Ask Norman: Do You Make Mistakes?
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Hey Kids! What do you think? Does our finny friend make mistakes?
Ready to read Norman’s answer? Scroll down . . .
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
While Legos don’t make good fish food, they sure make good goldfish. Check out this Lego goldfish created by Gonkius: (We found it, with directions on the brickblogger.com.) WANT TO GIVE IT A TRY?
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter!
Poetry Challenge #178-Bust Out the Bumbershoot!
For more than 4,000 years—longer if one counts fronds—umbrellas have been working tirelessly on our behalf. They protect us from rain, shield us from sun, make excellent walking sticks, rubbish picks, pool cues, tushy pokers & ice shades in fruity drinks! And that’s only when acting as nouns.
Umbrellas serve and protect as adjectives and verbs, too. And so today, Feb. 10th, National Umbrella Day, with one huge sweeping—umbrella-esk—gesture we honor this most useful invention.
“The word umbrella comes from the Latin word umbra, meaning shade or shadow.” Brolly, parasol, gamp are slang for umbrella as is bumbershoot, “a fanciful Americanism for an umbrella from the late 19th century.”
FYI: According to Merriam-Webster, Bumbershoot is said to be a melding of the British “Brolly” and slang for parachutes they resemble when unfurled.
Bumbershoot! If Gene Kelly can dance and sing in the rain with an umbrella partner, we can praise them poetically, can’t we?
Click on the pic for this DIY umbrella
Poetry Challenge #178
Bust Out the Bumbershoot!
Create a shape poem about, involving, or inspired by an umbrella—fully open in all its unfurled glory or tightly rolled and snapped closed—poet’s choice.
FYI: A shape poem is a poem in which the words on the page are arranged to resemble the subject of the poem, or somehow relate to the subject.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Cheers!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1755 days ago! We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Ask Norman: Do Fish Fly?
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Hey Kids! What do you think? We know Norman T. Goldfish does lots of tricks—Circles, Bubbles, Flips! But, do you think our finny friend, Norman, can fly? What about other fish?
Ready to read Norman’s answer? Scroll down . . .
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
Amor’s question set us wondering so we looked up more about flying fish. There are actually about 65 species of fish that can fly—glide really. Most are about 7-8 inches long. Here’s more about flying fish from Animals Network
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter!
Poetry Challenge #177-Play Like a Girl!
There was a time not so long ago when women were considered too “fragile” or “delicate” to play sports (even though hauling—water, rocks, grain, kids—scrubbing floors, laundry, slinging iron pots etc. was woman’s work.) It took a President proclamation by Ronald Reagan, in 1987, to officially recognize the history of women’s athletics and the Title IX amendment, in 1972, to make it against federal law to excluding students from participating in educational and athletic programs on the basis of sex. And even after it’s taken “Girls with Guts, Breaking Barriers and Bashing Records” to begin to equalize the gender playing field. So for today’s prompt, let’s here it for the girls!
Poetry Challenge #177
Play Like a Girl
In celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day, write a poem describing a girl’s sporting event. It might be basketball, track, swimming, gymnastics, hockey, skiing…you name it.
Use poetic devices such as sounds, rhythm and repetition to simulate the sounds, feeling, action of the game.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing
Don’t Think Too Much About it; Just Do it!
Let the Games Begin!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1750 days ago! We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Poetry Challenge #176-Hooray! Library Shelfie Day
Every fourth Wednesday in January, bookies, biblophiles, readers, library nerds, like us—OK us—celebrate Library Shelfie Day. They (we) take a picture of themselves (ourselves)—a selfie—in front of a shelf of books—making it a shelfie.
Pictures are taken at the library, bookstore, school, or home—anywhere there is a shelf of books—and posted to social media #LibraryShelfieDay #ShelfieDay #Shelfie. Check out this collection of NYPL Favorites & Shee for your shelf!
When it comes to celebrating, they stop a snapping shelfies but, that’s not how we click:
Poetry Challenge #176
Library Shelfie Day
In honor of Library Shelfie Day, this week’s prompt is to write a spine poem. Find books on your shelves and arrange them so that when you read the spines, each book creates a line in the poem. See if you can include at least 5 books.
Here’s Mine writing Shelfie
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Spines Out! Start Writing
Don’t Think Too Much About it; Just do it!
My Shelfie—read it in the comments
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1742 days ago! We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Poetry Challenge #175-Say Cheese!
Today is National Cheese Lover’s Day—a perfect day to enjoy cheese all day long. Maybe some cream cheese on a bagel for breakfast, a nice slice of cheddar or swiss on your sandwich at lunch, and macaroni and cheese for dinner. MMMM!
But cheese is also one of the words most used by photographers trying to get their subjects to smile: “Say cheese,” they call before they click their camera.
Poetry Challenge #175
Say Cheeeeeese!
For today’s prompt, find a photo with one or more people in it. If you are in the picture, do you remember what you were thinking at that moment?
What about the others in the picture? What about the photographer? Were they thinking of where they’d rather be? Did they have something to say to someone else in the picture?
What were they wishing, hoping, wanting at that moment?
Write a poem with real or imagine thoughts for the people in the picture. Include the people outside the picture—the photographer, onlookers, passersby, a person receiving the photo.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing
Don’t Think Too Much About it; Just do it!
