Greetings! Welcome to the August, 2011 edition of The Lemur Letter, Mister Lemur’s brain-boost for young readers and
the people who care about them.

On July 20th, 1969, U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. Mister
Lemur’s featured story honors the 42nd anniversary of this landing and imagines what he would have
thought that day. Can you picture yourself walking on the moon? What would you do and think if you had
that chance?

If you enjoyed The Scheming Lemurs’ debut single, “Come and Join the Body Band,” don’t miss their second
single, “Nature Police.” What climate does the rhythm and melody of Nature Police make you think about?
Have you heard music like this before? Where?

Back in school? Perhaps Mister Lemur will be there too! This fall Mister Lemur will be visiting schools
throughout California and Arizona. If you are not yet back to school, wrap up the summer by exploring
rhyme schemes and ideas on how you can write your own fun and subtly educational rhyming stories in the
final installment of the Write Like a Lemur poetry activity.

Finally, get the latest Mister Lemur news and events in the “What’s New in Ranomafana” section from Mister
Lemur’s home in Ranomafana. Here you can see two new book reviews of Mister Lemur’s Train of Thought and
keep up on the Family Festivals Mister Lemur is attending next weekend. Happy Reading!

View the August Lemur Letter
View previous Lemur Letters

Select a Rhyme Scheme:
Rhyme Scheme describes the manner in which rhyming words are arranged. Not all poetry is rhyming, but Mister Lemur thinks rhyming poetry is a lot more fun!

The poem below is an example of an “A B C B” Rhyme Scheme.  The “A B C B” describes how the last syllable in the line rhymes.

Let’s take a closer look.  In this stanza, the “mal” in “normal” is the end of the first line of the poem. The second line ends with “understand.” If “understand” rhymed with “normal” (which it does not) then the second line would be an A. Since it does not rhyme, the next letter in the alphabet (B) is assigned.

The third line ends with “swallowed.” If swallowed rhymed with normal it would be an A (but it of course does not), and if swallowed rhymed with “understand” it would be a B – though again – it does not, so we assign the letter C.

The fourth and final line of the stanza ends with “band.” “Band” does not rhyme with “normal,” so it is not an “A”. Band does, however, rhyme with “understand,” so we assign the letter B to it to show that it rhymes with “understand.” Thus, we know from the “A B C B” notation that the second and 4^th lines will rhyme in this stanza, while the first and third line will not rhyme with any other lines in the stanza.

Make sense? Try assigning letters to the following:

Tepin Pepper
by Mister Lemur

You have not lived until you’ve tried
a Tepin pepper deep fat fried.
My first bite made me squirm and choke.
My ears emitted greenish smoke.

My eyes got wide, my face turned red.
I yelled for water, milk and bread.
If one were handy, heaven knows,
I would have sucked a garden hose.

And finally I did stop the blaze…
by gargling with some mayonnaise!
But so my friends would be impressed
I said “It’s great!” …and ate the rest.

Answer:  This is an “A A B B” poem.

Why? “Tried” is first, so it gets “A.” Since “fried” (the last word of the second line) rhymes with “tried” (the last word of the first line), it also gets an “A.” “Choke,” the last word in the third line does not rhyme with “tried” or “fried,” so it gets the next un-used letter, “B.” The last word in the 4^th line does not rhyme with “tried” or “fried,” so it is not an “A,” but it does rhyme with “choke,” making it a “B.”

In addition to being a really fun word to say, Ranomafana is the name of a national park in Madagascar where Mister Lemur and his friends hang out when they are not traveling the world having adventures. In this section, Mister Lemur readers get a quick update on what is new in Mister Lemur’s world.

New reviews come in twos!
At least they did for Mister Lemur last week. Children’s book bloggers Kim Tomsic (The Bookshelf Detective) and Jen Robinson (GrowingBookWorms) highlighted Mister Lemur’s Train of Thought in their respective blogs last week. Both wrote detailed and thoughtful pieces, highlighting what they liked (and didn’t like) about the book. Read Kim Tomsic and Jen Robinson’s reviews.

Mister Lemur at Tapestry Arts and Walnut Creek Family Fest this Labor Day Weekend:
Mister Lemur will be hanging around a pair of fun family festivals this Labor Day weekend.

On Saturday, Sept 3rd and Sunday, Sept 4th, Mister Lemur will be featured at the Tapestry Arts “A Taste of Tapestry” festival at History Park in San Jose, CA. Taste of Tapestry will feature local and national artists presenting their award winning and latest pieces. Taste of Tapestry will also have food, beverages (kid and adult), interactive kids’ learning experiences, top entertainment and a whole lot of fun.

On Monday, Sept 5th, Mister Lemur will present at Walnut Creek Family Fest 2011. The event features “quality live entertainment, activities and sports for children; stimulating learning and exploration; exposing parents to new ideas and opportunities from over 100 arts & crafts and other exhibitors; showcasing community groups dedicated to families and children while celebrating the value and importance of families as a key part of a healthy community.” Admission is $5 with a can of food for charity.

Not to get you thinking about the fall, but…
Mister Lemur is starting to schedule his school visits for September, October, November and December. If you or your teacher would like to bring the fun, creativity and laughter of this ever-curious lemur into your school, please e-mail him at misterlemur@misterlemur.com.

