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Hey teachers!Kids too!Are you writing any nonfiction stories in class these days?Lots of schools are trying out this approach to writing in general, and they’re studying the different ways good nonfiction books are written in particular, especially in light of the CCSS.So what different kinds of writing might work nonfiction-wise?There are plenty.
Try doing live interviews or writing a journal, for example—they both count as nonfiction. A few ideas:
Maybe your class can interview various folks who were on the scene during a great or terrible historic event, such as the Summer Olympics or even 911. Or try interviewing somebody who has an unusual job; maybe the old Santa Claus at the mall or a fireman (naturally) or your mayor or a local musician or a TV personality or your own bus driver.
And maybe you can pen some truly amazing journals during a field trip to a museum or a festival or an historic site. (Of course if you aren’t going on any field trips, you can always write some pretty entertaining journal entries about the food in your cafeteria.)
Or take a stab at uncovering the true story of how your own family came to America. Whether they got here last Wednesday or 300 years ago, doing the research is a hoot…and be sure to ask your parents or grandparents. You'd be surprised what they know and what you don't.
Or you can write research papers about things you’re learning in class—some examples might include compiling all sorts of comments about the frogs (living or dead) in your science lab, or researching and writing about a disterous Civil War battle for your history class, or making like a professional critic who’s writing book reviews for your English class, or examining the statistical issues behind today’s economic crisis in your math classes without putting anyone to sleep. Now there's a challenge for you.
IT IS OK TO HAVE FUN WHILE YOU DO THIS…YOU DON’T NECESSARILY HAVE TO GET ALL SERIOUS (UNLESS YOU WANT TO.)
Yup, your writing has to shine; that’s a given.But here’s an outstanding tool that lets you spice up everything you write, gets people interested in your stories and papers, helps you learn faster, makes sure readers remember your most complex material in a flash, and entertains your own self at the same time:
JUST STIR IN ALL KINDS OF PICTURES AS YOU GO ALONG.
Really?Most definitely!After all, just think about it.Whenever you go online or watch movies or TV or play video games or look inside certain books, they’re all about the pictures.Lots of you are probably taking pictures yourself today by using a cell phone, or you’re adding pictures to online sites like Facebook.So while you’re busy writing papers and journals and stories at school, why not think the way you do in the real world…whenever you write, stir plenty of artwork and photos and other visuals of your own into the mix.
Here are a few tiny examples of the gazillion ways to add pictures to your writing:
TAKE THE JOURNALS, FOR EXAMPLE:
When you bring your journal along on a school field trip – or even on a regular day – be sure to bring some colored markers or colored pencils or just regular lead pencils. Then draw the coolest things you see.Try to show the real world and still use your artistic imagination at the same time.Put pictures next to the words you just wrote or use pictures to make a rebus or spread pictures into the margins or make them into cartoons or make them extremely realistic.Let some of the pictures fill a whole page or two or three of their own.They can most certainly be funny. They can most certainly be seriousor scientific. Doodling is just fine.Cartoons are just fine.Beautiful pictures are, well, beautiful and wonderful.And of course you can draw all kinds of fancy lettering in your topic headings along the way.
Trust me, people will want to see what you wrote if it’s illustrated.When explores like Lewis and Clark or scientists like Charles Darwin wrote journals, they did these exact kinds of things. Their writing was incredibly fun to read and was informative to the max at the same time.Yours should be too.
Another idea is to take photos during the day, print them out,and tape them in later.Or collect small stuff you find and glue that in too—for example, add brochures or cut them up and tape some of the picture into your journal. Or add small parts of the plants you see on a farm visit. Or leaves you pick up on a hike during the fall.
AND HOW ABOUT ART FOR YOUR INTERVIEWS?
One idea is to draw the person you are interviewing yourself! Or take your own photos of them doing something verrry cool and then paste or tape them into your written work. Or if they have any pictures taken when they were kids, make photocopies and add them to the mix.Even if you write your interview (or any other stuff) online, you can scan in your pictures and imbed them.
GEOGRAPHY CAN BE MEMORABLE IN SPADES:
Make colorful illuminated maps of the places you’re studying and add them into the mix.To see exactly how this works, go here and check out the pictures
MORE TIPS:
Think of cool and colorful pictures you can add to your charts and graphs:
If they look great, they can offer readers a fast and entertaining way to learn a lot of boring stats in a single glance.
Try putting the quotes inside of talk balloons that point at a picture of the person who's being quoted.Maybe this person is a new cartoon character of your own creation (kind of like the one Jeff Kinney made up for his Wimpy Kid), or maybe you can research what the people you quoted really looked like and what they really wore, and then draw them accurately.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS:
YIKES!Art is in danger of disappearing from our schools, and that would be aDISASTER.Help bring it back by adding artwork to your written work in school.
Paint pictures on wood!
Rough canvas!
Pebble board!
Write words on all kinds of unusual paper.
Try playing around with paint, scraps of cloth, cut paper, or scratch board, and then add them to your written work.
Experiment with your photographs.
Make collages using buttons, flowers, seeds, or leaves picked up off the ground....if your essay or journal is lumpy, so what?Your writing will end up being a keeper, and you will learn to think, be creative, do research, and remember what you wrote aboutfor a very long time.
4 Comments on ALERT THE MEDIA – YOU ARE ABOUT TO BECOME A FAMOUS AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR, last added: 3/5/2013
Naturally I loved your comments everyone.....thanks! And Vicki, it's great that you showed the kids this post. Very curious to hear if anything comes out of it.
It's my pleasure to share this space with Karen Blumenthal. Her guest post adds to recent discussions about the documentation that accompanies a published work of nonfiction.
Shortly before my first book was published, I attended a presentation by two very distinguished nonfiction writers.
“Here’s how you must do source notes,” I remember one of them saying. “You list the beginning of every quote and then the source where it came from.”
Her words sent my stomach churning and my hands shaking. My pre-publication copy of Six Days in Octoberwas tucked carefully in my bag--and it was all wrong. I had listed my primary sources chapter by chapter as they appeared. But I had not specifically detailed the source of each quotation, or even included specific page numbers. How could I have made such a horrible mistake?
Sourcing nonfiction for a general audience, young or old, is a difficult and tricky business. While I don’t want to footnote every burp and grunt and dot pages with microscopic numbers, like the academics do, I do want readers to know the source, since there can be so many differing views on some subjects. But compiling them is tedious and unpleasant, and sometimes it’s tough to pin down exactly where a conclusion came from.
Some publishers leave the decision to the writer and some dictate a style, like the quotation method cited by the distinguished writer above.Forced to use that quotation-only style once, I found it completely misrepresented where the information came from. In some cases, one sentence may draw on four different sources; other times, a paragraph reflects dozens of pages of reading. Quotations typically are a small part of a narrative.
Sometimes, ego gets involved.In my most recent book, Steve Jobs, I wanted to share my research to avoid any perception that I had merely rewritten the best-selling adult biography. Sometimes the process is messy, with notes getting jumbled up as sections are rewritten or cut and pages are designed. Sorting and correcting them can take days.
And sometimes publishers push back. Lots of detail takes lots of pages, which costs money.More than once, I’ve been asked to trim the bibliography or notes.
For my second book, LetMe Play, a history of Title IX, I studied the notes of the masters—Russell Freedman, Jim Murphy, Susan Campbell Bartoletti and Candace Fleming, among others. From reviewing their work, I came to appreciate a short bibliographic essay giving an overview of the process for someone who might be new to formal research. Besides, where else could you share the little gem that before C-SPAN televised Congress, legislators regularly rewrote their remarks for the Congressional Record?
That book involved an unusual number of interviews and primary sources, and the notes are detailed. It felt, at times, that I might be showing off.
But then came the calls. Every year, I hear from a college student writing a senior paper or girls from junior high through high school working on a History Day projects. Over Skype and on the phone, they quiz me. Occasionally, I have to go back to the notes to jog my memory.
The most ambitious of them surprise me. They have studied the sources and from them, found new trails for their own explorations. Their excitement and curiosity is invigorating—and enough to makethose notes feel completely worth the effort.
Karen Blumenthal is the author of five nonfiction books for young people, most recently Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different(Feiwel and Friends, 2012), which was a finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults award.
1 Comments on Sources and Sensibility: Those Pesky Notes, last added: 2/15/2013
Karen, Good post! Students digging deeper inspired by source notes?! Yay! Seems to me that writing good source notes is also connected to that initial decision - how to best keep track of sources for delicious tangents as well as every little bit of information (every burp and grunt, as you say) during research and writing. Footnoting with Zotero allows me to save expanded notes with my footnotes. It’s so easy to lose track while revising complicated material from a flood of sources.
After the longest hiatus in my career, I have a book coming out early next year called This Place Is Cold. Actually, it’s not a new book. It is a revised version of a book originally published in 1989 that never went out-of-print. But after a 24-year run (not bad!) I was asked to take a look at it and cut it so it wouldn’t look so “text heavy.” (Subtext: today’s kids have shorter attention spans; it must look less wordy.) I was also to update the relevant information, especially about global warming. The designer would give it a fresh new look but the fabulous art, by my dear friend Barbara Lavallee, still makes this a book anyone would want to pick up.
After spending the past three years writing more than ever for blogs, and emails, and other business related projects, the various stages of This Place Is Cold that required my review suddenly made me aware of how much attention goes into the making of a book product for children. It was in stark contrast to my current writing, which is read only by my eyes before it is published. (Of course, we all know that online publications are only for the moment. No one expects them to be perfect.)
