A Literary Success Week

Tonight night Key Lime Pie won our regional Poetry Out Loud competition. That means that in about three weeks, she will compete in Salt Lake City for the state level competition.

She did such a good job! She recited from memory “The Conqueror Worm” by Edgar Allen Poe and “Momma Said” by Calvin Forbes

While the judges were deliberating, the MC asked if anyone in the audience wanted to share a poem. Banana Cream Pie got up and recited

“Antigonish” by Huges Mearns, which she memorized last year during homeschool.

In about three more years, she can compete, too.

A little later, Apple Pie came over to me and recited a poem she had written before school recently. She showed me in her notebook when we got home. It’s not quite the same as what she recited from memory- her recitation actually had better rhyme and meter. But she has this whole notebook full of poems that she has written!

“Poor Mushroom”

A single mushroom lies beneath

A tree.

It sits there day by day.

It sits there

Without a care.

One rainy day

The tree falls

After that day,

A girl picks the mushroom.

…

The poor mushroom is not

here anymore.

**********

As you may imagine, I’m pretty proud of my girls tonight.

Also, since we had to drive all the way to Blanding, we stopped at the library, too. Apple Pie found a book to check out called The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass

Apple Pie was reading while we waited for the poetry to start, and giggling over a funny line. This is a first for her, and as learning to read has been a tough, years long, struggle for her, it is a real breakthrough. My heart is full of gratitude for this tender mercy.