*A collection of short stories (6 stories) with photos for 7 to 10 year olds (middle-grade/lower YA readers could read these on their own, too, especially if interested in birds/nature!)

Short, short summary: In the end of the Kindle version of The Birds, Shelley J. Reeves states that these stories are modernized versions of stories that were originally written by Edith M. Patch and published in 1921. (She sells each story separately on Amazon, also.) As for the compilation title, The Birds, she gives credit to Alfred Hitchcock and his scary story by the same name. Although in this case, these stories are not scary, but sweet. There are six and each focus on a different bird: Chick, a chickadee; Gavin, a seagull; Corbie, a black crow; Autumn, a snowy egret; Oliver, an owl; and Robert, a bobolink. In each, the bird has an adventure, but one that could actually happen to it–the story is just told from the bird’s point of view. For example, in Corbie’s story, a father takes the crow out of its nest (which people would probably never do today) and brings him inside for the children to raise and have as a pet. Corbie actually loves his new home, and the children allow him to fly free–he always goes back home to them. It’s sweet! The message of this story is, according to the author’s website that the crow is wonderfully loyal and may give people a new respect or fondness for crows. In “The Vagabond,” Robert the bobolink makes a 4000-mile journey from Maine to South America. Shelley says, “The story inspires the reader to follow his or her calling, no matter how out-of-reach it may seem.” Check out the link above (the author’s website) to see some You Tube videos with the birds and find out more, if this intrigues you!

So what do I do with this book?

1. Children could create their own bird stories, based on these from Shelley J. Reeves. What about a story about a cardinal at the bird feeder (that happens in my yard all the time!) and using strategy to get a good spot? A blue jay could be a main character in a story–I always call the blue jay at our bird feeder the bully of the bird feeder. Children could work on these together or separately and draw illustrations or find some online.

2. When you finish reading each story with children or tweens, ask them what they learned? What did the bird teach them that they could apply to their own lives? These are perfect journal writing activities–have children write a sentence (younger) or a paragraph (older) and then discuss!

3. Once you read the whole book, have an election (this works on social studies skills, too). Which bird would make a great president? Have students choose some candidates (based on the story–for example, Corbie the crow is smart and loyal), create campaign posters, and even give speeches (representing their candidate). Then have voting day–which bird is going to become president?

*Picture book/Story book for kindergartners to third graders, contemporary fantasy
*Young girl as main character
*Rating: Magical Mea is a very cute story with a powerful message. When you have a gift, you need to use it for good! As a parent, the only part of this book that had some concern for me (although the adventure is great and kids will love the fact Mea’s so independent) is when Mea, who is a very small girl, gets on a bus with a nice Red Hat Society lady and eats her crackers. Penelope DOES address this and even Mea thinks: I should not be talking to this lady or taking her crackers!, but I still wished that she didn’t even get on the bus! Again, that’s just the parent in me (and see my activities below where you can use this to discuss an important point!). As a reader and writer, I loved the adventure Mea took us on and how she realized that being good and helpful is also fun.

The author, Penelope Anne Cole, shared this with me: “Yes, I wanted to show how everyone but Mea knew she shouldn’t be out on her own. I had the adults that Matt and Lily met while chasing after Mea say that she shouldn’t be out on her own — the mother with the baby and the P.E. teacher. I wanted it emphasized! Mea’s too young to be out alone and too young to get on the bus. I wanted it clear that Mea knew she shouldn’t get on the bus — but she did it without thinking — and that’s what a lot of kids do. They don’t think when they should be thinking of safety. I wanted it to be a topic for discussion. I ran away when I was little, in my new housing development. I went all the way around the block by myself and then back home — no one knew I was gone! I don’t know if it was as dangerous then as we think it is now, but the point is, kids will do things like that. Parents turn their backs for an instant, and their kid is gone! Like running off and hiding in the department store or the mall — like my daughter did. They don’t think ‘Safety First’ and they even get lost, so we all have to be vigilant all the time, and drill it into them.”

Short, short summary: Mea is magical like her brother, Matthew. (This is book two of Penelope Cole’s series.) However, unlike Matthew, Mea likes to use her magic to play pranks on her loved ones, like hiding her mom’s keys or taking her dad’s pen. Matthew realizes what Mea is up to and wants to convince her to stop. He is also worried she’ll use her magic in front of people! Mea, being a very resourceful and naughty little girl, is one step ahead of him and out the door on to her own adventure, where she plays pranks on the neighbors. Finally, when Matthew and his friend catch up to his sister, she is on a bus that won’t stop because of a brake problem. Mea realizes that she can use her magic to help fix the bus and save all the people.

