I became a fan of Deborah Hopkinson in 2007, when I started Anastasia Suen’s Easy Readers and Chapter Books course. For the first assignment, we had to read five chapter books then choose one to analyze. I chose PIONEER SUMMER because it was my favorite. Years later, when I became co-regional advisor for SCBWI Western Washington, I knew I had
A few special shout-outs for a few special Cybils 2009 winners: Non-Fiction For Young Adults The Frog Scientist by Pamela S. Turner; illustrated by Andy Comins Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Nominated by: Laurie Thompson (YAY, that’s me!) Again, what a field. Each of the books in this category blew me away. It’s thrilling to see these exciting topics being covered in
The prompt over at Sunday Scribblings today is dare. My first instinct was to write a spontaneous short fiction vignette—that is what prompts are all about, right? But, while I consider writing fiction a useful practice to improve my skills as well as a rewarding creative endeavor in its own right, my real passion is nonfiction. So, today I’ll share
In the interests of pushing myself out of my comfort zone, I recently finished a class in magical realism. It was drastically different from anything I’ve done (or even read, really) before, and the results were, well, interesting. The final assignment was this: “For this assignment, take the notion of a garden (well tended or neglected, your choice) and play
The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge gives students in grades K‑8 the opportunity, tools and inspiration to become agents of change. From their website: The Siemens Foundation, Discovery Education, and the National Science Teachers Association invite you to join the only Challenge of its kind that empowers students to create solutions to environmental problems in their own backyards,
I loved this recent post by Cheryl Harness over at I.N.K. (Interesting Nonfiction for Kids). My favorite part comes right at the end: As for me, here’s the “Boston Massacre,” March 5, 1770, in The Revolutionary John Adams: “Noisy men and boys were throwing snowballs and oyster shells at a British sentry …The scene exploded with more soldiers, an alarm bell,
The big topic in the writing world this time of year is NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, in which aspiring writers are encouraged to churn out 50,000 words of rough draft in 30 days. It’s easy to get caught up in the hype, but after weeks of consideration and days of agonizing, I’ve finally decided NOT to do it this
What a great idea! A group of talented authors who write fantastic nonfiction for kids have just launched a new project: INK Think Tank. “Each author has connected his or her books to national curriculum standards through a database that is accessible to everyone.” This is great for the authors involved, great for educators, and great for nonfiction for kids
Kimberly Baker, superfriend and member of the dynamic trio, has challenged me to a war of words. She knows I need a swift kick in the *** to get a first draft down (especially of a fiction novel–gasp!), but she may not know just how competitive I can be. Even if I lose, though, I win, since it’s just the
Unfortunately, I don’t think this is an April Fool’s Day joke. This case filing is perhaps unique among its peers in containing the phrase “deep stirrings of flatulence,” a phrase one hardly expects to encounter in a court filing. Thanks to Visual Thesaurus for the full article.