Taking the Time to Write

I just wanted to share with you all this beautiful e-mail that I received about a week ago. I am always touched when someone takes the time to write me and praise my work, but this letter was espeically nice. Check it out...

Dear Arden, I am a fourth grade teacher at a school in Lancaster, California. There are three 4th grade teachers, and we "ability group" our students for reading so that we have a high, middle, and low reading group. Because I used to be a reading teacher, I took the low reading group. To help them practice reading and memorizing, I give them a new poem every week to practice with phonics, vocabulary, grammmar, etc. The last 2 weeks I've chosen your poems for my class. They LOVED "Bad Habit Marvin" and "Shoo, Shoes, Shoo!" They thought they were funny, fun to say, easy to memorize, and (from my perspective) had great phonics lessons. This week we will do "Muncha Buncha Lunch", and I'm sure it will be a big hit like the others. Our classwork tends to be a little boring because we have to REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW the basics that they've missed, but your works are definitely the highlight of the day. (The only thing I change when I type up their copy is to take out the colloquialisms "gotta", "'em", etc...) You are doing wonderful work, and I encourage you to keep it up. Shel Silverstein should be watching over his shoulder, because you're coming up!!* Good luck with your book, and know even though it's not yet been published, 32 fourth graders (and one teacher) in Lancaster are enjoying your writing tremendously EVERYDAY! (They now get really upset if they lose their poem of the week because they want to save them! They beg me for another copy.) You take care, and I'll keep watching the bookstore shelves for your books will soon be there. Thank you, Lisa Z.

*She wrote this before he passed away. (Kinda creepy!)

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