Poetry with VT Poet Laureate Chard DeNiord

Each April, PoemCity, Montpelier's celebration of National Poetry Month, reminds us how very alive and well poetry is in Vermont. Fittingly, for our April educator event (the last of the spring series) Chard deNiord, Poet Laureate of Vermont, joined us in the Children's Room for a presentation focused on getting students engaged with poetry.

Chard deNiord answers questions from the audience.

Chard offered three possible titles for his talk—"Amazing Sense of Disparate Things," "Panning the Unconscious," and "The Rainbow and the Grebe: The Unconscious and the Imagination"—all of which are different ways of thinking about the topic around which the event revolved. Chard guided audience members through a Mad-Libs style poetry exercise entitled "Testimonial," inspired by and borrowing from former US Poet Laureate Rota Dove's poem by the same name. In this exercise, students choose their own words and phrases to fill in the poem's blanks. The poem, which is rooted in natural imagery, is punctuated by headlines that define its stanzas; while Chard provided a handout of headlines plucked from newspapers (included, along with the exercise, as a PDF below), he noted that it was also fine to craft original headlines.

The exercise "Testimonial" is designed for high school students, however teachers can easily adapt it for middle school and even younger students. Chard read through the poem, asking audience members to fill in their copies with their own word choices as he read, after which several audience members shared their completed poems aloud with the larger group. Attendees' poems contained wonderful and varied opening phrases such as "Back when the world was divided between lava and snow" and "Back when the world was divided between tomato soup and ice cream" and contained lyrics from Bessie Smith and Bob Dylan.

Attendees compose their poems.

This particular exercise is an excellent vehicle for considering the difference between the unconscious and the imagination, as it asks students to employ both. Citing Alan Ginsburg’s motto "first thought, best thought," Chard encouraged audience members to move through the exercise quickly, and to do so as well when using it in the classroom, as this really allows the unconscious to emerge. "Testimonial" also works well for getting students to think about the act of reading poetry versus the act of writing poetry, as it asks students to be both reader and writer. (And, it occurred to me as I thought more about the exercise after the event, how you approach the act of choosing words to fill in the poem’s blanks—by either reading through the poem and selecting words to fit as you go, or simply filling in each blank before reading through the poem—affects the final product.) 

Some of our favorite poetry for young readers.

Chard recommended two books by Kenneth Koch for educators who want to introduce poetry writing to young children: Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching Kids to Write Poetry and Rose, Where Did You Get That Red?: Teaching Great Poetry to Children. Another exercise he likes that educators can adapt for writers of all ages is Ruth Stone's poetry game, in which preselected words are put in a hat and students create poems by pulling out words and arranging them together. Former Poet Laureate of Vermont Sydney Lea was in attendance, and he and Chard discussed the merits of asking students to focus on a poem's language and what it does, rather than what the poem means. Other practical poetry work to use in schools that Chard discussed includes getting involved in the Poetry Out Loud program, through which students select and read poems aloud in the classroom (librarians can also incorporate this into a library activity), and which sponsors an annual national poetry recitation competition; asking students to identify poems that relate to their experiences; and developing found poetry exercises, in which students choose lines from everyday sources including (but certainly not limited to) advertisements, songs, and television shows. Teachers can encourage students in grades 7-12 to enter their own poems in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, which offer scholarship and publication opportunities.

Chard's most recent book of poems, Interstate, as well as his previous titles, are available from Bear Pond. 

Further reading and resources on teaching poetry:

• Andrew Simmons's "Why Teaching Poetry Is So Important" on The Atlantic
• Lesson plans for teaching poetry from The Academy of American Poets (Poets.org)
• "Top 10 Tips to Get HS Students (All Students) Interested in AND Excited about Poetry OR What I Learned from Hanging with Kwame" by JoEllen McCarthy on Nerdy Book Club
• Teachers' resources from the Robert Frost Farm, both for teaching poetry in general and on Robert Frost specifically 

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Our Educator Events will return in the fall; stay tuned for the 2016-17 program! If you have an idea for an event—be it a speaker or a topic—please email Jane at jane@bearpondbooks.com.

Gareth Hinds & Graphic Novels in the Classroom

Former Vermonter Gareth Hinds is best known for his retelling of classic stories (really classic, like Odyssey classic) in graphic novel form. His latest work, a retelling of Macbeth, was highlighted in the New York Times in this review from February of 2015.

Macbeth will be a focus for Gareth this week, as he visits from his current D.C. home to meet with students at his alma mater, U-32, as well as Montpelier Middle School and High School. Increasingly, educators are looking to Gareth and other graphic novelists as sources of engaging material for classrooms. Once you see Gareth's books, it's easy to imagine how classic stories can come alive on the pages of a graphic novel.

