squeetus

Boos for girls

I don’t know how many school assemblies I’ve done over the past 12 years. 200-300 is my best guess. Something I’ve found is that boys feel okay booing and mocking things they see as “for girls” but that girls never mock the “boy” things. Here’s an example. This exact scenario has repeated at every elementary and middle school assembly I’ve done in the past year and a half - at least 30, maybe more, in over a dozen states.

Me: I went to Mattel headquarters. Mattel is the largest toy maker in the world. They make Thomas the Train, Justice League Figures, Matchbox Cars–

Boys: Yay!

Me: Barbie–

Boys: BOO!!!

Me: I was going to write a book for their new toy line, but it was so secret, we had to put in a security code to go down a secret hallway, into a second locked door where on a table under a shroud they had the prototypes for the new toys. I lifted the shroud and this is what I saw: (switches to slide of Ever After High dolls)

Girls: Yay!

Boys: BOOO!!! BOOOO!!!

Notice the girls did not boo Thomas or Justice League or cars. Many cheered those things too. But the boys booed Barbe and EAH in unison, loudly, as if it was only natural, expected.

I’ve put up with it for awhile. And all this booing is after I’ve even talked with the kids about how unfair it is that people claim there are boy books and girl books. How untrue. Why can girls read anything but  boys are told that they can only read half the books? And we’ve talked frankly about this. Still, the loud, fearless, angry mocking of any mention of “girl” media.

I’ve stopped putting up with it. When they boo, I stop them now. I demand respect. “I don’t know who told you it was okay to boo anything that you think girls like, but it’s not okay with me. That will stop. Girls, you don’t have to put up with that. The things you like deserve respect. You deserve respect.” I don’t know if they listen. But I’m going to say it all the same.

I think that by being “polite” and pretending to ignore the boos, I was actually reinforcing their opinion that this was okay. Tolerating something out of civility sure looks like complicity if you’re a girl in the audience. I won’t be complicit anymore. Which is “kinder”: ignoring the boos or calling them on it?

Do authors put in symbols and stuff?

Mette Ivie Harrison's tumblr post:

My teenage niece asked me about her high school English teacher who had been teaching her students to find symbols in novels and poetry. Since I am an author, she wanted to know if I really put that stuff in there on purpose or if her teacher (as she suspected) was making it up. It seemed hard to believe that it was real.

I told her that

1. It doesn’t matter if the author puts that stuff in on purpose. It can still be there. The work of the author is often to let the unconscious speak, and the author does not always control how the unconscious forms thoughts. Therefore, the author is often speaking for the culture rather than for one person.

2. Don’t ask the author what the book means. The author doesn’t know what the book means. That’s not the job of the author. The job of the author is to create. If an author says that a book means this or means that, do we take that as guaranteed? Of course not. If the author of a book insisted that there was no racism in it, but there is clearly racism in it, does the intention erase it? No.

3. The job of the critic is just as creative as the job of the author, and it is to find meaning where no one had seen it before. I talked a bit about Dadaism and how the point there was that anyone can be an artist, using ordinary kinds of text and image, and that the creativity was in bringing the same kind of vision to ordinary life as to that deemed “high art.”

4. Be kind to teachers of literature and writing. It’s a hard job and it’s an important one. I believe that art of every kind is important. As important as food. As important as shelter. I know not everyone agrees with me, but the ability to make life make sense matters a lot. Also, the way that we can change the world by first imagining the change in art is the way humans work. Why do you think that we landed on the moon after we imagined we did?

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I agree with all that Mette says here. I will also add that like many writers, I am very thoughtful about the words I use and how I tell the story. I’ve had quoted to me ad nauseam the (apocryphal?) Robert Frost story about the woman who praised his poetry and told him all the deep meanings, allusions, and metaphors she found there, and he said that he didn’t put any of those things in on purpose. Many tell me this with the assumption that Frost just put down words and readers accidentally found meaning. But of course Frost was a thoughtful, careful poet. The fact that someone might make connections in his poetry that he didn’t intend doesn’t negate all the other thoughts he explored with purpose.

Readers can and should find their own meanings and truth in art, irrelevant to what authors intended. But that’s more likely to occur when authors take care, time, hones their skills, and reads widely.

1. Like Mette says, I don’t think that for readers, it should matter what the author’s intent was. Read and find what you need there. Study and learn what you can there.

