I wanted to share this post which highlights excellence in children’s literature!!
The Full Worm Moon
When you’ve worked in a hospital as long as I have, you get to dread the full moon, and the crazy lunacy that kind of a night dishes out. I thought it would be fun to see what kind of night the full worm moon would dish out on my fairy tale hospital. I remember reading about the full worm moon last spring, and fell in love with the name. This winter we will be celebrating a very rare Christmas day full cold moon, so I thought it would be a good day to present my tale. Enjoy. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!
(Photo by Lee Capps)
On the night of the Full Worm Moon,
Just three months shy of June,
The Nightingale sang her tale
In her melodic musical scale.
Her notes spun the yarn of three wards
Where sick fairytale characters board.
She tweets of the one crazy night
When they all came in running with fright.
It was Lunacy’s raining assault
On the Hospital C. P. Perrault,
An impregnated orb shining smugly
On the wards of the: Good, Bad, and Ugly.
The Wolf was the first through the door.
Inflated with prisoners of war.
Dr. Spock had the nerve to come fore,
“What is making your belly so sore?”
The Wolf rolled around on the floor,
Moaning, “Too many petit fours?”
(Image by Cale Atkinson)
Dr. Spock heard the cries from his belly.
This couldn’t possibly be teacakes with jelly!
“To the O.R!”, he cried to Nurse Kelly,
“Then admit to Ward Bad Machiavelli”
Mirror Mirror on the wall
In rolled the fairest of them all,
Obtunded in her glassed in wall,
Surrounded by 7 Dwarfs so small.
(Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney)
“Help, help!” They cried,
“Snow White is dead!”
Her skin still white
Her lips still red
Dr. Spock ran quickly to her bed,
And placed his hand upon her head.
He checked her out from tip to toe
Swiftly diagnosing Snow,
“Poison!” from an evil foe;
“Call ENT please Nurse Cousteau.”
“A Poison apple I deduce,
A classic case of child abuse.
Once ENT can get it loose,
Admit Snow White to Ward Good Mother Goose”
Last, but not least
A horrible beast
Who dined on his wives
In a blood thirsty feast.
(Artwork by ZhdaNN)
A serial killer of the first degree
Stabbed multiple times by his wife’s family.
With his blue tainted tendrils
A dark shade of red
The ER staff
Were shaking with dread.
Dr. Spock ever brave
Went to Blue Beards Bedside
To examine his wounds
And apply germicide.
“Your lacerations are deep, they’ll require a stitch.”
“Nurse Ratched please call in our surgical witch.”
With a swoosh, and a vroom, on a long hairy broom
Flew the witch through the doors of the Emergency room
All cloaked in black
With a cat on her back
Came the witch with her stitch
In her medical pack.
“I’ll stitch up this beast,”
Said the witch to the doc,
“Then find him a room with an unbreakable lock!”
“Bluebeard as a detainee?”
“No, no” he thought, “That won’t be me!”
“Prison cells…how bourgeoisie”
For he possessed the enchanted key.
“These doctors cannot lock me in.”
He smiled with an evil grin.
His bloodied beard then shook from chuckling
As he wheeled into ward Ugly Duckling.
Holiday Contest Finalists.
The Peanuts by Charles Schulz.
Hi Everyone. Well the top 12 finalists for the Holiday Writing Contest are posted, and I suggest you head over to Susanna Leonard Hill’s website to check out their stories, and vote for your favorite. They are all amazing. Until next year…Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!
Sneaking a Peek on Christmas Eve…
Hello everyone it’s time for another one of Susanna Leonard Hill’s fabulous holiday writing contests. Here are the rules: Write a children’s story 350 words or less with any version of “Rocking around the Christmas tree at the Christmas Party Hop” as your opening line. The story can be poetry or prose, silly or serious or sweet, religious or not, based on Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or whatever you celebrate.
This tune was way too catchy so I wrote my story to the music of Brenda Lee, sing along and have some Christmas Cheer!!
Sneaking a peek on Christmas Eve
at the presents under the tree.
Mom and Dad believed we were fast asleep,
but in reality…
Sneaking a peek on Christmas Eve is a dangerous game we play.
Crawling on our bellies all through the house,
in a covert Navy Seal way.
They would go completely mental knowing
we were here;
voices whispering,
“Shhh be quiet, getting caught would cause a riot.”
Sneaking a peek on Christmas Eve
like the ghosts of Christmas Past.
Checking out the gifts that Santa left,
and the piles that we amassed.
They would go completely mental knowing
we were here;
voices whispering,
“Shhh be quiet, getting caught would cause a riot.”
Sneaking a peek on Christmas Eve,
whose that hiding under the tree?
Oh my god, we’re busted, it’s Mom and Dad,
and they’re laughing merrily..
Merry Christmas, and Happy Holiday’s To Everyone, and a Safe and Happy New Year!!
Thank you, Tara Lazar
Couldn’t have said it better!
