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Ever since I was a girl, I've dreamed of living in a house with its own library. You know-- the kind of room wealthy people in movies always have, with floor-to-ceiling-built-in bookshelves and a rolling ladder to reach the top shelves.

The fantasy was inspired not only by my love of reading, but also by the fact that we had very few books in our house when I was growing up.  (One of the few I can recall was a light blue softcover my father studied to prepare for his "citizenship" test.)  For my working-class Italian-immigrant parents, books were a luxury we couldn't afford.

Then one day when I was around ten years old, a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman rang our front bell. You can imagine my amazement when the salesman managed to convince my father to buy a brand-new 20-volume set of the World Book Encyclopedia. I don't know how the salesman did it, but he was my new hero! And since my younger sister and brother were too young to read at the time, I considered the set mine.

As nerdy as it may sound, I loved reading those books. We didn't have the Internet back then, and a trip to the public library meant taking two buses each way. So having my own encyclopedia was indeed a luxury. I used it not only to research class assignments, but for recreational reading, too. I never read a volume from front to back as you would a novel. Instead, I flipped the pages until something struck me as interesting.

I tell students at school visits that my favorite volume was the letter "B," and it's true. As a girl, I pored over the color photographs of Birds and Butterflies from around the world. I studied the rules of Baseball and memorized the stats of many of the record-holders. (I believe Joe DiMaggio still holds the record for the longest consecutive hitting streak at 56 games.) I learned the hand signals for right and left turns on a Bicycle.

Those books held more than information for me. They took me places I could only dream of visiting. They introduced me to presidents, poets, and painters. They sparked my curiosity in mathematics and music.

As I grew older, I became more interested in reading fiction and drifted away from the encyclopedia.  But every so often, I still went back to my old World Books. And every time, I inevitably learned something new and interesting from their pages.

I'm happy to say I still own that set of encyclopedia--you can see it pictured here:


Now, whenever I pull out the "B" volume, I'm reminded of how it felt to be ten years old and own not only one book, but a whole set of 20. I was the richest girl in the world!

This is the last in our series of posts for the National Day on Writing, sponsored by NCTE. I will be submitting this entry to the "A Lifetime of Reading" Gallery of the National Gallery of Writing. I hope you'll use the following Writing Workout to inspire your own contribution to the gallery.
What's the first book you recall as your very own? Was it a picture book, a reader, a novel? Was it brand new, or a hand-me-down? Who gave it to you? What memories are evoked when you think about that book?

Post the title of the book as a comment here on our TeachingAuthors blog, then write a 250-500 word description, essay, or anecdote about the book. When you're done, I encourage you to submit your piece to the gallery called "A Lifetime of Reading," curated by Franki Sibberson and Mary Lee Hahn, who blog at A Year of Reading. You can read more about the gallery at their blog.

Happy writing!
Carmela

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Today was the third day of our cold, rainy long weekend here in Maryland. Desperate to entertain our restless preschoolers, my husband and I took them to the mall. Wonder of wonders, we discovered that our high-maintenance children are finally old enough to play quietly at the train table long enough for me to browse in the children's section! Before my blissful browsing time was finally cut short by my son's proclamation of "Ew, stinky diaper," I had amassed a big armful of books to buy with a big, fat gift certificate from my boss, and I am still on a big high. (Writer in bookstore, kid in candy store -- I am equally dangerous in both situations.)

This week we honor the National Day on Writing.  Tomorrow is the official day of observation per resolution of the U.S. Senate (!), and I'm sure my English 101 students will be observably more thrilled about their classification essay assignment when I tell them of this momentous occasion.  When (if) someone asks about the preposition (why 'on' and not 'of'?), I will have to admit that I am mystified.  Anyone?

Like the fervent exercisers among us, there are those who can't start the day without committing their daily 500 words to paper.  Then there are the rest of us (professionals and students alike), who have lots to say but might need some measure of encouragement/prodding to get through the whole sweaty ordeal to the Finished Product. 

This day is for you (and me).  As in a 5-mile run, endorphins and that elusive high may or may not materialize, but at the very least, completion of a writing exercise will provide immediate beneficial results.

Last night I was ellipticizing to The New Yorker (blissful apart from the elliptical part) and found not one but two articles about children's books.  The first, nominally about Alloy Entertainment, essentially addresses the question of why kids read and why we write for them.  The second article, possibly even more interesting to me as the parent of a "willful" child (and on some days, two), discussed picture books as mirrors on the parenting trends of our times and the messages they send to our kids (and to us).

