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Partners in the Dance: From Fiction to Nonfiction and Back Again
by Liza Ketchum This week, while I prepared for a talk at AWP (Association of Writing Programs) on writing non-fiction biographies for kids, I thought about how I enjoy researching both nonfiction and fiction titles. Yet a gulf often separates the two genres. In my local library, you turn right at the top of the stairs for the nonfiction stacks
Avi: We Need to Honor That
Every parent, teacher, and librarian wants children to read. The reasons they wish for this are endlessly varied, ranging from educational skills, entertainment, to learning a lesson. Sometimes, however, we need ask, what is it about reading that children like? I’ve come to believe the answer lies in the different way kids and adults read books. When
Melissa Stewart: A Fresh Look at Expository Nonfiction
by Melissa Stewart Narrative nonfiction. The words have a nice ring to them, don’t they? Expository nonfiction? Not so much. Rhymes with gory, purgatory, derogatory, lavatory. Gesh, it’s no wonder expository nonfiction gets a bad rap. And yet, plenty of great nonfiction for kids is expository. Its main purpose is to explain, describe, or inform. As far as I’m
Heather Vogel Frederick: Borrowed Fire
In Absolutely Truly, my new middle grade mystery set in a bookshop in the fictional town of Pumpkin Falls, New Hampshire, a first edition of Charlotte’s Web goes missing. There’s a reason this particular book features so prominently in the story — it’s a nod to my literary hero, E. B. White. E.B. White and I go way back. He’s one of the