Have you read the picture book The Library by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by her husband, David Small? From the moment I saw the cover illustration, I knew I would love the book. I couldn’t resist that depiction of a young woman coming home from the library, her nose in a book and pulling a wagonload…
My Dad loved to tell a story about my cousin who, when he was in first grade, came downstairs one morning, set a copy of Black Beauty on the corner of the kitchen table, and said, “Nobody move that. We’re learning to read today and I’m going to read it when I get home.” Family…
Something writer, actor, arts advocate, literacy advocate Julie Andrews stresses, no matter who she’s talking to — aspiring writers, young people wanting to become involved in the arts, whoever — is that one must do one’s homework, be fully prepared, and be ready to recognize and seize opportunities when they come along. I find it…
Although I expect those words can be frustrating to a parent who just wants a child to go to sleep, the words are still something that I think all parents should be glad to hear, because it means the child is reading. Not watching TV, not playing yet another level of a video game, not…
When I was a child, searching for something in my room, I’d eventually say, “I can’t find it!” and Mum would come into my room, say, “Open your big blue eyes…” and she’d quickly find whatever I was looking for. In later years, she would often lament that people don’t really look at things. They…
The book title that caught my eye, and inspired this reflection on writing, is Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. Although the edition I have is the 75th Anniversary Edition, I just bought it and read it for the first time this summer while I was in Walton-on-Thames, England. It says a lot for a book…
The book title that inspired today’s post in my ongoing miniseries is Something to Hang On To, by Beverley Brenna (whose name has come up a couple of times on my blog this week!) The book is a collection of Young Adult short stories, on a variety of topics, some serious, including one heart-wrenching story…
One of the chief objections a young reader had to the first version of my middle grade manuscript was that it wasn’t funny. She said she likes funny books. In the comments about genre-identity yesterday, Erik (about the same age as the reader mentioned above) said that he liked writing funny stuff. There’s a message…