Gareth's next project turns to Edgar Allen Poe, and he notes ". . . I've adapted four short stories and three poems, selected from Poe's most popular works. Each piece is drawn is a slightly different style and time period, and they range from just faintly macabre (Annabel Lee) to downright terrifying (The Tell-Tale Heart)."

Gareth talks about his work and how he thinks about it fitting into the classroom in this Teach.Com interview "The Art of Creating Classics." He'll also be a keynote speaker at the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Conference this May, in Fairlee.

Between now and the Poe publication, you can see Gareth's illustrations in the book Samurai Rising - scheduled to be published February 2nd.

Our Children's Room manager, Jane, anticipates graphic novels and (more broadly) comics increasing in popularity in the classroom. She says: ". . . with visual technology becoming more prevalent in children's lives at younger ages, I think this medium will be more heavily relied upon as a gateway to reading. . . we're also witnessing graphic novels win major literary awards from organizations like the ALA [American Library Association] in categories that include traditional text . . .I think we'll continue to see the bookshelves fill with new offerings from this publishing phenomenon."

Some of these books will come from authors and illustrators educated right here in Vermont at the Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS). Last year, CCS graduate Katherine Roy talked at Bear Pond about using the visual techniques learned in cartoon studies to craft her first picture book, Neighborhood Sharks, which was a finalist for the Sibert Award. The notes on her talk are here. In 2014, CCS announced a new track called "applied cartooning" which focuses on the communications side of cartooning, with skills for conveying information through visual designs. Vermont Public Radio reported on this track and a workshop the Center held for educators in the piece "Cartooning Gets Practical."

We can expect even more national discussion of graphic novels in the new year as graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang takes on the role of Ambassador for Young People's Literature. He follows the previous ambassador Kate DiCamillo. Gene Luen Yang is well known for his graphic novels "American Born Chinese" and "Boxers and Saints", as well as the Avatar series. His newest series "Secret Coders" intertwines mysteries at a strange school and information about computer programming. You can read a new interview with him posted by the Children's Book Council on the Mr. Schu Reads blog at this link.

Publishing, teaching, and book review media outlets also see graphic novels/ books and comics as an important trend in classroom teaching. Some recent articles on the subject:

• "Teaching With Graphic Novels" - School Library Journal
• "Teaching Comics, Learning Comics: Conversation with Gene Luen Yang" - Multiversity Comics 
• "New Teachers' Aides: Superman and Iron Man" - The Atlantic
• "Comics in the Classroom" - links and resources from The Guardian

Plus, some teachers' guides to teaching comics, found via Mr. Schu Reads:

• Scholastic Guide
• Random House Kids Guide
• "Raising a Reader" - Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Unfortunately, we weren't able to bring Gareth to our author-educators workshop series (scheduling conflicts), but hopefully in the near future we'll have an opportunity to look more at graphic novels and comics used in the classroom! And don't forget that he's back in town in May for the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Conference - we'll mention it again closer to the time.

Microshelters Event with Derek "Deek" Diedricksen

So, the real strength of the Microshelters discussion is the pictures of the super cool tiny houses, offices, tree houses, and play forts (and under "play forts" we're including one tiny house designed entirely for reading and sipping wine in the backyard in peace and quiet. . . not school appropriate, perhaps, but clearly a basic necessity). We've discovered that snapping pictures of Deek talking in front of a screen with images projected on it doesn't really do justice to the inspiration. Here are links to resources that do:

• Tiny Yellow House -Series on YouTube
• HGTV Tiny House Builders
• "Do It Yourself Downsize" - NPR
• The $200 Microhouse - New York Times
• Q & A with Deek in Builder Magazine
• Microshelters Article in Snyder's Stoughton

We may now have come full circle from the 39 Story Treehouse book from our Early Chapter Books review a few weeks ago. The 13+ story treehouses were a little too over the top the review panel. But the classy tiny house treehouses, those work just fine. . .

From Deek's Blog: https://relaxshax.wordpress.com/

Summer Post #2 - Children's Summer Reading Recommendations

Early Chapter Books

• The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes
• Operation Bunny by Sally Gardiner
• Frank Einstein series by Jon Scieszka
• Arnie the Donut-- the Bowling Alley Bandit by Laurie Keller
• Princess in Black by Shannon Hale
• The Adventures of Sophie Mouse series by Poppy Green
• Ranger In Time series by Kate Messner
• The Whodunit Detective Agency series by Martin Widmark
• Lulu and the Hedgehog in the Rain by Hilary McKay

See also our Essential Library of Early Chapter Books on Pinterest.

