Tag: writing for children
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Student Showcase: David Scheele
In my skype workshop on creating character, I asked students to choose a character (a person, an animal, or an object) to become. After a series of exercises, the students then had to write a monologue from the character’s point of view. Fifth grader David Scheele wrote this amazing monologue. See if you can guess what…
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Interview about Edgar and Poetry
Check out Poet Laura Shovan’s interview with me about Edgar Allan’s Official Crime Investigation Notebook.
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Matilda on the Need for Humor
In Matilda, Roald Dahl’s characters discuss the need for humor in children’s books; Matilda begins: “I think Mr. C.S. Lewis is a very good writer. But he has one failing. There are no funny bits in his books.” “You are right there,” Miss Honey said. “There aren’t many funny bits in Mr. Tolkien either,” Matilda…
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What did I learn?
If you want to learn something, one of the best ways to do it is to be conscious of what you are learning. That may sound ridiculously obvious, but life has a way of flooding the mind with too much information and sweeping the newly-learned or almost-learned stuff out to sea. The best way for…
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How to Read a Novel
One of the students in my Fiction for Young Readers class asked what she should focus on when she’s reading the novels I assigned. First of all, I read for enjoyment, of course; but I do analyze books as I read, and I do it on two basic levels. Think of a house. You’ve got…
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Boys on the Brain
I’m riding on the metro, writing up my syllabus for a graduate course that I’ll be teaching (Fiction for Young Readers) at Johns Hopkins University; and I’m working on my lesson called “Audience: Age and Gender” when two boys hop on. Their moms quickly take a seat and chat. Although plenty of seats are free,…
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How to Hear a Character’s Voice
Youtube link for video.https://youtu.be/MKSPVcFP6U8 Teachers, if you can’t access youtube, try teachertube.
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How to Write a Funny Poem
The characters in Edgar Allan’s Official Crime Investigation Notebook write lots of funny poems. Download this pdf to discover how to write your own humorous poetry: How to Write a Funny Poem by Mary Amato
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Writing for children, according to L’Engle
This great quote came to my attention from Melissa Henderson, Head of Children’s Services, The Glencoe Public Library, Glencoe, Illinois.