to be an aunt

~ jama ~ 30 Comments

“Aunts hold a special place in our hearts, offering a safe haven filled with love and understanding.” ~ Jane Austen (Mansfield Park, 1814)

Don’t you love it when one good thing leads to another?

Recently when I was checking for more Brown Bear Wood books ( you may remember when I reviewed the interactive poetry picture books, If You Go Down to the Woods Today (2021) and Grand Old Oak and the Birthday Ball (2024)), I noticed that Rachel Piercey, who wrote the poems for both books, had also co-edited The Emma Press Anthology of Aunts (2017).

Well, of course I couldn’t resist — being an aunt myself and having been blessed with 15 aunts (5 still living). What could be better than an entire book of poems about aunts with the chance to explore the very essence of “auntness”? 🙂

Happy to share a sample poem from this delightful collection today.

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“Four Nyonyas-Morning Chat” by Maisarah Loo (oil on canvas, 2016).
A CUDDLE OF AUNTS
by Winifred Mok

On grandma's birthday my aunts gather.
Flown in across continents, they feast
like bears on the love of their children,
grandchildren, hungry for smiles, cuddles,
time. Four mothers, four hearts, beating
around the bush, gossiping geese,
over-excited chickens at feeding time.

The eldest disembarks first at her steady pace,
still early as restaurant staff assemble.
She is calm, strong, orderly
as she patiently waits in quiet contentment.
Does the routine cutlery-clean
(just in case). A sunning tortoise
with hexagonal patterns on her frock.

Then comes the traveller, easily-bored,
frequent-flyer, cookie-bringer, bringing
stories and photos and new works of art
from dropped-off-picked-up-again hobbies.
She buzzes about the recent past, muses
over plans for the near future; a beehive of Busy.
Shares cookies, pours tea. More tea? More tea?

You know Sister Three has landed
as volumed voices start to chatter, arms
flailing like wings of a blue scrub-jay,
whose brain works over-overtime. Over-
enthusiastic, overwrought, over-worried.
Jet-lagged, energetic, she brings with her bags
of emotion. She leaves the bags aside.

The youngest one, cat-lady, shop-a-holic
bargain-hunter, carries shiny new things in her
claws. Late for obvious reasons. Smiles slyly,
haggles like a hyena, laughs the loudest,
unapologetic, unashamed. They laugh at her,
with her, grandma laughs too, mothers, daughters,
sisters; reinvigorated, reassembled, reunited.

~ from The Emma Press Anthology of Aunts, edited by Rachel Piercey and Emma Wright (2017).

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nine cool things on a tuesday

~ jama ~ 9 Comments

“March brings breezes loud and shrill, stirs the dancing daffodil.”
― Sara Coleridge

1. Happy March! We’re welcoming this new month anticipating spring (finally!) with some lovely art by UK printmaker, painter, illustrator and maker Sarah Young. How about a picnic in the park?

Based in Brighton, England, Sarah grew up making, writing and illustrating her own books. She started out with pavement drawing before setting up a traveling puppet theatre. She then taught herself relief printmaking and collagraphy before learning screen printing from Jane Sampson at Ink Spot Press.

As a commissioned illustrator, Sarah has worked on various editorial projects and published a book called Greek Myths written by Ann Turnbull (2010).

Love the series of wood cut illustrations she did for Gardens Illustrated magazine with their subdued colors and inventive compositions.

Sarah gets extra points for her alphabet series:

She also sells 100% cotton tea towel kits. These can be used simply as towels or cut out, sewn and stuffed via easy to follow printed instructions.

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“The Hands of Trees” by Barbara Kingsolver

~ jama ~ 32 Comments
photo by Providence Doucet.
THE HANDS OF TREES
by Barbara Kingsolver

Maple is wide open, splay-fingered
in joy -- jazz hands. Or the friendly gesture,
making a point politely. As if Canadian.

Catalpa, a churchful of Southern Baptist ladies
in summer dresses. Devoutly moist, mid-sermon,
held in suspense as Jesus rounds up his
rascal lambs: the steady motion of all those fans.

