Katherine Hauth on Children, Summer Reading, and the Passage of Time

Delectable poetic lessons on the food chain designed to help young readers rather literally digest the natural world.

That starred review quote from Kirkus Reviews is a punny summary of Katherine B. Hauth's picture book published by Charlesbridge, What's For Dinner? Quirky, Squirmy Poems from the Animal World. In a post on the publisher's blog , Katherine writes:

For me, a silver-haired eight year old, what it means to be a poet is to be childlike, in the sense of seeing with unbiased eyes and heart, and to write honestly in the best language possible for the subject and for my audience.

But writers can only be nourished, so to speak, when readers read. In this video conversation with me, Katherine talks about a summer reading program she created, pretty much out of dust and juniper pollen, in her neighborhood in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. It grew over the years. It created its own story.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7IGe_G8XJk&w=560&h=315]