First, there was the editing—queries from my editor who worked on the revisions script. Next came the copy-edited manuscript, where I had to respond to tiny details that I thought I had already answered. For example, I wrote:
“It's no big deal to have a pilot's license in Alaska. One person in every sixty-one has one.” (The original version said “One person in every seventy-six has one.”) I had to check on those figures twice for two different passes.
I was struck by the care that was taken and the sheer number of times this small book had been read by so many different people. So I asked one of my editors, Mary Kate Castellani, if she could fill me in on the process. How many times is a book read and corrected before it is released to the world? Here’s her summation (my comments in black):
· Author and editor work on manuscript [Who knows how many readings that involves!]
· MS is copyedited and if a work of nonfiction, all the facts are checked against trusted sources. Any information that can’t be confirmed independently of the author will need to be sourced by the author. [copy editors read a manuscript several times]
·Copy edited manuscript is sent to author for corrections. Then returned and checked [a couple of more readings]
· Artwork is also turned in and checked for errors, inconsistencies and any other problems. Once the art is corrected, it is sent to a printer in Far East to make hi-resolution scans for the book design.
·MS is sent, along with cover copy and any additional information to the designer. [Designer reads ms.]
· Designer creates design samples to share with editor to preview font choices, and general design elements.
· Editor shares design samples with the author.
· Once design samples are approved, designer sets entire book from start to finish using hi-res scans from printer.
·A first pass set of mechanicals (initial layouts) is then routed in-house where editor, production editor, publisher, school and library marketing director, and art director all review. [Five more readings!]
·Sets of mechs are simultaneously sent to author and illustrator to review for errors or any issues with layout. [2 more readings.]
· All queries and comments are resolved, and mechs are sent back to designer to input all changes and make any design adjustments. The designer then routes the second pass mechs to route in house again, this time only to the editor, productions editor and managing editor. Any major changes may be shown to the author/illustrator once more. [another five readings]
· Book closes for proofing and is sent to printers in Far East.
· F&Gs (folded and gathered sheets) are pulled from the proofing stage.
· Proofs are sent to New York office to be reviewed in house for any errors. Sets of proofs are sent to author and illustrator for one last review. At this point any changes cost money at the printer, so should be reserved for major changes/errors.
· Art director and designer check proofs against original art to make sure the color is as it should be.
· Proofs are returned to printer for final printing.
· Printer sends one last set of plotters to check for any last errors.
· Plotters are approved and books are printed.
With so many opportunities for the author/illustrator and the in-house editors to check the pages, the book is printed without mistakes. While an error certainly does happen every once in a while, we always correct any mistakes if and when the book is reprinted. In my time at Walker, there have been only a handful of errors—usually reported by readers, who do very careful reads of their own!
By my calculations, a thirty-two page picture book of 3,000 words (5 typewritten pages single spaced) is reviewed by at least seven people, each reading it an average of four times—25+ readings before it becomes a book. Talk about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s! This much investment is a statement about honor and pride of workmanship but mostly it is a tribute to the ultimate user—children. In the writer’s jargon of “show, don’t tell” my book shows them, “We’re giving you our very best. It’s what you deserve.” It is also designed to last and to be treasured.
2 Comments on Honor Thy Reader: The Making of a Nonfiction Picture Book, last added: 10/3/2012
I'm curious about Far East. Why are so many books printed there, and not in the US? And where are issues like paper quality determined? I appreciate that costs have to be kept under control to keep books affordable. Are those decisions made at a corporate level?
Very interesting information in this post - thank you!
1: If you are fortunate enough to get a book published it will be reviewed.
2: It might be reviewed by a 'major' reviewer (you know, the folks who sprinkle stars around), or by a national, regional, or local newspaper or magazine, by bloggers, or by family and friends around the kitchen table.
3: Sooner or later, someone will say something about your book that doesn't sit well with you.
Number 3 happened to me a few weeks ago.
I was feeling a little anxious and aimless, so I decided to visit children's literature blogland. I generally do this by visiting Betsy Bird's Fuse #8 blog at the SLJ site. She has a list of favorite bloggers (including our own INK) and I roam around to see what people are chatting about. So there I was visiting and reading this blog and that blog and another, when...pow...there was a blogger reviewing my newest baby THE GIANT and How He Humbugged America, which is about the 1869 Cardiff Giant hoax.
Now if I remember correctly the blogger had very nice things to say about the book (I would provide a link but I can't recall who the blogger was, a situation I blame on the very wonderful pain killers I was taking at the time). But toward the end of her thoughtful review she hesitated a beat and said that she couldn't see any young reader caring about the book's subject.
What! I kind of sputtered. But, but, but...why wouldn't kids be interested?!? There was more, but you get the idea. I take reviews personally. But why wouldn't I? I take the research and writing very personally. It always takes a few minutes for me to calm down, but eventually I do. Which is when I begin to blame myself for whatever a reviewer has criticized and I think back on the decisions I made about the book in question. I this case, I began thinking about why I decided to do THE GIANT in the first place.
Way back a few years ago, I began wondering if it would be possible to do something for young readers about Bernie Madoff and his fifty billion dollar ponzi scheme. I quickly rejected the idea, mainly because all of the details of his fraud weren't in (and still aren't). I'm leery of "ripped from the headlines" ideas. Yes, they have an instant recognition factor, but usually only part of the story has been unearthed, so the result wouldn't be a truly satisfying or complete book. It would be more of a glorified magazine article (and probably not worth the price of a book). I then thought about doing something on Charles Pozi himself, but realized that neither he nor Madoff were very interesting guys and their schemes involved a lot of paper shuffling and ledger entries and not much that was either active or visual. Then I remembered the Cardiff Giant.
Here was a story filled with unusual, colorful characters. George Hull, who conceived the idea of carving a giant, lifelike human, was a serial fraudster (he not only came up with a second 'discovered' ancient human years after the Cardiff Giant, but he hired a man to write his biography, took that text and gave it to another person to clean up, and took that version and gave it to a third person, never bothering to pay anyone for their work). P.T. Barnum tries to buy the Giant, fails in his bid, then has his own immitation Giant made and exhibited (and actually outdrew the original CD in NYC); Barnum was sued by the original CG owners, but the case was heard by a drunken judge who refused to rule against Barnum's Giant unless the original appeared in court to testify. It don't get much better than that.
There's also action (making the giant, transporting him secretly from Chicago to NY State, burying and digging him up, exhibiting him and moving him around in his retirement years until he winds up in a leaky shed), and some decent visuals as well, both photos and drawings.
And themes and story lines. Why the Giant captured so many people's imaginations that it literally knocked the upcoming 1869 November elections from the front pages of the newspapers, how people clamored to buy shares in the giant, how shareholders continued to insist the Giant was real even after they knew it was a fake, how educated individuals and scientists were fooled into believing the Giant was authentic, to name just a few. Oh, yes, and how men put a 'fig' leaf over the Giant's private parts to shield women from naughty thoughts and how women were the one's to insist that was nonsence and insisted it be removed. A lot is going on in this relatively short-lived piece of US history, some of it downright silly and some very serious.
Still, I had to admit that the blog-reviewer had a point. THE GIANT probably doesn't have instant and obvious curb appeal. It will need strong reviews (and, happily, has gotten a number already) and skillful selling by teachers and librarians. When I finally sat back and thought about it, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to do the Cardiff Giant's story (and in fact wrote it without a contract or publisher lined-up) because it grabbed my attention, made me chuckle as well as think, and seemed like a complex story that kids could understand and follow and get involved in. I guess in the end it was personal.
8 Comments on It's All Personal, last added: 10/11/2012
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I loved this book and I think the blogger is wrong about its appeal for kids. Will a kid walk into a library or bookstore and ask for a book on the Cardiff Giant? No. But if a bookstore displays it face out so the big word "GIANT" shows, some kids will pick it up. I know that if I booktalked it even off-the-cuff, some kids would be intrigued. Hoaxes are appealing. Big things are appealing. Money is appealing (I love the way money is translated into current amounts so readers understand how much it is). In my experience, nonfiction like this has an audience but an adult may need to make the connection.
Whenever I'm in doubt about a subject I picture myself standing before a group of students and telling them the story. So imagine telling kids this crazy giant story, about digging him up and the fig leaf over the crotch and drunken judge... Obviously, you'd have their attention. That's how you know it's good!
I love that suggestion, Steve. And Jim, as soon as I saw the title for THWE GIANT the first time, I knew I had to buy it for my nephew (and read it myself before gibing it to him).
Reviews can be hard, but in the end, they are only one person's opinion, and not every book is going to resonate with every reader. I guess that kind of exposure is the price we must pay for having one of the best jobs in the world.
Thank you, Kathleen, Steve, and Melissa for your comments. Part of my problem is that because I invest so much of myself in the project I am always doubting its potential, or at least testing my opinion of the idea to make sure I really, really want to do it. The good news is that I do all this in my little office on the 3rd floor and don't usually bother anyone else about these doubts (except, of course, for this post).
Jim, there have been many instances where the critic just doesn't get it. Some people make judgments based on what they already know is true and when something appears that doesn't fit into their personal experience they are quick to condemn. My first big book was Science Experiments You Can Eat. It teaches basic science concepts through culinary activities. One early critic nailed it for neglecting to include nutrition. Always be suspicious of a critic that dislikes a work because of what it is not. This is the risk you take when you write on a subject that is truly new and original. BTW, SEYCE is still in print (once revised) after 40 years! If I ever get to revise it again, I will include something on nutrition.
