by Rebecca Stern & Grant Faulkner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 27, 2019
Though specifically targeting young writers, this upbeat handbook is a wonderful instruction guide for writers of any age as...
A NaNoWriMo primer for young writers.
This instructional guide begins with an introduction from Jason Reynolds and an inspirational chapter assuring kids that their stories matter and are needed by the world. The following chapters provide step-by-step instruction to get a writer at any level ready to tackle the blank page. The chapter “Determine What Type of Writer You Are” provides a quick tutorial that affirms a diversity of writing habits that can be tamed to fit each individual’s writing practice. Once the writer is primed to begin, the next set of chapters helps lay the groundwork to write the novel: crafting the story plan and fleshing out characters as well as deconstructing the mechanics of plot and worldbuilding. Many chapters offer a “Dare Machine,” a series of writing exercises so varied that a young writer at any stage can easily engage with confidence and excitement. Once the writer is ready to tackle NaNoWriMo—to write a novel in four weeks—to fend off discouragement, each week’s guidance is prompted by a “PepTalk” written by different bestselling authors, including Daniel José Older, Celia C. Pérez, and Jennifer Niven.
Though specifically targeting young writers, this upbeat handbook is a wonderful instruction guide for writers of any age as well as a perfect text for any creative-writing classroom. (Nonfiction. 10 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-451-48029-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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edited by Rebecca Stern Brad Wolfe
by Ibtisam Barakat ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2007
It’s the first night of the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and Arab countries. Three-year-old Ibtisam, hunting frantically for a shoe, loses her family as they join the throng of anxious Palestinians fleeing Ramallah into Jordan. Desperate hours will elapse before the family is reunited. This beautifully written memoir of the author’s childhood on the Israeli-occupied West Bank unfolds against a harsh backdrop of war and cultural displacement. The family endures poverty, separations and frequent relocation. Yet life goes on, by turns surprising, funny, heartbreaking and rich with possibility. In an overcrowded Jordanian school-room housing refugees, Ibtisam discovers Alef, the first letter of the Arab alphabet, and a key unlocking the magical world of written words. Courageous and curious, but by no means always well-behaved, Ibtisam and her brothers find ways to assert their strong wills in defiance of the authorities that govern their lives. The injustices that rankle come at the hands of parents and teachers, not broader geopolitical realities. A compassionate, insightful family and cultural portrait. (map, historical note, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10+)
Pub Date: May 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-374-35733-1
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Melanie Kroupa/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2007
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by David Weitzman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 14, 2010
Weaving together architectural, engineering and Native American history, Weitzman tells the fascinating story of how Mohawk Indian ironworkers helped construct the sprawling bridges and towering skyscrapers that dominate our urban landscape. The book begins with a brief but informative history of the Kanien'kéhaka—People of the Flint. Leaders in establishing the League of the Iroquois, a confederation of Indian nations in the New York region, Mohawks had a longstanding reputation for their sense of tight-knit community, attraction to danger and love for physical challenge, qualities that served them well when hired in the late 1800s to do the most arduous work in railroad and bridge construction. With the advent of the skyscraper, Mohawks possessing agility that seemed gravity-defying worked hundreds of feet above the ground. They were not immune to tragedy, and the author discusses in detail the collapse of the Québec Bridge that killed 31 Mohawk workers. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs that capture the daring spirit of these heroic workers, the concise, captivating account offers great insight into the little-known but considerable role Native Americans played in our architectural and engineering achievements. (glossary, bibliography, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59643-162-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Flash Point/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
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by David Weitzman & illustrated by David Weitzman
BOOK REVIEW
by David Weitzman & illustrated by David Weitzman
BOOK REVIEW
by David Weitzman & illustrated by David Weitzman
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