Happy Summer, friends! Our new session of Teachers Write begins on Monday, and I couldn’t be more excited about the summer of writing that’s in store. Our focus this year is Poetry and Play. I’ll be kicking off the summer with a mini-lesson on found poems that includes a sneak-preview excerpt from my current work in progress, a novel-in-verse called The Trouble with Heroes . But I’m even more excited to introduce you to the amazing mentor poets who will be joining us this summer with mini-lessons and writing prompts on everything from haikus to poetic forms and devices, the power of names, line breaks, and revision.

Teachers Write has always been and will always be free, but we’d love it if you’d say thanks to our guest authors by supporting their work. Check out this amazing team of mentor poets!

 JOSEPH BRUCHAC

LOREE GRIFFIN BURNS

MARGARITA ENGLE

NIKKI GRIMES

RAJANI LAROCCA

LAURA RUBY

I’m incredibly grateful to this dream team of talented poets for sharing strategies with us all.

If you’re not already registered, just click here to sign up. We’d love for you to write with us this summer!

Now sharpen your pencils and dig out your notebook or charge your laptop so you’ll be all ready for a summer of Poetry and Play. Teachers Write begins on Monday! 

Happy Summer, friends! It’s time for another summer of Teachers Write, our free, online summer writing camp especially for teachers & librarians. If you haven’t already registered, you can sign up here. Once that’s done, just pull up an Adirondack chair and join us with your notebook or laptop! Teachers Write begins on July 10th.

Whether you’re a long-time camper or brand new this year, I’m so glad you’re here. Just like always, you’ll get mini-lessons and writing prompts delivered right to your in-box. This year, we’re going to focus on poetry and play!

While Teachers Write is designed especially for teachers and librarians, anyone is welcome to follow along with our weekly writing prompts, mini-lessons, and challenges. You can participate as much or as little as you’d like. The goal is to get writing in a fun, low-pressure atmosphere and to have fun. Teachers and librarians who write for themselves are stronger mentors and more empathetic facilitators for student writers, too.

This summer, some amazing mentor poets will be joining us, and they’re just as excited to write with you as I am. Watch for an announcement soon!

Teachers Write 2023 will begin on July 10 and wrap up on August 4, with each week’s writing prompts and lessons delivered to your email inbox on Monday morning (and look for some midweek bonus posts this summer, too!). Educator-writer Jen Vincent will also host weekly check-in posts on her blog, where those who wish can continue the conversation online, sharing reflections, writing, and feedback.

Don’t forget – this is a no-pressure, participate-on-your-own-terms summer, so feel free to sign up, even if you think you might only try one or two prompts, or if you’d just like to watch from the sidelines. However you choose to participate, I think you’ll come out of this season of writing feeling more confident about writing poetry and excited about your toolbox of new ideas to try with student writers, too. But most of all, I hope that writing in community with us brings you joy, which is so essential in our teaching and writing lives.

Join us, won’t you? You can sign up for Teachers Write 2023 here, and then look for an email from me in your in-box on Monday, July 10th!

Happy World Read Aloud Day, friends!

To celebrate, I’m sharing a sneak preview of FERGUS AND ZEKE FOR PRESIDENT! This read-aloud video of the first chapter will be available throughout February (so you can bookmark it to share on Presidents Day, too!)

FERGUS AND ZEKE FOR PRESIDENT comes out on May 23 from Candlewick Press and is available for pre-order now! Signed copies may be pre-ordered from my local independent bookseller, The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid, NY. Pre-order here and just leave a note in the comments about how you’d like it signed!

And if you don’t want to wait, the other great books in the FERGUS AND ZEKE series are available right now. That includes FERGUS AND ZEKE AND THE 100TH DAY OF SCHOOL

Happy World Read Aloud Day! I hope your day is full of amazing stories!

My first book tour in over three years is coming up early next month! Grace Lin and I are hitting the road to share our magical new picture book ONCE UPON A BOOK, and we’d love to see you along the way!

If you buy a book at one of our events, you’ll also get this cute enamel pin as a thank you, while supplies last. Can’t make it in person? No worries! If you pre-order from Porter Square Books, we’ll sign your copy when we’re there on February 7th, and they’ll include a pin when they ship out your book!

Here are the links to sign up for our in-person events, along with pre-order links so you can reserve your book and your pin.