2. For authors, I’d say write carefully, rewrite constantly, read and craft and learn and think and discover layer upon layer that you didn’t know would be there when you started out.

3. And thank you, English teachers! Careful analysis of texts taught me how to think, question, and find my own voice.

Has #WeNeedDiverseBooks changed you?

#WeNeedDiverseBooks is raising funds now on IndieGoGo to keep this movement going. Please consider donating.

I would love to know if this movement has already affected you in some way. Please comment below and feel free to do so anonymously if you like.

Writers, have you included diverse (POC, LGBTQ, disabled, religious, etc.) characters in your works-in-progress when you hadn't originally considered it?

Agents, editors, have you specifically looked for diverse writers because of raised awareness following this campaign? Have you suggested or supported writers to include diverse characters in a book when in the past you might not have addressed it?

Librarians and booksellers, have you been more aware of diverse books--recommending them to patrons/clients, creating displays, turning them out, etc.--than you were before?

Readers, have you been more inclined to read, buy, check-out books by diverse writers or about diverse characters?

Bloggers/reviewers, have you been more likely to review diverse books? More likely to be vocal about them, recommend them than before?

People who identify as being disabled, LGBTQ, of color, religious, do you feel more welcome, more seen, in the book community than before?

Whether the campaign has affected you or not, I'd be curious to hear your experience.

The rage of age ranges

Recently someone in publishing told me, "You're not really a YA author."

It bugged me, but I wasn't sure why, because middle grade rocks. If the only readers I ever reached were ages 8-12 I'd be a happy author. I love kids those ages as much as I love teenagers. So it shouldn't bother me. But I think I've finally figured it why it does.

As an older teenager, I would have loved my books. The Goose Girl, Book of a Thousand Days, Dangerous, as well as my books that are considered younger like Princess Academy and Ever After High. And I have a lot of teen readers. I get emails from them. I meet them at signings, alongside those valiant 8-12 year olds. So I bristle when anyone suggests that my books aren't actually for them. I don't like labels that might get between a reader and the book that's right for them.

So how do I label what I write?

Some say "upper middle grade," some say, "lower young adult," but I have plenty of readers who don't fit into either camp. And I realize that I'm just tired of exclusivity. Exclusive clubs always give me hives. Those who try to make something like feminism an exclusive club, for example: "You're not a real feminist if you're a stay at home mom"; "Well you're not a real feminist if you exclude stay at home moms," etc. The narrower the definition of who can be a member of something, the less I want to be a part of it, whatever it is. (btw I do consider myself a feminist, in all its inexact nebulous importance)

What do you think? How would you define young adult? Some say books written for ages 14-17. But that's weird too, because can we really be sure of author intent? Authors have written plenty of books without a specific audience in mind that ended up being great for older teenagers. So is it just the age of the protagonist? We know that's faulty. All of my middle grade books have older protags, and there are plenty of other examples where that rule doesn't work. Tone and story style and substance are way more important in finding a reader than the age of the protag. Is it by who likes to read the books? That's tough too. I regularly get fanmail from readers ages 6-to-grandparent. Some suggest that the YA label is just for books with more graphic content (sex, swearing, mature themes). I bristle at that too. I agree that books with mature content belong more in upper YA than MG, but I also think it's an erroneous assumption that teens are uninterested in and incapable of appreciating any story that doesn't have sex, swearing, mature themes. There are all kinds of teenagers. There should be all kinds of stories.

Age ranges are tough. Teachers know, just because all the kids in the class are the same age doesn't mean they're at the same level in reading, math, maturity, comprehension, etc. Parents know that what one child was ready for at a certain age, another wasn't even close.

I wish we didn't have labels. I wish we didn't have age ranges. I wish we could all just be matched to books we might like regardless of our age or what age range the publisher has to declare the book for.

But at the same time I'm conflicted about this because I love that there's such a strong YA community, a community that calls BS on those who try to marginalize or demean teenagers, who values them as humans and believes passionately that they deserve their own stories. And the same for children and toddlers and babies and women and men and everyone. We all need champions. And the label of "Young Adult" has helped develop a community of champions for teens. I love it. I want it to remain strong and grow and grow. I just don't want it to limit itself in exclusivity.