Middle Grade Books

• The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel
• The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson
• The Island of Dr. Libris by Chris Grabenstein
• A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd
• Pip Bartlett’s Guide To Magical Creatures by Maggie Stiefvater and Jackson Pearce
• Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald
• Loki’s Wolves by K.L. Armstrong
• The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill by Megan Frazer Blakemore
• Loot by Jude Watson
• The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern
• Return to Augie Hobble by Lane Smith

Graphic Novels-- middle grade and up

• Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
• Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson and Grace Ellis
• The Underground Abductor by Nathan Hale
• In Real Life by Cory Doctorow

Young Adult Books

• I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest
• An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
• We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach
• Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein
• The Truth Commission by Susan Juby
• We Are All Made of Molecules by Susin Nielsen
• Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
• The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough
• Vango by Timothee de Fombelle
• Denton Little’s Deathdate by Lance Rubin

Another Look at Fairy Tales

Yeah, we'll start this post by typing the words: Frozen Two.

Also, Cinderella.

Upcoming movie re-tellings of very old fairy tales are part of the context that's inspired authors to hold forth on the relevance (or not) of fairy tales today. For example, Alan Cummings last week in the Globe and Mail "Great Stories, Like Cinderella, Need to Be Rebooted"and recently on NPR "A Girl, A Shoe, A Prince: The Endlessly Evolving Cinderella". The Guardian noted this fall that retelling fairy tales for different audiences is "very much in vogue".

Of course, it's not only the world of cinema and in vogue retellings that prompts us to ponder these stories that have lasted for generations. The essay "Strange Birds" by Kelly Barnhill, posted on Nerdy Book Club, discusses how fairy tales formed her as a writer and reader. The Scottish Book Trust, a source of many interesting resources, posted these 5 Reasons Why Fairy Tales Are Good for Children over the summer. Scholastic has brought together contributions from multiple authors in their Myths, Folktales and Fairy Tales project for educators.

Last spring local librarian Meg Allison gave us a tour of France, Italy, and Fairy Tales in her workshop Why Fairy Tales Still Matter. Check out this Pinterest Board of fairy tale books that we made to go with the workshop. The books are also below (they link through to a full page that's easier to read).

We'll keep our eyes open for more fairy tale discussions.

Writing Teachers' Guides with Katy Farber

Katy Farber is a local sixth grade teacher who has written two previous nonfiction books on education, Why Great Teachers Quit - And How We Might Stop the Exodus and Change the World with Service Learning, along with the e-book Eat Nontoxic: A Manual for Busy Parents. Her first novel, The Order of the Trees, comes out from Green Writers Press this May. It tells the story of sixth grader Cedar, found under a cedar tree, whose life is intrinsically tied to the story of the forest and ecosystem health. As a current teacher, and instructor of graduate-level education courses, we were interested in how Katy approached the process of writing a teacher's guide for her new book. It turns out, the guide is a collaboration between Katy and a local high school student. Here's what she had to say:

1. How did your own experience with using teachers' guides in the classroom shape how you wanted to approach writing one?

I have used various guides and resources for books read in the classroom and always appreciate when I can get my hands on a teacher's guide. I particularly like when they are included within the book so teachers (and students) can have them right there in the book and don't need to track down an additional resource. 

All teachers (myself included) want to inspire students to think deeply about their reading, to connect, make inferences, explore their perspectives and look for themes. I am always looking for or crafting questions that help students learn reading strategies, to practice critical thinking, and to think about biases, new perspectives, and diverse narratives about life and humanity. When [Green Writers Press] intern, Lindsey, shared her questions, they had an authentic young adult's voice and curiosity, so I knew they would work well.

2. How did you and Lindsay connect? How are you collaborating?  

My publisher, Dede Cummings of [Brattleboro-based] Green Writers Press put us in touch. . . she took it from there. Lindsey [a High School Junior in Townshend, VT] said she wanted to read The Order of the Trees and work on the reader's guide questions. She took off with it and wrote many thoughtful questions. Honestly, I wasn't sure how to limit the quantity of them because she shared so many great questions. They were thought provoking and engaging. 

We collaborated on some of the environmental issue questions in the guide. The book deals with deforestation and we played with some of the wording around that issue. She was responsive and completely engaged. We connected via email for our collaboration.

3. What have you learned about the student perspective from this collaboration? How would that shape your approach to future similar projects?

It reminded me of what topics strike a chord with young adults. They are astute observers of the world and can critically analyze text. I found her questions interesting and unique and would likely have not thought of them myself-- I'm too attached to the work and it is harder to objectively look overall and write these questions. I would be interested in teaming with another young adult to create a relevant reader's guide that is usable.