Tuesday, February 7th – 7pm : Porter Square Books, Cambridge MA. Get your free ticket for the event HERE!  (and if you can’t make it in person, just pre-order the book from Porter Square and you’ll still get the special pin!)  

Wednesday, February 8th – 6pm: Books of Wonder, New York, NY. Get your free ticket for our NYC event HERE!

Thursday, February 9th – 6pm: Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore, Berkeley, CA. Get your free ticket HERE!

Hope to celebrate stories with you soon!

It’s December 1st, and that means the internet is aswirl with Best Books of the Year lists. Everyone from PW to NSTA to your favorite book blogger is sharing their favorite titles of the year. It’s a wonderful way to discover new titles and build up your to-read list, but the truth is, this can also be a tough time of year for authors and illustrators, especially those who are new to publishing. So please consider this post a virtual hug, from me to you.

As someone who’s published more than fifty books for young readers, from picture books to chapter book adventures to novels and nonfiction, I know how you feel. Sometimes, my books are on those amazing lists, and that’s exciting. Sometimes, they’re not, and that can be disappointing. But every day, as people who create books for kids, we should remember why we write. A while back, I wrote a poem about that….

What Happened to Your Book Today
by Kate Messner (Copyright 2011)

Somewhere, a child laughed
on that page where you made a joke.
Somewhere, she wiped away a tear,
Just when you thought she might.

Somewhere, your book was passed
from one hand to another in a hallway
busy with clanging lockers,
with whispered words,
“You have got to read this.”
And a scribbled note:
OMG – SO good
Give it back when ur done.

It’s looking a little more love-worn lately,
rougher around the edges than it did on release day.
There are dog eared pages and Gatorade stains.
Someone smeared maple syrup on the cover
because she read all through breakfast.
Pages 125 and 126 are stuck fast with peanut butter
Because Chapter 10 was even more delicious
than lunch.

Somewhere, tiny hands held up your book
And a little voice begged, “Again!”
Somewhere, the answer came,
A grown-up sigh…and a smile…
And the fourteenth read-aloud of the morning.
That same book. Again.
Your book.

Somewhere, a kid who has never read a whole book on his own
(Really. Not even one.)
picked up yours and turned a page.
And then another.
And then one more.
And it was pretty cool, turns out.
He brought it back – huge smile on his face –
(and I mean huge)
And asked for another one.
And he read that, too.

Somewhere, a teenager who thought she was alone
Opened your pages and discovered she’s not.
And somewhere, somebody who thought about giving up
will keep on trying,
keep on hoping.

Because of that book you wrote.

Somewhere tonight – listen closely and you’ll hear–
A child will turn the last page of that book,
That book you wrote,
and sigh.
Can you hear it?
It’s the sound of a story being held close
Right before a young voice says,
“It feels like this was written just for me.”

And it was.

Are you ready for World Read Aloud Day? It’s an annual celebration of sharing stories from the amazing folks at LitWorld and Scholastic. This year’s World Read Aloud Day will be February 1, 2023!

If you’re new to this page, I’m Kate Messner, author of more than fifty books for kids, including these recent releases.

I’m also a former middle school teacher and a forever reader. Each winter, I help out with LitWorld’s World Read Aloud Day by pulling together a list of author & illustrator volunteers who would like to spend part of the day doing quick virtual read-aloud visits with classrooms around the world to share the joy of stories.

This year, because I have two new books coming out just after World Read Aloud Day, I’ll be offering two special virtual author visit opportunities!

ONCE UPON A BOOK, my picture book collaboration with Grace Lin, releases on February 7th. To celebrate, Grace and I are offering a virtual author visit from 1-2pm EST on January 31, the day before World Read Aloud Day! We’ll offer a read-aloud excerpt from Once Upon A Book, share the story behind this collaboration, and invite readers to use their own imaginations, writing in response to art! The session will wrap up with time for Q&A with classrooms. Best of all, it’s FREE with your pre-order of ONCE UPON A BOOK from the Eric Carle Museum Bookstore! After you order, you’ll be emailed link for the webinar on 1/31. Later, you’ll get a link to our video replay, which will be available for two weeks. You can learn more and pre-order your copy of ONCE UPON A BOOK here.

