This installment in our Author Series comes from Aaron Shepard, the award-winning author of One-Eye! Two-Eyes! Three-Eyes!, The Sea King’s Daughter, The Baker’s Dozen, The Legend of Lightning Larry, and many more children’s books from publishers large and small. His stories have also appeared often in Cricket magazine. Check out his website at http://www.aaronshep.com/ to get loads of free treats and resources for teachers, librarians, storytellers, children’s authors, parents, kids, and more. You’ll also find info on Aaron, his books, and his author visits.

Good writers often break rules—but they know they’re doing it! Here are some good rules to know. (more…)

Writing can be about anything – including someone else’s writing! This post by Adora Svitak focuses on how to write a book review – including how it differs from a book report.

Adora Svitak is an American child prodigy and internationally published author, known for her essays, stories, poems, blogs, and full-length books. Her book, Flying Fingers describes Adora’s abiding love of language and writing and contains tips and hints for other aspiring writers. In 2005, at the age of 7, Adora began writing blogs and keeping an online journal, where she comments on matters of both international significance and subjects of personal interest. Since Nov, 2005 Adora has been leveraging her talent and fame to promote literacy and interest in reading and writing. She has lectured before large audiences of both students and adults around the world.

Adora is also a user of MY Access!® Home Edition. You can see her talk about using My Access! here.

Learn more about Adora and her work on her website at http://www.adorasvitak.com/

Here are some tips on how to write a book review:

1.) Be sure to include essential information. Essential information includes things like author’s name, title of the book, etc. Give your reader essential information before launching right into your in-depth views on the book. It’s confusing to read a book review when you don’t know the book being reviewed. However, you probably don’t just want to say, “The title of the book is _____ and the author is ______ .” (more…)

Ralph Fletcher, author of many picture books and novels for young readers, provides us with the latest installment in our Author Series. Aside from his works of fiction, Mr. Fletcher has also published a series of instructional writing books including How to Write Your Life Story, A Writer’s Notebook, Live Writing, How Writers Work, and Poetry Matters. Stop by http://www.ralphfletcher.com to learn more about Mr. Fletcher, his books, and more! 

What Should I Write About?

I’m not a big believer in “story starters”. I believe that the best ideas are living inside you. Your challenge is to dig them out. Do the writing only you can do. But every writer gets stuck from time to time so I’ve included a few ideas to jump-start your imagination. (more…)

Following is the Teaching Tip written by Matt Daneker that was included in the last issue of MY Access!® Newsletter sent to all Home Edition users. As it has generated so much interest, and is applicable to all students, I thought it made sense to post here to make it available to a larger audience.

As I thought about this question, I had to reflect on an experience I shared with my daughter on our recent summer vacation. I am lucky to have a daughter who likes to read for fun. She is by no means a “bookworm,” but I sure don’t have to coax her to read once she has found a book or series that she enjoys. (more…)

Bruce Hale has made the long journey from struggling artist to bestselling author.  He has published over 20 books and spoken to groups across the U.S. and Canada, including the prestigious Maui Writers Conference. His Underwhere series includes Prince of Underwhere and Pirates of Underwhere. His Chet Gecko Mysteries series includes: The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse, The Big Nap, The Malted Falcon, Hiss Me Deadly, and others. Visit http://www.brucehale.com/ to read more about Bruce, his books, his school visits, and have a little fun!

Introduction

We are all storytellers. And story is all around us. After all, what is a TV show or a movie? What is a book? What do you tell your parents when they ask, “How was your day, dear?” You guessed it - a story. (more…)

Previously, we spoke about helping children who have a tough time starting an essay. Now, let’s consider a different sort of problem, namely, plagiarism. A writer commits plagiarism when he or she fails to properly attribute an idea to the person who came up with it in the first place. In its simplest form, plagiarism often involves using a direct quote without identifying the speaker. (more…)

The second installment in our Author Series comes with many thanks to Sue Macy for allowing us to share her 10 Tips for Young Writers.

Sue Macy is an author and editor of books, magazine articles, and writing for the Web. Much of her work is for kids and young adults, and a lot of it is about sports. Her books include Girls Got Game: Sports Stories & Poems, Play Like a Girl: A Celebration of Women in Sports, Freeze Frame, and Swifter, Higher, Stronger, which received starred review from “School Library Journal” and “Booklist.” She is also on the board of directors of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association, the group that organizes reunions and educates the public about the league.

You can learn a lot more about Sue, her books, and her interests on her website at http://www.suemacy.com/

It’s one of the oldest jokes in the book. “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” asks a tourist lost in New York City. “Practice!” (more…)

One of the five traits of writing that may seem daunting to young writers—and maybe even to parents and teachers—is “Language Use and Style.”  While it is fairly easy to help children identify language errors, such as misspellings, in their writing, helping them to improve their language style can be challenging.

Errors in word choice, usage, and conventions, after all, properly belong within the category of “Mechanics and Conventions” and involve a writer’s proficiency with mostly hard and fast rules of English.  Language style, as the name suggests, involves something less firm than a hard and fast rule; it is more artistic in nature and engages a writer’s ability to use language creatively and expressively to communicate a message, as well as something of the writer’s own personality, to the reader. (more…)

Dan Gutman is the author of more than 80 books, fictional and non-fictional, for both children and adults. His published works include The Homework Machine, The Million Dollar Putt, and Landslide! A Kid’s Guide to the U.S. Elections. He’s also published the & Me baseball card adventure series as well as the My Weird School series. We would like to thank Dan for allowing us to post his “Tips for Young Authors” in our Vantage community. You can learn more about Dan and his books and find some fun surprises on his Web site at http://www.dangutman.com.

Writing non-fiction…
If you have to write a report for school on a topic (say, the Civil War), it is really no different than what I go through when I write a book such as “Gymnastics” or “Baseball’s Greatest Games.”

The first step is to gather information. What I do, basically, is to try and find out everything I can about my subject.

For gymnastics, I went to the library to see what books had been published on the topic. I went through The New York Times Index and the Reader’s Guide to Periodicals to read articles written about gymnastics. I skimmed five years of International Gymnast magazine. I checked out gymnastic web sites. I interviewed gymnasts and coaches. (more…)

Following is the Teaching Tip written by Matt Daneker that was included in the last issue of MY Access!® Newsletter sent to all Home Edition users. As it has generated so much interest, and is applicable to all students, I thought it made sense to post here to make it available to a larger audience.

Question:

How can I help my child get started writing?

Answer:

Getting started is tough for many writers, even those we might call professionals. Sometimes this initial block is caused by having too few ideas about a topic, but it can also be the result of having too many ideas in mind. In either case, students become anxious when they are unsure of how to start writing. There is no single way to overcome this (more…)