word of this book is liquid gold - plan to read this aloud before your group of students begin their writing - poetry or prose.

Kwame says: "A poem is a small but mighty thing. It has the power to reach inside, to teach us, to ignite our imaginations. Now more than ever, children need a surefire way to channel their emotions, build their confidence and discover the world and their place in it. Poetry, with its simplicity, with its accessibility and rhythm, can do all these things instantaneously."

Melissa Sweet says: "This collage art was made with vintage and handmade papers, paint, pencils, printed letterforms, and beach pebbles."

I want to say run into your school library and ask/demand that the Teacher-Librarian buys this book but in reality here in Australia this wonderful book is very expensive. I have friends who work in NSW schools who have such small library budgets - so this book is not one they could ever consider acquiring. I have looked at a range of online and store front sellers and the price of this book varies between $30 and $44. I guess very few school libraries will be able to purchase this book but perhaps you will find it in a local library or you could view the ebook version. 

Marvelously crafted to inspire blooming writers. Kirkus Star review

Here are other books about writing poetry:

This is a poem that heals fish

Daniel finds a poem

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, producer and #1 New York Times bestselling author of 39 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated, the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

Companion volume:

Look for these too all illustrated by Melissa Sweet:

Some Writer!

Carmine a little more red

The Right Word

This is a poem that heals fish by Jean-Pierre Siméon illustrated by Olivier Tallec translated by Claudia Zoe Bedrick

Arthur thinks something is wrong with his fish. Is he bored or is he about to die. Mum suggests the fish needs a poem! But where can Arthur find a poem? And what is a poem? First he looks in the kitchen but all he finds are noodles. He checks out the cleaning supplies but the saggy rag who is always damp and cold reples "no boem 'ere". Perhaps Lolo who works at the bike shop can help. 

"A poem, Arthur, is when you are in love and have the sky in your mouth."

Old Mahmoud is working in his garden watering his rhododendrons. 

"A poem is when you hear the heartbeat of a stone."

His canary Aristophanes says:

"A poem is when words beat their wings. It is a song sung in a cage."

Arthur also asks his grandmother and his grandfather and then he takes all the ideas he has gathered and explains them to his fish. Have you guessed - the words he has gathered form a wonderful poem.

— I’m sorry, Leon, I have not found a poem. All I know is this:

A poem

is when you have the sky in your mouth.

It is hot like fresh bread,

when you eat it,

a little is always left over.

A poem

is when you hear

the heartbeat of a stone,

when words beat their wings.

It is a song sung in a cage.

A poem

is words turned upside down

and suddenly!

the world is new.

Imaginative fauvist illustrations capture the fanciful, free mood of the text as well as the essence of a poem, which indeed can “turn words around, upside down, and—suddenly!—the world is new.” An enchantingly abstract invitation to ponder poetry. Kirkus

Every once in a while, you stumble upon something so lovely, so unpretentiously beautiful and quietly profound, that you feel like the lungs of your soul have been pumped with a mighty gasp of Alpine air. The Marginalian

Olivier Tallec’s work has been called “sensitive”, “stunning”, “breathtaking”, and “beautiful.” Tallec was born in Brittany, France, in 1970. After graduating from the École Supérieure D’arts Graphiques in Paris, he worked in advertising as a graphic designer, after which he devoted himself to illustration. Since then he has illustrated more than sixty books ... Enchanted Lion

Here are some companion reads:

Daniel finds a Poem (check out the comment by the author!)

Stanza

This is a poem that heals fish was published in English in 2007. I wonder how it came to be in my local book store? Very kindly the shop owner gifted this book to me. Very luckily, for you, I see it is still in print. But I am so sad to report my local independent bookshop has decided to close at the end of June. The wonderful owner has been a fabulous source of advance reader copies of books and also a terrific reading companion. I will miss their store, their books and most especially those early copies of books that are about to be released. 

Researching the topic of picture books that feature young poets learning to write poetry I found these and so I have added them to my enormous "to read" list:

Kirkus Star review (Sadly here in Australia this book costs over AUS$40)