The fifth book in our acclaimed Fergus and Zeke easy reader series is also coming out just after World Read Aloud Day! FERGUS AND ZEKE FOR PRESIDENT is a playful celebration of America’s presidents that will also spark great discussions about what qualities make a leader. I’ll be sharing a first-chapter read-aloud right here on this page just before World Read Aloud Day. Add a bookmark now so you’ll remember to check back to share it with your readers! FERGUS AND ZEKE FOR PRESIDENT is available for pre-order now, so you can pick up your classroom or library copy to share later on.

And of course, there’s also an AMAZING list of authors and illustrators who have volunteered to Zoom into classrooms for World Read Aloud Day!

WORLD READ ALOUD DAY IS FEBRUARY 1, 2023!

The authors & illustrators listed have volunteered their time to read aloud to classrooms and libraries all over the world. These aren’t long, fancy presentations; a typical one might go like this:

• 1-2 minutes: Author introduces himself or herself and talks a little about his or her books.
• 3-5 minutes: Author reads aloud a short picture book, or a short excerpt from a chapter book/novel
• 5-10  minutes: Author answers a few questions from students about reading/writing
• 1-2 minutes: Author book-talks a couple books he or she loves (but didn’t write!) as recommendations for the kids

If you’re a teacher or librarian and you’d like to have an author Zoom with your classroom or library on World Read Aloud Day, here’s how to do it:

• Check out this list of volunteering authors and illustrators, and visit their websites to see which ones might be a good fit for your students. Note that this is a list of traditionally published book creators. This year, the wonderful Judy Campbell-Smith, author of AJ’S NEIGHBORHOOD, has also put together a list of self-published authors & illustrators offering WRAD visits. For both lists, you’ll want to check out the authors’ books ahead of time to make sure they’re a good fit for your readers.
• Contact the author directly by using the email provided or clicking on the link to his or her website and finding the contact form. Please be sure to provide the following information in your request:
  • Your name and what grade(s) you work with
  • Your city and time zone (this is important for scheduling!)
  • Possible times to connect on February 1st. Please note authors’ availability and time zones. Adjust accordingly if yours is different!
  • Your preferred platform (Zoom, Google Meet, etc.)
  • A phone number where you can be reached on that day in case of technical issues
• Please understand that authors are people, too, and have schedules and personal lives, just like you, so not all authors will be available at all times. It may take a few tries before you find someone whose books and schedule fit with yours!

If you’re a traditionally published author or illustrator who would like to be added to the list, you can fill out this form to sign up.  The wonderful Judy Campbell-Smith is also coordinating a list of self-published and ebook authors – if that’s you and you’d like to volunteer, please fill out her form here. Once your schedule is full, please send an email via my website contact form, and I’ll remove your name from the list. Please note that due to deadlines and other obligations, it may take up to a week for me to update.

“Rethinking Thanksgiving: History, Holidays, and Gratitude” is a virtual author visit with Kate Messner and Traci Sorell, whose books explore history and culture. It’s aimed at readers in grades 3-7 and invites students to take a critical look at the “First Thanksgiving” myth and consider multiple views on gratitude. The virtual author visit video runs about 45 minutes and will be available throughout the month of November.

Cost: Because so many educators have reached out to request this video and we know it’s a tough time for budgets, we’re making this virtual author visit available to everyone. If you can, please pay it forward by making a donation of any size to the We Need Diverse Books Native Fund or the Highlights Indigenous Storytellers Scholarship fund.

Be sure to check out Kate and Traci’s books featured in this visit – HISTORY SMASHERS: THE MAYFLOWER and OTSALIHELIGA: WE ARE GRATEFUL!

I’m celebrating a book birthday today! This picture book biography has been a long time coming – almost seven years – so I woke up with happy tears in my eyes, and a few sad ones, too. Here’s why…

ONLY THE BEST: THE EXCEPTIONAL LIFE AND FASHION OF ANN LOWE is co-authored by Margaret Powell, illustrated by Erin Robinson, and published by Chronicle Books, and it’s about one of the first African American fashion designers – a woman whose work was so amazing and sought-after that she designed Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress (and never got credit for it at the time – the elaborate press write-ups of the wedding simply mentioned that “a colored dressmaker” had created Jackie’s gown.)

I’m so excited to introduce you to Ann’s work, and I’d also like to take a few minutes to introduce you to my friend and coauthor, Margaret Powell. Margaret passed away in early 2019, and oh my goodness, how I wish you could have met her. She was one of the smartest, loveliest people I’ve ever known, and she made it her life work to make sure people would know about Ann Lowe’s amazing talents.