So what do I do with this book?

1. This is a great book to read to your child or to a group of children and have it as a starting point for a discussion on using a gift for good, instead of mischief. This is a hard concept for children to understand, and so what better way to show them than a book with a cute main character (thanks to illustrator Kevin Collier!) who figures this out for herself. You can ask children questions, such as: Why did Mea think playing pranks was fun? Why did it hurt the people she loved? Is this what she meant to do? Why did she decide to be helpful in the end?

2. As I mentioned earlier, another big point you can discuss with children is getting on the bus alone and talking to strangers. This happens to Mea in the book, and you can ask readers: Why should Mea NOT talk to the red hat lady? How could she be polite but refuse the crackers? Why does Mea think she shouldn’t be talking to the lady when she is on the bus, even though the lady is very nice? And so on. This will open a powerful and important discussion with your child–and again, the characters and even Mea herself realize that she shouldn’t be doing this, so Penelope does address this important issue in the text.

3. Children can use a sentence starter like this: If I had a magical power, I would. . . Each child can finish the sentence and draw a picture to go with it. If it’s an older student (such as 3rd grade), he or she can write a paragraph about the magic power.

I was lucky enough to speak at a Missouri SCBWI (SOCIETY OF CHILDREN’S BOOK WRITERS AND ILLUSTRATORS) workshop in St. Louis on Saturday. I spoke about overwriting and show vs tell when writing for children; AND then after an hour of that, I completely switched gears and talked about marketing and social networking. The thing that is so wonderful is that one of the attendees, Peggy Archer who wrote NAME THAT DOG and TURKEY SURPRISE, wrote a blog post about my talk and highlighted the main points. That’s so nice of her! If you are curious about what I said–because believe me, it was just absolutely brilliant–HA!–then please visit Peggy’s post: http://www.peggyarcher.com/blog.htm?post=914120

Also, I wrote a post about why I love SCBWI so much and why I think that any children’s writer or even someone thinking about or starting out writing for children (or illustrating, too) should join SCBWI. It’s on WOW! Women On Writing‘s site. Here is the link: http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/2013/05/do-this-for-your-childrens-writing.html. What is so great about this post is that after I got done babbling on about how important I think SCBWI is, other readers wrote in on why they love SCBWI, too.

If you’ve never heard of SCBWI and want to check it out, please go to their site or leave a question here. I would be happy to help if I can! http://www.scbwi.org

If you are looking for classes to take this summer, I’m teaching a few children’s writing online classes for WOW! Women On Writing. I teach the children’s/YA novel writing workshop, taking your writing career seriously, and writing short fiction for kids and teens. I love all three classes, and my students are always so wonderful and motivated! Here’s the link to the WOW! classroom: http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/WOWclasses.html

Thanks and have a great Wednesday night!

*Picture book for preschoolers through second graders
*Young puffin as the main character
*Rating: This is a cute, fun picture book that many children will relate to because they (and us too!) have all had that little brother and sister or friend or cousin, etc that copies them!

Short, short summary: Little Puffin is tired of the baby gull chicks following him around and copying him. It doesn’t matter if he says, “Don’t copy me.” They do it anyway. So, he comes up with a clever plan to stop the chicks from playing their annoying game. . .or does he?

So what do I do with this book?

1. Ask children about the emotions of Little Puffin while the gull chicks are following him around and then once he tricks them. Help them come up with more words than mad or sad–how about frustrated? Annoyed? Then ask students if they’ve ever felt this same way and when?

2. This is also a great book to discuss problem/solution with young children. What is Little Puffin’s problem? How does he try to solve it? Does he try more than one thing? Does it work? What else could he do? You can also discuss with children how several books/stories are set up with a problem/solution format.

3. You can use this book to discuss word choice–especially size–the names of the gulls are Small Gull, Tiny Gull, and Baby Gull.

This book review originally appeared in The News-Gazette in my book review column in April 2013. I think it is an important book to share with many of you this summer, as you will be spending a lot of time with your own children or other people’s, too! I revisited it recently myself.

Sound advice for parents and educators
Sun, 04/28/2013 – 11:00am | Margo L. Dill

Being the mother of a toddler, I talk to a lot of parents: at play groups, during Parents as Teachers functions and on Facebook. After many of these encounters, I’ve found myself questioning the way my husband and I choose to raise our daughter.

She’s not in preschool — yet. We don’t use flashcards or ‘Baby Einstein’ videos, although we do let her watch Disney Junior and PBS. We read, play, nap, sing and go out a lot. She somehow knows her colors, numbers and most letters — although we haven’t drilled her.

I’ve felt guilty — worried she would be left behind when with other children her age, even though she seems bright to me.