What do you think? Am I wrong? Is the YA and MG distinction clearer than I think? Have age labels shamed you for reading something apparently not in your age range? How do they affect you? How do we employ the helpfulness of age ranges in books without limiting who the books might be best for?

Hone your internal reader, not your internal literary critic

So, I have five books coming out in 2014 (two Ever After High books, Dangerous, Spirit Animals book 4, and the first Princess in Black). And I'm busy. Writing. Most of those are already written, but it's still busy! (I'm also working on the third Princess Academy, which should be out in 2015.) I usually try to blog here at least each Monday but I've been failing lately. Am recommitting now! And in the meantime, here's a three-year-old post that generated some discussion at the time:

 

From Sara Zarr's blog: "Richard Rodriguez says that the reader re-creates the book when he reads it." I completely agree, and you long time readers of my blog know my opinions about How to Be a Reader. No story is static. A book has no meaning on its own. Meaning is created for each reader as they read. I've been thinking about this lately as I've been hearing people's responses to the last book in a certain trilogy.

I think that whether you are a reader, writer, or both (if you're a writer you'd better be both), reading books is far more useful when we shed the need to be a literary critic and focus instead on the internal. It's been interesting to hear over and over again what readers imagined the author failed to do. And I keep thinking, that's such a useless response. Unless you're getting a phd in literacy criticism and doing your thesis on that author, that's not helpful to you. Speculation about what the author was trying to do, or whether or not she was "tired" of writing, etc., is pointless. We don't know. Instead, it's so much more beneficial to focus on understanding our own internal reader, and therefore ourselves. Where did the story fail you? Where did it work for you? So, what does that say about you? What were you hoping for? What did you need from the story? If you're a writer, what does that tell you about what kind of a story you want to write? For me, this kind of responding is just about how I think about the book. Instead of thinking, "The author really dropped the ball on the ending," I try thinking, "What did I want out of the ending instead of what I got? Why did I want that?"

I've become more and more conscious of this way of reading over the past several years. It stems from hearing really weird responses to my own books and hearing readers speculate about ludicrous reasons I did this or that and assert false motivations for my story choices. Realizing how often readers do that about my works made me realize how often I thought that way about other people's books. Sometimes the speculation is right, most of the time it's not, but regardless, I realized I was throwing away my reading experience. I've now become a much more selfish reader, perhaps. When a story bugs me, I'm not thinking about the author but myself. Why am I bugged? What do I want? I think I come away from books now with a better understanding of myself as well as a better awareness of story that I can utilize in my own writing.

Reading as a writer changed me completely as a reader. I find I can still appreciate books I dislike because I am learning through them how to write stories I do like. I don't mean everything I've said here to be a blueprint for reading and the only proper way to read a book. THere are lots of ways to read a book. But I hope to call into question the sometimes assumed idea that we read books to label them as either good or bad. To me that's as silly as getting to know people just so we can categorize them as either good or bad. It's not for me to judge and label people. And if my only experience with books is a judgement call, a rating of stars, then I would soon tire of reading. For me, reading is an exploration, a partnership, me and the author via her words off on an adventure. For my personal reading experience, some authors are better companions than others, but it's always an adventure.

How to be a reader: separating author from narrator

When I was in sophomore English class, my teacher Ms. Barnes hit us with a revelation: The Author Is Not The Narrator.

I had never considered this possibility before.

In our essays, we got red marks against any phrase like, "The author believes," or "The author states that," correcting it to "The narrator states."

"In fiction, you cannot assume the opinions in a book are the author's, only the narrator's."

This is more obvious in a first-person narration. The narrator of Catcher in the Rye is Holden Caufield, not JD Salinger; the narrator of Jane Eyre is Jane, not Charlotte Bronte. But things get murkier with third person. Some third-person narrators are invisible, channeling only what the main character sees and knows. Some take a small step back, seeing and understanding a bit more than the main character can. Some go even further back, switching back and forth between two or more characters' POVs. Others are omniscient, understanding everything at once. Some, like To The Lighthouse, flow in and out of characters' consciousnesses. And still others are unnamed and yet have a presence and clearer personality.

The latter kind is the kind I write with for my adult novels: Austenland, Midnight in Austenland, and The Actor and the Housewife. I love the style and humor available to me with that narrator.

I assumed that everyone had a Ms. Barnes who cleared up the narrator/author thing in 10th grade, but I continually hear from adults who are confused.