4. Do you have any advice you would give to authors who are not themselves educators on writing teacher's guides? 

The advice I would give would be to try and picture an organic, authentic book group conversation about your book. What would they talk about? What would you want to hear fellow readers explore? Let that be your guide. Go for the juicy, deep and personal elements of the book. These will likely be the ones your readers will want to explore and discuss. In addition, with teachers and students in mind, think of overall themes, character development, setting, and descriptive language. These are concepts teachers must show students how to explore through text and questions-- and so questions about these can be helpful for student learning. 

You can find out about the launch of Order of the Trees and places Katy is appearing at her website http://katyfarber.com. 

Related Articles:

• Picture Books That Explore Nature - Deirdre Gill & Jason Chin
• Students Take on International Wildlife Issues - with Laurel Neme
• Three Small Vermont Publishers Talk Business - Seven Days (featuring Green Writers Press) 

New Ideas - Creative Jumpstarts that Work in the Classroom (Kate Messner)

Gary Lee Miller and Deb Fleischman presented their approach to using writing prompts in a talk at the store this past Saturday (read the post here). They design prompts to teach a range of fundamental writing skills in workshops and classrooms, and provided a close look at crafting lesson plans around a 7 minute writing prompt.

One thing Gary and Deb noted about prompts is that, however else they're used, they fundamentally offer a way to set aside critical analysis and tap into unfiltered, creative thinking. That sort of brainstorming can come in different forms, and at different points in the writing process. Popular children's author and educator Kate Messner, who has led writing workshops at Bear Pond Books before, has a lot to say on this topic. In addition to her books for young readers, she has written books for educators: Real Revision and (newly published) 59 Reasons to Write. In the summer she conducts Teachers Write!, a virtual writing camp for teachers, through her website www.katemessner.com. And during her her recent book tour for the children's novel All the Answers she spoke with students about taking a project from idea to published book

Kate is a good person to talk to about anything writing-process-related. Here are a few more ideas from her about using brainstorms.

The Writers Notebook

First off, creative ideas don't only happen when you're sitting around thinking about things to write. Many of the writers who have come to the Bear Pond Books educators' series have talked about the writers' notebooks they carry to jot down whatever ideas come, whenever they occur. Kate brings a show and tell to her book tour talks. It's a small notebook full of notes (including to do lists and other not-book-related items) with "Magic Pen - All the answers" written in it. . . at the moment when she wrote it, she wanted a pen that would give her all the answers. Later, that starting thought turned into a new book.


Here is a lesson on Writers' Notebooks Kate posted as part of the 2013 Teachers Write! program. A very short version of the lesson?

There are some very strict rules for having a writer’s notebook. Here they are:

Rule #1: Write in it.
Rule #2: There are no other rules.

Local author Linda Urban wrote a whole series of blog posts on her writers' notebook this summer:

• Writers' Notebooks
• The Best Thing in my Writer's Notebook is a Mistake
• What Messing Up Made Possible
• Beginnings
• Finding Voice and Other Bits

And for your amusement, here is a series of photos of famous writer's notebooks from Flavorwire.

Charts and Other Prompt Structures

Okay, the idea "Magic Pen - All the answers" is a good idea - but where do you go from there? For one thing, the pen becomes a pencil because a pencil requires sharpening, which creates a problem that eventually all the answers will be gone again. And then the story needs a solution for that problem. And so on.

This is just one of the problem-tension-solution type scenarios Kate developed to turn an idea into a novel. When speaking to schools, Kate shares a simple chart that can prompt students through coming up with the basics of a story with something magic in it (we mean actually magic, not figuratively). The chart is linked here.

Kate also talked about a simple story idea generator exercise when she came to Bear Pond in 2014. Anyone can try this approach when they're stuck for new ideas to play with. Here is the description taken from our post about that workshop:

Kate introduced a fun exercise for exploring new story ideas. You can try this one too:

• Divide a piece of paper into three columns
• 1st column: Things I love / want to know more about / that scare me
• 2nd column: List of Setting (places you know well, want to visit, wish were real)
• 3rd column: Big Ideas (themes to explore, genres)
• Now, brainstorm for each
• And then, mix and match

So, for example, you might end up with a ghost at school with secrets. Or [from earlier exercises] fossils in the kitchen with a theme of memories replaced over time. . . Kate does this exercise for about half an hour every few months to generate new ideas.

Brainstorming During the Revision Process

Brainstorming doesn't happen at the start of a project then disappear after the "serious" writing gets underway. Kate talks about the ongoing utility of brainstorming in her book Real Revision. In fact, she has a whole chapter called "Back to Brainstorming."

