Ah, yes, there is ONE MORE book I need to tell you about!
Last week, I returned from my summer blogging hiatus to share news about my new board book, Tractor Dance (Susan Schadt Press,) which is available for pre-orders now - and I also shared the news about everything else going on this year:
In April Bless the Earth (Convergent/Penguin, 2024) was published, Oct. 1 I'll have a poem in Charles Waters' and Irene Latham's new children's poetry anthology The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets (Carolrhoda Books, 2024), and in December there will be TWO books: Schoolapalooza: A Silly Symphony of Schooltime Rhymes (Moonshower, 2024), edited by my friend Ryan G. Van Cleave, and David Harrison and Tim Rasinski's 40 Poems for 40 Weeks from Rutledge.
But there's ANOTHER book I'm absolutely super-excited about, and that is...
...my very OWN poetry anthology!
I've been proud to be a contributor to lots of anthologies like the ones mentioned above as well as those edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins and J. Patrick Lewis. But publishing my very own anthology, which includes so many friends and fellow writers, is a literal dream-come-true.
From Gouldian finches to Colombia's Caño Cristales, from your kitchen window sill to the constellation Orion, rainbows are everywhere, and A Universe of Rainbows (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2025) contains poems about them all!
When I first began putting this project together back in the spring of 2019 (yes, this business moves slowly), I wanted the anthology to be a veritable "Who's Who" of award-winning children's poets - and the book's very first reviewer, Betsy Bird, agreed!
On her Fuse 8 blog at School Library Journal, Betsy praised A Universe of Rainbows as a "good science book as well as poetry book...and best of all it has a beautiful global theme and lots of lovely backmatter."
Most children's writers will tell you, a positive review from Betsy is something special, and I'm thrilled that she liked it as much as she did. (I'm also happy to learn that I apparently wrote a poem about one of her favorite animals, the peacock mantis shrimp!)
So today I thought I'd share a short poem that didn't make it into the book, since I can't share any of the book's poems quite yet. This was a poem that came about too late to be included; I learned about iridescent polar stratospheric clouds after the manuscript had been completed and submitted to my editor, and I really didn't want to upend the process by squeezing in too many more subjects.
Besides, I'd already written a poem about sun dogs (aka, perhelia), which are similar; there were already 22 poems in the book; and I'd just written a last-minute poem about rainbow scarabs - so I feared my editor might jump on the next flight to New Hampshire and personally slap me if I added something else!
Rainbow Clouds
On arctic nights, we ebb and flow
higher than the cirrus go;
bending light, begin to glow,
and in the sky – oh!
..........What a show!
- © 2024 Matt F. Esenwine, all rights reserved
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Keep in mind, that's just a 30-minute rough draft - because I knew it wasn't going anywhere, ha! But I hope you like it, and that it gives you a slight taste of what to expect from this book. Irene Latham, one of the contributors to the book, is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup today at Live Your Poem, celebrating HER new anthology (in which I'm proud to find myself), The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets, which I told you about last week!
~~ 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!
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Arriving Oct. 8, 2024!
Pre-orders are available - just click the cover!
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I'm now on BOOKSHOP!
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I'm also very happy to be part of the BOOKROO family!
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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?)
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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!
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