Jim, your back story on the book is exactly what teachers need to frame and consider the book in a variety of ways with kids. We can mine the back story and set up comparisons and contrasts that we might not normally if we don't have the story behind the impetus, the research, the nugget that got the whole thing rolling. We are all the richer for it. Thanks for sharing.
I write a lot of books about history because history’s cup runneth over with the best stories of all time. So with an ocean of great tales to choose from, picking something fabulous and delicious and unusual should be as easy as pie, right? Well, guess what. It ain’t. Why not? Some Restrictions Apply.
Restriction # 1:
Since publishers want to make a buck, they strongly encourage children’s nonfiction authors to write about famous heroes and events from American history, especially when these topics are covered in the school curriculum. That’s because the vast majority of nonfiction books for kids are sold to schools. The heroes and events in history books have already been covered a gazillion times, but (in my experience, at least) whenever we authors suggest new topics that are off the beaten path, our publishers Just Say No and we have to file for unemployment.
Possible solution that keeps us in business and (we hope) keeps us from selling our souls at the same time:
Uncover something entirely new about the same old same old. Do we have to focus only upon heroes and heroines? Who says that all stories from history have to be uplifting? They are not. So sometimes I cover a period in history by sidetracking the good guys and writing about the bad guys instead. (Surprise—kids actually love that.) Sometimes I focus on just one small part of a famous person’s story, especially if it has been overlooked. Sometimes--lots of times, actually--I use humor. Sometimes I tell both sides of a story. And sometimes I tell the entire story via my artwork or use the art to set a mood in ways that words alone can never do.
Restriction # 2:
In nonfiction, you can never EVER embellish the truth or make anything up, so every single detail in every single book has to be accurate and every single word your protagonists utter has to come straight from the horse’s mouth. Them’s the rules, period. The problem is that this is a hard row to hoe. It can take months or even years to ferret out the accurate material.
Possible Solution that speeds up all that research and helps us retain our sanity:
Guess what. Thereisnosolution. I have written books of fiction in two weeks or less, and they have sold as many or more copies than my nonfiction books. You just have to love being the detective who ferrets out the juicy details nobody else has found. You just have to get a kick out of traveling around the world to find new material. You just have to be the spy who gets a kick out of reading dead people’s private letters and diaries. You just have to be a glutton for punishment. I highly recommend it.
5 Comments on MAKING HISTORY BOOKS THAT SHINE, last added: 2/12/2013
Why limit yourself to traditional publishers? With the great rise in printer and on-demand services, there are other options available. Yes, there is more work involved, work that authors are not used to doing, but if you think your topic is worth sharing, you might consider it. I did. After having written more than 20 nonfiction books, none of the traditional publishers (some with whom I had previously worked) wanted my picture book bio of A.C Gilbert, the most famous toymaker in American history, so I published it myself (The Magic of A.C. Gilbert). And, it's doing quite well, thank you. Traditional publishers are a great road to take, but there are other roads (and rivers) too. Explore them! Robert Young www.realwriting.us
Robert, I agree that there's more than one way to skin a cat. In a somewhat related area, a lot of us are exploring ways to market our out-of-print books on iPads and the like. Like everything else, publishing is evolving as we speak. Glad your book is doing well.
Roz -- I've had problems getting certain projects accepted. Sometimes I just go ahead and write the darn book assuming/hoping someone will want to publish it. It's worked twice (but also failed once). Writing can be a humbling experience at times.
I agree with Robert. Decided to go with self-publishing for my first book in a series. I am considering converting to e book as well. I say use trial and error. As a new children's author, I am using prior experience as an educator and parent to guide me.
I write nonfiction nearly every day. I'm a journalism teacher, after all, and I freelance for regional publications. When I grab a book, I usually read fiction because, well, I am not exactly sure why. Maybe I want a break from reality. Maybe I want to sink my teeth into a juicy mystery. Maybe I need a break from what I write.
But lately, I catch myself reading more and more nonfiction, studying stories and what does or does not make each article click.
My research (scientific it isn't) finds that the best nonfiction storytelling (no, that is not an oxymoron) weaves traditional storytelling devices with facts and figures, evidence and experts. It takes readers on a journey. It breaks boundaries.
It leaves readers thirsting for more.
I'm also partial to multiple pieces on this list featured on Byliner. It features rich examples of what's hot in nonfiction writing craft. I've been known to read one of these gems for pleasure and then reread it, dissect it, and find adaptable qualities to bring to my writing repertoire.
What elements of nonfiction capture your attention? by LuAnn Schindler. Read more of her work at her website.
3 Comments on Masterful Writing: Nonfiction Pieces That Rock, last added: 2/7/2013
LuAnn, you bring up a topic near n' dear to my heart. I also have been reading a lot of non-fiction, all kinds, and trying to dissect what makes it work. Like you, I think there are strong elements of story-telling in good non-fiction. I also think there is, at least in the pieces I most enjoy, a very personal voice inviting me to join the conversation.
I think of Anna Quindlen, Michael Perry, Anne Lamott, as good examples.
Thanks for the website mention. I'm going to check it out.
I love anecdotes near the beginning of an article. I think personal stories of the author or someone she/he knows before going into facts, figures, and here's what we should do bring a human face to the problem or issue or experience we are reading about. I am always drawn into an article that mixes anecdotes with facts/figures.
That is a fantastic list at Byliner. I agree with you all--great storytelling, narrative, and voice. Most of all, I appreciate nonfiction that is entertaining!
In my case, it’s been:Ouch!Ouch!Ouch! Then, after a while, a retreat downstairs to the couch.
About six weeks ago, I had a bad car accident and broke all the bones in my left forearm and carpel (I guess I now have my own version of carpel tunnel syndrome). I feel lucky I wasn’t hurt more severely and that I’m right handed.Two operations and several casts later, I’m slowly on the mend.
So how has this affected my writing?Well, I’m glad I could confine what little writing I did in the early days to email.Back then, painkillers and only one useful hand made the keyboard feel like a wilderness to be conquered. I am a touch typist and have found that using one hunt-and-peck forefinger means a lot more hunting and less pecking than I imagined. My fingers know the keys much better than my visual memory does.It doesn’t help that my emotional attachment to a decade-old keyboard means many of the letter symbols have worn off the keys.
Yes, I know that I can just compose longhand, the way I used to hammer out all my articles when I first started my career as a magazine writer.But technology changed a long time ago.I made the switch and my brain has too.I am so used to my hands being able to keep up with my thoughts that I’m no longer trained to hold the upcoming words --long phrases or a word picture--in my mind for that length of time.Tap, tap, tapping of the forefinger creates the same problem.
Dragon, the voice recognition software?Thought about it, bought it, returned it unwrapped.Maybe it would have been a godsend for email.But, for me, there are essential components to thoughtful writing it just wouldn’t satisfy.The process isn’t all that different, but dictation feels distracting, moor less, as if the words I really want, their order and the meaning I want to make of them could just float away. When typing, words and ideas go from the mind through the hands, then via the eyes back to the brain to continue the process.Mind, hands, eyes—three parts, each with its own job to do, which includes freeing the others to do theirs.
I know Steven Hawking has managed just fine using a different system.And, he’s hardly the only one.If my injury had been worse or permanent, I would work to rewire my creative circuitry.Seems a little daunting, though.So, even though I’ve given serious thought to a book I’m gearing up to refashion, something tells me it will stay on simmer until my cast comes off.
0 Comments on Five Finger Frustration as of 1/1/1900
There is a time to begin finishing every book. Sometimes it feels as though that phase may never come. But it does. And there is work to be done. Careful, meticulous, try-not-to-miss-any-detail kind of work. That is what I am doing now for my forthcoming COURAGE HAS NO COLOR. The process for a nonfiction book includes a lot of details that may surprise some people. Here are some of the things I do as the author to tie up any loose ends as we head into this final phase:
Make sure I have ordered every photo at a high-enough resolution to reproduce well in the book (tricky with archival WWII photos, and I do this with the help of the brill designer on the book).
Write the photo credits, making sure to check them against the most final layouts so all page references are credit, and cross-reference them against my photo source charts that I create.
Tally up my photo costs and make sure I haven’t gone over budget. And if I have, come up with a solution as to how to deal with this issue.
Compile all the source notes for any quote in the book. (This is a biggie—I think the source notes in Courage are ten manuscript pages, single spaced!)
Make sure that the Bibliography I created while writing the book is complete and up-to-date (i.e. I haven’t forgotten to include any books or articles or documentaries I may have used in the last few months).
Check all the captions I have written against the information in the text to make sure I haven’t inadvertently contradicted myself with any facts; in other words, check and re-check my research. Do this process again, checking any official information I may or may not have received with each photo. Note: sometimes my research turns up errors in official information and I get to correct it--very satisfying!
Re-read the acknowledgments and make sure I haven’t left any out. These omissions generally fall into two categories—people who have contributed something in the last stretch of the process so it’s new information and people who deserve such a big thank-you I assumed they were already in there!
Go over the layout issues with my editor and designer for tweaking of things like half and full title page, dedication, headers or footers, and any back matter issues that arise.
And last but not least—read through the text again in hopes of catching a glaring typo that has been hiding in plain sight this whole time! (Note: I just found one of those, so this is a really important step.)
All of these things actually come before I will have a chance to carefully read the final layouts—these steps are to ensure that everything MAKES it into the final layouts! There is a certain satisfaction that comes from tying up all the loose ends and seeing a manuscript transform into a BOOK.
0 Comments on Wrapping It Up as of 5/16/2012 11:59:00 PM
Springtime is my favorite season, and wildflowers are a major attraction here in beautiful western Montana. The parade has begun, starting with buttercups in March and continuing through a roadside trio of larkspur, star flower, and biscuit root—purple, white, and yellow, a combo that would make a beautiful flag.