The 7th annual Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo) came to a close yesterday and I’d like to congratulate everyone who took part in the challenge.
I’d also like to thank Tara Lazar, the PiBoIdMo founder and organizer. For those who don’t know, Tara spends countless hours each summer and fall lining up guest posts, contacting agents for prizes, organizing a Cafe Press store (where she donates all proceeds to Reading Is Fundamental – RIF), moderating registration, managing the PiBoIdMo Facebook Group, sorting out and awarding prizes, and probably a dozen more things I don’t even know about.
She does this all for us. PiBoIdMo is completely free. For everyone.
And while all of this work does give Tara’s books some exposure, that exposure doesn’t count for much unless we, the PiBoIdMo participants, take action.
So this holiday season, I encourage everyone to purchase at least one (or…
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There was an Old Pumpkin…
Here’s a little Thanksgiving fun I had with a story I adapted from my favorite childhood book, I Know an Old Lady by Rose Bonne and Alan Mills 1961.
There was an old pumpkin who swallowed a fly
I don’t know why the fly flew inside
Perhaps to make Thanksgiving spiced pumpkin pie
There was an old pumpkin who swallowed a spider
It slid down it’s sticky webbed spider hang glider
Pumpkin swallowed the spider to catch the fly
But I don’t’ know why the fly flew inside
Perhaps to make Thanksgiving spiced pumpkin pie.
There was an old pumpkin who swallowed a bird
Yes I said bird, you haven’t misheard
Pumpkin swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That slid down its sticky webbed spider hang glider.
Pumpkin swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
I don’t know why the fly flew inside.
Perhaps to make Thanksgiving spiced pumpkin pie.
There was an old pumpkin who swallowed a cat,
A cat who was wearing a red striped top hat.
Pumpkin swallowed the cat to catch the bird.
Pumpkin swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That slid down its sticky webbed spider hang glider.
Pumpkin swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
I don’t why the fly flew inside.
Perhaps to make Thanksgiving spiced pumpkin pie.
There was an old pumpkin who swallowed a dog
Mistaking that dog for a barking tree frog.
(Actual Barking Dog)
Barking Tree Frog
Pumpkin swallowed the dog to catch the cat.
Pumpkin swallowed the cat, to catch the bird,
Pumpkin swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That slid down its sticky webbed spider hang glider.
Pumpkin swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
I don’t know why the fly flew inside.
Perhaps to make Thanksgiving spiced pumpkin pie.
There was an old pumpkin who swallowed a goat.
The goat was quite ill with a case of strep throat!
Pumpkin swallowed the goat to catch the dog…
Pumpkin swallowed the dog to catch the cat.
Pumpkin swallowed the cat to catch the bird…
Pumpkin swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That slid down its sticky webbed spider hang glider.
Pumpkin swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I don’t know why the fly flew inside,
Perhaps to make Thanksgiving spiced pumpkin pie.
There was an old pumpkin who swallowed a cow!
Just swallowed it down like a plate of cow chow.
Moooo
Pumpkin swallowed the cow to catch the goat…
Pumpkin swallowed the goat to catch the dog…
Pumpkin swallowed the dog to catch the cat…
Pumpkin swallowed the cat to catch the bird…
Pumpkin swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That slid down its sticky webbed spider hang glider.
Pumpkin swallowed the spider to catch the fly
But I don’t know why the fly flew inside.
Perhaps to make Thanksgiving spiced pumpkin pie.
There was an old pumpkin who swallowed a horse
And most would agree as a matter of course
That this was the pumpkin’s great tour de force,
Until he exploded with monster truck force,
Releasing the cow and the goat and the dog
Who ran from the quivering, quaking squash bog
Out popped the cat and the bird and the spider
That slid down its sticky webbed spider hang glider.
Out flew the fly that had first flown inside,
Who managed to outfly the pumpkin high tide
he gathered the bits of the pumpkins insides;
INDEED to make Thanksgiving spiced pumpkin pie!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!
Why The Nightingale Tales?
Welcome!! I’m so glad you found your way to this page. I decided to start The Nightingale Tales as a place where I can share my stories, poems, and ideas in an open, and simple format. I am a critical care nurse by day, and I have a site that is devoted to more adult themed, and nurse oriented tales (nightingale chronicles), but here I would like to focus on writing for children. As you can see I use the word Nightingale in each website, I honor both Florence Nightingale (the founder of modern day nursing), and the beautiful bird known for its melodic songs, and inspiring tales . I enjoy making up stories, playing with themes, and seeing what I can create. There is so much inspiration out there for children’s writing. I have found many great websites along the way that inspire writing for children, and honing in on the craft of writing which I will share throughout this blog, and please feel free to share any treasures you may have stumbled upon. Once again welcome to The Nightingale Tales, I hope you enjoy your time here.
THE NIGHTINGALE TALES 