Message
In a writing workshop I once took, the literary novelist Ethan Canin told us that reading is "about connecting with a sensibility." This resonated with me as a writer because I know that when something I read compels me, it's because I feel like I'm connecting to a certain world view in a piece of writing, a specific take on a timeless theme, a fresh, original voice. A teacher I had in college used to like to say "there are no new plots, just new characters" - and I'd like to take that one step further. New sensibilities. Lucky for all of us writers - each of our sensibilities is truly individual. No one else in the wide world sees the way we see - through our unique experience, through our distinctive eyes.
And that's the heart of point of view.
Not just who's telling the story or how it's being told but the entire world view that an author translates through a piece of writing to a reader.
Different readers connect to different point of views, to different sensibilities. It's why I can read something and think "Wow, this engages me. I'm hooked." And the guy sitting next to me in the café can tell me he couldn't get through it. It's two sensibilities connecting - or not.
So that's why I think Point of View is essential as a writer and a reader.
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 First, sorry to everyone for sending the newsletter from last time! Clearly, I'm spending too much time gazing out the window. Here's the one I meant to send:
The Earth is Painted Green: A Garden of Poems About Our Planet edited by Barbara Brenner (Scholastic)
So in case you haven't heard yet (you know, from my shouts on Twitter, Facebook, or from my rooftop to the wide sky), my next YA novel CATCH A FALLING STAR will be published by Scholastic in Summer of 2014. You can't quite hear the cartwheels in my voice from where you're reading, but, needless to say, I'm thrilled. So, my family and I have been playing our own sort of springtime egg hunt: We've been searching the house for the red SCHOLASTIC bands on our books. "Look, that one's Scholastic," my husband will point out. "So is that one!" Anabella loves to shout, "Scholastic!" when she spies one and I imagine it's much how the miners sounded when they said, "Eureka!"
For this Point of View newsletter (in honor of my new publisher, national poetry month, and also Earth Day) I wanted to talk about one such gem from Scholastic that my family and I return to year after year called The Earth is Painted Green: A Garden of Poems about Our Planet edited by Barbara Brenner and Illustrated by S.D. Schindler. Here's an example from the collection:
The Garden Hose
In the gray evening
I see a long serpent
With its tail in the dahlias.
It lies in loops across the grass
And drinks softly at the faucet.
I can hear it swallow.
-- Beatrice Janosco
The book is full of these earthy meditations and Anabella and I love to open it at random, read a poem, and then write whatever that poem inspires. Schindler's illustrations are both lush and watercolor-washed, cradling the poems on each page. With our neighbor's tree bursting with color, with the daffodils poking up through the brown ground, (and with my gaze clearly out the window), now is the perfect time for a garden of poems.
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 Writing Exercise
Look out your window. What do you see bursting there? The light comes later now, is sharper somehow in the evening, and everywhere there is suddenly color - white, pale pink, red. Find one slim piece of the blooming world and choose it.
Title a poem with the name of this bit of the spring world you found. Using "The Garden Hose" as a guide, write your own addition to the garden of poems, giving a simple thing a singular life.
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 Outside Reading School Project
Mary Oliver wrote:
"Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it."
What is in your garden of poems? What about the world astonishes you? Write a series of poems about your earth, your outside places. Then, include photographs, create art, find illustrations to support your poems. Be astonished. Tell us about it.
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 Instructions for a Broken Heart
by Kim Culbertson
IFABH was named a Booklist Online Top Ten Romance Fiction for Youth: 2011: check it out!
IFABH won the 2012 Northern California Book Award for YA Fiction: check it out
I appreciate any other great reviews you'd like to add to Amazon, goodreads, etc.
And I thank you in advance - it means a lot! "Culbertson balances the story between teen angst and a nice Italian travelogue. The author has a flair for evocative descriptions. . . The major strength here is in the literary quality of the writing, although teens may be more interested in the characters' relationship." -- Kirkus Reviews Sourcebooks Fire (May 1, 2011) Also, check out the official trailer!!  | | "Instructions for a Broken Heart" by Kim Culbertson - *Official Trailer* |
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 Need a gift?
Inspire the special people in your life to keep a song journal chronicling the soundtrack of their lives.
Bundle any combination of the following:
a Writing Journal, a CD, and/or an iPod
with Songs for a Teenage Nomad
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