I’m celebrating the season by taking a class in wildflower journalling, both because I love the flowers and because I am not fundamentally a detail person. A class like this, where I’m sketching the plants to document them, forces me to switch into the often neglected detail mode. And I know, as a writer, that details are critical in bringing my writing to life. Details help the reader ‘see’ what you’re writing about and can jump start a movie in the brain that will carry your reader seamlessly through your work. This principle can be used to lead a reader through a sequence of ideas or information to a conclusion every bit as well as to carry the reader along through an exciting fiction story.
While pondering these thoughts as I climbed a trail up the mountain we live on, I noticed delicate yellow-flowered Arnica plants blooming in the dappled shade I leaned over and focused in on a single plant with my camera to document it for my wildflower project. Further up the slope, I saw an image that epitomized Arnica’s habitat preference—an oval of tall pines created a shady spot decorated by a patch of Arnica, its borders sketched by the shade of the trees. I suddenly realized that two kinds of detail exist, small detail and big detail. Small detail would encompass the minute features of each plant, while big detail consisted of larger but still specific features such as the way the plants are growing in the shady patch among the pines.
When we writers wish to create images for our readers, we may move from small detail to big detail, or vice versa, depending on where we’re going with our words. Here’s the masterful nonfiction introduction from my friend Jeanette Ingold’s Montana Book Award Honor Book novel, “The Big Burn” that moves through many small details, then widens to the big picture:
Terrific post, Dorothy. I like to think that I write about BIG ideas decorated with facts. The facts or "factoids" are details born of incredible intense observation and experimentation. In science, it is the cumulative observation of myriad details that lead to the great generalizations of science also known as "inductive reasoning" going from the specific to the general. In writing it is all about "show, don't tell."
So it is, Vicki. I read a wise phrase in a blog this week that says 'show don't tell' in different words, maybe not always applicable to science--"Write to express, not to impress." But it can certainly apply for writing such as my books, if I'm talking about traipsing through the rain forest or some such activity.
How nice of you, Dorothy, to quote from The Big Burn. I have an older copy of the book, and found it to be a fascinating story with an engaging style. It was my bedside book for a week. It didn't hurt that I wanted to be fire ranger when I was a kid. And I connected to your post because I'm a former horticulturist. Every post is a gem.
I loved hearing from you, Fortunate One; I feel fortunate to be in a critique group with Jeanette. She always has great comments on the work of others, and it's always a pleasure to help her hone her work as well. I'm going to copy your comment to her; she will surely appreciate it!
And Gretchen--I can't resist with the camera; it goes everywhere with me! Thanks for the comment.
This month, after spending these last few months combing through research, I felt like I needed a little break. Needed a little fresh air. Needed to stretch my legs. I needed, as Julia Cameron calls, an “Artist Date”.
In my current book, one of my “ladies” is Marion Mahony, Frank Lloyd Wright’s first employee. In fact, Marion was the second woman to graduate from MIT with an architectural degree and the first licensed woman architect in Illinois. An original member of the Prairie School, she was the primary designer at Frank Lloyd Wright’s office for over 14 years. (There is no documentation that Mr. Wright even graduated from high school. Whoops, got off topic there for a second.)
Even though I’ve lived in Chicago for over 13 years, I'd never been to Oak Park, the location of Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio. I decided that it was about time to check it out. And, who better to go with than my trusty partner in crime, Sarah, who just happened to live in Oak Park for many years until she moved way out in the suburbs with me.
In previous posts here, I’ve raved about Professor Rebecca Alms, my fabulous Design History teacher at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. While writing this post, I dug out my very old notebook from that class and found five pages of Frank Lloyd Wright notes and copies of slides. But for me, the style never really sunk in. I needed to see the actual houses to really get a feel for the design style. And, that experience hit me like a ton of bricks, especially juxtaposed next to what was the design style that was the norm at the time. I was on a design high.
In preparation for our field trip, I watched the two-disc special edition DVD Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home and Studio. So, I thought I knew everything I needed to know about the home and studio. But Sarah talked me into taking the tour with her, even though she’d been through it before, and I was so glad she did.
Looking at a Mahony drawing
Sarah and I
My epiphanies were:
I finally got the Frank Lloyd Wright design concept. Watching a video or looking at pictures does not put you there.
In my head, I now have a true image of what makes a Frank Lloyd Wright house.
1 Comments on Field Trip/ Artist Date, last added: 6/30/2012
I selected for my first book, Mary Cassatt, the Impressionist Painter, an image of her "Breakfast in Bed" painting. I had not seen the original, but from art books, I loved the way she captured on canvas the loving moment between a mother and child. Last March while in Southern CA, I made a point of visiting The Huntington where the painting hangs. My, oh my! There is nothing like seeing an original...the colors, etc. I was enchanted and floated out of the museum!
As teacher friends ask for suggestions to add to their reading lists, this seems like a good time to re-post this past favorite:
In a recent thought-provoking Washington Post article, journalist and author Joy Hakim wrote the following: “As they [education historians] document the tale, it was decades ago that we gave up teaching history as an idea-centered discipline played out by a succession of characters—heroes and villains—whose actions led to results that can be analyzed. That kind of story-based history is engaging. We replaced it with litanies of facts.”
She was talking about the state of textbooks, as well as the lack of integration of standard curriculum with the stories of science and social studies that, without, leave gaping holes in education. That’s where we nonfiction writers today come in.
As depressing and infuriating as much of Hakim’s article was to me, I also felt myself saying “but we do that—those stories are being written!” And so, with the intention of offering a tiny bit of assistance to all those who teach and/or otherwise influence the education of young minds, I decided to begin compiling a recommended reading list of stories for older readers—true stories; i.e., nonfiction (or veritas, truthiness or True Dat!)—that will surely supplement and complement and enhance the experience of anyone taking social studies and science classes using textbooks.
Please—I mean this—please, add to this beginning of a list. Let’s make it grow. I will incorporate your comments and update the list accordingly. Next time, I’ll make a picture book list!
History and Science Through Story:
Armstrong, Jennifer. The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History
Aronson, Marc and Budhos, Marina. Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science
Aronson, Marc. Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow
Burns, Loree Griffin. Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion
Cobb, Vicki. What's the Big Idea?: Amazing Science Questions for the Curious Kid.
Colman, Penny. Where the Action Was: Women War Correspondents in World War II
Deem, James. Bodies from the Ice: Melting Glaciers and Rediscovery of the Past
Delano, Marfe Ferguson. Earth in the Hot Seat: Bulletins from a Warming World
Freedman, Russell. Who Was First?: Discovering the Americas
Giblin, James Cross. The Many Rides of Paul Revere
Hakim, Joy. The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way
Harness, Cheryl. The Ground-Breaking, Chance-Taking Life of George Washington Carver and Science and Invention in America
Heiligman, Deborah. Charles & Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
I hope you'll add my biographies for older readers (I have more for younger readers, too): ARCTIC EXPLORER (Matthew Henson) WHAT I HAD WAS SINGING (Marian Anderson) NATIVE AMERICAN DOCTOR (Susan LaFlesche Picotte)
I strongly support your efforts to promote the use of stories to teach science and history. They show these subjects as human endeavors and are interesting to children.
Here are a few of my favorites: Aronson, Marc. IF STONES COULD SPEAK. Berger, Lee, and Aronson, Mark. THE SKULL IN THE ROCK. Burns, Loree Griffin. THE HIVE DETECTIVES Montgomery, Sy. KAKAPO RESCUE Markle, Sandra. THE CASE OF THE VANISHING GOLDEN FROGS.
My major requirement when using stories is that they should be as accuracte as possible and that the author shares with the reader how he or she found that information.
I just sent in the final photos, graphs, and manuscript for the second edition of The Wind at Work, due out in March 2013, and to celebrate I’m rerunning my blog on writing the book -- pre- and post-internet.
Back in 1995 I wrote my first book The Wind At Work, a history of wind energy, and sent it to Chicago Review Press. They liked it, but replied that all their children’s books include activities. Would I be willing to write some? Would I!
Creating activities was fun, relating windmills to science, creative writing, drawing and painting, sewing, cooking, singing, environmental research, and community action. Who knew?
All this took place back in the Dark Ages, aka 1990s, aka pre–internet.
RESEARCHING WAY BACK THEN
To research the book I read books and more books, using public and university libraries, interlibrary loans, and used bookstores. I traveled to the Netherlands, the American Midwest, and a wind turbine factory in Tehachapi, California. To find photographs, paintings, etchings, and the like I searched through books. I visited and/or wrote to historical societies, the Library of Congress, tourist sites, and libraries. I received originals and photocopies and then sent purchase and permission letters, all by snail mail. And finally I sent off packages of photographs, slides, drawings, etc. to the publisher, all printed on paper!
I spent a small fortune on long distance telephone calls interviewing windmill people and trying to locate the addresses and phone numbers of restored windmills in small towns all around the US and Canada – this in pre-free-long-distance-phone-plan days.<
2 Comments on CHASING WINDMILLS: The Sequel, last added: 7/27/2012
agreed. i can't imagine life without the internet. although trying to get my 73 old mother to understand the internet...i had to use the analogy of a library, book, page, isbn, card catalog...and she's finally getting the power of it.
Today while writing my current book, I'm reminded of my History of Design professor, Pat Allred --- who made design history come alive. And, in doing so, gave me a life long love of design history.
So, here's a reposting of my piece from February of this year titled Making Nonfiction Interesting for Kids.
