Posts Tagged kidlit

Seasonal MG Reads

By Hallie Christensen on December 6, 2024 / Book Lists

The holidays are here!

One of the best things to do when it’s chilly outside is to curl up under a warm blanket with some hot cocoa and read a book! Here are some fun seasonal MG reads for all readers, whether they enjoy action, adventure, fantasy, love, mystery, or cozy!

Let It Glow by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy

When Aviva Davis and Holly Martin meet at the holiday pageant tryouts for their local senior’s center, they think they must be seeing double. While they both knew they were adopted, they had no idea they had a biological sibling, let alone an identical twin! The similarities are only skin deep, though, because while Aviva has a big personality and even bigger Broadway plans, Holly is more the quiet dreamer type who longs to become a famous author like her grandfather.

One thing the girls do have in common is their curiosity about how the other celebrates the holidays. What better way to discover the magic of the holidays than to experience them firsthand? The girls secretly trade lives, planning to stage a dramatic reveal to their families. Two virtual strangers swapping homes, holidays, and age-old traditions–what could possibly go wrong? Find out in this sweet as a sugarplum and satisfying as a latke middle grade novel!

The Daggers of Ire by J.C. Cervantes

Esmerelda Santos is a rare bruja, born with Chaos magic in her veins. She and her family are direct descendants of one of the four original witches—a mysterious legend about the night magic was born in San Bosco. But since the death of her mother, Esme is more concerned about healing their father’s spiraling grief.

When Esme finds a heart spell in a forbidden grimorio, she thinks it could be the answer to making her dad whole again. But before she can try, she and her best friend, Tiago, discover that their families and all the town’s witches have vanished—along with their magic, which keeps San Bosco alive. The only way to save them and the town is to find an original witch—impossible, since no one has actually ever seen one.

With a witch hunter on their tail, Esme and Tiago journey to a banished realm where forbidden magic runs wild. Here the two must embrace their powers and confront the legend’s terrible truths . . . or risk losing their families and their magic forever.

Spellbound Solstice by Alexandria Rogers

Every winter solstice, when people lock eyes in the Ambrose Ensorcelled Cottage, they fall in love.

This year, Alice Ambrose has secretly invited her dad in hopes that her parents will realize they’re happier together than apart. With her parents together, Alice will finally feel whole. But when Alice’s parents lock eyes…nothing happens.

Turns out, the women in her family are cursed to never fall in love.

Ronan Knight will do anything to get his enchantress mom to settle on a forever home. Luckily, he’s found her a perfect job at a perfect place: the Ensorcelled Cottage. The only snag? His mom would rather run from their mysterious past than settle down.

When Ronan learns about Alice’s family curse, he figures he can kill two birds with one broken curse, since helping Alice will surely earn his mom points with the owner of Ensorcelled Cottage. But when their meddling causes the town to lose the ability to love all together, and ghosts whisper of the very past haunting Ronan’s family, Alice and Ronan discover that happily ever after doesn’t look the same for everyone. And sometimes, to get what you want, you’ll have to give your heart away.

Northwind by Gary Paulsen

When a deadly plague reaches the small fish camp where he lives, an orphan named Leif is forced to take to the water in a cedar canoe. He flees northward, following a wild, fjord-riven shore, thrown from one danger to the next, unsure of his destination. Yet the deeper into his journey he paddles, the closer Leif comes to his truest self as he connects to the heartbeat of the ocean, the pulse of the sea.

Voyage of the Frostheart by Jamie Littler

In a snow-covered land where monsters rule the icy tundra, only song weavers hold the power to control these vicious giants. But for centuries song weavers have been the subject of suspicion–how can those who hold so much power be trusted?

Ever since his parents were lost on a pathfinding expedition, Ash has spent his life as an outcast. As a budding song weaver, his village marked him as a potential threat, even though all he wants to do is protect them. Eager to find his place in the world, he and his cantankerous yeti caretaker seek passage on the Frostheart: a ship-like sleigh whose mission is to explore faraway lands.

There he meets a fast-talking, spunky navigator, a walrus captain with a peg leg who runs a tight sleigh, and a mysterious traveler who encourages him to hone his song. But can Ash’s song weaving save the Frostheart from the monsters hiding under the ice? Or will his untamed powers put his newfound friends in jeopardy?

