I’m going to be posting a few poems from our book about Extraordinary Women and Girls, Reaching the Stars (Macmillan), with Jan Dean (@glitterpoems) and Michaela Morgan (@MichaelamorganM).
International Women’s Day is TODAY!
Tag: Michaela Morgan
National Poetry Day 2020 – Bright Spark by Michaela Morgan
This video was filmed for National Poetry Day 2015 – but is all about VISION as well as light. Bright Spark, written by Michaela Morgan and performed by Eleanor Trapp in John Lewis’ lighting department – thanks to John Lewis, Cribbs Causeway, Bristol!
National Poetry Week Truth Poem by Michaela Morgan – Blake’s Tyger Revisited
Michaela Morgan has had over 140 titles published including poetry, picture books, junior novels and non-fiction. She is a regular visitor to schools. Her 2016 poetry book Wonderland: Alice in Poetry, illustrations by Tenniel, was shortlisted for the prestigious CLiPPA Award for poetry and her 2017 collection Reaching the Stars: Poems About Extraordinary Women and Girls co-authored with Jan Dean and Liz Brownlee won the North Somerset Teachers’ Book Award 2017. Her book How To Teach Poetry: Writing Workshops, stresses the importance of poetry across the curriculum.
Here she is with her poem Blake’s Tyger – Revisited.
#AtoZChallenge; M is for Michaela Morgan
And who else could it be, with such a perfect name other than award-winning poet Michaela Morgan? Michaela has had over 140 titles published including poetry, picture books, junior novels and non-fiction. She is a regular visitor to schools. Her 2016 poetry book Wonderland: Alice in Poetry, illustrations by Tenniel, was shortlisted for the prestigious CLiPPA Award for poetry and her 2017 collection Reaching the Stars: Poems About Extraordinary Women and Girls co-authored with Jan Dean and Liz Brownlee won the North Somerset Teachers’ Book Award 2017. Her book How To Teach Poetry: Writing Workshops, stresses the importance of poetry across the curriculum.
Here is the poem Michaela has chosen, from Reaching the Stars.
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Tinker… Tailor
I could be a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, a vet.
I could be a mother, an artist, or the pilot of a jet.
I could be the one who speaks up for a revolution
Or a steady force for status, calm, order, institution.
I could be a strutting model or a structural engineer
Or I could march in uniform to fight foe, or fire, or fear.
I could be a juggler… a jeweller…
What could be my scene?
Whatever it is, I choose to be
A fully fledged human being.
© Michaela Morgan
If you would like to blog hop to another AtoZ Challenge please follow this link.
Children’s Poets’ Climate Change blog: Be the Change
Liz’s Blog: Liz Brownlee Poet
Liz’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lizpoet
KidsPoets4Climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/poets4climate
Children’s Poetry Summit Twitter: https://twitter.com/kidspoetsummit
M is for Children’s Poet and Author Michaela Morgan, #AtoZChallenge #ZtoA
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Michaela Morgan
Michaela has had over 140 titles published including poetry, picture books, junior novels and non-fiction. She is a regular visitor to schools, has been shortlisted for the BBC Blue Peter Award (twice), and has won a UKRA (now UKLA) award, and many others. Her 2016 poetry book Wonderland: Alice in Poetry, illustrations by Tenniel, was shortlisted for the prestigious CLiPPA Award for poetry and her 2017 collection Reaching the Stars: Poems About Extraordinary Women and Girls co-authored with Jan Dean and Liz Brownlee has just won the North Somerset Teachers’ Award. She is about to release a newly updated and extended third edition of How To Teach Poetry: Writing Workshops, in which she stresses the importance of poetry across the curriculum.
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Michaela is great fun – here is one of her great more serious poems from Reaching the Stars:
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Malala
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A girl with a book.
A girl with a book.
That’s what has scared them –
A girl, with a book.
They get onto the bus.
They call out my name.
They aim. And they fire.
A shot to the brain.
Because a girl with a book,
A girl with a voice,
A girl with a brain,
A girl with a choice,
A girl with a plan
To have rights, like a man.
That’s what they’re scared of
One girl, with a book.
A girl who has words.
A girl with a pen.
A girl to be heard
With support of her friends
Who want to live free –
That’s what they fear
a girl just like me.
