If you weren’t a writer, what would you like to be?
If I weren’t a writer, I might be a farmer, or a naturalist, or a singer (if I could carry a tune). Maybe an explorer, or a dancer (if I didn’t trip over my own feet). So many possibilities! What I love about being a writer is that when I’m writing I can be all of those things for a time—a sailor who’s never seasick, a polar explorer, a lighthouse keeper. I get to enter into these imagined lives and live them while I’m writing about them. What could be better than that?
Have you ever thrown a manuscript away?
I throw lots of things away, or else I file them under “practice.” All writing is practice, all writing makes us better writers, just as practice allows a basketball player to sink those three-pointers or a musician to hit all the right notes. Sometimes a story that I end up discarding will give me a word or a phrase that leads me to other stories, sometimes I let the whole thing go. That’s not even counting the writing I do just for me, without any end goal of a finished story or book. That’s just playing, and it makes me so happy when I can do it.
What’s the hardest part of writing a book?
For me the hardest part is finding the heart of a story. Something might draw me in, make me want to write about an event, or a character, or a place, but unless I can find some emotional connection, some reason why this person or place or happening matters to me, then I can’t really make it matter to a reader. If something matters to me, my job is to make it matter to readers, too.
Quick picks:
Soup or salad:I love both—soup in the winter, salad (especially from my garden) in the summer. After a snowy winter, what could be more beautiful and tasty than the first spinach, lettuce, or peas coming up in the garden?
Revision:I love revision because the hard work of finding the story is done, and now I get to figure out how to tell it better. And I hate revision when the story refuses to do what I want it to do.
Early bird writer:I’m definitely early bird. I’m often up and writing at 5 or 6 a.m., and by ten o’clock most nights I’m sound asleep in bed.
Longhand or computer:Sometimes I use one, sometimes the other. A lot depends on where I am and what I’m writing. I mostly use computer these days, but I’ve writtendrafts with crayons and on the back of church programs—whatever is handy when the story strikes.
I’m so glad to have this chance to write to you, reader to reader. Reading has always been one of my favorite things to do. My dad told me once that when I was still in a high chair I was reading, but I think he may have been exaggerating. He liked to tell stories, just like I do.
Two things I especially loved when I was a kid—stories, and being outside.
Stories were everywhere. Stories like Babar and Curious George and Flicka, Dicka, and Ricka on the shelves of the bookmobile that stopped by the woods down the hill from our house every other week. Stories and poems in a big red book my mother bought me once after I had to go to the doctor’s office. Stories in the school library once I started first grade. Stories like Nancy Drew that I could buy for a dollar each in Wolf and Dessauer’s department store. Stories in the comic books on the rack down at Platt’s Pharmacy. And stories that my friends and I made up and played out.
We had lots of room for stories in our neighborhood: big back yards, a huge field of weeds behind my house, attics and basements and garages. When we weren’t making up stories we played kickball or baseball or rode our bikes all around or went exploring and built hideouts. One of my best friends was Donna, and we both planned to be writers when we grew up.
Every summer when I was little my dad and mom and sister and I would go to a cabin for a week or two. We’d swim and fish and row boats and, of course, read. Here’s a picture of me with a fish I caught. I still love being outside, and I still love stories—reading them and writing them, too. I wrote BIG BELCHING BOG because the first time I ever saw a big bog in northern Minnesota, I fell completely in love with it. That bog was one of the wildest places I had ever been, incredibly beautiful and enormous and quiet. It took me a long time to figure out how to put words down on paper that might make readers love the bog, too. I didn’t do the art in the book because I’m not an artist, but I love Betsy Bowen’s pictures, and I think she must love the bog, too, to make such wonderful art.
I was afraid of a lot of things when I was little, like the dark, and the space under my bed, and meeting people, and fire ants, and not knowing where to sit in first grade. I was a lot like Lilly in Lilly and the Pirates, except that I didn’t write things down in a worry book. I’m still afraid of a lot of things, but I’ve learned that even when I’m afraid, if I just go ahead and do what I’m afraid of, I’m almost always glad I did. That’s how I ended up sailing across the Sea of Cortes and hearing whales breathing around us in the dark. And how I ended up going in a raft down the Zambezi River. And how I ended up dog sledding and camping out in northern Minnesota when the temperature was 25 below zero.
By the time I was in fifth grade I knew I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. It took me a long time, but I feel really lucky to be doing what I love to do. And when I’m writing, I’m not afraid of anything.
So whatever it is you want to do, even if you are afraid, follow your heart to do it.
Young readers will further enjoy Phyllis Root’s marvelous Big Belching Bog by participating in some of the subject and resource modules offered in the following link created by the Irish Peatland Conservation Council. Click HERE and enjoy the following suggested subject modules – The Art Module in which bog art field studies and multisensory field investigations are described, the English Module in which word collecting and poetry lessons are presented, and the Science and Resource Modules, both of which suggest wonderful ways to make the vivid bog habitat come to life!
Also, National Geographic’s Xpeditions offers an expectionally informative creative lesson in which the child creates their very own bog habitat. Links to fascinating sites such as eNature and the US Environmental Protection Agency offer rich visual references to guide the young environmentalist in their course of belching bog studies.
There is really no shortage of picture book biographies. And so many good choices, it’s hard to settle on a few. As an educator, it’s important to me to bring to my students’ attention, not only some of the “old” favorites, but to continue to provide many newly published books, as well.
