Hanging By My Knees
Now available on Amazon.com!
Growing up in a household with five siblings and two artistic parents has taught me that life can be funny, chaotic and messy. I connected immediately to Liz’s poems bringing me back to my own childhood. Working with Liz has been a perfect collaboration as I tried to capture the humor of her poems into my illustrations.
Hope they make you smile. PS
Hanging By My Knees is about children who wet the bed, mean neighbors, a girl who eats a worm and sickening foods (like steamed okra). It’s about stolen bikes and treehouses, octopi and childhood imagination. The poems aren’t sweet or cloying; while they rhyme there is no nursery rhyme here. They are memorable because they are a touch naughty or dangerous.
When Liz was, literally, hanging by her knees from her swing set and Phyllis was painting her first really good horse, we were both so proud of our special skills--a fall on the head or art teacher criticism be damned! And now, together, we talk about childhood in a book of poems that can be shared with parents or read aloud by a child. Because every poem has a drawing, the book is a visual pleasure as well.
Liz is a speech-language pathologist who has worked with kids for an entire career. Phyllis is an artist from a long line of artists and collaborating together has been a joy. We both know how children love rhyme and rhythm (and how valuable it is for them) and also how children love and remember those special books with wonderful pictures. We think Hanging by My Knees fits that bill.
These are read-aloud poems and they’re poems that, like a good movie, you might end up talking about later. It’s a book of poems that might just travel along in the car on vacation.
It’s a book that one parent might recommend to another.
We believe that we have something unique and special and would love to share it with you! EB