My children's preschool held its weeklong book fair recently, and my daughter begged daily that we buy her a copy of A Bad Case of Stripes. She is a huge fan of the No, David series (natch), and at the end of the week, she was finally rewarded for her patience.  I read her the book that night, and she was mesmerized until halfway through, when she became freaked out.  "I don't ever want to read that book again," she declared.  I put it away until she's a bit older and didn't think of it again for several weeks.

Meanwhile, I was browsing at the book fair in question when I got a call that there had been a staffing emergency at the community college where I'd previously taught.  I happily agreed to cover a class already in progress, though the ensuing childcare juggling meant that Kate had to go to beforecare at her preschool on two days.  These made for long days for a little girl and, while she ADORES her school and her teachers and was soon begging to go... at night, she started sleeping in our room.  We were tired, we were cranky, and my back really hurt by the time 5 a.m. rolled around and we had 4 people and 1 cat in our (not king-sized) bed. 

Kate now suddenly insisted that her room was scary and she "hated" it.  I did the math and figured that she must have developed a bad case of clinginess due to the extra hours at school.  Finally, on questioning about what was so scary about her room, one day she burst into tears and said, "We should have bought the The Star Wars book!"  My exasperated husband explained that he had joked that he would buy her this instead of the book she'd been begging for for days.  And suddenly it all made sense.  She was petrified.  It had all started at the book fair -- because, as she had already told me clearly, that book had scared her!

As I tell my students, words are powerful things (words like "liberal," "socialist," "fascist," "racist" -- how many of us reflexively cringe without really considering what they mean?).  Stories and books, a compilation of carefully chosen words, are exponentially more so -- especially if we are four years old and already spend half the day in the world of pretend.

And so, bearing the sacredness of your mission in mind at all times -- write on!

Writing Workout

In an effort to help my students avoid cliches, I asked them to write about fall and avoid the following words:
crisp, clear, clean, cool, colorful

I am teaching a class on writing college essays and scholarly papers, and one of my students wrote a lovely poem.  I love fall!  And I love teaching!

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drawings by April Halprin Wayland

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     I began a new Young Writer's workshop this past weekend with some middle schoolers who are pretty sophisticated writers. Excited? You bet I was! These kids were ready for some serious writing work. I passed out composition books and pencils.
     "We are going to keep writer's journals," I announced.
     Silence. Expressionless faces.
     Oops. I recognized my error. In our local school system, journals are used to strengthen writing skills, and focus the student's attention to the subject at hand. Every single day.  By middle school, they are journaling five or six times a day, as they move from classroom to classroom.
      I know that teachers have specific testing goals to meet in spelling, grammar and punctuation. Creative writing?
      Not so much.
      I don't know how our school district fares on standardized writing tests, but I do know one side effect of daily classroom journaling; fear and loathing of "journaling."
     Back to my polite little writers, whose enthusiasm I squashed in the first five minutes by using the "j" word. I backpeddled rapidly.
     "OK, not really journaling," I said. "More like um...um..."
     Great. I'm the writer, and I  can't think of the right word for what I wanted them to do with those composition books.
     "Blogging?" my teenage assistant suggested.
     "Um...no." For one thing, there are no computers available for the workshop.
      I wanted to say "diary," but that's not right either.  Diaries show you just how boring your life is. A day-by-day chronicle of my life reads like the old Cheech and Chong comedy routine about "What I Did on My Summer Vacation." To paraphrase, "The first day, I got up, I got dressed, I ate breakfast. Then I went downtown to look for a job. Day two, I got up, I got dressed, I ate breakfast...."
     In my childhood diaries, I wrote whatever I was thinking or feeling at the moment. Writing them comforted me. I might also add that I was an only child and didn't have to worry about a sibling digging through my inner musings.
     But I digress.  My Young Writers were still waiting for me to say the magic word.
     "Let's notebook," I said.
     Nobody flinched at my use of a noun as a verb. Encouraged, I made up some more "writerspeak." I knew I couldn't use the "p" word, either. (That would be "prompt.") Prompts leave me staring at an empty screen or page, feeling frustrated at my inability to cough up creativity on demand. But I am good at finishing sentences...both my own and those of other people.
     "Finish this sentence," I said.  "Just write the first that you think of.  No hard thinking allowed. Sometimes I wonder...'"
    Scribble scribble scribble.  The writers finished, and looked at me for further wisdom.
    "Now keep writing about that until I tell you to stop. If you can't think of anything, just keep writing 'I can't think of anything to write'.  Sooner or later you will come up with something."
     Yes, this is just another way of re-packaging a "free write." Say "free write" to me and watch me do a Wile E. Coyote, freezing in mid-air, just before i plummet off the creative cliff. Free writes are just a little
too "free" for me, and for most students that I encounter. There should be boundaries. That's boundaries...not walls. Less is more.
     Since I do the exercises along with my students, I wrote the first thing that came to mind....I wonder what it would be like to vacation in space? From there I rambled on about a cruise ship-like space vehicle, with room service and a gift shop that sold t-shirts that said "My parents went to Saturn and all I got was this crummy t-shirt."
     My workshoppers were considerably more serious. Their "wonderings" were about Big Life Issues. Just as I hoped, by the end of the allotted five minutes, they had moved from personal "wondering", to conjecture, which is the step before diving into fiction.
    "Let's do another one," the group chorused. OK, maybe they didn't chorus, but they were certainly having fun. While I never insist that anyone "share with the group" (or even with me, privately) if they don't want to, this group wanted to.  So we shared, and did more open ended prom...um...sentences.
     I've never had so much fun with a writing workshop. At least not one I was leading!
     By the end of the afternoon, each writer had several pages of raw writing, compost for future projects, and the bare bones of a short story.
     And I will never have to use the "j" word again.
     We are "notebooking."