So when I started reading Paul Tough’s new book, “How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character,” I felt relieved from the first sentence.

According to Tough, who researched and wrote his book for about three years by studying educational programs across the country, academics in the early years are not what actually matters the most for children’s ultimate success.

Character, problem solving, grit, perseverance and the ability to manage stress turns out to be much more important.

Maybe the reassurance Tough provides is why I found this book fascinating and one that I would recommend to parents and educators; but truly, this is a well-written, well-researched and well-supported work.

Tough knows how to get his point across and what busy and tired people like to read: true stories about people who have succeeded in the worst of situations. You won’t find pages upon pages of theory or how-to in this book. You’ll find case studies, such as: KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) in the Bronx; a diverse chess team from Brooklyn; and Jeff Nelson, who was part of Teach of America in Chicago. These real-life examples prove theories and inspire educators at the same time.

Tough also discusses his own family — when he started researching “How Children Succeed,” he and his wife had just welcomed their little boy to the world. When the book was published, his son was 3. Tough said writing this book actually relaxed him as a parent and made him focus on helping his son to problem-solve and deal with “failure.” And it allowed him to give plenty of hugs and love.

Tough also uses Steve Jobs as an example of learning from failure. He states that one problem with many children in middle- to high-income families is that they never really experience failure. Life is easy for them: They haven’t developed any grit. When Jobs was fired from Apple, he didn’t give up, as you know; he came back bigger and better than ever — learning from failure.

Tough is not proposing setting up our children for failure or encouraging them to fail so they can eventually succeed. But he’s basically stating that we should teach children how to deal with failure if it does occur, how to overcome it and not let it destroy hopes and dreams.

Much of the book does focus on the achievement gap between students from low-income homes and students from the middle to upper class. Even through these examples, Tough stresses character above academic opportunities: “(Science) says that the character strengths that matter so much to young people’s success are not innate; they don’t appear in us magically, as a result of good luck or good genes.”

He goes on to state that this means society as a whole can help all children succeed, not just parents, because we are learning about interventions that actually help: “Transformative help comes regularly from social workers, teachers, clergy members, pediatricians, and neighbors … what we can’t argue anymore is that there’s nothing we can do.”

If you work with children in any way, from parenting to teaching to volunteering, “How Children Succeed” is worth your time to read, discuss and implement.

On June 11, Saturday Writers, a chapter of the Missouri Writers Guild, is hosting a one-day writing camp for children in 3rd through 6th grades. It will be held at the St. Peters City Hall building in the cultural arts center. I am volunteering there along with some of my other Saturday Writer members, and I will also be selling FINDING MY PLACE, too.

If you have a little writer and live in the St. Charles County/St. Louis County area, consider going to this inexpensive camp! Here’s some more info:

Saturday Writers Presents our 2nd Annual Youth Writing Camp!
June 11, 2013 | 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. | at the St. Peters Cultural Arts Center | $15.00 per camper

For kids entering 3rd through 6th grade. Saturday Writers offers your child an opportunity to have fun, learn new skills, share writing and celebrate themselves as writers.

Our members, who are grade school teachers, childrens’ authors and other writing professionals, have crafted an opportunity to practice educational and age appropriate creativity in writing without stressing over the grade.

Advanced registration is suggested as seating is limited. You may register online and pay using Paypal. Or you may download the registration form and mail with your check payable to “Saturday Writers” to Post Office Box 2093, Saint Peters, Missouri 63376. Call us at 314-603-6283 if you need further information or have any questions e-mail youth@saturdaywriters.org.

To register online, go to the website and scroll down to the bottom link: http://www.saturdaywriters.org/youth-writing-camp.html

This is just a quick post to tell you that I’m on Book Bites for Kids TODAY at 2:00 pm CST and would love anyone who is free to listen from their computer or device and/or call in and ask a question. To listen from 2:00 to 2:30 pm, go to http://www.bookbitesforkids.com . TO call in, call: 1-347-539-5097 and you will be able to ask a question or give a comment.

Here are the questions Suzanne and I will be initially discussing:

1. Tell us a little bit about your background and how you became a children’s book author.

10. What is your best tip for aspiring children’s book authors?

Thanks for your support!

Summer’s here. Are your kiddos already bored? If you have an elementary-aged child, then put them in front of a computer or tablet and let them view the newest issue of Guardian Angel Kids e-zine on the topic of self-confidence. It’s entertaining, engaging, and FREE! Since your kids are on the computer, they might not even realize they are reading and/or learning something!

What will you find in the latest issue (pictured here) of Guardian Angel Kids e-zine?