It was Ann who led me to Margaret. I’d see one of Ann Lowe’s stunning gowns at the Smithsonian and made a note to look her up to learn more about her work. When I read about her history – how she’d learned to sew alongside her mother and her grandmother, an enslaved seamstress in Alabama, and how the fabric flowers she crafted from scraps as a child became a hallmark of her debutante gowns – I could immediately see her story as a picture book.

As a writer, when I have a “spark moment’ like this, the first question I ask myself is, “Is there enough information – and enough conflict and interest – here for a picture book?” As soon as I starting digging into the research, I realized that the answer to that question was a resounding yes.

The next question I ask is “Am I the best person to tell this story?” And that answer was, well, no – probably not. Ann’s life work was shaped by her history – by the talent that she inherited and honed through hard work, and by the racism that she encountered every step of the way. That’s not something I’ve experienced, and it’s not something I can write about with the same emotional depth as someone who has.

Often, when I come across a story idea like this, I’ll simply put it out to the writing community with a note – “Hey, friends! Check out this amazing person – I’m not the right person to tell this story, but maybe you are. Let me know if I can help!” And it’s great when an author who’s just the right voice for that story ends up finding it.

In this case, though, my research also led me to the person who was really meant to tell Ann’s story – Margaret. I’d come across this interview with her, in which her expertise and unbridled passion for Ann’s designs simply overflowed.

Margaret had already written her masters thesis on Ann’s work and was working on a museum exhibition of her gowns. When I reached out to her to ask about reading her Masters thesis, she shared that she was working on her own book about Ann’s life – one for adult readers.

I asked if she might want to also consider collaborating on a picture book biography for young readers – or if she’d like some help just writing it herself. We met up for brunch in New York City in December 2015 and spent two happy hours talking about Ann and gushing over her work. Margaret let me know that she’d like to work together on this book – she knew everything about Ann’s life and was excited to learn the craft and business of writing for kids.

That meeting launched months of back and forth emails and collaboration via Google docs. I had a very rough outline in mind, but Margaret had interviewed Ann’s granddaughter and understood that there were other pivotal moments in her journey that should be lifted up. We went back and forth with our editor Melissa Manlove, bringing out the poetry in the story and choosing just the right illustrator, the amazing Erin Robinson.

And while that was all happening, Margaret was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer. She worked on our book and her adult title (which she’d sold to Simon & Schuster!) along with her museum exhibition, all through her treatments and found so much joy in that. Just a couple of months before she died, she sent me an email from DC, where she was visiting some of Ann’s gowns for her upcoming exhibition.

I so wish Margaret were here to celebrate this beautiful book with us today. This is her publishing debut, so I’m lighting a candle and taking some time to remember her this morning. I hope you’ll pick up a copy of the book and share Ann’s amazing story with some young readers. And please tell them about Margaret, too.

LitWorld’s amazing World Read Aloud Day is coming up on February 1, 2023! One of the fun traditions of this day of sharing stories is for authors and illustrators around the world to Zoom into classrooms & libraries for short read-alouds. For a while now, I’ve helped out by compiling a list of author and illustrator volunteers so teachers & librarians can connect with them to schedule virtual read-aloud sessions on that day.

Teachers & librarians: Please hold tight for right now… the list will be coming soon! Sign up for my email newsletter if you’d like to get the link in your in-box as soon as it’s ready!

Authors & Illustrators: Are you a traditionally published* author or illustrator who would like to be listed as a WRAD virtual read-aloud volunteer? Please read the information & follow the directions below…

WRAD VISITS AREN’T LONG OR FANCY PRESENTATIONS. USUALLY, THEY LAST 10-15 MINUTES AND GO SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

• 1-2 minutes: Author gives a quick introduction & talks a little about their books.
• 3-5 minutes: Author reads aloud a short picture book, or a short excerpt from a chapter book/novel
• 5-10 minutes: Author answers a few questions from students about reading/writing
• 1-2 minutes: Author book-talks a couple books they love (but didn’t write!) as recommendations for the kids

Interested in volunteering? If you’re a traditionally published author or illustrator, just fill out this form to sign up! 

*Why traditionally published? Honestly, it’s to limit the size and scope of this list because I’m one person with limited time. But this year, the wonderful Judy Campbell-Smith is coordinating a list of self-published authors & illustrators who are volunteering as well – check out her post to sign up!