"I can't tell if the opinions are Jane's or the author's," a reader of Austenland might complain.

The answer is: neither. The opinion is the narrator's. Unless it's stated in dialog, unless the narrator says it's the character's opinion, then the only thing you can be sure of is that it's the narrator talking. I am no more the narrator of my books than Julia Roberts is Erin Brocovich or Heath Ledger is the Joker. I am the artist channeling a character. All the characters, including the narrator.

It's not accurate to assume that the opinion of any of the character's is the author's opinion. Same of the narrator. The narrator is always character.

The narrator of Princess Academy likes to slow down and savor moments. She stays close to Miri and only reports what she knows, but uses words in a way Miri wouldn't. The narrator of The Actor and the Housewife has a lot of opinions. That narrator wants to laugh, sometimes with the characters and sometimes at them. The narrator of Book of a Thousand Days is Dashti, the main character, reporting in the very moment the action happens, though translated from her native tongue into English by an unknown narrator who had license with word choice and expression. The narrator of my book coming out next year is the main character, told in retrospect from a point after the action occurs. The narrator of the Books of Bayern is close to that of Princess Academy with a desire for richness, the dramatic, the imperative of each moment.

It is as fun for me to write different narrators as it is to write different characters. And my narrators are as much me as are all my characters. Ani and Selia, Ungolad and Geric, Miri and Dan, Tegus and Khasar, Rapunzel and Jack--they came from the same place as my narrators, and yet all speak with a different voice.

What books have you read that have an unnamed third person narrator with a prominent personality? I think of Just So Stories and The Tale of Despereaux. Others?

Ebooks and the great equalizer

I was recently gifted a Kobo and now have read three books on the ereader. I like that it's not backlit. After working on my laptop, I don't want to stare at another screen. I like that I can purchase ebooks through my local bookstore for it and check out books from the library and hold many books in one small place. I don't like that it has to be recharged, turned off on airplanes, doesn't feel like a book or smell, I can't easily tell how far into the book I am, the formatting isn't beautiful but functional, etc. I can see the benefits of ebooks in certain circumstances, but I am far from converting entirely to electronic.

I'm not disgruntled about ebooks. I wish I liked them more--I'd love space for a dresser in my bedroom, but all the walls are taken up by book cases. I receive royalties for ebooks just as I do for paper books. But I do believe it's important to consider the consequences if ebooks take up too much market share.

Often ebook retailers who also sell e-readers sell ebooks at a loss in order to promote their e-readers. If ebooks are sold for significantly less than their hardcover and even paperback counterparts, it's less likely people will invest in the latter. Paper books will come to seem ridiculously overpriced. Which they are not. Publishing is not a fat cat industry. No one is getting rich (except a very few megaseller authors, which represent such a tiny percentage of the industry they're hardly worth mentioning). Look at anyone down the line: editor, agent, publisher, publicist, distributor, bookseller, author, and you see that everyone is trying to make a living and no one is wealthy. No one gets into any part of publishing with the intent of striking it rich (unless they're woefully ignorant). They do it because they love books and care about literacy.

So, what happens if ebook prices dip down lower and stay lower? Customers like that because they can buy books for less. HOWEVER, the smaller the print run of a paper book, the more expensive it is to publish, the less profit a publisher makes. If most editions sold of a book are electronic, publishers won't be able to afford printing hard copies. Many books would only be available electronically, and those in paper would be more expensive.

So what? Maybe everything goes digital in the future. Save the trees, right? But what about those who can't afford an e-reader? What about libraries, schools, kids? Right now, public libraries are "the great equalizer" as someone said. Anyone can have access to most any book for free in a library. But if some books are only available as an ebook, only those with readers will have access. Libraries are already underfunded. What will happen if fewer hard copies are printed and the prices go up?

I don't know how this will all play out, but I am concerned. Some say, keep the market open and don't be afraid of change. But the change I foresee isn't just a different industry, it's one that is actually smaller, more prone to monopolies, and less accessible by the poor and by children. I want quality literature. I want freedom of speech. I want all children and adults to have access to thousands of different books, any one of which might change their lives.

Common mistakes parents make with their beginning readers

Final post from squeetus guest blogger and teacher, Kirsten Wilcox. This post Kirsten addresses common mistakes parents make while helping their kids learning to read.