• A cute and easy-to-read poem, “Confidence Helps Us”
• Four short stories for kids, all on the theme self-confidence, and one with the cutest little Corgi puppy ever!
• An activity for kids titled: ALL ABOUT ME SCAVENGER HUNT, with instructions on how to do it
• Articles for parents on how to build self-confidence in kids
• Extra resources in the back for games/activities, free coloring pages, and other e-zine issues

The magazine is full-color and filled with cute photos and illustrations, too. So, don’t miss it!

Here’s the link: http://www.guardian-angel-kids.com/06-013-3Dflipbook/index.html#p=1

Let me know what you think!

PS: If you are a children’s writer, this is a paying market for short stories, articles, and poetry!

I was lucky enough to participate in Career Day at Ballwin Elementary in St. Louis, MO, to talk about being a children’s writer and share my middle-grade historical fiction novel, FINDING MY PLACE. The fifth grade class was extremely well-behaved with great questions and ideas. I think I might have scared some of them when I said if they know a writer well, they could find themselves in that writer’s next book. Of course, one student came up to me afterwards and asked to be put in my next book. I’ll have to work on that! Thank you to Stephanie Dambach, the counselor at Ballwin Elementary, for inviting me!

I’m sharing the tools it takes to be a children’s writers. The kids came up with great ones, too, like persistence and imagination!

And here I am sharing how useful a library is for children’s writers. The students knew that writers NEED to read.

This article originally appeared in my Sunday book column in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois’s THE NEWS-GAZETTE (http://www.news-gazette.com). I have kept it in newspaper style!)

Author offers lessons on creative nonfiction
Sun, 04/07/2013 – 1:00pm | Margo L. Dill

Lee Gutkind is the founder and editor of the magazine Creative Nonfiction. In his latest book, “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up,” Gutkind introduces readers to the genre, provides real-life examples and explains the difference between fiction, straight nonfiction and creative nonfiction.

He also instructs people on how to write creative nonfiction if they are interested in pursuing it.

Gutkind’s work is a comprehensive guide on the genre, including discussions on the ethics surrounding it and exercises to guide the reader to become a published writer.

The book is divided into two parts: “What is Creative Nonfiction?” and “The Writing and Revising and Writing and Revising Part: How to Do it.”

Creative nonfiction is a nonfiction story that is told with fictional elements: dialogue, setting details, scenes, characterization (of real people), and so on.

Part 1 of this book would be interesting to anyone who loves to read and discuss what they read. The author writes about some of the most infamous cases of writers who claimed to write a true, nonfiction account of their lives when in all actuality, it was false — sometimes the entire story made up.

The account most people know about is James Frey and his book, “A Million Little Pieces,” as Oprah Winfrey chose it as one of her book club selections. Because of her recommendation, 2 million copies of his book sold, and Frey became a household name. Then it was discovered that most of his story was completely untrue.

This is one of the extreme examples that Gutkind discusses in his book during the ethics section. But actually more writers (more than I realized) fudge the truth just a bit. Still, they claim that they write creative nonfiction.

It’s a crucial decision for writers to make if they are going to tackle the genre: Are they going to tell the truth without embellishments? How do you handle dialogue if you aren’t present to record it? What about creating transitions to make the story flow more smoothly? How do you reveal inner emotions of the people involved in the story? Gutkind touches on these points and more.

In Part 2, he dissects several essays and books, including entire excerpts, to exemplify how to write creative nonfiction, which should mostly consist of scenes.

Excerpts of Rebeccah Skloot’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and Gay Talese’s “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” are two fascinating examples of work that Gutkind chose as models of expertise.

Part 2 reads a little more like a textbook than Part 1; anyone interested in tackling this type of essay, article or book will have an excellent foundation after reading this section.

Besides the narrative, discussion and instruction, the author includes 18 writing exercises from selecting events to write about in your own life to rewriting essays included in the book. Gutkind states in the introduction that readers who choose to do all the exercises to the best of their ability and perhaps read the book more than once: “By the time you finish this book … you will have written an immersion and a memoir.”

This makes the book invaluable as a learning tool.

Gutkind has written nearly 30 books: some of them instruction on writing, many of them creative nonfiction. An expert who is passionate about the genre obviously wrote the pages of this book, his love for teaching and the written word shine in every chapter.

He currently works as a distinguished writer-in-residence at Arizona State University and as a professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication. To find out more about him, readers can visit his website at: leegutkind.com.

As a final word, Gutkind states, “I want you to remember what we creative nonfiction writers are all about: our mission, our life, our literature, and our passion.” All four of these are thoroughly explored in “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up,” and it’s an excellent choice for anyone wanting to start this mission.