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For Kids: Publish Your Writing

By on January 19, 2024   /   For Kids  
girl writing

Image by pch.vector on Freepik

 

Are you a budding writer? Students may think only adults can get published, but there are magazines and websites that are looking for stories, poetry, articles, and even artwork from elementary school writers and illustrators. The lists below will give you some places to try.

 

But first, here are some tips before sending out your writing:

 

 

  • Check the publication thoroughly. Have an adult look over the information to be sure it’s safe and that it’s suited to you and your writing.
  • Edit your story well. Choose your strongest writing. Reread it many times to catch all mistakes. Ask several people you trust to check it too.
  • Pay attention to the guidelines. Does what you wrote fits with what they publish and what they’re asking for? Some places have themes and will only accept stories that fit those topics.
  • Be confident in your writing. Not everyone will get accepted. That doesn’t mean what you submitted wasn’t good. Believe in yourself and keep submitting. Even famous writers don’t get accepted all the time.
  • Read the stories in the publication to see if there are things you can do to improve your next story.
  • Keep creating. The more you write, the better you’ll get.
  • Take classes and/or read writing books. The more you know, the better your writing will become.

 

Magazines

Stone Soup
Ages 8-13
Known for its excellence, Stone Soup is a nonprofit literary magazine written and illustrated by kids. They publish poetry, fiction, essays, and artwork in the bimonthly print magazine, and they also have a blog with book reviews, a poetry podcast, travelogues, and responses to current events—all by kids under age 14. In addition to their annual book contest, they also publish novels and poetry collections by young writers.

Skipping StonesSkipping Stone magazine cover
Ages 8-17
Skipping Stones magazine features writing from educators and students focused on different regions or cultures of the world. They accept poems, stories, articles, essays, and photos in addition to sponsoring writing contests. They publish online as well as in print.

Magic Dragon magazine coverMagic Dragon
Ages 5-12
Published quarterly, Magic Dragon is interested in stories, essays, and artwork. If your work is chosen, you will receive a copy of the issue.

 

 

 

fingers commas toes
Ages 4-26
This theme-based online publication looks for nonfiction essays and personal stories (including videos) as well as fiction, poetry, visual and digital art, and music. Check the site to find out what topics they’re looking for.

The Louisville Review
K-12
For their Cornerstone section, The Louisville Review accepts previously unpublished poetry from kids.

Story Monsters InkStory Monsters Ink magazine cover
Ages 5-17
A Gold Award winner from Mom’s Choice Awards, Story Monsters Ink publishes stories, essays, articles, and drawings. They also accept book reviews and stories about favorite teachers.

 

Guardian Angels Kids
Up to age 14
For their Young Muses: Guardian Angel Kids looks for picture stories, activities, crafts, recipes, math and problem-solving ideas, and poetry.

New Moon Girls
Ages 8-14
Written and edited by youth, New Moon Girls magazine invites girls to contribute stories, poems, opinions, art, and photos. They also welcome young journalists.

Online

Wattpad
Any age
Once you create an online account, you can write installments of your stories to keep readers interested. Readers can like and comment on the writing.

Competitions or Contests

Cricket Magazine
Ages 5-12
Cricket Magazine has monthly story, poetry, or art contests. You can check out each month’s challenges online or subscribe to the printed magazine.

boy writing

Image by Freepik

Young Writers
Ages 5-12
Young Writers runs national writing competitions and publishes winners in a book. They also offer writing encouragement as well as some writing instruction on poetry types and terms. The site also has additional information for parents and teachers.

Need some encouragement to keep writing?

NaNoWriMo
Gr. 4-12
NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program is an adaptation of the adult NaNoWriMo challenge to write a novel in a month. Along with the usual features of keeping track of your writing progress, this version offers advice and encouragement and even has classroom support for teachers who want to use it with their students.

For teachers

StoryJumper
Gr. 1-8
The StoryJumper website gives students a chance to create and publish their own illustrated stories online or in book format. Free teacher accounts have a dashboard and lesson plans. Students can collaborate on stories and even work with classrooms in other states or countries. You can buy digital or hard copies of the books.

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STEM Tuesday — Pests that Bug Us — In the Classroom

By on January 16, 2024   /   Pests and Bugs, STEM Tuesday  

 

 

Leeches, bedbugs, and plagues! These books focus on some of the plants, pests, and parasites that share our home and, in some cases, our body. The possibilities are endless for bug-filled classroom discussions and activities!

 

Plagues and Pandemics (History Smashers) by Kate Messner

A mix of conversational text and graphic panels takes readers on a world-wide tour of the best-known plagues and pandemics from ancient times to our current era. Highlights include the black death, smallpox, cholera, polio, Ebola, SARS, and Covid 19. The final chapter explores how to prevent the next pandemic.

 

 

Classroom Activity

Assign each student (or a small group of students) a pandemic or plague-causing microbe to research. Ask them to investigate their microbe using library resources or the Internet. Using the information they have learned, have the students created a “Most Wanted” poster for their assigned microbe. Have them include photos and/or drawings, scientific name, common name, symptoms, how it spreads, how to stop it, and more.

 

 

Itch!: Everything You Didn’t Want to Know About What Makes You Scratch by Anita Sanchez

To understand why things itch, we need to understand how skin reacts to stings and bites. This book includes the usual buggy suspects as well as plants with spines, needles, and poisons. Readers will learn how to identify poison ivy, how fleas leap, and how bedbugs talk to each other and they will find non-toxic alternatives for treatment.

