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Children's Books on diversity

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Poetry & Light Verse

Poet and author Norma Minturn Stilwell believes both books remind us that great things can result when we appreciate the talents and abilities of others and that tolerance is what has made us a great nation.

The Wind Reaper

windThe wind reaper gathered up
Some dandelion hair
And bore his silver captive high
Upon the summer air

He chose a very fertile place
To free this precious yield
Where sun and rain their magic work
Upon an open field

The wind reaper will wait a year
His secret to unfold.
How he gathered silver threads
And turned them into gold

A Poet’s Lament

I’m declaring open season
On poems that have no
Rhyme or reason

Spare me all that
Mystery rhetoric
I find it much too esoteric

I’d rather yawn at
The mundane
Than face the challenge
Of arcane

Better humdrum
Than conundrum
Give me trite
Not erudite

Call me bourgeois
Or plebian
I want to know what
I’ve been readin’

feather_pen

A Poet’s Prayer

Thank you Lord for the gift to see
Amid the neon glare
The world reflected back to me
Through a poet’s eyes

Thank you Lord for the gift to hear
Above the ceaseless noise
The quiet voice that speaks so clear
To a poet’s ear

Thank you Lord for the gift to feel
In a cold unfeeling world
Life’s joys and sorrows far more real
To a poet’s heart

Winter at the Jersey Shore

beachIcy winds that chisel to the bone
And carve the beach
As sculptors carve in stone

Hungry waves that chew up
Summer sand
Then spit it out on some
Forgotten strand

Silver moons that bathe
The sea in light
And paint a crystal path
Across the night

Snowbirds can have
All this and more
When they spend winter
At the Jersey shore

Winter Races

In winter the wild stallion waves race across the beach
Tossing their sea spray manes at the sky
Snorting trails of white foam, they thunder past last summer’s finish line
Toward more distant goals
Charging a corral of dunes, they rear back
Then, at last broken, trot on colt’s feet into the pastoral sea

Golfing Tips

golfing_tipsWhen Golfing I do gladly walk
From hole to hole
With slate and chalk

And keeping up a decent score
Is now a pleasure
Not a chore
For if my game is a disgrace
I wet a sponge and just erase

Mother, A Remembrance

She is old now and leans upon a cane
But I remember mother when she played a children’s game
Hide and seek, catch me if you can
Staying just beyond my reach no matter how I ran
Time brings many changes but a memory stays the same
And I remember mother when she played a children’s game

Spring Growing Pains

Spring is our adolescent season
Cocky and self assured one day
Then full of self doubt the next

In her darkest mood she rebels
Against us with tantrums of
Thunder and lightning
Then contritely soothes us with
Rain wet kisses and sunshine smiles

With all the uncertainty of youth
She struggles to mature
To leave us and become a summer

handshakeLearning how to get along and to appreciate those who may be different from us are valuable lessons of childhood. If you are wondering how to teach tolerance or looking for a children’s book on diversity, Making Beautiful Music and the seasonal A Thought for Thanksgiving provide an entertaining way to get the message across.

Making Beautiful Music is about an orchestra whose instruments overcome their differences to work together and make beautiful music for the Presidential Ball. Wrapped up in the classic Thanksgiving story for children, A Thought for Thanksgiving helps children look beyond judgments we may have of those with differences.

instrumentsPoet and author Norma Minturn Stilwell believes both books remind us that great things can result when we appreciate the talents and abilities of others and that tolerance is what has made us a great nation.

Large, colorful illustrations and simple verse make them a good choice for beginning readers or for reading to young children. A Thought for Thanksgiving was illustrated by the late Pamela Bingham, and Making Beautiful Music was illustrated by Tiffany LaGrange.


San Francisco Book Festival Award Winner!

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