★。＼｜／。★
My 50th post! ★。／｜＼。★ *OK, maybe my 50th tag... about my 47th post. But, I worked so hard on that graphic that I had to leave it.
Recently, I’ve been thinking way back to my senior year in college. That year, while fulfilling the last electives to graduate, I took the most interesting classes of my college experience – History of Design, Art and Environment and History of the Home. I just unearthed my class notebooks and those were the actual titles. Until now, I haven’t had to use what I learned in those classes, except for help in Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit*, of course.
As I think back, Pat Allred, my professor for History of Design, did a fabulous job making the information interesting and relatable. With each design time period –Victorian, Bauhaus, Moderne, etc, she first explained the historical facts of the time. Then, she went through each design discipline and related it to the time period and the other areas – Graphic, Furniture, Architecture, etc. I totally got it.
Then, as I was writing my senior paper on Doll Design, I was able to use what I learned from Professor Allred and mix the evolution of dolls within a historical timeline combining how children were perceived through the years, manufacturing processes, social and fashion trends. For the entire three hours of class time, she had slides to illustrate what she was teaching. As I said above, I found my notebook complete with extensive outline, notes, bibliography and copies of every slide – an absolute goldmine.
As I begin the research and writing on my new book, I’m aiming to make the information interesting and relatable. All that architecture and design history fodder is finally going to be of use as I research and write biographies for 22 women architects, landscape architects and engineers. I’m so inspired and passionate about these women, but how can I make the information interesting and engaging for kids? With any luck, I can incorporate what I learned in Professor Allred’s classes as I write and inspire future architects and engineers. Anyone else have a similar experience with clearing off the cobwebs and making use of material stored way back in the back of your brain?
*Once
3 Comments on Making Nonfiction Interesting for Kids, last added: 7/29/2012
I find your post calling me to check out that box of college notebooks and see if there is anything I can glean. I collect antique dolls. I would love to read you paper on doll design. Any chance of that happening?
I'm the editor for the Books section on Before It's News, and I came across your website.
We'd love to republish your RSS feed on our site, with a link back to your website. You'd benefit from having some of our millions of readers see your posts and go through to your blog.
Let me know if this sounds like something you're interested in!
Best regards, Sebastian Clouth SClouth@beforeitsnews.com
I teach, therefore, I question. Introduction to Writing Creative Nonfiction. Tuesdays and Fridays from 11:00-12:15. I teach, therefore, I question.
I question, and encourage my students to question—everything about the process of writing. Why we do it, how we do it, what it is we do when we do it.
We are making a list, as they learn, of what creative nonfiction actually means. It is simpler to make a list of what it is not.
It is creative writing in which nothing is made up. It is creative writing in which NOTHING is made up. It is creative writing in which NOTHING is MADE UP.
Can there be dialogue? Yes—but only if it is not made up. Can there be metaphor? Simile? Yes, and yes. Can we employ fiction techniques. Yes. Please.
Just don’t make stuff up. If there is something in quotation marks, know where it came from. Don’t put words in anyone’s mouth. If you did that to me, I would be ticked off. Wouldn’t you?
Do you disagree with any of this? PLEASE: discuss.
13 Comments on What is this thing we call Creative Nonfiction?, last added: 9/23/2012
Of COURSE I agree with you. And I really don't like the term creative nonfiction because I think it implies that we can be "creative" with facts. I like Narrative Nonfiction better. Or, really, if only we could think of a better word for nonfiction. Verity? Why is it NON something? But I digress (or do I?). When I write nonfiction I want to use most of the techniques of fiction except the fiction part. I give a talk called "You Can't Make This Stuff Up," which has double meaning, of course. No, you can't make up anything! But also, why would you want to? This real stuff is just so great!!!
What would you call something that is a hybrid? I wrote a book in which I created illustrations (for lack of a better word) with words. They were intended to represent my understanding of the events I was chronicling, but these illustrations were invention. These were the "Photos Not Taken," in my book about Civil War photography published some years ago by Athenaeum. It was clear they were imagined scenes, just as an illustrator would invent a scene. So would you consider that book to be fiction on account of these word illustrations?
Yes, Deborah, I use Narrative Nonfiction or, as you know, Passionate Nonfiction, myself. I agree that Creative Nonfiction can lead people astray. And I think our collective has long complained about the non issue; the non is exactly what confused me when I was a kid!
Jennifer, I go back and forth about this issue--what to call it. I'm glad I'm not a librarian or bookstore owner who has to figure out where to shelve books like that. I guess maybe you would call yours historical fiction? What do you think? As a reader I always need to know what is real and what is made up. So as long as that is clear, I'm happy. I'm not happy when people make things up and don't tell me. I also think it's criminal when people change facts because they sound better. Did you hear about that whole thing with, among others, that book Lifespan of a Fact? There has been much discussion around our place about that.
Jennifer--has it remained categorized as nonfiction? I assume you're talking about your Photo by Brady book, of which I am a HUGE fan. I remember poring over early pages at Lake George. My belief is that because your process was transparent and your intentions clear and that section was intended to supplement the rest of the book (I hope I'm remembering that right), it should not be considered fiction.
Tod Olson mixes nonfiction with some historical imaginings in his How to Get Rich books and is also transparent about what it is.
I like your list and agree wholeheartedly that our non name stinks. I try to tell people who are stuck on creative nonfiction that creative refers to the writing process and nonfiction refers to the content. Some of them still don't get it.
I would also point to one of my favorite books by British historian Simon Schama, Dead Certainties. He uses a variety of ways of exploring two historical events, the first one being the death of General Wolfe at the Battle of Quebec in 1759. He explores this event with an interpretation of Benjamin West's famous painting; with a report on the public reception and reaction to that painting in London; with a fictional narrative of a British soldier storming the cliffs; and a few others I don't recall at the moment. It's a fascinating multi-faceted examination of how history is lived and remembered.
So since books like my Photo by Brady and Schama's Dead Certainties are catalogued as nonfiction (I just checked our public library system to be sure!) the answer is, Yes, you can make stuff up. However, you have to do it in a way that makes it clear you are either experimenting with the form, or that your transparent intent is to engage the reader in an imaginative way with the material, or something.
So what would you call it, or classify it, if all the historical facts are true, but the dialogue is invented?
(There's an argument to be made that absent taping or transcripts, all recalled dialogue is invented, whether it's noted in a diary, relayed to a biographer, etc.)
So long as the author so indicates in an afterword, do the quote marks still take the book into fiction?
Interesting discussion. Thank you Tanya. When we write creatively about the real world, we present the facts and information with our own personal interpretation. This is what differentiates nonfiction literature (which is what I.N.K. writers create) from other more pedestrian expository prose. Literature has been defined as "the single passionate voice." Our writing about the real world is injected with our own humanity and I have long said that it is revealed humanity that is the common denominator of all authentic communication.
It is an interesting discussion - especially in light of recent research that suggests our memory of an event is altered with each retelling of the event: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120919125736.htm
Love this discussion. I find it especially relevant because I'm writing poems about known jazz figures and including a fictional child character. (Who knows what we'll call THAT?) So -- what about Allan Wolf's books on the Lewis & Clark Expedition and the Titanic? They (New Found Land and The Watch that Ends the Night) are labeled clearly "a novel." Wolf researches extensively and writes in the voices of both historical figures and made-up characters (Lewis' dog, the iceberg). I read the books as, well, mostly nonfiction with some fiction. I'm not bothered by "what's real, what's not" because I sense the depth of knowledge in every word, and I know when I'm reading fiction (icebergs don't talk); the distinction is clear. Why call it a novel, though?
I am a reader and nonwriter, who follows this blog religiously. May I suggest the term "fictionalized history" or in the case of other fact-based writing, simply "informational"? Students especially find the term "nonfiction" confusing.
One might argue that history is factual but subject to interpretation and when recorded or retold, it is subject to the biases of the teller. So how much of the reporting of events is really "true"? In most cases, the who, did what, when, and where may be correct, but the how and why might remain subjective. You have to wonder how our current times will be reported to future generations.
The fact that this topic is being discussed is assurance to me that your cast of authors are responsible writers that value transparency, and then let this reader arrive at her own conclusions.
If it were up to me, you'd listen to this song while reading this post.
So. It's been a very, very long time since I broke up with a sweetheart, given that I've been married for almost 30 years. (In my culture, you get married at 11.) And I don't intend to ever break up with him. But there comes a time in every writer's life when she has to break up with a topic. Actually, many times. Usually the break-up comes early on in the project. At least for me. I work on something for a short time and realize that there's just no there there, or that it's not for me. Or someone or something else pulls at me, grabs my attention. ("Oh you over there, come hither...")
But sometimes, it seems, you go out with someone for a very long time before you realize he or she was not your bashert. This has just happened to me. It was a long relationship, but it was going nowhere. It just took me a very long time to realize that because I thought... I was sure...though I had niggling doubts...that I was in love.
But breaking up really IS hard to do.
(By the way, I also like this version of the song. My friend Judy Blundell votes for the slow version, which I also like. Ok, maybe I'm spending too much time listening to Neil Sedaka.)
I mean, look at her. An early NYC policewoman. A detective. And we had spent so many, many months together.
The more time, energy, money, time, time, time, you invest in a topic, the more reluctant you are to let it go. I bought and read very many books.
I spent many hours looking for people who knew the person I had fallen in love with. After much detective work, I found her descendants. That was a great day! And then her great granddaughter became an enthusiastic helper, inviting me to come to her house, where I combed through boxes of clippings, notes, photos, memorabilia, and even recordings, hoping for the big break in the case.
