Ants may rule the hill, but they don’t rule here! Art by Landon (Click to Enlarge)
Hello, Great Readers of our series! Just In case you haven’t visited before, let me tell you a little about A Great Nephew and A Great Aunt. My great nephew, Landon (a sixth-grader) and I (his great aunt) collaborate. I write a poem which he illustrates. We started this collaboration in the fall of 2014 and have had so much fun with it that we decided to invite others along. Landon and I will continue to have a new episode on the second Friday of each month. The other Fridays are filling up quickly with guests.
I have created a page on my website to view all the episodes of A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt. Click HERE to visit the page and enjoy past episodes.
Today it’s my pleasure to share a creative collaboration from . . .
Suzy Levinson and her 10-year old niece, Svetlana
From Suzy: Svetlana had so many drawings for me to choose from for this project. I almost went with a fairly evil-looking octopus, but then I saw her wolf. That was the one, no question. Talk about inspirational—this picture gives me chills!
The Art
Art by Svetlana
The Poem
A photo of the collaborators.
I can see why Svetlana’s drawing inspired Suzy. And Suzy captured the mood of the drawing perfectly. Many thanks to both of them for sharing this incredible collaboration with us.
Meet Svetlana: Svetlana is a fabulous fifth grader who loves to sing and have slumber parties with her friends. Fun fact: she speaks THREE languages—English, French, and Spanish!
Meet Suzy: Suzy Levinson may not speak three languages like her niece, but she sure talks the English real good! She lives in New York, where she writes children’s poetry, picture books, and middle-grade stories. Her poems have been published in The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (Pomelo Books), and she has more forthcoming in High Five magazine. For more Suzy newsy, check out suzylevinson.com or follow her on Twitter @suzylevinson.
Thanks to Heidi for hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup at My Juicy Little Universe. If you’d like to know more about Poetry Friday, click HERE for an explanation by Renee LaTulippe.
Meet Ken: Ken Slesarik is a special education teacher and children’s poet from Phoenix, Arizona. His “Heroes and Poets” assembly program has been well received by teachers, students, parents and administrators. When not teaching or visiting schools, Ken writes poetry for children with poems published in The Poetry Friday Anthology K-5 Edition, The Poetry Friday Anthology For Middle School, The Poetry Friday Anthology For Science, The Poetry Friday Anthology For Celebrations and Dear Tomato: An International Crop of Food and Agriculture Poems, two upcoming anthologies as well as an animal collection called Creatures, Critters, Beasts and Varmints. Ken’s mission is to empower students through the medium of poetry and he is a poetry advocate to children and teachers alike. For more information, please visit 
