MSI Press Blog

  Today's tip for parents from two talented teachers comes from  365 Teacher Secrets for Parents  by Cindy McKinley Alder and Patti Trombly. #90 The "Pros" of Poetry   Poetry is plucking at the heartstrings, and making music with them  ~Dennis Gabor   Using poetry or verse as reading material for a change can prove to be very motivational for reluctant readers and quite enjoyable for all readers. Poems are usually short, sweet, and highly entertaining. Finding poetry that fits your child's interests (such as humor, nature, realistic…) is easy to do. A librarian or bookstore employee can help you find anthologies to suite any child. If your child especially seems to enjoy reading poetry, you might try to gently suggest ways to increase academics through the use of poems. Perhaps you could:   ●       You can pause, while reading him a poem, and omit the rhyming words for him to fill in. ●    ...

  excerpt from Damascus amid the War (M. Imady) --              Commentary   In Muna Imady’s writing we witness a kind of devolution from poetry that was filled with vivid imagery and striking metaphors to that which was made to carry words of the brutality of war. Stripped of Muna’s imaginative, powerful, evocative language, her poetry becomes savagely direct, honest to the point of shocking readers with its transformation.   The world of Muna’s early poetry has become broken, brutalized, burned, and bombed. With it, Muna’s heart is broken; her imagination has been filled with what is dark and laden with grief. The simplicity of most of the war poems, when compared with those of her pre-war output give readers a stark reminder of the effects of war in ways that the news cannot. War breaks people and it transforms artistry into something it was never meant to be, painting a picture in words of the way the human spirit can be crushed, th...

   The e-book edition of  Lamentations of the Heart  by Marti Wells-Smith is on Kindle countdown discount, beginning at 99 cents, from April 4 through April 11. Marti Wells-Smith's  Lamentations of the Heart Mingled with Peace and Joy  combines prose and poetry in a comforting missive for bereaved parents. Through its pages, one finds not only the resilience of the author but sources for anyone to develop needed resilience in the face of devastating life circumstances. When it came out, it quickly became one of Amazon's "hot, new releases." Description Lamentations of the Heart  soulfully combines contemporary free verse poetry and nonfictional prose to tell the story of one mother's grief following the death of her only child. The author interweaves scriptural passages with the inevitable struggles to accept and make sense of her new reality. All of it reveals the unending love for family that remains. Written to reach out to others who have experienc...

   The e-book edition of  Lamentations of the Heart  by Marti Wells-Smith is on Kindle countdown discount, beginning at 99 cents, from April 4 through April 11. Marti Wells-Smith's  Lamentations of the Heart Mingled with Peace and Joy  combines prose and poetry in a comforting missive for bereaved parents. Through its pages, one finds not only the resilience of the author but sources for anyone to develop needed resilience in the face of devastating life circumstances. When it came out, it quickly became one of Amazon's "hot, new releases." Description Lamentations of the Heart  soulfully combines contemporary free verse poetry and nonfictional prose to tell the story of one mother's grief following the death of her only child. The author interweaves scriptural passages with the inevitable struggles to accept and make sense of her new reality. All of it reveals the unending love for family that remains. Written to reach out to others who have experienc...