How to use this Page

Each week, members of the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club enjoy a 55-minute LIVE teleclass presented by one of our instructors.

Each teleclass covers some aspect of writing for children.

This week’s teleclass will be presented by Rita Milios.

Here’s all the info. about the class:

What Does a Test Assessment Assignment Look Like?

If you’re considering writing test assessment “items” (reading passages and questions) for educational publishers, you won’t want to miss this class! Using an actual Sample Reading Test (with questions and answers) we will go through the test step-by-step and discuss:

• The reading passages—How do you (as the item writer) choose a passage topic?
What do you need to consider as you write?

• The test questions—How do you determine what kind of questions to ask?
Are there “standard” ways to write a test question?

• What common mistakes do new writers make?

Join Rita Milios, a twenty-five year veteran at test assessment writing, on Thursday, April 24, at 8 pm Eastern DAYLIGHT time for this interactive, informational class.

Be sure to get the Handout and, if possible, review it prior to the class.

To receive an email invitation to this event, join the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club today.

So, in the midst of massive packeting, I took an (all-too-frequent, I'm sorry to admit) email break, to learn, much to my delight, that EMILY was recently a book selection for a teen book group. The group's leader, Rachel Kamin, tells me:

"The members of the Temple Israel High School Girls Book Club in West Bloomfield , MI – Emmy, Cassie, Jordana, Rachel, Liz & Ariel – discussed Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa at their first meeting of the year. This year they will also be reading The Weight of the Sky by Lisa Ann Sandell, Light Years by Tammar Stein, and Notes for the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonenblick. Last year, the girls enjoyed A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life by Dana Reinhardt, Goy Crazy by Melissa Schorr, and Jailbait by Leslea Newman."

Apparently a lively discussion ensued, which I'm sorry to have missed. But how exciting and flattering to have been chosen! (And by the way, "Weight of the Sky" is on my to-be-read pile, as well, as Lisa Ann Sandell and I are going to be speaking together on a Jewish Book Month panel in November).

In the meantime, I thought I would post the questions Rachel used for her group discussion. I have to admit it was a fun exercise (if more than a little bit narcissistic) for me to think of my own answers to the following, now that I've had a year or so of distance from the manuscript:

High School Girls Book Club
October 8, 2007


Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa by Micol Ostow
Discussion Questions


1. At the beginning of the book (p. 3) Emily explains that people mistake her for being stuck-up. Do you agree with her that “being stuck-up is infinitely better than sticking out”?

2. Why does Emily’s sense of loss over her grandmother’s death confuse her? Why does she feel that she is not entitled to her emotions? (p. 22) How would you answer her question: “How can you lose something you never had to begin with?” (p. 13)

3. Do you think Lucy’s coldness/unfriendliness towards Emily is justified? What preconceptions does Emily have of her cousin and her family? What preconceptions do they have of her?

4. Emily admits that “most of my feelings for Noah are more about the idea of Noah than Noah himself.” (p. 104) What is going on with their relationship?

5. Why does Emily decide not to go back to New York for her brother’s birthday? (p. 130)

6. What does Emily mean when she says that being “Jewish is like a default state of being, whether you are conscious of it or not”? (p. 78) Did Emily’s Jewish identity play a significant role in the story?

7. Why do you think Emily and Lucy both assumed that it was Gloria who broke off ties with her family in Puerto Rico?

8. What did you think of the book’s ending? Was it expected, believable, satisfying?