January is cold and it is time for Gooney Bird Greene to bring out her special brain-warming hat. Mrs. Pidgeon is teaching the class about poetry and Gooney Bird needs to stimulate her brain by keeping it warm. The students experiment with haikus, couplets and limericks. Along the way, the class discovers that writing poetry is hard work and requires creative thinking. When the students receive some terrible news concerning Mrs. Pidgeon, Gooney Bird organizes the class to write a poem that i...

Everyone makes lists of numerous types (e.g., names of friends to invite to a birthday party, activities for a summer vacation). This collection of list poems celebrates school. Some of the poems are a simple list of words, while others are more descriptive and complex. Students should be inspired to jot down what they notice around them and create their own list poems.

Anne-Marie sits in her favourite tree with her sketch book and watches the world that surrounds her. As she records her observations of the neighbourhood, she thinks about her father who left two years ago. Mike is Anne-Marie's mother's partner and she feels he is trying to take her father's place in the home. Her identical twin sister, Mary Anne, sees things differently. Anne-Marie takes the reader on a one-year journey as she struggles with the changes taking place within her family. The p...

Lucy, Henry, Evie, Russell and May are in the fourth grade. Every school day feels the same until one day a writer comes to class. Ms. Mirabel describes to the students that writing allows her to participate - to find out what is going to happen. She tells the students that they each have a story to tell, whether it is a poem, a character, a place or a moment in time. As they reflect daily on what Ms. Mirabel teaches about the writing process, Lucy, Henry, Evie, Russell and May each learn t...