     Writing Workout

     The point of "composting" is not just to give the writer material for future use; it helps to engage the hand and brain simultaneously. That's trickier than it sounds, since most of us are so used to writing on a computer, mindlessly adding, deleting and Spell-checking. As my students complain "My mind works faster than I can move a pencil." Ah ha! That means you have to slow down, and think while you are writing. (Thinking--that undervalued writing skill!)

 Here are some of the open ended prompts I used. The second part of the part of the prompt is always "now keep writing." (Usually for five minutes, depending on the group.)

My favorite food is....   Describe without using the sense of sight.

If I could invite one person to supper, famous or not, living or dead, I would invite.....(I know; this is just a variation of the "who do you admire most?' prompt, but this seems to work better, creatively speaking.)

When I was five, my favorite toy was....

I really wish that...

What really makes me laugh is....

The one thing I could really live without is....
(or)
The one thing I can't live without is...

If could be someone else for a day it would be...


I'd love to hear your open-end prompts. (Sorry, no prize involved here. I'm just interested in hearing from
you.)


What I'm Reading.
Adult Non-fiction: Anne Frank:  The Diary, the Life, the Afterlife by Francine Prose.
YA Fiction:  Purple Heart by Patricia McCormack, Comfort by Joyce Moyer Hostetter,


Mary Ann

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Find out about our Teaching Authors Book Giveaway running all this week! Click here for details on how to enter for a chance to win your own autographed copy of S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet. And be sure to try out the related Writing Workout at the end of this post.

Now here's the fifth and last in our series of Q & A posts related to Esther Hershenhorn’s newest book, S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet, an A-to-Z journey through a writer’s life and process.

JoAnn: Each book is a ribboned and bowed gift—for the writer as well as for the reader. What was the surprise for you when you unwrapped this book?

Esther: I’m smiling just thinking about my answer.

My book’s closing Y and Z words and their accompanying entries shout to the world, “Writing is a gift!”

The word story comes from the word history, which means a narrative of events. And history’s story? It comes from the Greek word historia, which means to ask or inquire to learn and know.

“Writing,” I tell my reader, “helps you learn the story behind your story.”

Y is for Your Story
Yours to live and grow,
Of all you do,
And where you’ve been and where you hope to go.

My writer’s story, to date, told of fictional picture books and middle grade novels.

But writing S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet opened all sorts of doors to writing nonfiction.

The learner in me loved researching the bounty of possible supportive details for each of my entries. I was lost in thought, I was in the flow, as one fact led to another.

The wordsmith in me loved the doable concreteness of crafting 180-word pieces; I found the cutting, refining and polishing oddly satisfying.

I was teaching again, via words on paper, as I did when I long ago published for the educational market.

My journalism degree served me daily and well, enabling me to focus on each entry’s important facts.

I was telling my story – my Writer’s story, my Teacher’s story, my Author’s story, my Teaching Author’s story, up close and personally, all in the service of helping young writers tell their stories.

My current project? I’m writing a picture book biography of a little-known slave the world needs to know.