Sometimes the brainstorming feels close to starting over - or at least fundamentally rethinking the project. Here is how Kate explains the start of her Marty McGuire character:

In the winter of 2007-2008, I had just finished a chapter-book manuscript called Princess Marty Frog Slime and the Nutcracker Ballet. It was about a girl who liked catching frogs and crayfish and her parents made her try out for her town's holiday production of the Nutcracker. . . I sent the manuscript to my agent. . . she read it and sent me a nice e-mail about how much she loved the main character, Marty. But then she asked if the story really had to be about The Nutcracker ballet. Couldn't it be about a school play or something universal so kids could relate to it more easily? My first thought was 'Is she serious?'. . . But somewhere in my whining brain I heard the echoes of a lot of students I'd taught over the years. What would I say to them? Just try it -- and see how it goes. So I tried it.

The story changed fundamentally, but the main character did not, and Marty McGuire was the result.

Of course, brainstorming isn't always for a change that drastic - it could be around any sticking point in a story to figure out what isn't working and what could work. Or simply playing with ideas to keep the project fresh.

In Real Revision Kate shares Kathi Appelt's strategy of keeping a project journal. She says her journal is primarily filled with "What if?" questions. What if the main character changed? What if someone made a different decision? Even what if the story switched genres? You can try out a series of What Ifs? to bring new perspective to a project.

On the topic of What If as the origin of good stories, Kate recently wrote a Nerdy Book Club post "How a Bad Case of the What Ifs Turned Into a Book"

More Information

Kate now has two books on writing published through Stenhouse Publishers:

• Real Revision
• 59 Reasons to Write

Take a look at these for lots, and lots, of lessons for you and for the classroom.


 

Students Take On International Wildlife Issues

As part of our author-educator event series, we're excited to have author Laurel Neme coming to the store on Saturday, January 24th at 11:00 am to talk about creating global connections from the classroom. As with all events in this series, this workshop is free and open to the public. There will be coffee and light refreshments. 

Author Laurel Neme tackles many big, global problems in her journalism about wildlife. You can see many of these issues on the website Mongabay.com and in National Geographic. She wrote about international crimes against wildlife in her adult book Animal Investigators and her recent picture book Orangutan Houdini profiles a real life orangutan whose behavior helped give new insight into how these primates think.

While the story of Orangutan Houdini doesn't deal directly with current threats to orangutans in the wild, Laurel does connect the story with these current issues when she speaks about the book. One particular problem is the loss of habitat due to palm oil production. She also addresses these topics in her Teacher's Guide to Orangutan Houdini (available on her website here).

One of the questions Laurel gets asked -- from students, teachers, and parents -- is "what can kids do?" if they're concerned about global issues like the ones discussed in her writing. Part of the answer is to connect with organizations dedicated to addressing whatever the particular cause may be. These organizations have resources dedicated to researching the problem and possible responses, as well as to coordinating campaigns with a global reach. They often offer "What Can I Do?" answers that cover a range of possible responses. For example, Laurel works with the Sumatran Orangutan Society on the palm oil issue.

We asked Laurel if she has good examples of kids and / or classes working on wildlife issues that she has come across in her recent work. She's got a lot of examples and sent us a few:

• Youth Action - Examples from Orangutan Outreach
• Profile of Allie Boyer as Orangutan Outreach Youth Ambassador,  including information on Purses for Primates and the video she created that started her orangutan advocacy.
• Wired article on the Runescape (online multiplayer game) campaign for rhino
• In Hong Kong, Kids Take Action to Stop Illegal Ivory Trade
• A Young Voice for Elephants: Celia Ho
• Girl Scout Cookies & Palm Oil: Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva
• Caretakers of the Environment - And international network of secondary school teachers and students

To learn more, come join Laurel at Bear Pond Books on Saturday, January 24th at 11:00 am!

For other posts related to this event, check out this Q&A with Laurel and this list of recommended reading.

Year(s) in Review - Part 2

The many authors and educators who have spoken in the children's room naturally didn't stop doing interesting things after they visited our Children's Room. (The Bear Pond talk was undoubtedly a high point, though).

Here are some updates about previous speakers. . . .we'll get to everyone eventually, but for now let's start with these:

Duncan McDougall - Boys & Books (2014)

Duncan spoke with us about a year ago about the work of his organization, the Children's Literacy Foundation (CLiF), to engage more boys in reading. CLiF works with children, parents, and communities across Vermont and New Hampshire through a variety of reading programs for low income and at-risk children. This year, we're supporting CLiF with our Book Bears program. Purchase a book to donate in the month of December, and you'll receive 15% off the price (and we'll deliver it to CLiF). Read more in the Latest News from the Children's Room.

Tanya Lee Stone - Combining Passion & Research (2013)

Tanya recently celebrated a contract for publication of her 100th book, Girl Rising. We posted about that event in October. This post includes information on the creation of her book Courage Has No Color, which she had recently completed when she came to speak at Bear Pond. Courage Has No Color is on this year's Dorothy Canfield Fisher list and VPR profiled it this month in their Dorothy's List series.


