Illustration by Patrice Barton from I Pledge Allegiance
Bombarded as we also are during this COVID Pandemic by ads and sales and distractions, how do we create opportunities to reflect on our specific work in this world? Investing in our deepest work day by day, we will feel most ALIVE. What is your deepest work?
Pat
Pat’s book Water Rolls, Water Rises/El agua rueda, el agua sube is now available in paperback! the book received many positive reviews and was a Charlotte Zolotow Award Honor book for 2015.
"Evocative watercolor images and graceful short poems in Spanish and English celebrate water in all its forms and around the world…A lovely bilingual addition to the ‘sense of wonder’ shelf."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"In this bilingual book, Mora uses her travels around the world to talk about water in unique ways, while creating varied and compelling imagery…Younger readers will enjoy the calmness of the words, while older readers will want to imitate the author’s style and try their own hand at descriptive writing."—School Library Journal
"Fourteen three-line verses, in English and Spanish, celebrate water in its many forms, from frost and fog to waves and waterfalls. Each verse is accompanied by a majestic double-page-spread painting from a specific place in the world…the poems speak to the wonders of water everywhere…Mora skillfully uses alliteration and assonance in the English versions of the poems…"—Horn Book
My first book, Chants, was published in 1984 by Arte Público Press at the University of Houston. I was an administrator at the University of Texas at El Paso when my first copy arrived. Thanks to my mom, I’d grown up loving books, libraries, and reading in the desert city of El Paso. How happy it made me to hold that little book Chants with my name on it.
Since then, I’ve published seven books of poetry for adults and young adults and three books of nonfiction, one a family memoir, House of Houses. A mom and grandmom, I’ve also had the pleasure of publishing many books for children.
How does a book evolve?
Recently, I’ve had an idea for a novella I’d like to try as I wait hopefully for editors to smile on some of my pending manuscripts. I’m a plant person, so as I putter inside and out, I’m listening to the main character of the novella. I know what she does–her work–but I’m listening for a signature musical phrase, her theme, to accompany me/us on our verbal journey.
Pat
Hi Girls and Boys,
This is a strange time in our country, isn’t it? Because of the pandemic, we wear masks even when we’re with our friends. We wash our hands more and practice social distancing. We don’t get too close to people except the family we live with.
Scientists are working to create a vaccine to protect all of us from the Covid virus. Once we have that vaccine, that OUCH, like the OUCH from our flu shot every year, will mean we can enjoy our usual life and run and play without masks.
I have been busy with my desert garden, Face-timing with our granddaughter and chatting with family on the phone. I’ve been writing new books and working so that girls and boys all over the country enjoy Children’s Day, Book Day–every day. Do you do that? I read every day.
Next April 30th, Children’s Day, Book Day will be 25 years old. Wow!
How are you going to celebrate at your home, school and library? Maybe, you’ll make your own book.
Your reading friend,
Pat Mora
Our June monsoon finally arrived in Santa Fe last night. Thunder, lightning, rain, rain, rain. A great show! The desert danced.
Pat
Illustration by Daniel Lechon from The Desert is My Mother/El desierto es mi madre