Aspen, notorious for the palsy,
To be fair, the air is thin up there
in the Rockies. And sometimes, wolves.

Sassafras wears mittens knitted by
a harebrained aunt: sometimes with an extra
thumb, sometimes none whatsoever.

Fig leaves, cupped as if to conceal -- as
everyone and his brother knows by now --
the shy parts of Eve. Less delicate than you
might think: sturdily veined, made for the job.

Redbud, Southern belle -- all heart,
no backbone -- thrusts hers forward, dangling
limp from the wrist. Waiting to be kissed.

Mimosa, anyone can see: how they tremble with thanks
for a star that concedes to work for the day shift;
how they reach for light's full octave,
recoil from a firm handshake,
long to stroke the velvet nap of night, but with dusk's
owl eyes blinking open, press closed in prayer.

~ from How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons), published by HarperCollins (2020).
Mimosa via Nagwa.
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[cheesy review + giveaway] Pizzasaurus by Tammi Sauer and Kyle Beckett

~ jama ~ 17 Comments

Mmmmmmmm! What’s that enticing aroma wafting through the kitchen? Could it be tangy tomato sauce bub bub bubbling with melty mozzarella, peppers and mushrooms atop a crispy-chewy crust?

Holy prehistoric pepperoni! It’s time to don your brontosaurian bibs for a pizza party!

Today is official pub day for Pizzasaurus (Doubleday BFYR, 2026), craftily cooked up by fave picture book queen Tammi Sauer and illustrated in eye-poppin’ color by Kyle Beckett. Perfect for munchkins craving a little Mesozoic meal, this tasty tale features a ravenous dinosaur who only eats one thing. Any guesses? 😀

Story opens with the affable narrator complimenting us on our reptilian chops. Yes, we’re familiar with the stars of dino world: T-Rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops. Maybe even Apatosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and “the rather adorable Velociraptor.”

Then we’re introduced to another dino “who really delivers”: Pizzasaurus! And he’s positively obsessed: he sings, dreams, and even paints about pizza (every canvas a masterpizza).

No two ways about it — Pizzasaurus is “supremely special.” Though the other dinos tout their own uniqueness (spikes, long necks, horns), Pizzasaurus is in a class of his own. Rather than a swamp or lagoon, he lives in a hut, and not just any hut, but a “pizza paradise.” Let’s just say it’s the cheesiest!

What’s more, unlike the other dinos, who stomp and roar and practice scary faces, Pizzasaurus makes, bakes, and orders “leaning towers of pizza.” Uh-oh. Wait a minute. Now Pizzasaurus seems to have disappeared. The other dinos are bewildered as they spot a giant haze in the sky. A fire? Erupting volcano? Nope.

It’s Pizzasaurus with a big stack of steaming hot, drippy pizza. What does he love most about pizza? Any guesses? 🙂

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[review + giveaway] Poems for Every Season by Bette Westera and Henriette Boerendans

~ jama ~ 16 Comments

What better way to mark the passage of time than by celebrating the unique natural wonders each season has to offer?

Colorful butterflies emerging from their homespun cocoons in Spring, a warbler and chirpy finches bathing in a stream on a hot summer’s day, squirrels and badgers “gathering growing sheltering” in Fall, geese grazing in a wintry meadow. These and other beautifully rendered observations are featured in Poems for Every Season: A Year of Haiku, Sonnets, and More by Bette Westera and Henriette Boerendans (Eerdmans BFYR, 2026).

Lovely endpapers signal something special is on the way.

Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer, the sixteen poems representing thirteen different poetic forms invite us to engage our senses, reflect, and renew our appreciation for the enchanting marvels in forest, meadow and stream. Boerendans’s exquisite woodcuts showcase Westera’s lyrical verses to perfection with their muted colors, varied textures and appealing compositions.

Beginning with Spring, the poetic calendar is divided into four sections with an evocative haiku opening each season followed by a poem for each month. Presented in beautiful double page spreads depicting the seasonal changes of the same landscape, the haiku capture fleeting moments in view of trees, land, and sky.

SPRING

Pale petals drift down
through the silky springtime sky
to tickle the clay
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