Behind the Books: Getting Ready to Research, Part 1

Here are some words I associate with the act of researching: —Treasure hunt —Discovery —Exploration —Curiosity —Fascinating facts —Prospecting for rare nuggets of knowledge —Developing unique perspectives —Books, databases, observations, interviews —Travel As you can tell from this list, I enjoy the process. So when Ellen Brandt, the Teacher-Librarian at Westford Middle School in Westford, […]

Behind the Books: Colorful Revision

Back in November, Dana Murphy (@DanaMurphy68) wrote this post, called “A Close Look,” on the Two Writing Teachers blog. In it, she discussed a tweet I contributed to a Twitterchat a few days earlier.   This is something I do a lot. In fact, it might be the number one way I use mentor texts. […]

Behind the Books: My Biggest Revision Secret Revealed

Back in 2011, I wrote a series of blog posts describing my writing process. I compiled them on pinterest, so it’s easy for educators to access them as a group and share them with students. One of those posts described a step that I call “Let It Chill Out,” which basically means that I take […]

Behind the Books: Just the Right Title

When I created a revision timeline to accompany No Monkeys, No Chocolate, I focused on the process of crafting the manuscript, but the title went through many changes as well. When I mention this during school visits, teachers and students consistently ask follow-up questions, so I thought it might be worth writing about it here. […]

Behind the Books: Editing vs. Proofreading

When I visit schools, I often encounter a disconnect between the way professional writers use the word “editing” and how students have been taught to use it. In many schools, editing = checking one’s own manuscript for proper use of conventions such as spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. That’s not how professional writers or people who […]

Behind the Books: Revision: Correcting vs. Improving

During school visits, I often show this slide and explain that it’s the three-page rough draft for When Rain Falls. Then I ask the students if they can guess why there are red marks all over the paper. What I’m hoping is that they’ll come up with are the words “edits” or “revision,” and sometimes […]

Deadliest Animals: Revision

Ah, revision. Kids hate it. And honestly, I don’t blame them. The truth is that I’m not crazy about it either, but I’ve been through it enough times that I KNOW it will be worth it. I KNOW it will make the manuscript better. But kids don’t have the same confidence in the process. Why […]

Behind the Books: Teaching Tools for Writing Informational Text

Back in February, when Feathers: Not Just for Flying was published, I blogged about the book-related resource that I created to go with it—a mini-lesson that consists of the book, a video, and a worksheet. Educators seem to really like it, so I decided to create another one for Beneath the Sun. This time, the […]

Behind the Books: Monkey Marketing

When I visit schools, kids (and their teachers) often seem stunned by how much time it takes to create a book and how many people are involved in the process. My new picture book, No Monkeys, No Chocolate, is an extreme example. It took 10 years, 56 revisions, and 2 fresh starts. Let’s face it. […]

Behind the Books: Let It Chill Out

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of school visits for grades 4 and 5 where I talk about my writing process and teach kids some of the tricks I’ve learned over the years. For the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some of those tricks with you. When I was in school our rough draft […]