Linda Urban - The Center of Everything (2013)  

Linda Urban came to Bear Pond Books for a launch party, with donuts, for The Center of Everything. The Center of Everything is on this year's DCF list (Linda's Dorothy's List profile will air this March). Kate Messner, another Bear Pond series speaker, reviewed The Center of Everything for the Nerdy Book Club last March, and Linda appeared again in the Nerdy Book Club pages just last week. Her book Hound Dog True provided part of the original inspiration behind Nerdy Book Club, which celebrates children's literature with daily posts by hundreds of contributors. And right now (in December) Linda is organizing folks for Write 30 Daily - a month of meeting daily writing goals. It's a great framework for writers of all varieties to practice writing and making time for creative work in their daily lives. You can check out posts on her blog (lindaurbanbooks.com/journal) and/or look for #Write30Daily on Twitter. 

Gail Gibbons & Abbie Nelson - Agriculture in the Classroom (2013) 

Another Nerdy Book Club related item - we recently contributed a post called Top 10 Books for Making Lunch, that offered a list of food related picture books, inspired by a visit from Gail Gibbons and Abbie Nelson last November.

Rebecca Rupp - Nonfiction with Personality (2013)

Staying a little bit longer on the food theme . . . we've enjoyed following Rebecca Rupp's series of articles for The Plate, National Geographic's food blog. Her combination of food, history and science has covered everything from how to eat like a pirate to why a pea might possibly have once kept a princess awake. Also, in a non-food-related update, her book After Eli appeared on last year's DCF list and was profiled by VPR in April. Now that we're on our third reference to Dorothy's List, we hope it is clear that we're very happy VPR started to produce this series.

Kate Messner - Writing Workshop (2014)  

Why even bother to try to stay current? Every time we turn around Kate has a new teacher's resource, an important project (like the Great Greene Heist Challenge) that she's rallying folks behind, and of course (happily) a new book of her own. We recommend her blog and website at www.katemessner.com. She has a new middle grade novel All The Answers coming out this winter. As part of the book tour, she will be giving workshops at local schools that include not only reading from the book, but also a look at the process of writing it. We'll be interviewing Kate about All The Answers, and her work with schools, for an in-depth article to post in February.

S.S. Taylor - Writing Workshop (2014) 

Sarah Stewart Taylor visited just the other month to lead a writing workshop at Bear Pond. . . and yet we already have an update. Sarah and her illustrator Katherine Roy have a new three-part post / article "Behind the Scene" about how they created three scenes from the Expeditioners. In case you've missed just how much the book making process info on Katherine's blog tickles us, here is a good place to start. Even better - Katherine is coming the store on February 7th to talk about her own series of science-related picture books and the larger topic of visual learning. That's at 11:00 am in the Children's Room and all calendars should be marked right now.

Year(s) in Review Part I

We're open to (occasionally demanding of) feedback on our author-educators series at the Bear Pond Books Children's Room. One result of last year's input is a greater emphasis on possible activities to use in the classroom. You'll see in our write up of Jason Chin & Deirdre Gill's presentation on Pictures Books Inspired by Nature that we split the article between a general summary and one focused on learning activities. 

We'll continue to experiment with this emphasis in future blog posts. Retrospectively, we bring you this round up of earlier talks with quick notes on the information they contain related to activities you might create in your own classes, programs, or personal study of different subjects. 

Meg Allison - Why Fairy Tales Still Matter (2014)

• Building stories from the common elements of Fairy Tales . . . these elements provide the foundation for a lot of the stories around us, not only fairy tales.
• Exploring the stories behind the doors of Moretown, as inspired by the many doors and doorways that caught Meg's eye as she traveled through the fairy tale locales of Europe

Grace Greene - Picture Books & Early Literacy (2012); Dorothy Canfield Fisher List (2014)

• Using picture books to learn about how stories are structured - includes using critical analysis of picture books for teaching older students.
• Resources for using the DCF list in the classroom.

David Martin - Picture Books & Early Literacy (2012), Bad Jokes & Early Learning (2013)

• Using rhymes, poems, silly songs to help kids play around with words and anticipate what word is coming up.
• Turning books into games / acting books out in the classroom.
• Background resources on learning through play

Duncan McDougall, Dan Green, Derek Cote - Boys & Books (2014)

• Links to many resources for strategies to engage more boys in reading.