My “Z is for Zorro” entry reminds readers that we need to sign our names beneath our singular stories, maybe with three quick sword-drawn lines, as Zorro did, or with a John Hancock-like bold hand or a telling mark. Perhaps, I suggest, we could use a signature quote, words that tell the world something about us, the way the quotes throughout my book tell something about writing.

Each day brings me new and meaningful quotable words to place beneath my name. For now, though, as I sign off with thanks to my fellow Teaching Authors for their questions and support the past seven days, I choose Milo’s words from The Phantom Toll Booth.

Esther Hershenhorn
“Anything is possible as long as you don’t know it’s impossible.”

FYI:

Zachary Pullen’s singular, compelling S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet’s illustrations reflect his respect for young writers and writing. Visit Zak’s website to learn more about his work and other books.

My website offers Young Writers Extras – opportunities to write, read and discover, at home, in school, or at the library.

Visit my website’s newest page, Tour, to learn the What, When and Where of my out-and-about book events, signings, school visits, conference engagements, writer presentations, teacher workshops and upcoming October-through November Blog Tour.

Click here for Sleeping Bear Press’s Teacher’s Guide to S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet.


Many writers today place a famous quotation beneath their names when they sign letters, emails and reports. Such quotations are called signature quotes.


Bartlett’s Book of Familiar Quotations sits on the reference shelf of most libraries.

A Gift of Days: The Greatest Words to Live By (S & S/Atheneum) offers powerful words from 366 artists, writers, political figures and visionaries.

What quote would you choose to write beneath your name to show the world you’re here and just who you are?

Think about your favorite books (Winnie the Pooh, the Harry Potter series), movies, characters, poems, ads, tag lines, song titles and lyrics, sports figures, musicians and games.

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Carmela:
Can you share with our readers, Esther, how being a TeachingAuthor informed your book?

Esther:
My Inner Child wasn’t the only one keeping me company while I brainstormed, grew, and wrote S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet.

The Teachers in me, plural (former fifth grade and writing) couldn’t sit still, checking off subjects each insisted I include.
For instance, elements of narrative, such as character and plot.
The Four Kinds of Writing, from Persuasive to Descriptive.
What about Word Choice?
Don’t forget Voice.
Remind young writers: mechanics are important.
      
The Author in me seconded the Teachers, before promptly adding a few Musts of her own. 
Introduce Journals.
Recommend Notebooks.
Share Writer’s Tips.
Share the glory and the fun.
Let writers know the need for revision and drafts.
Inspire writers with stories of success.

It was the Children’s Book Author in me, though, who helped me reach my story’s heart.
I’d personally learned my craft by reading, studying, typing out, and taking apart children’s books, across all formats in a multitude of genres.
I still read as a writer.
I still write as a reader.
All of me celebrates the Reader-Writer Connection.

What better way to Show, Don’t Tell as well as support my chosen content than to reference children’s books, their authors, their characters?
What better way to affirm today’s young writers than to let them know: they are not alone?
E.B. White’s eight drafts of Charlotte’s Web.
Dr. Seuss’ 1 ½ year-long revision of The Cat in the Hat.
Christopher Paul Curtis’ surprising Writer’s Journey.
Beatrix Potter’s letter-writing.
Sid Fleischman’s magic.
My book’s sidebars teem with All Things Children’s Book.
Each double-page spread offers a treasured author’s words.
Andrew Clements’ words close the double-page B spread.
“I don’t know a single writer who wasn’t a reader first.”

FYI
•    Zachary Pullen’s singular, compelling S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet’s illustrations reflect his respect for young writers and writing.  Visit Zak’s website to learn more about his work and other books.
•    My website offers Young Writers Extras – opportunities to write, read and discover, at home, in school, or at the library.
•    Visit my website’s newest page, Tour, to learn the What, When and Where of my out-and-about book events, signings, school visits, conference engagements, writer presentations, teacher workshops and upcoming October-through November Blog Tour.
•    Click here for Sleeping Bear Press’ Teacher’s Guide to S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet.



Reading biographies of children’s book writers helps you learn how other writers kept on working to learn and hone their craft, no matter their disappointments, doubts, and early failures.

Check out these writer biographies:

Jen Bryant: A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams
Sid Fleischman: Trouble at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West
Karen Hesse: The Young Hans Christian Andersen
Kathleen Krull: 
   The Boy on Fairfeld Street: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss
   The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps, and Triumphs in the Life of L. Frank Baum
Mark Nobleman: Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman
Yona Zedia McDonough: Louisa: The Life of Louisa May Alcott

[Note: book images used with permission.]

