Writing Books for Children

1. What’s Your Story? By Marion Dane Bauers - ISBN 0-395-57780-2

This book contains concrete, step-by-step tips on developing a story from idea to ending. Eight of the 14 chapters deal with preparations necessary to get the writing started. Students discover that there is far more to a story than just writing it, and the book takes the young author through--finding a special time and place to write, inventing a conflict, understanding what makes a main character tick, figuring out a plot, choosing a point of view--and the later chapters address more technical issues of pacing, rhythm, and balance. This is probably the best book to get a young author started. Ages 8-up.

2. Live Writing: Breathing Life into your Story By Ralph Fletcher – ISBN 0-380-79701-1

This book covers the writer’s tools and is almost as valuable as Ms. Bauer’s book. A writer's toolbox contains words, imagination, a love of books, a sense of story, and ideas for how to make the writing live and breathe. Covering all the normal writing skills like building character, adopting a voice, creating good conflict, inventing solid settings, and getting off to a good opening, this book also teaches how to read as a writer.

3. How Writer’s Work By Ralph Fletcher – ISBN 0-380-79702-X

Not as important as the two above, this book still offers a lot. It covers the different ways professionals and students create good writing. Mr. Fletcher explores the processes of brainstorming, rough drafts, rereading and revising, proofreading, and publishing through examples of students' writing and interviews with children's authors. It is not a replacement for but a good companion to Marion Dane Bauer's What's Your Story? Ages 8-14.

4. Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8 by Ralph Fletcher, JoAnn Portalupi ISBN – 1-57110-073-3

If members of FAA desire to have writing exercises, they will come out of this book. Crafting Lessons is written for teachers, so the language level is difficult for all but the oldest members. Some of the topics are: Beginning, middle, and end; Crafting a lead (story opening); Creating a dramatic scene; Describing the setting; Emotional endings; Flashback/time transitions; How to pace a story; The inner life of the character; Surprise endings; Using stronger verbs; Using sensory details; and many, many more.

All of the above books were ordered from Barnes & Noble online and received six days later. All are readily available.