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May 4

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Teacher to Teacher: Why I Use Picture Books as Mentor Texts

By Lynne R. Dorfman

If you are teaching the qualities of good writing, all you need are some picture books! Why picture books? Picture books provide the models that will help students grow as writers. They have vivid vocabulary—word choice is so important! They have beautiful illustrations or photographs, adding another layer to the text to motivate and engage our struggling readers and writers. Teachers can read them aloud in one sitting, but also return to them throughout the year as mentor texts to imitate. Students can also return to picture books independently to help them take a risk and try out something new. Sometimes, students will gather a set of books by an author to study one craft move that an author has used across some of the texts he has published.  Read more

May 2

Books on the Blog: The Tragedy Paper and Like Any Normal Day

by Molly Leahy

The Tragedy Paper

Leahy Blog 2 LaBanIn her first young adult novel, The Tragedy Paper, Philadelphia’s Elizabeth LeBan invites readers to an elite boarding school for dual story-telling. Readers follow Tim Macbeth, a new student who transfers to Irving School, as well as, Duncan Meade, who inherits Tim’s dorm room and his collection of CDs narrating a personal nightmare the previous school year. Both students are linked by English teacher Mr. Simon’s legendary writing assignment known as the Tragedy Paper.

A sign reading “Enter here to be and find a friend” greets students as they enter the school, and fortunately, Duncan has a core group of friends to help him through senior year, unlike Tim. Readers may recognize a classic love triangle between Tim, his only friend Vanessa Scheller, and her jerk boyfriend Patrick Hopkins. The Irving School Bulldogs read Moby Dick and Hamlet, while their English teacher Mr. Simon challenges them to understand themes such as magnitude, and order from chaos. LaBan creates true order from chaos in her choice of narrative structure, recorded CDs that captivate Duncan who can’t stop listening to Tim’s tale, just as readers can’t stop turning pages.  Read more

May 1

A Writerly Life: Wisdom from Terry McMillan

McMillan

Apr 27

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Where a Poem Belongs is Here (Guest Post)

by Paul Janezcko

I didn’t start out to be a poet. I started out as a kid in New Jersey, who had two major goals in life: 1) to survive one more year of delivering newspapers without being attacked by Wink, the one-eyed, slobbering, crazed cur that lurked in the forsythia bushes at the top of the hill; and 2) to become more than a weak-hitting, third-string catcher on our sorry Little League team. I failed at both.

I didn’t do much better in school, where I played the part of an affable kid who endured uncountable hours in a desk that was designed, I was convinced, in a 15th-centry Spanish dungeon. Poetry meant no more to me than 1066, George Washington’s wooden teeth, or the chief export of the Belgian Congo, which was, I still recall, flax. The only times I was gifted was on Christmas and my birthday.  Read more

Apr 25

A Writerly Life: Wisdom from Robert Frost

Robert Frost

Apr 22

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Author’s Corner: Dianne Salerni

We are thrilled to introduce a new series to our blog site—The Author’s Corner. We are so fortunate to have so many PAWLP friends and fellows who are authors willing to share their writing processes with us and our readers. For our first entry in our Author’s Corner, please welcome Dianne Salerni. . . 

Six Stages of Accepting Editorial Feedback

By Dianne Salerni

I’m sure I’m not the only writer who hyperventilates when an email with feedback turns up in my in-box. It might be from a critique partner, a trusted beta reader, or feedback won in a contest from someone you don’t even know. Further down the road, it might be from your agent, or an official revision letter from the editor who acquired your book.
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