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Mary Ann:
Can you share with our readers, Esther, how and why you came to write this nonfiction book?

Esther:
How could I not begin an alphabetically-arranged writing book with A is for Alphabet?  I especially love Lewis Carroll’s words from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which end my book’s first double-page spread: “Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.”

As for the story behind S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet, believe it or not, it begins, “It was a dark and stormy night ..."

Or rather, it was a dark and stormy Thursday in early January, 2007.  I sat across the lunch table from my friend and fellow author Steven Layne at Chicago’s Grand Lux Café.

A part of me was back at my Lincoln Park writing desk, eager to tackle my middle-grade novel’s revision. In fact, I’d hemmed and hawed about keeping the lunch date, torn between my writing and catching up with a dear friend, even while CTA-ing my bundled self to the restaurant.

Still, I watched and listened as Steven made his way through his soup-and-sandwich combo singing, non-stop, between bites and sips, the praises of his P is for Princess publisher.

“Esther,” Steven declared, readying for dessert, “you need to publish with Sleeping Bear Press!”

My brain instantly played Connect the Dots: Sleeping Bear Press?  Oh, ABC books!  A book on writing because that was what I knew!  Website searches of SBP and Amazon followed.  Next, a review of every writing book I used with Young Writers.

By dinnertime, I’d dedicated the next 42 hours until my U.S. Mail Lady’s Saturday noon pick-up to thoughtfully readying a proposal for (what I then titled) W is for Writing.

Theodor Seuss Geisel wrote of his own serendipitous meeting with his former college friend-turned-Vanguard Press juvenile editor who purchased And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street after the good Dr.’s twenty-some rejections, “If I’d been going down the other side of Madison Avenue, I would be in the dry-cleaning business today.”

I’ve asked myself often during the past two years: what if I had stayed home that dark, damp, gray and cold Thursday?!

My, oh, my, what I would have missed.

As further luck would have it, throughout those 42 early January hours, that little girl I once was who lives inside of me poked and prodded and wouldn’t let me be.  Maybe, she whispered, I could write the book she’d wanted to own, when she’d decided to someday write children’s books.  Maybe my book could answer her questions.

Of course, her questions are those of any young person interested in writing.  I answer these questions daily, on school visits, in libraries, when coaching writers in my Author-to-Author program, when celebrating Young Authors at city and state events.

How nice that I can now answer those questions by handing children my Writer’s Alphabet.

And when I do, I’ll be sure to speak the words Steven taught me to share when gifting a student with a carefully-chosen book.

“Here,” I’ll say, “I’ve been thinking about you.”

FYI:
•    Zachary Pullen’s singular, compelling S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet’s illustrations reflect his respect for young writers and writing.  Visit Zak’s website to learn more about his work and other books.
•    My website offers Young Writers Extras – opportunities to write, read and discover, at home, in school, or at the library.
•    Visit my website’s newest page, Tour, to learn the What, When and Where of my out-and-about book events, signings, school visits, conference engagements, writer presentations, teacher workshops and upcoming October-through November Blog Tour.
•    Click here for Sleeping Bear Press’ Teacher’s Guide to S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet.


The word “abecedarian” (ā-bē-(ˌ)sē-ˈder-ē-ən) just about gives away its meaning.

An abecedarian  is a person who’s learning the letters of the alphabet.  The word abecedarian also describes anything that is related to the alphabet.

S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet tells the story of a writer’s life and process from A to Z.  How might you tell your story from A to Z?  Or the story of your family, or your favorite sports team, recording artist, or classroom even?

List the letters A through Z.  Choose meaningful subject words that tell your subject’s story.  For example, The A-to-Z of Me might include:

            A is for Aunt Anne.
            B is for my books.
            C is for my cousin Jane who lives in New Jersey.

            First choose naming words or nouns.
            Next, grow your story by adding verbs (actions words) or adjectives (describing words) or even both.

[Note: book image used with permission.]

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Craft books can be a huge help, but I don’t always read them straight through. I often find some nugget that inspires me enough to make me go off to write instead. I figure the more helpful the book, the less I have to read, and I save the rest for later.