Kate Messner & Jo Knowles - Writing Workshop (2014) 

• Overview of tools Kate uses in her revision process, including different types of timelines and maps.
• Jo's technique of using storyboards to review the pacing, character appearances, focus, overall storyline of a book. 
• Writing prompts
• Writing exercise for generating new topic ideas

Abbie Nelson & Gail Gibbons - Agriculture in the Classroom (2013)

• An overview of resources from organizations participating in Food Education Every Day, which emphasizes combining cafeteria, classroom and community as students learn about food.
  

Rebecca & Josh Rupp - Nonfiction with Personality (2013) 

• Developing a voice for nonfiction (versus voice-less technical writing) in the middle grades 
• Using writers' notebooks to build a world of ideas, with context for each idea, then cut down ("cut until you can't cut any more") to reach the essence of a story.
• Handout on writing exercises.

Leda Schubert - Picture Books & Early Literacy (2012)

• Prompting questions to lead through research of a subject. . .  and then lead from that research to stories.
• Examples of good use of citations / resources / references in picture books (. . . which led to our later soap box speech in the October 2014 Materials Review about nonfiction books that do not include these elements).

Tanya Lee Stone - Combining Passion & Research (2013)

• Choosing topics for writing (ie things you care about)
• Examples of tracking down new information, looking in new places for information as part of research behind a writing project.
• This earlier post about Tanya discusses taking a critical eye to what a writer can really say for certain about a topic and what is conjecture. 

S.S. Taylor - Writing Workshop (2014)

• Exercise for imagining characters, situations, and tensions that lead to stories.
• Experimenting with the opening for a book / story.
  

J&P Voelkel - Successful Author Classroom Visits (2013)

• Resources for effectively using author visits as part of lesson plans. 
• An author visit checklist for a smooth event.

Natalie Kinsey Warnock & Jenny Land - Family and Place (2013)

• Using historical objects as story prompts - including a handout of sample questions.
• Classroom-wide projects to learn local stories and history, includes research that goes back to original sources.
• Introduction to Natalie's Storykeepers curriculum.
• Bibliography of resources for researching family and place history in Vermont.

Tanya Lee Stone: Book 100

This past weekend, the Stage Write! event in Burlington celebrated Tanya Lee Stone's contract for her 100th book - Girl Rising, an adaptation of a documentary about educating girls worldwide and breaking cycles of poverty. The evening brought together well known authors and raised funds for the Burlington-based Young Writers Project, as described in this Seven Days article. 

Tanya spoke last year as part of our Author-Educator series. Her talk focused on how to build nonfiction stories while staying strictly true to the the research. It was an extension of an earlier essay she wrote for Horn Book A Fine, Fine Line: Truth in Nonfiction. We captured her comments in this article Combining Passion and Research for Compelling Nonfiction. 

Tanya writes often on the topic of creating nonfiction for young people. She was a blogger for several years on I.N.K. (Interesting Nonfiction for Kids). You can read background on some of her earlier books there. For example, surrounding creation of her award winning Courage Has No Color:

• Courage Has No Color (Publication)
• Nuances of Oral History - collecting stories for Courage Has No Color. Also possibly of interest, this sample middle grade oral history lesson plan found via Steve Sheinkin who used oral histories to construct the dialogue in his new book Port Chicago 50
• Visual Storytelling Part 1
• Visual Storytelling Part 2
• Are we there yet? a post on the question of how far along she is in her latest book (which may or may not have been Courage Has No Color but it's a general reflection)
• Steps in wrapping up Courage Has No Color pre-publication 

Tanya seems to have an endless supply of interest and excitement around stories, histories, and information to share with young audiences and we congratulate her on book #100!

Writing with S. S. Taylor

What's the story of the King of Bularistan who wants to be a famous ballet dancer?

Or an electrician who runs a greeting card company?

A talking lizard that loves cheese? A third grade teacher with a stolen painting?

And what if all these people met each other?

At her October 18th workshop, children's author S. S. (Sarah Stewart) Taylor set up a series of prompts as a way to explore how story can flow organically from characters.

Sarah doesn't accept the idea of plot-driven versus character-driven stories. Plot emerges from characters and character development. For example, Sarah began her Expeditioners series with the concept of a boy explorer. From that starting concept she developed characters who would live inside the fictional world she was creating. And then, as usually happens for her, she hit a wall around page fifty - which usually means she needs to do more character development. 

"I make detailed character profile sheets," Sarah said. She wants such detailed knowledge of all characters that, in one writing class, she prompted students to create an art project their characters might have made in school.

What makes a good character? Everyone can start to answer that by asking what characters have stayed with them from books they've read.

Often it's someone entertaining. Writing a story (or even reading a story) requires spending a lot of time with your characters and ". . . if you're going to invite somebody on a road trip, you want somebody who keeps you entertained," Sarah points out.