Winterhouse by Ben Guterson, illustrated by Chloe Bristol

Orphan Elizabeth Somers’s malevolent aunt and uncle ship her off to the ominous Winterhouse Hotel, owned by the peculiar Norbridge Falls. Upon arrival, Elizabeth quickly discovers that Winterhouse has many charms―most notably its massive library. It’s not long before she locates a magical book of puzzles that will unlock a mystery involving Norbridge and his sinister family.

But the deeper she delves into the hotel’s secrets, the more Elizabeth starts to realize that she is somehow connected to Winterhouse. As fate would have it, Elizabeth is the only person who can break the hotel’s curse and solve the mystery. But will it be at the cost of losing the people she has come to car for, and even Winterhouse itself?

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu, illustrated by Erin McGuire

Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. But that was before he stopped talking to her and disappeared into a forest with a mysterious woman made of ice. Now it’s up to Hazel to go in after him. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” Breadcrumbs is a fairy tale of modern-day America, an ode to the power of fantasy, and a heartbreaking meditation on how growing up is as much a choice as it is something that happens to us.

Writing Prompts: How to Make Yours Shine

By Ann Angel on December 4, 2024 / Articles, For Writers

Writing prompts, whether in a classroom or workshop setting, can be hit or miss–especially if the prompt is too general. If you ask students to choose an object in the classroom, for instance, half of them might focus on the ancient clock on the wall and how slowly the second hand moves from numeral to numeral. Or, if you ask students to write about a specific event in their lives, they might fall back on vague and/or generic descriptions that lack the tension required in strong writing. (The “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” and “I Remember…” prompts fall squarely into this category.)

Don’t get me wrong: Tried-and-true writing prompts are good in a pinch. But there are some excellent craft books available to help teachers, workshop leaders, parents and caregivers to infuse excitement and originality into their everyday prompts.

Help Is On the Way

One of my favorite writing-craft gurus is Ralph Fletcher, an educator who’s been helping other educators since the early 2000s. His first craft book, co-authored with JoAnn Portalupi, Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide, is a great guide for teachers, students, and workshop leaders. In this book, Fletcher breaks up ideas into days and weeks to help with lesson plans. His most recent book (pictured above), A Writers Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You, helps writers to see their world and, perhaps most importantly, how to react to what they see.

Advice from Ralph Fletcher

1. Make sure each writer has a writer’s notebook.
2. Provide adequate writing time of at least five minutes and up to 15 or 20 minutes, if everyone’s fully engaged. Ideas don’t just fly across space to land in a writer’s brain (well, at least not all the time).
3. Share a piece of your own writing before everyone starts writing. And write with them.
4. It’s okay to let workshoppers draw rather than write as all forms of creative expression are encouraged.
5. Help your group to find ideas by asking questions and sharing prompts.

Some great first workshop examples include:
–What do you know a lot about?
–Do you play sports, or enjoy an activity such as dance or chess?
–Who’s a special relative you spend lots of time with?
–Do you collect stuff?

Fletcher, a big believer in tying writing prompts to reading, provides some great ideas for read-alouds connected to writing:

—The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. Write about a time you had relatives come to your house. What were you celebrating?

— Marianthe’s Story: Painted Words Spoken Memories by Aliki. What is a color-filled memory you have?

— If You Find a Rock by Peggy Christianson. Write about a found object and the things you might do with it.

— My Map Book by Sara Fanelli. Create a map of an object or place. Explain in writing how the object works or what makes this place special.

When time is up, ask participants to share their work, even if they’re not finished, and encourage them to come back to these pieces later. You never know what a bit of time and distance can reveal.

And finally…

If all else fails, you could probably encourage writers to write about all the places chewing gum gets stuck. But I need to add one more thought on my favorite writing prompt from Ralph’s toolbox. Have students write or draw what makes a safe place. The result of this prompt is both surprising and revelatory… in equal measure.