I dug deep into the web, into online newspapers, books, footnotes of journal articles. I reached out to authors, researchers, professors, librarians... But I just couldn't get e
18 Comments on Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, last added: 11/17/2011
My heart is in my throat reading this. It's good to be right and brave, but of course -- there's grief and stumbling, and maybe the heartbreak is even worse because nothing wrong with you and nothing wrong with the subject but together you just weren't meant to be. So glad you're finding a new love elsewhere.
I know how hard this has been for you and still hold out hope that she will return in another form when you least expect it. In the meantime, I am very excited about your next project!
Loved the links. Loved the post. You may or may not end up doing a book on MS one day, but the reading and thinking you've done on the project will enhance future books. Time well spent.
Wow. I'm all sad and weepy on your behalf but am so glad you've found Mr. Right to help you move forward. The thing is, you did EVERYTHING you possible could to make the earlier relationship work.
Thank you, everyone, for being right there with me on this. You've mourned with me, and encouraged me on my new project. Children's book people really are the best! I got a wonderful email from MS's great granddaughter. She quoted Winston Churchill, “Never, never, never, never give up!”And we are raising a glass to her great grandmother tonight.
I agree with those who said that somehow what you learned doing this research, or some aspect of the story, will come back to you in an unexpected way. But still, I feel your pain. I've had breakups like that, though perhaps not quite as intense...
Experiencing sympathetic chest pain over your plight on this. You are brave to break up and clear the decks. So many topics pursued that did not pan out are swimming in my computer hard drive, like persistent fish. Your immersion in this one makes it so intriguing, so deep, so hard. Thanks for sharing this part of the process with us.
It is so hard to give up on a topic you've spent so much time with--especially it's a person to whom you feel you owe something. I have my own love story bio. I haven't given up on him yet. But each time I leave him now to move on to other books, it's longer and longer before I get back to him. Sad.
Hi, Deb, I'm glad you found Mr. Right, but pigeon poop doesn't faze me, so whenever you're ready to get her back, call me. Peggy www.peggythomaswrites.com anatomyofnonfiction@blogspot.com
Oh, dear. This is exactly what I didn't want to hear right now, as I'm struggling with a similar situation. I haven't broken up yet, but it isn't looking good.
A wonderful read in itself! Somehow, sometime your research time will pay off. (Or at lest that's what i tell myself about my infatuation with the Maasai.)
Fantastic post Deb! I'm so sorry it didn't work out for you, but thank you for sharing the experience. Plus - Vincent sounds fascinating - just visited his museum myself in Sept.
The best novels in the world of fiction tend to be page turners that tell a gripping story. You can’t put them down until you finish the last page, you can’t stop thinking about them after you’re done, and you become so entangled in their various webs that you can remember entire story arcs and even small details for a very long time.
The best books in the world of nonfiction are equally fascinating. Their details are memorable and the ideas they present are truly compelling. With some notable exceptions, though, they aren’t gripping page turners like novels and their story arcs (if any) can be pretty tenuous because the real world is so messy and unpredictable. The result? Readers might put nonfiction books down for a few days without staying awake at night wondering what happens next.
So when I sat down to write my latest book, I wondered if I could combine the best of both worlds by shaping it into a gripping YA novel; every word would be true AND the book would be a page turner with a story line that you couldn’t put down. That’s exactly what I’ve tried to do with Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem. If I could pull it off, it seemed to me that this terrifying episode in America’s history had just the right ingredients for cooking up a thriller, a mystery, and a literary mind-bender all rolled into one.
After all, the things that happened during the Salem Witch Trials were too jaw-dropping to ignore. Who wouldn't wonder why a four year old girl, a heroic minister from afar, a beloved grandmother, and three dogs were demonized and accused of being witches?
And why were most people who confessed that they had committed the crime of witchcraft set free while just about everyone who proclaimed their innocence was imprisoned? Did a shadowy beast really spring up into the sky and split apart into the spirits of three different witches? Wow. Surely I could write about such goings on in a story with a beginning, middle, and end.
The more material I uncovered about this incredible 100% true story, the more curious I became (and the more curious I hoped my readers would become too). Back in 1692, the Puritans thought that the devil and his witches lurked in every nook and cranny, just waiting to afflict innocent children with a dread dis
6 Comments on PUSHING THE (NONFICTION) ENVELOPE, last added: 12/7/2011
You make a great point, Rosalyn - pretty much all of history, no matter how famous, is new to kids. I love your approach of letting the story be the star.
You make a great point, Rosalyn - pretty much all of history, no matter how famous, is new to kids. I love your approach of letting the story be the star.
I can't imagine anyone has any time right now to read a long blog post. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to share with you some wonderful pieces I've read lately. Most of them are on a theme--nonfiction storytelling. I hope you take a minute or two between shopping, cooking, last-minute writing deadlines, last-minute paper-grading, etc., to sit down and treat yourself.
First, here is a lovely piece by Henning Mankell, whose books about the Swedish detective Kurt Wallander I love. It's called THE ART OF LISTENING. I adored this piece and if I could wrap it up and put it in a box and deliver it to each and every one of you I would. Well, maybe I just did.
Next is a piece that was in Friday's New York Times that might not have made it to other parts of the country. It's about a theater group that pairs teenagers with people over 60. It's inspiring for nonfiction writers and lovers, and a great idea for other communities. Sort of a twist on StoryCorps (always a good place to visit!). This one is called TRUSTING SOMEONE OVER 60. (Don't let the headline deter you.)
Another piece that walloped me from the Times was this one, WHAT WASN'T PASSED ON. I won't say anything more about it so you can experience it for yourself.
Last week Jim Murphy wrote a great post about Recharging Batteries, and I referred in the comments to an article about the novelist Richard Ford that I loved. Read both when you can!
And because I can't help myself, I'm leaving you with my potato latke recipe. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and here's to a wonderful New Year -- 2012. That number seems like science fiction.
2 Comments on A Few Treats From Me To You, last added: 12/20/2011
Thank you Deb, for this wonderful gift! I instantly clicked on the links and read the stories.
Lately, I've been reading the NY Times in a rather desultory way on my iPad. You've just shown me how much I've missed since I stopped reading the broadsheet.
I'm even going to peruse your latke recipe although I have some in the freezer that are a LOT less work. Happy Hannukah!
Your post is a great holiday gift, Deb. And I agree with Ford about taking a break from writing, which is why I try to never write on weekends. Getting away provides perspective on past work.
Like so many New Yorker subscribers, I am always months behind.They pile up week by week, screaming their silent rebuke.Sometimes I hide them in a corner; rarely, I become defiant and throw them out without a glance of what I might miss.Keeping up with this magazine is the best (only?) reason I can think of for computing to a job on the subway instead of just carrying my coffee upstairs in my pjs.
I’m glad the November 14, 2011 issue didn’t end up unseen and in the recycling. Yesterday I read an article by John McPhee, one of the greatest nonfiction writers around.In “Progression,” he discussed the evolution of many of his ideas, when he lets his subject matter dictate the structure of his piece, and the few times (just two in a very full career) he chose a structure and searched for a subject to fit it.
Many of us here have written about such matters already, but I find the topic endlessly fascinating.I thought I might pluck a few points from the article that could hopefully spur some conversation in the comments section from my fellow bloggers and some of our readers.
1. McPhee said he once listed all the pieces he had written in decades and realized that 90 percent of them were related to subjects he had been interested in before he went to college.
Is that true for you?I’m not sure it is for me.I really liked biology, but I’d never have predicted I would write so much about science.Is that because I was a young girl at a time when females considered other types of careers?Or is it that I didn’t understand then that there is a poetry in pure science that is as lyric as Shakespeare?
2.McPhee said that his readers aren’t shy with suggestions, then noted these ideas are often closer to the readers’ passions than his own.Yet he did end up using two of their proposals.
Anybody here ever turn an suggested idea from a reader or a kid into a book?
3.McPhee mentioned that “new pieces can shoot up from other pieces, pursuing connections that run through the ground like rhizomes.”
I bet so many of us have written books or articles this way.I’ve already talked about one of mine in an earlier post (http://inkrethink.blogspot.com/2011/02/on-and-on-and-on.html). Have you met a minor character while researching one story who demanded a book of his or her own?Or turned an idea on its ear for another go-round?
4.And finally, what about McPhee’s ultimately successful attempt to tame a potentially disastrous idea: trying to find the right subject to fit within a pre-set structure.His result turned out to be the classic Encounters with t
5 Comments on Where Does He Get His Ideas?, last added: 2/14/2012
Susan, you will probably also love this interview with him, in which he talks a lot about nonfiction and structure. I love this piece and have referred to it before on I.N.K. But I think it's worth pointing out again. He is a true nonfiction master, a very kind man, and a terrific teacher. Here's the link: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5997/the-art-of-nonfiction-no-3-john-mcphee
ever since i began writing weekly posts i keep thinking about a column my friend recently wrote where the headline was "I Got Nothing." which is how i feel an hour after each publish.
What an interesting post. Both in college and before college I was a history/cultures/art history buff. However, I have two boys who love all things science. So far, my nonfiction manuscripts have have been science-focused. I hope someday to get back to art and history, but right now, so many of my inspirations come from my children.
Deb--Thanks so much for the gift of that interview. I don't know how I missed it the first time you blogged about it. I'm going to try his index card/structure idea next time I have an occasion to need it.
Matt--I certainly understand the "I got nothing" feeling, but better to have it after a post than before.
Gretchen--so is there any of those examples you mentioned where you ended up liking the second book better than the first?