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© Michaela Morgan
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You can hear more about children’s poets and poetry, if you follow The Children’s Poetry Summit, @kidspoetsummit on Twitter
Happy #WorldPoetryDay! Celebrating with the mini-film, Poets are Everywhere!
Happy World Poetry Day!
To celebrate, here is a video of Poets are Everywhere, featuring poets Liz Brownlee, the late and wonderful Gerard Benson, Catherine Benson, Jane Clarke, Sue Hardy-Dawson, Andrea Shavick, Roger Stevens, and Philip Waddell. Written by the poets, with extra verses by Jan Dean, Michaela Morgan and Graham Denton. Filmed on location in Bristol, thanks to Blackwell’s Bookshop and Bristol City Museum.
Poem for #InternationalWomensDay ‘Girls of the Week’ by Michaela Morgan
Girls of the Week
Monday’s girl stands up proud.
Tuesday’s girl speaks clear and loud.
Wednesday’s girl likes to dream and ponder.
Thursday’s girl loves to wander.
Friday’s child can be slow – or speedy.
Saturday’s child will help the needy.
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
is as good as the rest in every way.
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© Michaela Morgan
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From Reaching the Stars, Poems about Extraordinary Women and Girls, by Liz Brownlee, Jan Dean and Michaela Morgan, Macmillan.
Poem for #InternationalWomensDay – The Battle of the Sexes
Battle of the Sexes
Bobby Riggs, a 1939 tennis champion, unwisely asserted that the female tennis game was inferior and that a top female player could not beat him. In 1973, Billie Jean King, who fought constantly for recognition and equality for women in sport, accepted his challenge, determined to beat him. She felt it would set the progress of women back fifty years if she lost and affect all women’s self-esteem. In front of a worldwide television audience of almost fifty million, she beat him easily. The match was called ‘The Battle of the Sexes’.
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Bobby Riggs, tennis champ,
said a woman couldn’t
beat a man . . .
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Billie Jean King, tennis champ,
in three straight sets, showed
a woman can.
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© Liz Brownlee
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From Reaching the Stars, Poems about Extraordinary Women and Girls, by Liz Brownlee, Jan Dean and Michaela Morgan, Macmillan.
Poetry Book for #InternationalWomensDay!
This is the one I’d recommend (unsurprisingly!). It was written by me, Jan Dean, and Michaela Morgan to chime with the 100th anniversaries of the work by suffragists from every walk of life.
Here’s the review in Lovereading4kids:
New poems by three of our brightest and liveliest poets are gathered together in this anthology which celebrates women and girls, lots of them. The lives of the really famous – Malala, Frida Kahlo, Amy Johnson, Hillary Rodham Clinton – are discussed, the roles of women in fairy tales debated, and the achievements of women whose names we’ll never learn acknowledged too. The poem styles are as varied as the book’s subjects, and there are poems to make you laugh, to make you angry, to make you think. It’s a sparkling collection, inspiring and empowering. Buy copies for all the young people in your life. ~ Andrea Reece
Since then it has won the North Somerset Teachers’ Book Awards for Poetry.
#Suffragette100 Reaching the Stars, Poems about Extraordinary Women and Girls
Poems from the collection by Michaela Morgan and Liz Brownlee.
Today marks the 100th anniversary of SOME women getting the right to vote in the UK. Although things are much improved, amazingly, the struggle for equality (notably, and recently in the press, wage equality) is still going on.
Written to mark the suffragette anniversaries in the past year and this, Reaching the Stars, Poems about Extraordinary Women and Girls has proved extremely popular, particularly with teachers, in fact it recently won the N. Somerset Teachers’ Book Awards for poetry.
It celebrates the lives of women through history who have made a difference to humanity in a myriad of ways – not just those women we have all heard of (From Boudica, through Anne Bonny the pirate, to Frida Khalo, Marie Curie, and Helen Keller to Malala Yousafzai and Hilary Clinton) but those that are much less known, or overlooked, or written out of history, or who will never be known… such as the ‘Unknown Worriers’, who kept the home fires burning. It also includes poems about feminism, and some modern young women who have made a difference in their communities.
