You Nest Here With Me | Love, Laughter, and Life

You Nest Here With Me

Written by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple

Illustrated by Melissa Sweet

(Boyds Mills Press, An Imprint of Highlights; 2015)

I recently was given a copy of You Nest Here With Me. Thanks, Heidi Stemple!

That free gift, however, did not influence the fact that I had already fallen in love with the lyrical story and gorgeous illustrations of this picture book, having borrowed it from the library.

I see You Nest Here With Me as a good night story told by a mother to her daughter. The mother shares the nesting habits of many fascinating and captivating birds. Eggs, nests, habitats, birds, nestlings (is that a real word?) – and a human mama and her little girl. This is a perfect, calming, getting-ready-for-bed book.

While this picture book does not read like a science text, readers will still learn amazing bird facts. Readers can learn even more when they take the time to peruse the final pages where the authors share interesting information about each type of bird.

Readers will love You Nest Here With Me. I love You Nest Here With Me. Birds of a feather flock together. Tweet tweet!

KID KANDY

Look for Nests & Build a Nest

Go on a nest hunting walk with your family. Spy high and peek low to find nests. Trees, shrubs, empty containers, bird houses, grasses…birds are very creative when they build a nest. How many nests can you find?
Pull out some blankets and wrap them around yourself to build a nest. Grab some books, curl up in your snug nest, and read away!

This may be golden, but it’s no Golden Shovel.

The Golden Shovel. What is that?

I recently read a post about said shovel. And it has nothing to do with physical digging, but plenty to do with mental excavating, sleuthing, and creating with words. The Golden Shovel is a fun writing exercise.

You can learn more about the Golden Shovel poetic form by visiting here.

The rules for creating a Golden Shovel masterpiece are as follows:

– Choose a line from a poem you enjoy.

– Use each word in the line as the last word for the lines in your poem.

– The end words must stay in the same order as the original poem.

– Please give credit to the author of the original text you’ve chosen to use.

– Now create away! Your new poem doesn’t have to match the original theme. This baby is your baby.

Here is my Golden Shovel.

Inspiration for my Golden Shovel

I love to play with you.

Let’s build a blankie nest.

Snuggle here,

read and play, with

warm cocoa, you and me.

(July 19, 2017)

My words are both the title and specific lines from the beautiful picture book You Nest Here with Me by Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple (Boyds Mill Press, 2015).

The help I receive on a daily basis when I write.

How about you? Give the Golden Shovel a try. I’d love to read your poem!