Creating--when my kids were younger I found that nurturing their interests took me into places I wouldn't have normally gone. Some have remained, but like you said you hoped will happen, I reverted back to my own as well. So have heart!
A week ago our six month old puppy, Page, decided that 4 AM was the perfect time to go outside and play. After an appropriate amount of grumbling on my part, I got up and let her out into the backyard. On the way downstairs, I noticed a large heart-shaped pillow, bright red and covered with lots of smaller white hearts. It was our sixteen year old son's Valentine's Day "card" to his Mom from last year.* * I stood on the back porch as Page dashed around madly making giant figure eights. She's a Beagle mix, golden haired with white spots, but has very, very long legs. She looked like a miniture greyhound as she sprinted around and around and around. Then I thought about that red heart pillow. Our son is a person of giant emotions -- frequaently loud in all ways (our neighbors are wonderfully tolerant when he plays electric guitar), always hugging friends hello and goodbye, compressing more words per second in his rap songs then can be imagined, never settling for a simple story line or answer in his songs when something complex, contradictory and dark is demanding to be heard. There is wonderful freedom in his approach to life and art -- often reckless (he says what he feels in the moment and doesn't look back or forward), but just as often making a moving and thoughtful emotional comment that has real impact. * * Of course, we also want to have all of that rich emotion in our nonfiction writing, though we operate in a world of rules -- space limitations, monitored by a series of gatekeepers (from editors, to reviewers, to teachers, librarians and parents) between our books and our readers, plus our need and drive to be as accuarate as possible. This isn't a complaint about the system we work in; but it's a reality that can sometimes make us hesitate when we're writing and sometimes/usually leads us to question what our inner soul is telling us to say: If I say it this way, it will be much more passionate or active or whatever, but will it be as accurate or clear?* * I know some writers who go with the flow, put down on paper whatever their head is telling them, and either leave it to their editors to make suggestions for revisions or go back later themselves. I envy them. Unfortunately, I am a compulsive self-editor. I think over, question, revise and re-revise every phrase, every sentence, every paragraph as I write them. Then I rework the section and question it all over again. And my earliest books reflected this labor. Over the years I've come up with little gimmicks to maintain a more spontaneous feeling. Nothing genius, mind you. Just ways to stay relaxed in my head. For instance, when I write, I tell myself that I should imagine I'm talking to one reader who happens to be sitting across the desk from me, which means writing in a conversational, informal way. If I feel a section is sounding too much like a freshman college lecture, I stop and do something else (wash dishes, water plants, take Page out) and come back later, hopefully with a fresh eye and approach. And I always read over a manuscript several times with a slightly different mode of attack. I'll make believe I'm the nastiest editor alive and write all sorts of challenging comments and suggestions in the margins; I'll read it with a young reader in mind who might not be familiar with the subject; and I'll just read it start to finish in one shot to be sure it flows along smoothly, noting whenever something (an odd phrasing, an overly long sentence, etc.) makes me stop reading. * * These are just little tricks -- mind games really -- and sometimes they work. Just as watching Page doing crazy laps in the dark night for ten or twenty minutes can free up the brain and get it ready for another day's work. I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day and that (if you work) your thoughts and words are passionate, free flowing, and exactly what you want to say.
Recently, I’ve been thinking way back to my senior year in college. That year, while fulfilling the last electives to graduate, I took the most interesting classes of my college experience – History of Design, Art and Environment and History of the Home. I just unearthed my class notebooks and those were the actual titles. Until now, I haven’t had to use what I learned in those classes, except for help in Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit*, of course.
As I think back, Pat Allred, my professor for History of Design, did a fabulous job making the information interesting and relatable. With each design time period –Victorian, Bauhaus, Moderne, etc, she first explained the historical facts of the time. Then, she went through each design discipline and related it to the time period and the other areas – Graphic, Furniture, Architecture, etc. I totally got it.
Then, as I was writing my senior paper on Doll Design, I was able to use what I learned from Professor Allred and mix the evolution of dolls within a historical timeline combining how children were perceived through the years, manufacturing processes, social and fashion trends. For the entire three hours of class time, she had slides to illustrate what she was teaching. As I said above, I found my notebook complete with extensive outline, notes, bibliography and copies of every slide – an absolute goldmine.
As I begin the research and writing on my new book, I’m aiming to make the information interesting and relatable. All that architecture and design history fodder is finally going to be of use as I research and write biographies for 22 women architects, landscape architects and engineers. I’m so inspired and passionate about these women, but how can I make the information interesting and engaging for kids? With any luck, I can incorporate what I learned in Professor Allred’s classes as I write and inspire future architects and engineers.
Isn’t it amazing that all these years later, I am finally using what I learned in that class?
Anyone else have a similar experience with clearing off the cobwebs and making use of material stored way back in the back of your brain?
*Once, in an intense game of Trivial Pursuit, I won by knowing about the Dionne Quintuplets. They were the first quintuplets that survived through infancy – and were made into a doll line. Gotta love design history.
2 Comments on Making Interesting Nonfiction for Kids, last added: 2/24/2012
I can totally relate! I'm always trying to find ways to make my nonfiction as interesting and as inspiring as possible for my YA readers. I'm betting your book is going to be wonderful!
I’m stumped. Here I sit pondering which words of wisdom I should expound upon in today’s blog, only I can’t think of any. All traces of wisdom I may have possessed at one time or another have rolled out of my left ear, scrammed outta the conga line, and headed off to the beach.
NOOO!!! It’s already paragraph #2, and still I’m stumped! Should I write about strange-but-true factoids, like the factoid that says manhole covers are round because if they were rectangular or square, they would fall into the manhole? Nah. Then I’d have to think up a lot more strange factoids. Besides, does anybody care about manhole covers? Not really.
Should I write about adding humor to nonfiction books for kids? Nah. I do love the idea of adding humor to my books; everything is so much more memorable when it’s funny. Except that today, I can’t think of a single funny thing to say in a book.
If I make a lot of paragraphs, there will be more spaces in this blog and it will take up a lot of room.
There. I just made another paragraph.
Look, I did it again!! :-) Now I’ll probably get kicked out of the blog! :-( All my faithful readers will accuse me of snorting something strange and my reputation will be toast. Maybe I can just use a lot of exclamation points and take up even more space!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or I could just find a humongous piece of art and plug it in because it could swallow up entire paragraphs worth of space, like this:
OR IF IT'S NOT TOO OBVIOUS, I CAN JUST USE REALLY BIG TYPE.
Oh. I guess that was a little too obvious.
Maybe I can say that quotes are a good thing to use in your books. That would actually be true, and then I could go look up a bunch of cool quotes. That could take up a whole lot of space too. OK, why not. Here’s a quote from Will Rogers (1879-1935):
“It’s awful hard to get people interested in corruption unless they can get some of it.”
(I added the dates after Will Rogers' name to take up space.)
I love this post. But when you were deciding which random photo to include, why did you choose the fish? See, just deciding on a random photo would have taken me at least half an hour. You clearly have taken being stumped to an impressively productive level.
Years of waiting. Months of research. Weeks of thinking. And only a split second to get the strength and determination to just draw something, anything...then, days of drawing and editing and drawing and more drawing. In hind sight, it was that frustration in being "stumped" that kicked me to the edge and just leap into that vast world of something/nothingness that lead me to the right path.
Kinda like sliding uphill until you see the top and have to decide to dig in your heels or let it all go. Its a scary moment, but like my teacher always said "something is better than nothing"
LOL, whenever I thought about writing deadlines I made the word count my scorecard...like 50 words...if I didn't put anything down that's 0/50, blah! So with 50 words on the page 50/50, but knowing there is still bonus points for creativity and to make those 50 words perfect (hehehe, always want those bonus points to make that bell curve sway in my favor)...anyway, just trying to be helpful to get ya'll unstumped.
Sue, I picked that fish because it looked the most like a self-portrait of me as a stumped person. From personal experience, I have to admit that taking pictures is a whole lot easier than thinking up new blog ideas; all you have to do is snap away and voila! And Jim, cross my heart and hope to die, I promise not to tell the IRS that taxes = fiction.
Well, now I'm stumped! Ever since a friend of mine wrote a post called "I got nothin'," I've been saving the idea in my back pocket for safety. MAY I REMIND YOU THAT MY POST IS COMING UP ON MONDAY?!? The nice thing is that, like always, it's interesting to see how differently we all approach the same topic. Nice job, R!