Of course, there are a poems about the suffragettes – but, perhaps not surprisingly, many of women in the book (whilst they weren’t and were fighting the system to become doctors, scientists, fashion-reformers) also supported women’s suffrage.
Each poem is proceeded by a short biography of the person in the poem.
It seems the right day for sharing part of Jan Dean’s poem, Suffragette.
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Part of ‘Suffragette’
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I want to make my own choice.
I need to use my own voice
I won’t be silent, won’t ignore important things –
the world has queens as well as kings.
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And so I march, protest and claim my right
to take part in my country’s life.
I want what’s fair – to have my say
on who makes laws and who holds sway.
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© Jan Dean
Hatman (aka Andy Seed) Book Reviewer, Reviews Reaching the Stars
Slightly Late Halloween Video – Michaela Morgan Reads Her Poem Elm Street Dinner
Halloween was a little busy for me (it’s my birthday and I fell over and hurt my leg, all better now thank you) and I forgot to post this – but it’s never too late!
Michaela and her poem, Elm Street Dinner:
North Somerset Teachers’ Book Award Poetry Winner
There are few poetry awards for children’s poetry – but the Carnegie has some nominations this year, which is fabulous; Joe Coelho for Overheard in a Tower Block, illustrated by Kate Milner (Otter-Barry Books), Michael Rosen for What is Poetry, illustrated by Jill Calder (Walker Books), and Kate Wakeling for Moon Juice, illustrated by Elīna Braslina (The Emma Press).
The main one is the CLPE, or the CLiPPA (The Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award), which is the only National award in the UK for published children’s poetry.
Winning a poetry award as you can imagine is something that happens very rarely and when it does, as you can imagine, children’s poets jump for joy.
So when Reaching the Stars, Poems about Extraordinary Women and Girls, by Liz Brownlee, Jan Dean and Michaela Morgan, cover illustrated by Steph Says Hello (Macmillan), won the North Somerset Teachers’ Book Awards for poetry this year, one of the people dancing was me.
North Somerset teachers love it, and are using it a lot, which means that teachers everywhere probably do – and that means a lot to us, as teachers really know what pupils like and want and need. We are thrilled. *Jumps for joy*
Premier League Writing Stars – New Poetry Competition
Teachers, educators, parents, opportunity for your schools and young people!
The National Literacy Trust have launched a new competition and initiative as part of their Premier League Reading Stars campaign – called Premier League Writing Stars.
Former professional footballer Frank Lampard OBE, Premier League player and lyricist Yannick Bolasie, Children’s Laureate Lauren Child and the young people’s laureate for London, Caleb Femi, have teamed up with the Premier League to help launch the poetry competition, for children aged 5-11.
The competition asks school children to write around the theme of resilience; what does it mean to you to try and try again? Entries can be any form of poetic writing including a rap or lyrics. Teachers and parents can register or nominate their child’s school to take part at PLPrimaryStars.com.
The first 1,000 schools that enter the competition will receive a fabulous bespoke ‘Book Bag’ – full of books, including What is Poetry (Walker) by Michael Rosen and Jill Calder and Reaching the Stars (Macmillan) by Jan Dean, Michaela Morgan and me, Liz Brownlee.
So quick, get going and reply! Click here for the website and more information.
National Poetry Day Release List of Poetry Books to Inspire Children!
.Poetry is booming – and in the case of poetry for children, it should be – Pie Corbett‘s article, below, explains just why!
Here is the entire list of poetry being promoted in the run up to National Poetry Day by the Forward Arts Foundation -congratulations to the children’s poets included!
Jelly Boots, Smelly Boots Rosen/Tazzyman, Bloomsbury children’s:
Reaching the Stars Brownlee/Dean/Morgan, Macmillan:
It’s Not My Fault Stevens/Withrow, Bloomsbury Children’s:
The World’s Greatest Space Cadet James Carter, Bloomsbury Children’s:
Little Lemur Laughing Joshua Seigal, Bloomsbury Children’s:
Overheard in a Tower Block Joseph Coelho, Otter-Barry Books:
A Poem for Every Day of the Year Ed. Allie Esiri, Macmillan:
The Noisy Classroom Ieva Flamingo, The Emma Press:
Moonrise Sarah Crossan, Bloomsbury:
Five Nonsense Poems Candlestick Press:
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Poetry Roundabout 