Characters are also usually flawed, a little messy. For one thing, that makes them human. For another, this messy-ness draws the reader into working to get to know them, investing time in figuring them out. Think of Hermione in Harry Potter.

At our Saturday workshop, we did a simple exercise in story that flows from character:

• Two envelopes circulated with slips of paper, one had starting characters on the slips, one an additional description (see above)
• Participants drew a slip from each envelope and put them together
• Everyone formed pairs to explore what would happen if our two characters crossed paths 

In the case of the electrician with the greeting card company, he fell into a story with a wealthy prince who had a cold. In the brainstormed story, it was the Prince's 13th birthday and he was expected to deliver a major speech to his subjects . . . but he had a cold and has lost his voice ahead of his big speech making debut. The electrician wiring the stage for the speech volunteered to voice over for the Prince. And, of course, his experience in greeting cards gave him plenty of material to throw into the script.

In another story, a cheese loving lizard stole a painting of cheese and hid it in the garage of his owner, a third grade teacher (the lizard is literally a teacher's pet). The teacher discovers the stolen painting, knows that no one will believe that her talking lizard took the artwork, and doesn't know what to do with it.

These quick ideas set up a premise for a story, then a plot would show readers what happens next.

Another exercise that Sarah does with students is to switch the character details for different characters in a work in progress, and ask how the story would change. Again, plot from character.

Our workshop group next tackled the question of when the story really starts? Or, in more technical language, the question of the inciting incident that changes the status quo for the characters. Sarah usually discovers that her stories actually start one chapter in - the stuff written as the "first chapter" is really background she'll work into the story later. In the first Expeditioners book, for example, she wrote many drafts where the father disappearing was the inciting incident. Ultimately, though, the father being gone was in fact the starting status quo for the kids in her book, and Kit receiving a mysterious code and map was the inciting incident.

Everyone took seven minutes to sketch out possible starting scenes for the stories they'd brainstormed. So, the prince and the electrician, for example, had two possible starting scenes  sketched out by each partner: 1.) a page rushing in to wake up the Prince and tell him that the speech has been moved to that day (not enough time to get over the cold) or 2.) starting on stage with the electrician micing the Prince and the Prince failing to talk for the sound check.

Deciding the actual first scene for any story is a process of trial and error to find what fits.

We reached the end of the workshop here, but Sarah recommended a few books for more writing exercises:

• The Art of Fiction -- John Gardner
• What If? -- Ann Bernays and Pamela Painter

There is also an "Essential Library" list of writing craft books (including many for young writers) posted, with links, here.

We're looking forward to another writing workshop in April with Gary Lee Miller. . . and for a similar article (but with different exercises) read this from our Jo Knowles and Kate Messner workshop.

Events in the Fall

We have many events this fall that might be of interest to educators. . . not all of them part of the "official" educators series. See below for the full list! Ones marked with ** are part of the educators series, which means there will be resources and articles related to the event posted here afterwards. 

**Friday, October 3rd, 9:00 - 11:00 am. Materials review. Coffee at 9, review starts at 9:30. Previews, reviews of new releases, and conversation about nonfiction children’s titles. There will be book and supply giveaways, and a chance to browse all the latest titles at the store. Covers grades k-9.

**Saturday, October 18th, 11:00 and 1:00 - Sarah Stewart Taylor Writing Workshops (Two different workshops) S.S. Taylor, author of the acclaimed Expeditioners books, conducts two creative writing workshops. The first, from 11:00 - noon will be for educators interested in their own writing as well as teaching techniques. The second, from 1:00 - 2:00 pm will be for young writers (recommended for ages 11+). Because there is limited space, we do request RSVPs for these workshops (e-mail helen@bearpondbooks.com).  

Tuesday, October 21st, 7pm Ben Hewitt speaks about his latest book Home Grown. This book tells the story of his family's approach to education based on discovery and learning on their Vermont farm and in the natural world and everyday decisions found there.  

Tuesday, October 28th, 7pm Garret Keizer reads from and speaks about his memoir Getting Schooled, which reflects on a year spent teaching in a rural Vermont high school after several decades away from the classroom.

**Saturday, November 15th, 11:00 am Jason Chin and Deirdre Gill, Picture Books in Nature  - Picture book authors and illustrators Jason Chin and Deirdre Gill discuss how they tell stories that are inspired by their love of nature, using both text and pictures. Includes both their process and ideas for activities with students.

Tuesday, November 18th, 7:00 pm Author Katherine Paterson (Bridge to Terabithia, The Great Gilly Hopkins, Jacob Have I Loved) comes to the store as part of our regular authors series to share her new memoir Stories of My Life.

For a list of all Bear Pond Books events, visit our main website www.bearpondbooks.com