 



Covering up the pictures:  Even if your child is on a beginning level and you feel they are just “memorizing the words” they are still reading.  DO NOT COVER UP THE PICTURES!  If they have “memorized” the words they are still benefitting from reading the book, especially if you have them point to the words as they are reading it.  Each time they look at the word and read it correctly it is working its way into their memory. 



Getting books that are above their child's reading level:  Don’t get anxious and buy harder books because you want them to grow.  This will slow their learning down rather than speed it up and will cause confidence issues.  



Continuing to read with a child when they are frustrated and angry:  When a child is angry they are unable to concentrate, focus or think.  This will only lead to more anger from both child and parent, and confirm their belief that they don’t like reading.  Try saying, “I can see that your angry right now, and need a little time to cool down.  Go get a drink and let me know when you’re feeling better about things”.  Sometimes they’ll insist they are ready even when you know they aren’t.  I usually say, “I love you too much too read with you when you’re upset.  We need to take a few minutes to calm down”.  They don’t need to go to time out, and it doesn’t need to be a consequence.  When working with my foster boy, he would sometimes throw a raging fit about it, but he quickly learned it just made things last longer.   I never talked to him about it when he was in the angry state.  I learned from their therapist that kids can’t process what you are saying when they are angry.  It is better to talk to them about things when they have calmed down and their mind can listen and think things through.  



Telling a child to sound it out whenever they come to a word they don't know: Sounding out a word is only one strategy and isn’t the answer to everything.  Many words can’t be sounded out.  I usually say, “Let’s say the sounds of the first couple of letters and see if the word ‘pops’ in our head”.  Or I just completely use the other strategies all together. 

Correcting a word immediately after the child makes a mistake:  Sometimes when reading the child will read the word wrong.  Let them continue reading to the end of the sentence to see if they can figure out that the word didn’t make sense.  If they go back and correct it on their own, praise them for it.  If they don’t go back, ask them if what they just read made sense.  



Getting frustrated when a child can't figure out a word or saying, "You just read that word!!!"  :D  This can be frustrating for us as adults, but even if a child just read a word, or it is a word you just talked about, they might need to see it and read it 500 more times before it becomes rote.  This is all part of the learning process and it’s ok.  How many things do we need to hear and do before we get something new down correctly? 



Not reading with their child on a daily basis (even when they've made it to chapter books):  I know it takes a lot of time, and is extremely difficult.  I’ve experienced this first hand, but reading with your child 20-30 minutes each day is so important especially if they’re struggling.  If it is too much time for them you can break it up into smaller pieces.  Let part of the time be talking about the pictures and the book.  Practice sight words with your child (there are many apps that help kids learn sight words you can use for part of the reading time). 

The most important thing is to have fun with it and keep it positive.  :D

 

THANK YOU, Kirsten! Your tips are timely for me. What are your thoughts? Any other traps you've caught yourself falling into? What's worked for you and your kids?

Helping your child with reading comprehension and fluency

Continuing on with our 3-part series, welcome back squeetus guest blogger, Kirsten Wilcox, 1st grade teacher, literacy specialist, and darn fine lady. Next I asked Kirsten what parents can do with emerging readers if they're struggling with comprehension.

 

There are different things you can do with them.  Make sure you are reading with them when they read.  Stop after every few sentences and talk about what was read.  Here are some comprehension strategies I like:

Predict:  Have your child tell you what they think will happen next.
Retell or Summarize:  Have them tell you what they just read--do this every few sentences or paragraphs.  Don’t wait till a whole chapter has been read.
Make Connections:  Have your child tell you what the book reminds them of.  (ie. The Little Red Hen: This book reminds me of when my brother wouldn’t help me clean up our room, or when mom made us homemade bread, etc.) They can also make connections to other books (This book reminds me of Chicken Little because they both had Hens in it). 
Make a picture in their head:  Have them describe or draw what they are seeing when they read a part in the story.  This is a skill some kids have to develop. 
Questioning:  Probably the one we’re the best at.  Asking basic questions, but just because your child can answer the basic questions doesn’t mean they have good comprehension.
Inferring:  Many times kids can ask the basic questions but have trouble with inferring, where I believe true comprehension comes into play.  For example: Once I was doing a reading group with some third graders.  We were reading Stuart Little.  There is a part in the book where the cat is talking to another cat about how frustrated he is having to share his home with a mouse he isn’t allowed to eat.  Meanwhile a bird is sitting on top of a lightpost listening to their conversation.  The other cat says he will go to the home and eat the mouse for him.  That night Stuart Little finds a note saying he is in danger and needs to leave.  When I asked the students, “Who do you think left the note?”  No one could figure it out.  We ended up reading it three times before someone finally said, “It was the bird!”  A good rule of thumb is, when reading with your child, whenever your mind does something or thinks something, check to see if your child’s mind did the same thing.  You would be surprised at how much they might be missing. 
When reading any book, let your child look at the pictures and stop to talk about it.  This processing time is just as important as the time spent reading the words.