This semester, I’m teaching a class on writing memoirs. As I usually do when I’m preparing to teach, I checked out a stack of books from the library. A couple of them are familiar, reliable resources—I’ve read them before and found them useful: Natalie Goldberg’s Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir and Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art by Judith Barrington. Others were new to me, and I enjoyed exploring the subject from their varied points of view.

Even if you are not writing a memoir, such books can help in several ways:

• by providing a glimpse into another writer’s approach
• by reminding you that writers keep writing in spite of obstacles
• by bringing up true stories that can inspire leaps into fiction, memoir, or something else
• by sharing exercises that might help you move forward

One book grabbed my attention not only for its playful tone but also for its helpful format: Thinking About Memoir by Abigail Thomas. Instead of suggesting exercises and then giving examples of how they might be done, Thomas tells stories first and then provides writing prompts on topics that flow from the stories.



She writes about seeing a buzzard far away on a beach. After watching it awhile, she decides to walk up for a closer look and discovers a stick with a plastic bag tangled around it. Her instruction is to write about mistaking something for something else.

She says her sister suggests that “a good way to get going on memoir is to write your will. You have to decide who gets all your treasures, and this involves looking at them, and remembering where you found them.” Her assignment: write about your treasures.

She describes a trip with her sister after they had each been given a box of six truffles. “The tiny print said two pieces contained 310 calories,” she writes. “We were sitting on the bus headed downtown, quietly doing our calculations: Judy was dividing by two and I was multiplying by three.” This story cracked me up; the assignment that follows it is to write about a time when you recognized a difference between you and another person.

In the spirit of Thinking About Memoir, I’m including a memory from my childhood and a choice of writing prompts that stem from it.

Writing Workout: Begin with a Memory

One Sunday morning when most of my family had gone to church, I decided to make everyone breakfast. My father was asleep upstairs. I remember scrambled eggs and bacon, so I must have been old enough to use the stove on my own.

I was thinking about how surprised my family would be when I heard a loud crash outside. I ran out and saw a car halfway up our front steps.

My father came out and discovered that the driver was a woman whose husband had recently died. She was on her way to the cemetery with a vase of flowers on the seat next to her. When the flowers started slipping off the seat, she reached to grab them and lost control of her car.

As soon as he found out she was not hurt, my father told her not to worry. He would fix the steps himself. I don’t remember the woman, the car, whether anyone called the police, or what happened when the rest of the family came home, but I do remember his kindness.

Assignment:

Write about a time when you were home alone.

or

Write about someone being compassionate to a stranger.

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We have another first today--our first Guest Teaching Author interview with a Teaching Author who is also an Illustrator: Elizabeth O. Dulemba!
 
We are pleased to be part of Elizabeth's blog tour for her first picture book as both author and illustrator, Soap, Soap, Soap ~ Jabón, Jabón, Jabón (available in bilingual and all-English versions) published by Raven Tree Press. See the end of this post for information on how to enter for a chance to win your own autographed copy!

Elizabeth is the award-winning illustrator of seven trade picture books. She speaks regularly at conferences, schools, and events, and once a year, she teaches "Creating Picture Books" at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. She is the Illustrators' Coordinator for the Southern region of the Society of Children's book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and is on the Board for the Georgia Center for the Book, where she is a strong advocate for the children's writing community.

Elizabeth, can you tell us how you became a Teaching Author/Illustrator?

I've always said if I wasn't a children's book author/illustrator, I'd be a teacher. One of my regrets in life is that I didn't stick around for an MFA in college--a degree which would have opened doors to teach in colleges and private schools. I still hope to achieve the degree someday. In the mean time, I have taught every chance I could through alternate means. I was a substitute teacher straight out of college; taught Beginning Drawing through the Chattanooga Arts Center in Tennessee; speak regularly at schools (grade school through adult), conferences and events; and teach 'Creating Picture Books' once a year at the John C. Campbell Folk School. I love to teach--it's a constant puzzle. Every student absorbs information differently and it's up to me to figure out how to relay that information in a way it will be best understood by each particular brain. It's a challenge that I adore.

What's a common problem/question that your students have and how do you address/answer it?

In line with what I mentioned above, if a student doesn't understand what I'm trying to relay, I have to approach the information differently--until I find the way that person learns best. Low attention spans can also be a challenge (even in adults!). I try to keep things dynamic to keep everybody engaged. (Full-time teachers must have amazing energy--I wish they could bottle it.) If I see I'm losing a student, I'll direct a question to him or her to pull them back in.

Would you share a favorite writing exercise for our readers?