 

Classroom Activity

When you have an itch, there are a variety of suspects that could be to blame. Is it a mosquito bite or a brush with poison ivy or something else? Let’s find out! Assign each student an itch-causing suspect, from bugs to plants to poisons. Have students research their itchy suspects using the Internet and/or library. Using the information they learn, students should create a set of clues to the identify of the itchy suspect. Have students read the clues to the class and see if the class can identify the itch-causing culprit.

 

What’s Eating You? Parasites – The Inside Story by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Neal Layton

You are a habitat to (potentially) more than 430 kinds of parasites! Text, accompanied by graphic panels, explores the lives of ticks, fleas, and other parasites that live on your body surface, the tapeworms, hookworms, and roundworms that live inside you, and some of the defenses your body uses against them.

Classroom Activity

How much do you know about parasites? Have students use this book and other resources to learn about parasites. How do people become infected with parasites? Where can parasites live in the human body? What body parts can parasites infect? What are the signs and symptoms of parasites? How can you reduce the risk of getting parasites? Have students use what they have learned to create a public service announcement about staying safe from parasites.

 

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Carla Mooney loves to explore the world around us and discover the details about how it works. An award-winning author of numerous nonfiction science books for kids and teens, she hopes to spark a healthy curiosity and love of science in today’s young people. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, three kids, and dog. Find her at http://www.carlamooney.com, on Facebook @carlamooneyauthor, or on X @carlawrites.

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The Coretta Scott King Book Awards: Honoring the Legacy of Dr. King

By on January 14, 2024   /   Articles, WNDMG  
Coretta Scott King Awards bronze seal

As we celebrate and honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it’s a great time to recognize the value of authors and illustrators who continue to carry his message into the world. This is the goal of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards. According to the American Library Association (ALA), these awards are presented annually to African American authors and illustrators whose books for children and young adults “demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.” 

About the Award

The Coretta Scott King Book Award was established in 1969 by Mabel McKissick and Glyndon Greer at the annual conference of the ALA. The first award was presented to Lillie Patterson for her middle-grade biography titled Martin Luther King, Jr.: Man of Peace (Garrard, 1969). During the 50+ years since its inception, the award has grown and evolved.  

In 1982, ALA’s  Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table joined with the Coretta Scott King Task Force to form the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee. Since that time, the Coretta Scott King Book Awards have been recognized as an official ALA award.

Currently, two separate awards are given, one to an author and one to an illustrator, and three books in each category are named as honor books. Additionally, the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe New Talent Author Award honors new African American authors and illustrators, and the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an author in even-numbered years and an illustrator in odd-numbered years.

 

Past Winners of the Illustrator Award

In 2023, the illustrator award was given to Frank Morrison for Standing in the Need of Prayer: A Modern Retelling of the Classic Spiritual (Crown Books for Young Readers, 2022).

Standing in the Need of Prayer book cover

Other past winners of the illustrator award include Kadir Nelson in 2020 for The Undefeated (Versify, 2019), which was also awarded the 2020 Caldecott Medal; Christopher Myers in 2015 for Firebird (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 2019), Misty Copeland’s tribute to young dancers with a dream; and photographer Charles R. Smith Jr. in 2010 for My People (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2009), in which sepia-tone photos beautifully enhance the text.  

 

Past Winners of the Author Award

In 2023, the  author award was given to Amina Luqman-Dawson for Freewater (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2022), a middle-grade historical fiction novel about the harrowing journey to freedom of two children who escape from the plantation where they are enslaved. Widely praised for its lyrical writing and gripping storyline, Freewater was also the winner of the 2023 Newbery Award.

Freewater book cover

 

Past winners of the author award include Jerry Craft in 2020 for his groundbreaking graphic novel New Kid (Quill Tree Books, 2019), which also received the 2020 Newbery Award and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature; Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin for March Book: Three (Top Shelf Productions, 2016), which was the winner of several prestigious awards, including the 2016 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature; and Jacqueline Woodson in 2015 for Brown Girl Dreaming (Penguin, 2014), an autobiographical novel-in-verse that received multiple honors, including the National Book Award.

 

Coretta Scott King Awards bronze seal

 

The Seal

Books that have received the Coretta Scott King Book Awards can be identified by the award’s iconic seal. Winners receive a bronze seal, and honorees receive a silver seal. Designed in 1974 by artist Lev Mills, the seal reflects both the philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the ideals of the Coretta Scott King Awards. 

The circle represents continuity, the dove is symbolic of peace, rays of sunshine reach for peace and brotherhood, and the pyramid is representative of both strength and the Atlanta University, where the seal was designed. At the center, an African American child reads a book.

Mills also included five non-sectarian symbols as a sign of world unity. The Star of David, the Latin Cross, Om, Tao, and the Star and Crescent appear beneath the child.

 

Looking Ahead

The 2024 Coretta Scott King Book Awards will be announced soon, at ALA’s winter meeting. To be eligible for the awards, authors and illustrators must live in the United States or maintain dual residency or citizenship, and books must have been published in 2023. All applications had to be submitted by December 31, 2023. Stay tuned and watch for the announcement!

In the words of Coretta Scott King, “It doesn’t matter how strong your opinions are. If you don’t use your power for positive change, you are, indeed, part of the problem.” As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., let us also celebrate the authors and illustrators who carry his legacy forward and provide young readers with books that have the power to bring about positive change.

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