I make no claim that this is an unbiased review: One of my friends, Mylisa Larsen, just wrote a wonderful picture book: How to Put Your Parents to Bed. But you don’t have to believe me—The New York Times loved it, too. Here’s a preview, just to give you a smile. As you can tell, … Continue reading
I know young children are fascinated by dinosaurs. But I’m willing to bet that slightly older students—especially those who want to write well—will be equally excited about Alison Wilcox’s Descriptosaurus. Wilcox describes Descriptosaurus as a “thematic expansion of a dictionary and thesaurus.” It is a resource designed to help students aged 8-14 expand their descriptive … Continue reading
You know I’ve been spending time with pre-adolescents when a book titled I Love You More than Moldy Ham sets me chortling in the bookstore aisle. The book, targeted at primary grade students, tells the story of a young monster who trudges through swampland to gather ingredients for a special dinner for his mom. It … Continue reading
Sometimes creativity walks a line. The space between innovative and new-for-the-sake-of-new (or clever and tasteless) can sometimes be tricky to determine. That was a bit how I felt reading Brett Wright’s YOLO Juliet. YOLO Juliet, published—unsurprisingly–by OMG Shakespeare, recounts the tale of Romeo and Juliet in texts—emoticons and all. It is part of a series … Continue reading
A few weeks ago I wrote a series of posts about students as questioners, ending with posts on questions in particular disciplines: What do historians ask? How about scientists? Mathematicians? Then, I’ll admit, I got stuck. In each of the previous subject areas I considered the types of questions professionals asked when engaged in creative … Continue reading
Two of my most memorable school assignments both involved interviewing my grandfather. In the first, for a seventh grade history assignment, I learned about his work during World War II Air Raid drills, making sure no light shone through neighborhood windows. In the second, for a college writing class, I learned rowdier stories of his … Continue reading
I’ll admit it—sometimes social media can by a mystery. A friend shared a wonderful vocabulary resource called “Wheel of Words” via Facebook. Hoping for a bigger version I searched for it the image, found it, and was led to the source page—because, of course, I wanted to give credit where due. The problem is, though … Continue reading
Apparently Shakespeare is in the air. (OK, I suppose Shakespeare is always in the air somewhere). But now, right on the heels of my falling in love with the song “Will Power” from Something Rotten, NPR features the release of Erik Didriksen’s Pop Sonnets. Pop Sonnets is an outgrowth of Didriksen’s Tumblr, where every Thursday … Continue reading
Halloween is almost here, and along with creative opportunities for scary story writing (see here and here), come some silly-story options as well. I’ve written previously about Halloween parodies of favorite tales. I also love the story of Delia the witch in It’s Raining Bats and Frogs. When Delia is frustrated by rain on the … Continue reading
Was Shakespeare a rock star? He was popular in his time, but what if his reputation then paralleled celebrity today? That’s one of the questions underlying the current Broadway musical sensation Something Rotten, the story of Nick and Nigel Bottom, would-be playwrights stuck in the shadow of the Bard of Avon. The sound track is … Continue reading
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