STEM Tuesday — Human Body– Author Interview

By STEM Tuesday on November 26, 2024 / Human Body, STEM Tuesday

I’m delighted to welcome Rachel Poliquin to the STEM Tuesday blog today. She has written a fabulous book about the body, but there’s a really cool twist. You’ll see…

“Kids and adult alike will love poring over the different sections of this book and will delight in informing their friends and family members of the facts they’ve learned.”—School Library Journal ★

A perfect book for engaging kids in STEM: This illustrated tour of our “leftover” body parts (like the appendix, or even goosebumps) introduces readers age 7-11 to the bizarre and fascinating science of evolution.

Welcome to the weirdest museum you’ll ever explore—the one inside your body.

Did you know your amazing, incredible body is a walking, talking museum of evolution? In The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers, tour guides Wisdom Tooth and Disappearing Kidney lead readers through a wacky museum dedicated to vestigial structures: body parts that were essential to our ancestors but are no longer useful to us—even though they’re still hanging around.

Engaging, hilarious, and a visual treat, The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers is a place you’ll want to visit again and again.

Welcome to STEM Tuesday, Rachel. We are delighted to chat with you!

JS: How did you get the idea to write this awesome book?

RQ: An editor at Greystone actually pitched me the idea. Vestigial organs for kids? It sounded perfectly quirky, and of course I said yes.

JS: Did you have fun researching this?

RQ: When I began writing the book, I knew nothing about evolution beyond the basics. I had no idea where to begin! But there is nothing I like more than knowing absolutely nothing about a subject. Once I decided to write the book as a museum of human evolution, I had to do a very deep dive to figure out which creatures were the first or last to have a particular trait so they could be part of the exhibits. I became a little obsessed with an evolution podcast called Common Descent. I’d listen to it for hours while I walked around my neighbourhood.

But this book will always have a special place in my heart. I was finishing writing in March and April of 2020, just at the beginning of Covid when the world had shut up tight and no one knew what was happening. I was reaching out to academics and researchers around the world—Belgium, New York, Japan, Mexico—to help me understand the science, and of course we talked about the situation in their countries and how they were coping. It helped me feel very connected in a time of isolation.

JS: What is your favorite “Odd Body Part”?

RQ: That a hard one! I’m not sure. Of course I love Disappearing Kidney, but I also really love all the theories about why humans lost their fur. Fur isn’t preserved in the same way bones are, so no one really knows. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE how Clayton illustrated the Survivor Hair theories as movie posters. These still crack me up everything time.

JS: What would you like readers to get out of this book?

RQ: Obviously, I’d love them to have a better understand of evolution and how all living creatures are connected. But I also tried to highlight that science and our understanding of the world is not all set and done. Scientific theories are constantly in motion and scientists are constantly discovering new things and thinking about the world in new ways—in other words, there is plenty of room for young scientists to make their mark.

JS: How would you like teachers/librarians to use this book?

RQ: The details of the science aren’t as important for kids to remember as the big picture, and I would love teachers to get really creative and maybe even incorporate the book into an art project. Clayton has so many different sorts of museum displays in the book, which could be the basis of all sorts of kooky projects. All the bits and pieces in Museum Storage are all vestigial organs that didn’t make it into the book. I would love to see how kids would turn those into exhibits!

JS: Can you give any tips to writers who want to break into nonfiction children’s books?

RQ: I think I’ve been successful as a non-fiction writer because I write about things no one else has written about or things people assume are uninteresting or boring. I truly believe everything is fascinating, if only you look at it the right way. I also think the best non-fiction books create worlds that are just as compelling and magical as fictional worlds. I really struggle with the “non-fiction” title, actually. We all know what fiction is: imagination, fantastic worlds, cool characters, illustrations, fun. So what that does make “non-fiction”? I try to blur that divide in my books and build worlds for my readers to step into, which I really hope will ignite their curiosity and imagination about the world around them. Also, never underestimate kids! They are so much smarter than we were!

JS: What are you working on now?

RQ: We are just finishing up a follow-up to Museum of Odd Body Leftovers. It’s called The Gland Factory: A Tour of Your Body’s Goops, Juices, and Hormones. I was lucky enough work with Clayton Hanmer again and the same amazing team at Greystone Books. Clayton did such a knock-out job on this one. I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy.

That sounds AMAZING! Congrats on the new book and I can’t wait to see it!

Be sure to check out Rachel’s other works at her website https://www.rachelpoliquin.com/

And see her latest books below!

Posts Tagged kidlit

Seasonal MG Reads

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