Since I am an illustrator first, my exercise has a craft/visual element. I have students create a mini-book with a strip of paper--creating four panels with three folds. They divide the story they're working on into four categories, one for each of the four panels:
1) Introduce a problem, want, or desire
2) Present obstacles
3) Climax
4) Resolution
Even for adults, I pull out a box of markers and have them decorate their "mini-dummies." It's something fun to show, but it also helps them define the key components of their stories.

What a great exercise for picture book writers! Can you share how you were drawn to the writing side of picture book creation?

My journey into writing is an ironic one. I was identified as an artist at a very early age. So when the writing showed up a little later, it wasn't given much credence. After all, you only get 'One Thing,' right? However, my drawings were always illustrations of the stories filling my head, and I wrote in my drawing pads too--poems, stories, you name it. I kept a diary for years (volumes and volumes), but I never really knew I was a writer until I finally dove into my dream of creating picture books full time. My first attempts were pretty awful, but then I started getting comments like, "She can obviously write," or "She's a beautiful writer." Those meant so much to me. And even though my first picture book as both illustrator AND author is now out, I'm not sure I feel like a 'real' writer yet. I'm not sure what will do it.

It's kind of like with my illustrations. I was an in-house illustrator, making my living from my art for fifteen years. But I didn't feel like a 'real' illustrator until I traveled to New York for the SCBWI Portfolio Show at the Society of Illustrators. I joke that I circled the building seven times and pounded that New York pavement. After that trip, I finally felt like a bona fide illustrator.

Soap, Soap, Soap is a variation on a classic Appalachian Jack Tale. Can you tell us how you came to write this story?

I have long been a fan of the Jack Tales. Something about the Appalachians and the culture there has pulled at me my entire life. So when Raven Tree Press approached me to illustrate Paco and the Giant Chile Plant, a bilingual adaptation of "Jack and the Beanstalk," I jumped at it. Not only was it a Jack Tale, but it was my excuse to finally learn Spanish. (Raven Tree specializes in bilingual picture books.) Happily, Paco did very well for Raven Tree and they wanted another.

I presented Soap to my publishers when they were in town for IRA and they flipped over it. However, the new tale fit better in a modern day setting. So Paco became Hugo, and the old Chihuahuan desert became a small town in South Georgia. The rest will, I hope, be a very happy and successful journey. 

Do you have any suggestions for teachers on how they might use Soap, Soap, Soap in the classroom?

Yes! I've created an entire activity page on my Web site. It includes coloring sheets, puzzles, recipes, and other activities that can be used at home or in the classroom. 

I'm also thrilled to share that the Alliance Theatre's Teaching Artists program has picked up Soap as one of their main books this season. They focus on the basic concepts of getting muddy and getting clean. For instance, where can you get mud on you? Your elbows, your knees, etc. What does mud feel like and smell like? Once you've gotten muddy, how do you get clean? Do you take a bath and scrub? 

Teachers are using Soap to introduce hygiene in their classrooms. Anastasia Suen has also posted a mini-lesson tying the book to a related topic of hand-washing and learning to stay clean--an important topic in this Swine Flu season.

Along with these basic ideas, Soap can be used with my previous (illustrated) picture book, Paco and the Giant Chile Plant (written by Keith Polette) to discuss how folktales evolve over time. Both books are adaptations of classic Appalachian Jack Tales that were passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, from Cornwall, England to the Chihuahua desert in Mexico. Playing "telephone" is a great way to discuss how stories change and evolve as they travel from teller to teller and how stories can become uniquely our own when we tell them our own way.

Elizabeth, thanks so much for taking time to talk with us today. And special thanks for providing an autographed copy of your book for our giveaway.  Readers who'd like to learn more about Elizabeth and her books can visit her Web site.

Instructions for entering our giveaway drawing are provided below. But first, you may want to watch the trailer for Soap, Soap, Soap ~ Jabón, Jabón, Jabón:


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Now, for the contest requirements:

To enter for a chance to win an autographed copy of Soap, Soap, Soap in your choice of a bilingual or all-English edition, you must post a comment giving us the title of one of your favorite folktales, and the reason behind your choice. To qualify, your entry must be posted by midnight, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009 (CST). The winner will be announced on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. Be sure to provide an email address where we can reach you! See this post for our complete giveaway guidelines.

We look forward to reading your comments. Good luck, everyone! And don't forget to watch for another book giveaway coming VERY soon.

