A compilation of lessons by 20 notable authors of children's literature, this book will motivate your students to become successful writers. Lessons encourage children to wonder, think, imagine, explore, and create as they write their stories. This book is perfect for teachers wanting to develop their students' writing skills. Grades 2-8

Build a classroom of excited, talented young writers. This wonderful teaching resource offers a complete approach to creating a classroom of enthusiastic, skillful student writers. The authors provide a comprehensive approach to teaching writing in the classroom. This book offers the strategies teachers need to teach writing skills that meet national standards and to produce excellent results from children. Topics addressed in this guidebook include: creating the writing classroom, teaching the writing process, teaching effective writing strategies, teaching elements of story structure, teaching the advanced craft of writing, and using a writer's workshop to teach good writing. Writing is a great differentiator. During the writer's workshop, each student is engaged in meaningful ways. Pulling together more than three decades of practical experience and research on the best strategies for teaching writing, Writing Like Writers offers a friendly, easy-to-use guide for any teacher seeking to build a classroom of successful writers. Grades 2-6

More than 45 agent, editor, and author-written chapters--called workshops in the book--provide instruction on the writing craft and the business of getting published.

A one-of-a-kind celebration of America's greatest comic strip--and the life lessons it can teach us--from a stellar array of writers and artists Over the span of fifty years, Charles M. Schulz created a comic strip that is one of the indisputable glories of American popular culture—hilarious, poignant, inimitable. Some twenty years after the last strip appeared, the characters Schulz brought to life in Peanuts continue to resonate with millions of fans, their beguiling four-panel adventures and television escapades offering lessons about happiness, friendship, disappointment, childhood, and life itself. In The Peanuts Papers, thirty-three writers and artists reflect on the deeper truths of Schulz’s deceptively simple comic, its impact on their lives and art and on the broader culture. These enchanting, affecting, and often quite personal essays show just how much Peanuts means to its many admirers—and the ways it invites us to ponder, in the words of Sarah Boxer, “how to survive and still be a decent human being” in an often bewildering world. Featuring essays, memoirs, poems, and two original comic strips, here is the ultimate reader’s companion for every Peanuts fan. Featuring: Jill Bialosky Lisa Birnbach Sarah Boxer Jennifer Finney Boylan Ivan Brunetti Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell Rich Cohen Gerald Early Umberto Eco Jonathan Franzen Ira Glass Adam Gopnik David Hajdu Bruce Handy David Kamp Maxine Hong Kingston Chuck Klosterman Peter D. Kramer Jonathan Lethem Rick Moody Ann Patchett Kevin Powell Joe Queenan Nicole Rudick George Saunders Elissa Schappell Seth Janice Shapiro Mona Simpson Leslie Stein Clifford Thompson David L. Ulin Chris Ware

Exciting, productive connections with authors, illustrators, and storytellers are at your fingertips with this resource. Unlike other author visit guides, this book goes beyond nuts-and-bolts planning to how to create the best possible encounters between students and authors. Successful visits in real space and in cyberspace are described, giving you specific ideas of the many ways to connect with and create meaningful links between bookpeople and children. Choosing the right guest, guidelines for successful visits, making curriculum connections, using e-mail to connect with bookpeople, live chats in virtual space, taking advantage of ITB and satellite technology, and using such props as realia and curriculum guides are some of the topics covered. Lists of author/illustrator web pages and managed Internet sites for author interaction are included.

Foreword by bestselling and award-winning author Smriti Halls. The indispensable guide to writing for children of all ages from pre-school to young adults, this Yearbook provides inspirational articles from dozens of successful writers and illustrators on how to get your work published. It includes a directory of over a thousand up-to-date listings with contacts from across the media and publishing industry. This bestselling Yearbook is full of practical advice on all stages of the writing and illustration process from getting started, writing for different markets and genres, and preparing an illustration portfolio, through to submission to literary agents and publishers. It also covers the financial, contractual and legal aspects of being a writer and illustrator. Widely recognised as the essential support for authors and illustrators working across all forms: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, screen, audio and theatre, it is equally relevant to those wishing to self-publish as well as those seeking a traditional publisher-agent deal. It includes advice from bestselling writers, such as Sarah Crossan, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Tom Palmer, David Wood and many more. Additional articles, free advice, events information and editorial services at www.writersandartists.co.uk

BOOKS THAT TURN CHILDREN INTO LIFE-LONG READERS! Most children want to read a book because it's about something they love or are curious about--dinosaurs, magic tricks, ballerinas, sports, secret codes, and a host of other topics. Now with this unique book, Kathleen Odean, current chair of the Newberry Award committee and author of Great Books for Girls and Great Books for Boys, makes it easy for parents and teachers to satisfy a child's individual cravings for good reading on any subject. Inside you'll discover ¸ More than 750 books divided into 55 categories, from Airplanes to Zoos ¸ Professional appraisals that are balanced, intelligent, and fun to read ¸ Stimulating book-related activities and helpful tips for parents Whether the format is picture book, poetry, fiction, or nonfiction, here are wonderful selections like Why Does the Cat Do That? and Exploring the Titanic . . . tried and true characters, from the beloved aardvarks Arthur and D.W. to the hilarious Junie B. Jones and the courageous Harry Potter . . . new heroes and heroines to cheer for such as Katherine Paterson's Princess Miranda from The Wide-Awake Princess and the exciting Jack Black from Jack Black and the Ship of Thieves by Carol Hughes. Great Books About Things Kids Love creates a book-rich environment in which the habit of reading can take hold and flourish for a lifetime. From the Trade Paperback edition.