Share the fun of Mister Lemur!
Do you enjoy the stories, activities and ideas in The Lemur Letter? If so, why not invite other young readers and their families to share in the fun? Can you think of two friends who would enjoy seeing Mister Lemur’s fun letter? Forward them your copy to share the adventure!

Mister Lemur thanks The Reading Bug!
Mister Lemur enjoyed his visit to The Reading Bug Children’s Bookshop in San Carlos, CA on Saturday, August 13th. Mister Lemur talked about lemurs and the process of writing and illustrating Mister Lemur’s Train of Thought and shared songs Come and Join the Body Band and Nature Police. Crafty young lemur-readers colored, cut, stapled and proudly wore their very own lemur ears, nose and tail. If you are in San Carlos, please visit The Reading Bug and ask for Lauren!

Last month we discussed how you can turn the ideas all around you into fun, rhyming stories. This month we explore the musical nature of poetry and how Mister Lemur fans who like listening to music have a head start on learning poetry!

You can think of writing poetry as “making beats with words,” or more specifically, pieces of words called “syllables.” When you consider timing and stress certain syllables, you verbally create the beat that gives poetry its flow.

Those who understand music and know “4/4 time” will recognize that quite a few Mister Lemur stories are written in 4/4 time. That is four beats per measure, with emphasis on every other syllable for the beat, with an occasional pause in the middle or at the end. Typically this leads to an eight syllable line, with four down beats and four up beats. For example, the first story in Mister Lemur’s Train of Thought (titled Train of Thought) opens with these lines:

Come and ride the train of thought
it doesn’t matter where.
To ride you simply close your eyes
or pick a spot and stare.
Sometimes you’ll be the engineer,
sometimes you’re on the ride,
and on this train you’ll be amazed
at whom you’ll sit beside.

Now try reading it again emphasizing every other syllable (the bold syllables). Read it at a consistent pace so that each syllable (or the word “pause”) takes the same amount of time to read.
Come and ride the train of thought it
doesn’t matter where (pause) (pause) to
ride you simply close your eyes or
pick a spot and stare (pause) (pause) some-
times you’ll be the engineer some-
times you’re on the ride (pause) (pause) and
on this train you’ll be amazed at
whom you’ll sit beside (pause) (pause) (pause).

Do you notice how each line has four syllables in bold print and four syllables (or pauses) not in bold print, and they alternate throughout? This is the musicality of poetry. Think of the bold syllables as “down beats” – maybe the kick drum) and the others as the up-beats (perhaps the snare drum.)

Whatever you do – be creative and have fun!

Welcome to the July, 2011 edition of The Lemur Letter, Mister Lemur’s brain-boost for young readers and the
people who care about them.

This month’s letter brings you a story Mister Lemur learned from a very old man with a very long beard. See
if you can figure out what a curve-beaked bird and this old man’s beard can teach us about
teamwork. Music lovers will enjoy the debut song from Mister Lemur’s new band, “The Screaming Lemurs.”
There is something very unique about the instruments in this song. Can you figure out what it is?

Inside the Lemur Letter you will learn how to nominate your favorite librarian for a big prize and a free trip
to an awards ceremony in New York. The summer “Write Like a Lemur” poetry activity series continues with
tips and ideas on how you can write your own fun and subtly educational rhyming stories. In addition to
those features, get the latest Mister Lemur news and events in the “What’s New in Ranomafana” from Mister
Lemur’s home in Ranomafana. Happy Reading!

Read the July Lemur Letter
View previous Lemur Letters

Welcome to the first edition of The Lemur Letter, Mister Lemur’s brain-boost for young readers and the
people who care about them. Each issue of The Lemur Letter will highlight one new adventure featuring Mister Lemur and/or his friends. Since summer vacation is on all of our minds, this month we share a story Mister Lemur wrote last winter
while looking ahead to fun, sunny days. View the June Lemur Letter.

Mister Lemur and Stanford Reading Rainbow in the Park
Mister Lemur was excited to be a part of Stanford New Schools’ Reading Rainbow in the Park on Saturday, May 14. This free event brought families in East Palo Alto to Bell Street Park to share the joy and fun of reading. Mister Lemur was honored to be one of three authors featured at the elementary table… particularly because the other two featured authors were Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein.

Mister Lemur has some talented friends!
Mister Lemur would like to congratulate all the participants in the write your own Mister Lemur story contest. There were a lot of good entries and a lot of close votes. The top vote getters, as selected by a world-wide audience of visitors to www.misterlemur.com, are:

• Highlands Elementary School (San Mateo, CA), 4th Grade, Nada, “The Shell”
• Highlands Elementary School (San Mateo, CA), 5th Grade, Josselin, “Boys”
• Kathryn Hughes Elementary (Santa Clara, CA) 5th Grade Carla, “The Dragon Who Found His Fire”
• Our Lady of Fatima School (Modesto, CA), 7th Grade, David and Adrian, “What if”
• Stella Maris Academy, (La Jolla, CA) Madeline, “Unlikely Pianist”

Congratulations to the contest winners and THANK YOU to all who entered!

Mister Lemur in the news:
Most lemurs like to hang out in trees. Some lemurs like to hang out in Madagascar. Mister Lemur likes to do both, but he also likes to hang out in the news! Recently you could have seen Mister Lemur in the Wharton Magazine, and on Bergers Book Reviews.