Carmela

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Hooray--it’s Poetry Friday! Today’s poem and lesson plan are at the end of this post.

I’ve always felt that that if nothing else, I’m good at being a portal. A conduit between what someone wants and how they can get it. That's what has given me the to courage to teach Writing Picture Books for Children through UCLA Extension’s Writer’s Program for over a decade. This class is for newbie children’s book writers--not for those who have read a lot, taken classes, submitted stories, or joined organizations.

To these toe-in-the-water beginners I assign two books. The first is

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books—3^rd Edition by Harold Underdown.

This is a comprehensive, down-to-earth guide—worth reading cover-to-cover and easy to dip into as a reference. It presents a broad overview of the field but also gives specifics. As with all Idiot Guides, it's easy to browse and packed with extras like "Vocabulary Lists," which explain terms in the children's publishing industry; "Class Rules," which detail warnings and cautions; "Can You Keep a Secret?" which include tips and resources to help a children's writer or illustrator present him or herself as a pro; and my favorite, "Playground Stories," which are anecdotes from and profiles of children's authors and publishers, giving an insiders view of the children's publishing world.

The other required book is Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott.

Teaching Authors Jeanne Marie and Mary Ann have both talked about Bird by Bird...and I’m going to talk about again. Because yes, it’s that good.

My favorite chapter is the one on jealousy, which changed my life. I read it at least once a year to quell my burning heart.

Though I happily celebrate most friends' successes, some colleagues' successes cause me great agony and confusion. Several years ago, someone gently suggested that perhaps I shouldn't read the book review section right before I went to sleep. She was right. When I'd see certain names, I'd toss and turn all night, feeling like I'd lost a race I didn't even know I was in.

This is really embarrassing to admit.

I've been more loving to myself about this in the last few years, and Anne Lamott's BIrd by Bird is a big reason why. She writes:
“But if you continue to write, you are probably going to have to deal with [jealousy], because some wonderful dazzling successes are going to happen for some of the most awful, angry undeserving writers you know—people who are, in other words, not you."

and later,

"It can wreak just the tiniest bit of havoc with your self-esteem to find that you are hoping for small bad things to happen to this friend--for, say, her head to blow up."

Who, me?

She writes about seeing a documentary on AIDS:

"You could see the amazing fortitude of people going through horror with grace...seeing that this is what you've got, this disease, or maybe even this jealousy. So you do as well as you can with it. And this ravaged body or wounded psyche...should...be cared for as softly and tenderly as possble."

Lamott has shown me that yes, I have this tendency to be jealous, yes, I have this green spot on my heart…and though I try each year to make it smaller, I may have to live with that little green spot, be amused by that part of me and love myself anyway.

I’m human. What a surprise.

Writing Workout / Lesson Plan—
Metaphor—Getting a Handle on a Really Uncomfortable Feeling

For ages 7 through adult (or younger, with individual help.)

Objective: This lesson reminds us how writing can help us when we feel awful. (And if the feeling doesn’t go away, at least we’ve got a poem out of it!)

Instructions:

1. Think of someone or something that fills you with envy (or another awful feeling).

2. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath.

3. Feel this feeling in your stomach, in your bloodstream, filling every bone in your body.

4. Or instead, think about what helps drive this emotion from your body. Feel the relief as it leaves through the top of your head, through your finger tips, through the bottoms of your feet.

5. Brainstorm at least five metaphors for jealousy or for what makes jealousy go away. Are you a leaf and is your jealousy a worm chewing on you? Is your jealousy a ring in the bathtub being scrubbed clean with Ajax cleanser?

6. Write a poem using one of your metaphors.

7. Write honestly—even if it embarrasses you.

ANYTHING I CAN DO YOU CAN DO BETTER

or

CAN OF WORMS

by April Halprin Wayland

Varda once told us

that we were all cans on a shelf.

Cans of chili, kidney beans, split pea soup.

I decided that I was a can of apricot halves.

She said that the shelf was only one can deep

but that it stretched out forever

so there’s always room

for one more.

“You don’t have to be afraid that adding another can
means there isn’t enough room for you,”she said.

“You can even help a new can

onto the shelf next to you.”

And she never talked

about jealousy again.

© April Halprin Wayland

Out and About

I’m giving a short program and book signing at the fabulous

Children’s Book World in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 26^th at 10:30 am.

If you can’t come, call 310-559-2665 (310-559-book) and they’ll send you your very own autographed copy of New Year at the Pier!

All drawings by April Halprin Wayland

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