Read Chapter 13
In The Fog

Last Day
Rah! Rah! Sis-boom-bah!
Hip! Hip! Hip! Hooray!
Ta-daaa! Ooo-la-laaa!
At last, the last day!

Va-va-voom! I’m free!
Adios! Hear! Hear!
Whoopee! Yessiree!
So long, long school year!

Welcome to summer.
Lazy days adored,
But what a bummer.
Already I’m bored.
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Read Chapter 12
Striking North

Poing, the Poet presents Last Day

Read Chapter 11
Men-of-War

Read Chapter 10
Rendezvous

Read Chapter 9
Bon Voyage

Read Chapter 8
King Charlie V

Read Chapter 7
The Seagull

Read Chapter 6
The Beach

During Zoom chats with classes, students often ask how many time I rewrite a book. Having been a teacher for many year, I know why they ask. Editing and rewriting a story is torture. My answer is usually "several times", but to be honest I should say a dozen times or more. I set it aside for several weeks and rewrite it again. Sometimes a year passes after a rejection, and I'll see how I a story should change. Nothing is perfect. But after another draft, a story will go out again, and I know it's the best I can make it…for now.

Read Chapter 5
The Storm

Fun doing an author/student Zoom chat today with Mr. Davis' third-graders in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
It was their last day of school! Great kids; great questions about The Elevator Family.

Read Chapter 4
Along the Coast

Read Chapter 3
People

Read Chapter 2
Land Ho!

"Only a bedbug knows how it goes while you doze."
That's the motto of the three bedbugs who live in Irene's four-poster bed. One night, when the moon is particularly bright, Irene meets this helpful trio, who tell her about her nighttime visitors--the Sandman, the Tooth Fairy, the Nice Dream Man, Night Mare, and the Boogeyman--and how the bedbugs protect her from the mayhem, mischief, and mishaps that can happen while she sleeps.
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Read Chapter 1
The Fleet

Anonymous

I enjoy reading funny poems,
From Ogden Nash to Roald Dahl,
But of the poets that I read,
Anonymous is best of all.
Each time I read a funny poem,
With Anonymous below it,
I wonder why she’s still unknown.
Who is this wonderful poet?

🎼Hear John Paul Jellyfishlyrics
🎼Hear Jellyfish Shantylyrics
🎼Hear Maggie, My Baggielyrics
🎼John Paul Jellyfish Medleyvideo

It's been fun revising my book Captain John Paul Jellyfish and catching typos along the way.
It's an early work of mine, and I was pleased to find it still holds up as a solid story,
and the included songs aren't bad.

Captain John Paul Jellyfish and his fleet have sailed across the Atlantic. The captain doesn’t like what he finds. Follow the valorous adventures of the bravest jellyfish to ever sail the Seven Seas. His fleet’s challenge? To rid the Eastern seaboard of the pesky Portuguese men-of-war and make the beaches safe again for summer swimming.
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Maxwell School Elementary School is larger on the inside than the outside. The vast maze of hallways and classrooms is divided into two wings, the North Wing where students attend classes and the South Wing, the Unknown Zone, that is off limits to everyone. Rumors abound about this forbidden wing, especially about Classroom One, said to grant the one true wish, the inner most desire, of anyone who steps inside.
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The microchips have taken control!

Why have the microchips in Deacon’s neighborhood—chips in traffic signals, ATM machines, mobile phones, and cars---started to communicate with Deacon?    Do they want to help him out, to get free ice cream, good grades, or the occasional day off from school?  No, the Chip Network wants much more from Deacon and many other children in Silicon Valley whose parents work for high-tech companies.

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Poing, the Poet presents Shrinking Teacher

🎶Hear Children's Line March

Class out of control? Will no regular substitute dare enter the fourth-grade classroom? It's time to press the red button under the office clock to summon Miss Subway, the Substitute of Last Resort. This sub has the right gadgets in her canvas bag to put the fourth-graders back in order.
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The Very Tall Teacher (new edition)
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The Very Tall Teacher Winter & Spring (new edition)
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A book about empathy
When sixth graders Charlie and Colleen discover that their beloved third-grade teacher, Joseph Adams, is now homeless and living on the streets, they set out to make friends with the deeply troubled man and inspire him and members of the community to support him in his time of trouble.
Author Note: When I was a teacher I’d take classes on walking trips along the sidewalks of Berkeley where I live.  If we passed a street person asking for spare change, the children would grow silent and offered kind smiles.  I wondered what the students would do if one of them ever recognized one of the homeless men—let’s say, a former teacher.So

Yellowstone Log
my first solo trip

A journal of my first solo trip at age 16 to Yellowstone National Park. I hitched and bussed there with a giant yellow backpack. I returned to Minnesota with nothing. All did not go well.(Free download)

Oyster Stew

I, said the oyster, would rather stew in my stew,
Then ever swim off to London with you.
I am, said the clam, content in my bed,
And we'll see when we're old who comes out ahead.

"A fable about finding your bliss."
New edition with 25 illustrations and three scannable songs

Our Teacher, age ten, rescues a sea lion on a beach in Oregon. As a reward, the sea lion tells Our Teacher about the magical Thinking Cap, a hat when worn reveals a person’s calling. In pursuit of the cap, Our Teacher travels around the world and learns his true purpose, what he was meant to do with his life. Along the way, he discovers the attributes he has that will make him a great teacher. Book with Tunes!
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Loren, a lonely girl seeking playmates, learns the mystery of a sixteenth-century village she discovers in the coastal mountains of Oregon, a village filled with children playing games, a village painted by Pieter Bruegel in 1560.
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Cuts

I gave cuts to Lena, and she gave cuts to Jim.
Jim gave cuts to Cory; Mac cut in front of him.
Mac gave cuts to Ashley, and she gave cuts to Lee.
Tom took cuts before Dawn, and she gave cuts to me.
And when we left for recess, out the classroom door,
All the kids in our line, stood where they were before.
🎼Here's the song Cuts! (video) Listen and watch
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Luke Dellar, age twelve, is weary of his flip-flop life. He flies to his father's house in San Diego one month and back to his mother's house in Seattle the next. He's even more tired of taking pills for his ADHD that has worsened since his parent's divorce. A solution to his flip-flopping, pill-popping life? Run away and hike the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2650 mile, five-month journey from the Mexican border to the Canadian border.
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Classroom Stew

Add broken crayons, white chalk dust,
Pencil shavings, red scissors rust.
A pinch of paste, a dab of glue,
That’s what goes into Classroom Stew.
Pour in black paint, six drops of ink.
Squeeze the sponge from the classroom sink.
Mix eraser crumbs, and hand soap goo,
That’s what goes into Classroom Stew.
Sprinkle on fish food, eight lumps of clay,
Silver glitter, paper-mâché.
Rubber cement, gum off your shoe,
That’s what goes into Classroom Stew.
Stir it well; dump it in a cup,
Toast your teacher, and bottoms up.
Hold your belly before you spew.
Then flood the floor with Classroom Stew.
🎼Hear the song Classroom Stew! (video) Listen and watch
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"Be one of the good guys."