There are often questions about who has the right to tell some of these stories, and how, exactly these stories must be told if they’re to be considered true nonfiction. We’ve left those discussions for other places. Here, we look at books that open a window onto another time and place, to a life others have lived. With that knowledge, we appreciate the view.
“The New Colossus” was the only piece of writing read aloud at an auction held to raise funds for the pedestal upon which Lady Liberty would stand. Students will want to learn more about Emma and the life that led her to write this poem after you’ve read: “Emma Lazarus loved to learn. She had a passion for words and a hunger for knowledge… But back in 1849, when Emma was born, people believed learning was not ladylike and that girls who used their brains too much would become ill. Fortunately, Emma’s father did not agree…”
It’s true, this isn’t the only book for children about Emma Lazarus, but it’s *my* favorite, not only for Erica Silverman’s skillful use of language, but also for the gorgeous illustrations. There’s something uplifting and brilliant about this combination of words and color.
One of the amazing things about books for children is that authors seem to uncover and bring to light important people whom children (and adults, including me!) have never read about before. This is one such book about a man, Joseph Boulogne, born of a slave mother and his French, plantation owner, father, who moved to Europe with his family, became a well-known and applauded musician, and overcame the prejudice of his peers to eventually earn an invitation to play for King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. An author’s note gives additional background.
Amelia Earhart can be found on the pages of many books written for children. But AMELIA LOST is full of well-documented primary and secondary source material and a point-of-view I’ve not seen in other books about Earhart. Moving between the search for Amelia’s plane and the unfolding of events in Earhart’s life, this is a biography unlike any written to date. Pure and simple, it’s fascinating reading for children and adults.
According to the timeline at the end of the book, basketball was invented by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891. A few years later, in the spring of 1896, Agnes Morley and her teammates played ball, representing Stanford University against Berkeley in the first women’s intercollegiate game.
This important face-off was only the beginning. It would be another 80 years before basketball would become a medal sport for women at the Summer Olympics. Amazing, isn’t it?
There is so much to love about this book. Not only do the illuminating day-glo colors scream for attention, but the story, as told by Barton, is quite a journey. Glowing paints on a “peculiar-looking angel food cake”? Magic acts, fluorescent-painted paper costumes, silk fabric, glowing in the backyard – in ordinary daylight?
Information about regular and daylight fluorescence rounds out this fascinating story, and an author’s note at the end recounts the initial spark that led Barton to write the book.
One of the wonderful things about recently published biographies for children is the way the form and format has grown. It’s a simple thing, yes, but this story – a picture of Mark Twain through the eyes of Susy, his daughter – is formatted in such a way that Susy’s words are reproduced between the pages of the narrative, as a separate small journal until itself.
Author’s notes about “Papa” and “Susy” can be found at the end of the book as well as a page titled, “WRITING AN EXTRAORDINARY BIOGRAPHY (According to Barbara Kerley).”
A “mini-version” of this resource can be found on Kerley’s site HERE.
HENRY’S FREEDOM BOX: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Henry Brown mailed himself to freedom. He arrived in Philadelphia, 350 miles from his home in Richmond, Virginia, some twenty-seven hours later. Carrying only a few biscuits, a little water, and a small tool for making air holes, Henry was finally a free man.
For those interested in learning more about the ins and outs of reading, writing, and teaching nonfiction for K-5 students, there are many resources available for further study. We’ve listed a few of these below and would love to hear some of your favorite links, as well.
This month’s Hornbook (March 2011) is full of wonderful essays on “Fact, Fiction, and In Between.” If you’re not a subscriber or are unable to get a copy of this edition, be sure to check out the articles listed below, which are available on-line:
* I.N.K. (Interesting Nonfiction for Kids) is an excellent blog for those interested in reading more on the topic by authors currently writing nonfiction for kids.
Click HERE to be led through insightful pre-reading questions, a lesson on comparing and contrasting the Switzer brothers, a rich glossary of terms, and many more interesting activities. What makes this guide truly unique is the link on page 2 to the Charlesbridge site. There you’ll find an fascinating demonstration explaining the relationship be tween color and light, in particular how Day Glo colors pack that extra colorful punch.
Cleverly done, What’s Up, What’s Down? is a “look everywhere” book. By that I mean, the book must be turned on its side and read from bottom-to-top in the first half, and top-to-bottom in the second half. It’s a lot of fun and very clever! The story begins, “WHAT’S UP if you’re a mole?” (turn the page) “Loose, rich soil/sewn together with/thread-fine roots./What’s up if you’re a root?” And so on. It’s a beautifully poetic introduction to the natural world.
Simply told in rhyming verse, AN ISLAND GROWS, traces the development over time of a volcanic island. A short description and bibliography follows at the end of the book with a few more details about volcanic island growth. This book makes a find compliment to other, more traditional nonfiction resources.
Another simply gorgeous book, poetically written, brilliantly executed and illustrated, PICK, PULL, SNAP is a book teachers in the primary grades will enjoy using to introduce the life of a seed, from flower to fruit. Each tri-fold spread opens to a reveal the “mystery” fruit. Also included is more about pollination, with additional information provided about planting each seed mentioned.
Mission Statement
To provide teachers, librarians, and parents with the resources and inspiration to foster a love of reading in kids, K-5.
Quick picks:
