Teachers Write: If Characters Ruled the Land

If you’re new to Teachers Write, you can read all about it here. Then join us for today’s prompt!

Even the true political junkies among us need a break from Barack and Mitt now and then, so we’re going to talk a different kind of politics today. I love the Horn Book’s KidLit Election project, where they’ve invited folks to nominate their favorite fictional characters as Democratic or Republican candidates for the U.S. Presidency.  Personally, I’m partial to this one…

From The Horn Book, http://www.hbook.com/2012/09/blogs/out-of-the-box/kidlit-election-2012-democratic-primary-results-are-in/

But there have been many great arguments made for not only spiders but also slaves and ADHD kids in the Oval Office. Which brings me to this week’s writing prompt.

Imagine your favorite fictional character running for President (or Prime Minister, or whoever’s in charge where you live).  Write his or her (or its?) speech to accept the nomination, being sure to both inspire supporters and outline a clear platform of beliefs and promises.Keep it positive (the Horn Book made this rule, and I like it… let’s not have Voldemort representing either party, please).  And consider what kinds of beliefs your character has and how those might shape political policy. Have fun, but be thoughtful, too.

You may also want to try this with a character from one of your own works-in-progress. Running for office really forces you to examine what you believe and how far you’re willing to go to fight for it, I suspect. Interesting stuff to ponder, wearing our characters’ shoes.

Feel free to share your speeches in the comments. I’m guessing some of you may want to try this one out in the classroom once you’ve played around with it yourself, and I’m sure kids will enjoy your examples, as well as those posted on the Horn Book’s site.

Wells Memorial Library – What a Difference a Year Makes

Last September, after Tropical Storm Irene tore through the Adirondacks, the children’s section of Wells Memorial Library looked like this.

The storm sent flood waters surging into the library’s basement and first floor children’s room, and they lost their entire children’s collection.  I took photos and blogged about it here, and I tweeted and Facebooked, along with a lot of other folks,  to see if people wanted to help.  They did.

Donations poured in — books and money from all over the United States and beyond.  The Bookstore Plus, a nearby indie, hosted this fundraiser that raised even more funds for the devastated library.  And today, the Wells Memorial Library children’s section looks like this.

My daughter and I stopped by to visit on our way hiking last week, and we were just amazed by the transformation — the result of many, many hours of hard work from volunteers, board members, and library director, Karen Rappaport.  Here’s Karen with all the new books…

She says a HUGE thank you to all of you who donated books and money and helped to spread the word of a library that needed a hand. Thanks to you, this library is back on its feet and sharing even more books with readers.

 

Teachers Write: Baby Steps Back to Writing

So…how have your first days of school been?  Crazy and wonderful, stressful and joyful, and everything in between, I’d be willing to bet. And I’d also bet that you haven’t found too much time for writing amid the seat charts and get-to-know you papers of September.

 But let’s see if we can find our way back to that place…

(If you’re just finding us, you can read this post about Teachers Write to learn what we’re all about…and if you click here, you can check out all the prompts, mini-lessons, and assignments we’ve had so far.)

 We’re going to kick off our 2012-2013 school-year Teachers Write with a quick-write. Even if you can only find ten minutes, give it a try. Some time this weekend, or in a quiet moment next week, write a memory about one of your parents.  Choose something specific, something that maybe didn’t mean much at the time but does now….like this story about my dad and the carnations.

If you’re writing fiction these days, try this activity from your main character’s voice…or your antagonist’s point of view.

Share an excerpt in the comments if you’d like.  Or just keep this one in your notebook if that feels more right.

 But one way or another, try out the assignment, okay? Get those writing muscles flexing again, and we’ll be back next Friday with a mini-lesson on craft that you can try yourself and then share with your students.

“What We Have in Common” A poem for election season

I don’t talk politics much here, but if you know me in the real world, you probably know that I have strong opinions. These opinions are not shared by everyone I like or by everyone I love – and that’s okay. I enjoy a good debate. But I feel like election season in the age of social media has made the dialogue that’s always taken place a little more pointed, a little more sharp-edged. It got me thinking…

 

What We Have In Common

by Kate Messner, Copyright 2012

 

For just a minute, let’s look at the leaves together.

Do you see how this one blushes pink around the edges?

How that one is all red, its neighbor halfway gold?

I like the way it is leaning toward autumn

But isn’t quite ready to leap.

And you know, I love the smell of pencils in September

I remembered just how much

When I saw that first-day-of-school photo you posted,

Your kids with clean faces and heavy backpacks.

I can’t believe how they’ve grown.

Mine have, too.

This afternoon, while they’re doing homework,

Maybe we can share some tea and chocolate,

Turn off the Internet and remember

What connects us.

Good books.  Bonfire smoke and  s’mores.

Fireworks and full moons,

Bare feet on chilly grass,

Kids playing kickball too late into the night,

While we lean back and notice the stars,

Breathing in and out

This air that we somehow share

Without coloring it red or blue.

 

Paris Research for MANHUNT (Spring 2014)

I’ve been juggling a number of projects this summer, but I’ve spent the past week immersed in a book I haven’t started writing yet. MANHUNT (coming in Spring 2014)  is the third title in my Silver Jaguar Society mystery series with Scholastic.  It’s a follow-up to CAPTURE THE FLAG (July 2012) and HIDE AND SEEK (coming in April 2013).  Like the first two books, MANHUNT features Anna, José, and Henry – three twelve-year-old kids whose families are part of a secret society bound to protect the world’s artifacts.

In their first adventure, CAPTURE THE FLAG, the original Star-Spangled Banner is stolen from the Smithsonian, and the kids race through a snowed-in D.C. airport trying to track down the thieves.

In HIDE AND SEEK, Anna, José, and Henry and their families will explore the rainforest of Costa Rica as they search for a stolen goblet that’s also a sacred piece of Silver Jaguar Society history.

And in the third book, MANHUNT, Anna, José, and Henry will again come face to face with the the Silver Jaguar Society’s arch enemies during a multi-faceted, international heist that begins in Boston and ends here…

Yep – I’ve been “working” in Paris for the past week. (I’m pretty sure you are required to include quotation marks around the word “working” when your week has also included consuming Nutella-banana crepes and copious amounts of gelato.)

When it comes to this trip, I’m going to save my words for the book I’ll be writing this fall and winter…but here are a few photos to give you some hints about Anna, Henry, and Jose’s third adventure!

I’m headed back to my writing room now…

Thank you, Scholastic Book Fairs!

August is a busy time for the Scholastic Book Fair teams who set up carts and carts of books in schools all over the country.  Titles for the fall fairs have been selected, and it’s time for the field representatives to learn everything they can about the books so that they can help teachers & librarians find “just right” books for their students.  I’m writing in the Charlotte, NC airport right now after spending the past couple days at Scholastic’s Eastern Zone Season Kick-Off meeting, and I’m still swimming in happy book-talk feelings.

I got a sneak peek at the fall Book Fair titles and spotted three of my own books as well as many that I’ve loved as a reader.

And I had the opportunity to speak to the Scholastic Book Fairs team, too.  There’s nothing quite like arriving for an early-morning breakfast to find this…

..along with books on every chair.

I got to meet so many members of the Book Fairs team, along with a special guest…

This is Book-Man (aka Mike Weaver, a principal from New Jersey who’s part of Scholastic’s principals’ advisory board.)  He’s an incredible advocate for literacy at his school and left me wishing that every school could have a Book-Man in the main office. (Plus, I’ve never had my picture taken with a super-hero before, and that was pretty cool.)

Here’s Robin Hoffman of Scholastic Book Fairs book-talking EYE OF THE STORM before my talk. She did such a great job, she made ME want to read it again. And I already know how it ends.

I was so thankful for the opportunity to spend time with the book fair crew, both here and in St. Louis last week. Growing up in a small town with no bookstore, I was always bursting with anticipation on the day our Scholastic Book Club orders arrived at school.  Overnight, it seemed, our classroom was transformed into a bookstore, and it always felt like magic.  These days, my books are included in the clubs and fairs, but inside, I’m still very much that ten-year-old kid, and it still feels like magic. Traveling to St. Louis last week and then Charlotte, and meeting the wizards who make it all happen was pretty magical, too.  Thanks, Scholastic Book Fairs family, for the warm welcome and for all that you do for readers!

On the Road in August

Well, hi there!  It’s good to see you…and good to see my living room again, too. August has been a busy month so far, full of travel and terrific people. Here are some highlights.

At the beginning of the month, I flew out to Los Angeles for the annual SCBWI Conference (that’s the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, for the uninitiated) because OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW won the Golden Kite Award for Best Picture Book Text, which was…well…amazing. This award comes from fellow authors, so it means so, so much. Here’s a photo of me speaking to 1200+ people at the awards luncheon. (I love still photos because they don’t show shaking hands.)

I was also part of the faculty for this conference, giving a presentation called “Picture Books: The Magical Unexpected.”  I talked about lots of picture books that I love and how they all incorporate different kinds of “unexpecteds.”  You can see the list of books I talked about here.

The most amazing thing about this conference was getting to spend time with other children’s writers and illustrators. Lin Oliver, executive director of SCBWI, likes to refer to the big mob of creativity as “the tribe,” and it’s such a great description because coming to a conference like this really feels like coming home. Here’s a photo of Lin welcoming the group.

And here’s a photo of a children’s author snapping a photo of her stuffed Peep with Lin.

Can you identify the mystery author with the mystery Peep? (If you give up, you can click here to find out.)

My family came with me on this trip, and we also managed to sneak in some classic California fun like this tour of Hollywood and Beverly Hills.  Do you recognize this famous landmark?

We didn’t either.  But it is apparently Tom Cruise’s flag. “And if you look carefully,” our driver said, pointing, “you can kind of see his chimney, too.”

From L.A., I flew straight to Pennsylvania, where I spoke at the PA Writing Institute at Millersville University. This is a five-day institute full of incredible teacher-writers who dedicate their week to practicing what they preach.

They were an amazingly kind, smart, and creative group, and I wish I could have spent a full week writing with them!

I ran into a little snafu with the TSA on my flight home from LA and Pennsylvania.  The agents pulled my suitcase aside for searching, and they asked if there was “something sharp” in there.

“Well,” I said, “I won this award, and it has a kite that’s maybe a little pointy.”

They unpacked it and studied it and frowned at it for a little while.

Finally, one agent said, “What’s Over and Under the Snow?”

“It’s a…picture book.”

“Did you write it?”

“Yes. I did.”

(More frowning & studying.)

“We’re going to run this through the machine once more.”

They did. And then they swiped it to check for explosives but found none, I gather, since I was allowed to take it home.

After a day’s break, I flew to St. Louis to be the guest author at the Scholastic Book Fairs seasonal kick-off meeting for that region. When I was a kid and the Scholastic Book Club orders arrived, I was always under the impression that something magic must have happened overnight in my classroom. Book Fairs came along later on and work that same magic now, in so many communities like mine that don’t have their own bookstores. It was so much fun to meet the people (the wizards!) who make this happen for kids and classrooms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here I am with my fantastic (and fun!) Scholastic Book Fairs hosts, Kerri Mills and Rose Schovanec. (Photo from Kerri’s FB page – thanks, Kerri!)

I’ll be visiting another Scholastic Book Fairs kick-off meeting in Charlotte later this week, then taking a research trip for book #3 in the Silver Jaguar Society mystery series, and then – home to finish summer deadlines and get the kids ready for a new school year. Hope your August has been full of sunshine and magic, too!

Teachers Write! Revision Chat

I want to start this post with a confession. I am not a great writer. In fact, I am frequently a pretty awful writer who pens first drafts full of clunky prose and tired language. Sometimes I turn a Monday into a Wednesday in the middle of a chapter (this, in a book that is not supposed to include magic), and sometimes my characters don’t know their own names, much less their motivations.

So how have I managed to get a bunch of books published and even convince people that some of them should win awards?

I am a really passionate, enthusiastic reviser. When I do school visits, I always tell kids that revision is my favorite part of the writing process because that’s when I actually feel like I’m GOOD at this writing thing. When I’m drafting? Not so much.  But once that draft is down, I always feel ready to roll up my sleeves and make something of the mess. That process, for me, is full of wonder and discovery and hope. So I’m a big believer in the magic of revision, and I wanted to set aside a #TeachersWrite day to celebrate it.

Author friends:  We’d love to hear from you.  If you have a favorite revision strategy, or advice on the revision process, or a post about revision that you’d like to share, please leave a comment and join the conversation.

Teacher & Librarian friends:  I know that some of you have read my book for writers & teachers of writers, REAL REVISION: AUTHORS’ STRATEGIES TO SHARE WITH STUDENT WRITERS, and I’m more than happy to answer questions about that in the comments today. And whether you’ve read it or not, please fire away with any other questions you’d like answered when it comes to revision.  And please feel free to share your revision experiences from this summer, too.

Here some revision resources you may find helpful for your teaching and writing:

Revision Gallery – A Collection of Marked Up Manuscripts

What Revision Looks Like – A Pinterest Board

REAL REVISION home page with links to Kate’s two videos on revision

65 Off-Draft Writing Prompts to Kick-Start the Revision Process

REAL REVISION Interview with Lauren Oliver

REAL REVISION Interview with Lisa Schroeder

REAL REVISION Interview with Jo Knowles

REAL REVISION Interview with Linda Urban

REAL REVISION Interview with Laurel Snyder

REAL REVISION Interview with Karen Day

Comments are open – let’s talk revision!   And on Wednesday night (8/15), we’ll also talk revision on Twitter with a chat from 9-10pm EST, using the hashtag #RealRevision.

Teachers Write 8/10 Friday Writing Happy Hour

When we first came together for Teachers Write back in June, I made the schedule and remember thinking, “Will this work?  Is ten weeks going to be too long?”  I know the answer now.

 No.  Ten weeks has not been nearly long enough, and so we are…not ending.  Not now, or after Labor Day, and not in the foreseeable future.  Our Facebook group will remain, and so will the blog. There won’t be posts every weekday like we’ve been doing, but you can plan on one every Friday morning. They’ll be a mix of mini-lessons and writing prompts, and we’ll have some author Q and A days in there, too. We’re going to take a short break to let everyone get ready for school (and let me finish my crazy August travel schedule…I’m in St. Louis right now, where I just got to talk to an amazingly enthusiasitc group of Scholastic Book Fairs sales and field reps.)  So look for the first school-year Teachers Write post the Friday after Labor Day, on September 7th.

Between now and then, I hope you’ll keep writing – and we’re going to have our revision chat here on the blog and on Twitter next Wednesday, August 15th.  The conversation here will be going on all day, with authors dropping in to share revision stories in comments. And from 9-10 pm EST, we’ll have a Twitter chat using the hashtag #RealRevision

For now, though, we need to celebrate one last Teachers Write Happy Hour! Many, many thanks to ALL of our guest authors who came to visit this summer. Your words and your generous spirits are amazing.

We have a bunch of books to give away today, too. However,  I…err…don’t know the titles offhand because the titles are home and I am in Missouri. But rest assured, they are wonderful books, and if you leave a comment, you’ll be entered in the drawing to win one.  When I get home, I will post their lovely covers so you can see what you might win.

Editing to add: These are the books!  (And also…Real Revision Chat is AUGUST 15th – not March 15th. I have no idea where I got March.)

Share away!  (And if you have questions/comments/suggestions on the school-year Teachers Write plans, please feel free to ask.)

 

Teachers Write 8/9 Thursday Quick-Write

Today’s Thursday Quick-Write has a twist; we’re turning the writer’s lens on ourselves.

For ten weeks now, we’ve been hanging out here, writing together and talking together, nurturing one another as teachers and writers. When I started this online camp with Gae and Jen in response to a casual Twitter exchange, I never imagined how many of you would show up, how talented and passionate and brave you would be, and how thankful I’d be for this opportunity to write and learn with you. I hope you’ve learned some stuff, too…maybe about writing and teaching, and maybe about yourself and your voice.

Today’s prompt:  (You are being granted special time-travel abilities for this one.)  Write a letter to yourself of 10 weeks ago.  It will be sent back through time and delivered to you on June 1st, 2012…right before you sign up for Teachers Write.  What advice would you give yourself?  What can you tell yourself about what the experience will be like and how it might change your writing or teaching?

Here’s mine…

Dear Kate,

Today, you are going to notice some of your Twitter teacher-friends talking about their goals to write this summer, and it will occur to you that it might be fun to set up a virtual writing camp.  Go ahead and do it, even though it’s not going to go the way you’re imagining.  You’re probably picturing a dozen people, right? Maybe twenty? Multiply that by 50 and you’ll be a little closer. It’ll freak you out at first when you see all those people signing up, but don’t worry — they are amazing people who will be happy to be here and patient with your summer schedule. Besides, tons of generous and talented authors are going to show up to pitch in. This probably doesn’t surprise you, does it? The children’s and YA writer community is amazing like that.

What will surprise you is just how much you are moved when you sit down to read the comments every day. These teachers and librarians will be so smart, so brave. They will try new things. Some will be afraid at first, but they will be so good to one another, so supportive, that new voices will emerge every week.  And these voices will be full of passion and beauty, humor and joy and poignancy.  They will be amazing, and they will make you cry sometimes, in the best possible way.

So go on… Write that introductory blog post, even though you’re biting off way more than you know. It will be worth every second, and when August comes, you will not be ready to let go. Not even close.

Warmly,   Kate

P.S. You might want to consider writing & scheduling the last two posts ahead of time so you don’t have to stay up so late on the 8th. You have to be up at 4am for a flight to St. Louis. Just a suggestion… 🙂

Your turn now…  Put today’s date on the paper, and then write your message to be sent to yourself, back through time. Share it in comments, too, if you’d like.  And be sure to visit tomorrow for our final Teachers Write Summer Happy Hour and news about what comes next.