Remember to say CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1737 days ago! We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. (This is one of Cindy’s.) If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
MLK Day Poetry Challenge
Adding a world wide poetry prompt to our usual weekly challenge. Celebrate MLK Day by writing your own "I Dream A World" Poem. Honor Martin by working toward living it true.
MLK Day Poetry Challenge
Honor MLK By Describing How You Dream A World
From NPR:
As we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, Morning Edition asks for you to write a poem that starts with the words "I dream a world.”
Write a poem that, like Hughes did, begins with the line: "I dream a world" and describe the change you hope for.
Your poem can rhyme like Hughes' poem, but it doesn't have to. It just has to dream us out of tribulation.
Share your poem through the form below, then Alexander will take lines from some of your pieces and create a community crowdsourced poem. Alexander and Martin will read it on air, and NPR will publish it online, where contributors will be credited.
CLICK HERE for more, including How To Submit Your Poem
Goldfish to Artist: Interview & Give Away: Noah Z Jones...About that Sweatband?
One Amazing Interview with Noah Z Jones, the artist/creator of our finny goldfish, yes…Norman!
Noah Z Jones: the Human, the Artist & Goldfish Imaginer, the Disposal:
NTG: Do you have a pet? If so, what kind and what’s its name?
NZG: We’ve got three pets. A hermit crab named Pineapple and two loafy guinea pigs, Hippo and Panda. Pineapple makes weird squeaky noises in the middle of the night and Hippo likes to take Panda’s lettuce when she’s not looking.
NTG: What is your favorite food?
NZJ: Tacos. Always tacos. From now until the end of time it’s tacos. And Fruity Pebbles. But mostly tacos.
NTG: If I’d had a bigger breakfast maybe I wouldn’t have been so nervous.”
NTG: Any food you would not eat—even for a million dollars?
NZJ: Look, I’m gonna be honest, I’m like a garbage disposal. I’ll try anything once.
NTG: What is your favorite thing to do when you are not working?
NZJ: Naps. Give me a couch, a nice pillow and twenty minutes to doze and I’m the happiest person on Earth.
Kelly & Noah finally met years after NOT NORMAN was published—they were guppies!
Then (When you were a kid):
NTG: What did you like to do best?
NZJ: Draw and read. That’s all I used to do. And watch Saturday morning cartoons.
NTG: What was your favorite subject in school?
NZJ: Art! I loved it. I knew I wanted to be an artist when I grew up from the time I was in second grade or so.
NTG: Did you have a best friend or pet? (If yes, what kind and what was his-her-its-their name?)
NZJ: My best friend was a kid named Jon Tarr. By the time he was in sixth grade Jon had cracked his skull five times, on accident of course. I was only there for two of the skull crackings. This is real. Hi Jon!
NTG: What was/is your favorite kid movie or TV show?
Norman One Amazing Goldfish sketches—the eyebrows have it!
NZJ: Movie would be a tie between MATILDA and BABE, they’re both SOO good. When I was a kid I loved THE INCREDIBLE HULK, I loved imagining turning green and smashing things.
ALL THINGS NORMAN:
NTG: How do you get me to show so much emotion? (And what’s with the sweatband?)
NZJ: It’s all in the eyebrows! Most of my drawings of characters start with the eyes and eyebrows. Some people say eyes are the window into a person’s soul, but I say it’s clearly the eyebrows. OF COURSE NORMAN NEEDS A SWEATBAND!! The little fish is always sweating up a storm.
NTG: Do you do all the illustrations on the computer? Or do you draw some by hand? How does that work? Can you describe your process a bit?
NZJ: The drawings for both Norman books were all done on the computer, I like being able to change things and move parts of my drawings around and it’s so much easier to do those things digitally. I have a special kind of screen that I can draw on with a digital pen, it’s pretty cool. Though I have to say I’m always keen on drawing in paper sketchbooks, that’s where most of my ideas start.
NTG: What was it like illustrating a sequel to NOT NORMAN?
NTZ: It was fun and a little harder than I thought it would be! The first NORMAN book came out FIFTEEN YEARS AGO and my adorable fish drawin’ skill shad gotten a little rusty!
NTG: Must have been hard to top that boy-peeking-through-the-fishbowl NOT NORMAN cover for the sequel—or was it? How many ways did you try? Can you show us some?
NTZ: It was a little tricky, the first sketch for the cover got rejected…I’m sending it along so you can get a behind the scenes peek at it!
NTG: Would you like to work on another Norman the Goldfish adventure?
NZJ: YES, YES A MILLION TIMES YES!! Let’s do the first book series with a HUNDRED THOUSAND sequels!!
Last question N to N: What does your letter Z stand for? (I’ll tell you about my T is if you share your Z.)
To see samples of Noah’s cartoons, animation, antics—and to find out what he’s really up to, google him—that’s what we did—cyber stalking. Here’s his bio: Noah Z Jones,
Glu-glu glu-glug And don’t forget: A GIVEAWAY!
One Amazing reader will win hot-off-the-press, a Copy of NORMAN’S ONE AMAZING GOLDFISH!!!!
To enter: Subscribe to the Fishbowl & Leave one comment below. A random winner will be selected on Jan 31st.
Glug Luck!
P.S. If you think you’re read this before, you may be correct. A sassy artist needs to be celebrated twice—leave 2 comments and you’ll be entered in the contest twice. Twice is nice!!!