Recently, I was watching Page do laps in the backyard (at 5 AM!) when I started thinking about how most of my book projects have begun. Usually in odd, strange ways.* * Once (and this was years ago) I was in the Newark Library doing research when I spotted an open book on a table. It was there in the morning, at noon, and in the afternoon and I never saw anyone actually reading it. It looked kind of lonely and since the library was (is) understaffed and underfunded, I decided to reshelf the book. So I picked it up and headed into the dusty stacks and hunted until I found the exact spot where it belonged (there was even a perfect space between two other books just waiting for this volume to return). Which was when I finally looked at the book.* * Turned out to be the Civil War memoir of a young soldier, Elisha Stockwell, Jr. When I glanced at the introduction I found out he was 15 when he enlisted. I almost immediately thought, gee, I didn't know kids that young actually fought in the war. Mind you, this was at least eight years before the Ken Burns' documentary let us see and hear Civil War soldiers old and young, so it was a revelation to me. And then that little light in my brain lit up and I thought, well, maybe young readers would like to know about this, too.* * So I took the memoir home and read it and loved it. Maybe there's a book idea here, I wondered. But to be sure, I had to do research. Lots of it. I began what turned out to be an endless quest for information: about the Civil War, about what a soldier's life was like, and about what young soldiers experienced. And here is where a confession is necessary. I was never a big fan of the Civil War. I read a little about it, but never really delved very deeply into it. History texts always seemed to be about the important players (military and political) and whenever these individuals wrote about the war their writing always seemed pompous and stilted and distant. And the battles were always described in dry, technical terms. But reading Stockwell's memoir and discovering other underage soldiers who left written accounts of their time in the war was an eye-opener. What they described was immediate and emotional and vivid and very often humorous. And it made me want to know more.* * It took about eight years, but eventually The Boys' War was published (during the same week that the Ken Burns' CW documentary first appeared. Talk about riding long coattails!). Other books had unusual beginnings as well. The Last Dinosaur was born out of my reading an article (obit, really) about a species of bird that was the last of its kind and held in captivity for years while scientists searched for a mate. Very sad. Inside the Alamo came about because a friend sent me an article that suggested that Davy Crockett had tried to escape the Alamo massacre by dressing as a woman (Not true, but it would have made for some interesting headlines). All of these titles (and others I've done) have something in common; when I began my research, I really didn't feel I knew enough about the subjects to write a book.* * So each required that I, in effect, create and give myself an intense and lengthy course on the particular subject. And I never stopped researching even when I began the actual writing, or even after I submitted the ms. Or even when the text went off to the printer. I kept trying to learn more; I needed to know more -- in part because I wanted the most up-to-date information or take on the subject, but mostly because I loved the subjects. And that love never dissapated as I dug deeper into the subject and learned more and more about it.* * I think this passion for learning about a subject gets passed along to the readers in the resulting text. Listen to this, I hope my writing is saying, it's a weird story but really cool and not too many people know about it. I want to take readers along on the voyage of discovery, of coming across an unusual character, an extraordinar
5 Comments on The Eternal Student, last added: 3/14/2012
Jim, a beautiful, poignant post. I'm worried that the qualities of inquiry and study that you've mastered will not get passed on to the next generation. As bookstores and libraries close, where will that serendipitous discovery-by-browsing happen? In the age of the 2 minute or less attention span, rewards for high scores on multiple choice questions, and the myth that "covering" a subject is the same as teaching it passion, the driving force behind your work, is lost.
Great post, Jim. I've always thought that the benefit to knowing next-to-nothing about a topic is that it places us in the shoes of the kids who will read our books (kids who are learning all about everything for the first time). I always figure I'm asking the same questions as I research that a kid would ask. And this is a good thing!
Thank you all for your interesting comments. Yes, I also worry that some of the excitement of discovery will be lost because kids are turning to different research tools, but I have hope that some might be pursuaded to look beyond the digital. Chantal, Stockwell's memoir was Private Elisha Stockwell, Jr. Sees the Civil War, ed. by Byron R. Abernathy and published in 1958. It was a very lucky find for me.
I've been sharing some of the facts that Lee Gutking mentions to anyone who would listen - husband, friends, children, writer friends, the dog, etc. Here are the points that he made - in speaking about creative nonfiction for adults that struck a cord with me as a writer for children:
1) "Creative nonfiction is the fastest growing genre in the publishing industry, right now. Creative nonfiction is the fastest growing genre in the creative academic world, as well."
2) Research, in the past 4 to 5 years, shows that people remember facts that are presented to them and many more facts for a longer period of time when those facts are embedded in a story.
3) People are persuaded in a much more successful way, when the information is presented in a story.
4) We remember our life stories in chapters.
I was fascinated (and curious) by this information and how it relates to children and learning. It appears to me that creative nonfiction books for children have an amazing potential for education. Though creative nonfiction is used in the schools right now, it seems that there is maybe a huge untapped potential to help our children learn - backed by research and data.
I've also been sharing, to anyone who will listen, how Gutkind presented Organ Donation in his book, Many Sleepless Nights: The World of Organ Transplantation. It's toward the end of the video if you get a chance to listen.
So, if you are reading this, guess I have once again managed to get someone to listen to my "aha" moment about creative nonfiction. Love to hear your comments.
3 Comments on Creative Nonfiction Nonfiction, last added: 3/23/2012
Thanks for writing this, Anna. I looked at the video for a while and I have three comments: One of the MAJOR rules for all authors is "Show, don't tell." For someone who writes creative nonfiction, Lee Gutkin does way too much "telling" and not enough "showing." I got bored by his didactic approach. He would have held my attention if he had given some examples. Maybe he does at the end but he lost me. Second, a narrative is only one creative approach to nonfiction. There are many others including poetry and hands-on instruction to give experiences to readers. And third, not everyone knows what is meant by the term "creative" in "creative nonfiction." He should stipulate somewhere that "nonfiction" means "nothing is made up." I've had writers tell me that they write "creative nonfiction" when they are actually writing historical fiction.
Thanks for sharing! Many cultures (Indian, African, for example) teach with story. It's funny (sad actually) how we need research to show that this method is worthy before it's actively pursued.
Vicki, you probably lost interest in the video before he said (near the end) that everything must be factual. He also spent quite a bit of time talking about how he structured his book.
BIG DIFFERENCE between creative nonfiction and historical nonfiction.
I would like to welcome and introduce INK's newest member, Carla Killough McClafferty. Carla will participate in both INK Think Tank (the database of nonfiction books searchable by curriculum standards), and INK Link: Authors on Call (the videoconferencing group).
Carla, who lives in Arkansas, is the author of award-winning nonfiction books of history and science including The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon; In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry; Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium; and The Head Bone’s Connected to the Neck Bone: The Weird, Wacky and Wonderful X-Ray and her latest, Tech Titans. You may contact Carla at ckmcclafferty@gmail.com.
I asked Carla to be a guest blogger in my slot this month. She addresses the third most common question I get from children at schools, "Where do ideas come from?" In case you're wondering, the most popular question is, "How old are you?" to which the teachers always say, "Don't ask that! That's not polite." (I tell them anyway.) The second most common question is, "How much money do you make?" to which the teachers say even more forcefully, "Don't ask that! That's really not polite." (I tell them how much I make on the sale of one book.) But when they ask, "Where do you get your ideas?" their teachers relax and coo, "Oh, that's a nice question." Here is Carla's story of how she got the idea for one of her recent books.
Book ideas are everywhere. Some ideas come from unlikely places; others develop through a lot of thought and planning. Sometimes a book idea comes along when you least expect it. It comes as a sweet surprise (like finding a row of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies in the freezer that I’d forgotten about). That’s how it happened for my 2011 book, The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon.
I got to know Carla when we both spoke on a nonfiction panel for last year's ALA. She's inspiring. I loved what she said on that panel about connecting with her subject. It was such an organic, important aspect of writing and finding our pathway through a book. Great to see Carla here!
Funny is fun. I love funny…..who doesn’t? But do you notice something weird about this list? Of course you do. These hilarious picture book blockbusters are all FICTION! I know there must be funny blockbuster roll-on-the-floor-laughing nonfiction picture books out there, but where ARE they?
Well, let me see….John, Paul, George & Ben is funny, and at the end it tells you which parts were fiction and which parts were nonfiction. Does that count? So You Want to Be President? is funny too. Can you guys think of any other hilarious blockbuster nonfiction picture books that I left out? I hope so. True stuff doesn’t have to be all solemn and serious and sedate, you know.
So let's make this post short and sweet. Of course the truth ain't always funny; far from it. And of course picture books don’t always have to be funny either, any more than they have
6 Comments on IF YOU ARE NOT A PICTURE BOOK JUNKIE FREAKAZOID LIKE ME, DON’T READ THIS ARTICLE. REALLY., last added: 5/1/2012
I gave a talk on humor in nf a few years ago, but can't find it now, and can't remember what books I talked about(!) Some of the poop and body parts books bring on the giggles. And April Pulley Sayre's chant books on fish, insects, and her latest Rah Rah Radishes and Go Go Grapes, while not fall-on-the-floor funny, do generate smiles and chuckles, especially when kids chant along. I agree that we need more funny in nf!
I'm thinking of "What to Expect When You're Expecting Larvae," but it's a bit beyond a picture book. Some of Gene Barrett's books are funny, like "Now and Ben" and Neo Leo." Hmmm.
And concept books are a great category for non-fiction. This week I have a post about the new Z Is For Moose by Kelly Bingham and Paul O. Zelinsky. In an interview with them for next week's post she says that's how the book was born: her four-year-old got tired of ABC books and wanted a funny one!
"Manners mash-up" is a fabulous and very silly collection of etiquette tips with illustrations from artists like Adam Rex and Bob Shea. Super goofy/real advice about everything from not picking your nose or playing fair, etc.
Fun list of books, everyone....thanks! Once upon a time in 2002 I did a funny NF picture book called How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning, so it was interesting to see Gene Barrett's take on Franklin in Now and Ben a few years later. Since Lane Smith got in on the Ben act too with his book John, Paul, George and Ben, I guess our great American patriot makes good fodder for humor.
Fun list of books, everyone....thanks! Once upon a time in 2002 I did a funny NF picture book called How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning, so it was interesting to see Gene Barrett's take on Franklin in Now and Ben a few years later. Since Lane Smith got in on the Ben act too with his book John, Paul, George and Ben, I guess our great American patriot makes good fodder for humor.
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What a great post - should be read by every teacher and student - and author - in the whole wide world!
A fabulous post, you really captured the best of our lives. Thanks.
Great post, Roz. I've shared it with the students I'm working with.
Naturally I loved your comments everyone.....thanks! And Vicki, it's great that you showed the kids this post. Very curious to hear if anything comes out of it.