Knock Knock
Laughing All the Way
I finished reading The Road to Little Dribbling over a week ago, and I’m still laughing. I’m a sucker for a funny story, and Bill Bryson has provided me with a steady stream of them since I first discovered him in Granta magazine back in the ’80s. I couldn’t get enough of his wisecracking tales about growing up in Des Moines,
Look at how we’re teaching nonfiction!
As another school year winds to a close, I’m feeling encouraged about the state of nonfiction reading and writing in elementary classrooms across the country. In 2010, when the Common Core State Standards were introduced, educators began asking me for ideas and strategies for implementing the Reading Informational Text standards. And they were hungry for tips
Wolf Sighting
It is not often that I get a call such as I just did. The call came Larry McCoy, who holds a doctorate in theology, and teaches philosophy at the Steamboat, Colorado Community College. He also builds log houses and has a dog named “Helen.” That’s the way folks are here in Routt County. He is one of our near
La Escuela Primaria: A Visit to Cuba
This past February, my husband and I traveled to Cuba on an eleven-day tour. Near the end of the trip, we drove from the central city of Camagüey to visit a ranch. After a two-hour drive, our bus bounced down a long dirt road and passed under a wooden sign that resembled a gate in an old western, telling us we
Making a Deep Map
I like to think of landscape not as a fixed place but as a path that is unwinding before my eyes, under my feet. ~ Gretel Ehrlich Book projects get set aside, even those with fast beating hearts that you can’t bear to be away from for a second. Sickness, holidays, other stuff pushes it away. The book’s
Unexpected Visitors
As writers, we learn to expect the unexpected and be ready to capture experiences in words. One such moment stands out from this past winter for me. My husband and I were sleeping in our cabin loft, on 60 acres where we keep our horses. I woke at 3 am to crunching snow below our window. I sat upright, wondering
Molting Advice
Level 1 books teem with action. Illustrations match the narrative. If the reader has trouble decoding the text, the art provides necessary cues.
Writing Books for the Newest Readers
Level 1 books teem with action. Illustrations match the narrative. If the reader has trouble decoding the text, the art provides necessary cues.
Lisa Bullard: My Not-So-Overnight Success
Early on, when people would ask my kid self what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d answer “Shoe Salesperson.” But then I discovered that feet sometimes smell, and I moved on to a different dream: Book Writer. I could invent a great story and tell you that I crafted a long-term plan to realize my dream. But instead, this is
Lynne Jonell: Accessing Childhood Emotion
They say that, if you’re a doctor, it’s not something you want to admit to at an event where you’re going to have to make small talk with a lot of strangers. Because invariably people will want your opinion on their rash, or the funny flutter in their chest, or the odd bump on their knee. I wouldn’t
At the Dying of the Year
by Virginia Euwer Wolff Now winter downs the dying of the year, And night is all a settlement of snow… —Richard Wilbur, “Year’s End” We all have our circles of particularly mourned lost ones. As our hemisphere darkens down in this elegiac season of the winter equinox, and death has been so relentlessly in the air during 2015, I wave
Mary Casanova: Cultivating Quiet
by Mary Casanova Eudora Welty wrote in One-Writer’s Beginnings: “Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories.” The more I write, the more I find that writing is about listening to stories that need to be told. Listening at a deeply intuitive level, however, demands shutting out a frenetic world in favor of a quieter life — one that supports and nurtures creativity — and
The Power of Fiction to Help Kids Grow
by Elizabeth Fixmer The years I spent in private practice as a psychotherapist specializing in work with children propelled me to become a children’s writer. My use of books as a therapy adjunct evolved over time, as did my respect and eventual awe for the power of fiction as a change agent. My young clients introduced me to middle-grade and
Marion Dane Bauer: Animals in Stories, Animals in the World
by Marion Dane Bauer Who doesn’t love a puppy? Well, admittedly there are some folks who don’t, especially considering how difficult both ends of such creatures are to keep under control. So let’s rephrase the question: Who doesn’t love a puppy in a children’s story? Or even a frog or a toad, for that matter? Something happens to a story when it
Jen Bryant: The Writing Apprenticeship
by Jen Bryant Several months ago, I was asked to be on a panel for a new-writers workshop. During the question and answer period, one woman commented: “I keep hearing that writing is a craft that requires time and practice to master. I get that … but as someone who’s eager to be an apprentice but has neither the time