If your child is struggling with fluency: 

First of all, fluency isn't just reading fast.  I tell my first graders, it's making your reading sound like talking.  It includes reading smoothly, reading with expression, and phrasing correctly.  Fluency and comprehension go hand in hand.  Many times if a child is having trouble with fluency they are also struggling with comprehension and vice versa. 

One thing that can help with fluency is pair reading.  When you pair read with your child, read the book together at the same time matching your speed to theirs.  As your child starts to read more smoothly stop reading with them, when they start to get choppy, join in again.  I always prepare my students before doing this.  I tell them we are going to read together, but if I stop reading they should continue to read without stopping. 

I also really like the You Read To Me, I Read To You books by Mary Ann Hoberman.  They are fun to read with your child to help build fluency and the kids really like them.  I wouldn’t start this until your child is at least on an F or G reading level. 

It also helps children to hear fluent reading.  Reading to your child can be effective.  If you feel you aren’t a good reader, you can have your child listen to books on cd or audio books on the kindle or ipad.  They should listen while following along with the book. 

Reading books more than once is huge when working with fluency.  If it is a chapter book I always pick a paragraph for them to read a few times working on fluency.  Many times I try to find a paragraph with quotes, because phrasing can be tricky and imperative to comprehension.  It can also help them work on their reading expression. 

Strategies for beginning readers

Today I have a guest blogger! I asked first grade teacher, literacy specialist, and all around fab lady Kirsten Wilcox to give some advice to parents with beginning or struggling readers.

Wow this is a loaded question.  :D  

First of all, if you have a child that is young or in the pre-reading stage, phonemic awareness is a great way to give them a boost for when they start reading. Phonemic Awareness is playing with words and sounds without print or letters.  It is all auditory. For example, reading them books, singing songs, playing with rhymes, clapping syllables, changing the first letter of a word, alliteration, breaking words apart, blending sounds together to make a word are all good exercises.  Nursery rhymes and singing songs with your child at a young age is a great way to build their foundation for reading.  Reading to your children daily is also extremely beneficial. 

When a child has learned the names and sounds of the alphabet and are able to start blending sounds together they are in the first stages of reading.  When reading with a child, it is critical that children are reading books on an independent (98% accuracy) or instructional (95% accuracy) level.  Anything beyond that is frustrating and will not be beneficial.  A good note of thumb is if it's frustrating or difficult for you to listen to, it's probably frustrating for the child trying to do the reading.  Confidence is key!  

Make sure you are consistently telling them what a good reader they are.  Try to keep things positive.  If they're getting upset go to an easier book for a while. 

When I first started reading with my 10 year old foster boy, he would get extremely angry and upset whenever he had to stop and fix a word, or got to a word he didn’t know.  I knew I needed to keep things positive even though it was difficult.  I would never continue until he calmed down.  When kids are angry and upset their “brains turn off” (just an expression I use).  I told him we needed to get our reading done before he could play, etc but I couldn’t read with him till he was calm.  I also got some m&m’s and every time he came to a word he didn’t know and was able to stay calm and figure it out with my help he would get an m&m.  Sometimes we have to get creative in helping our kids to feel ok about making mistakes.  They many times have ingrained in their mind that they are stupid or CAN’T do it.  If their mind believes they can’t do it, they really can’t.  Confidence is everything, so if they’re struggling, the first step is to build their confidence through praise and finding them books they can be successful with, even if it means going back a level or two for a while.  Sometimes one step back will gain two steps forward in the end. 

When a child gets stuck on a word help them use reading strategies to figure it out.  If you see them getting overly frustrated, it's ok to just tell them the word once in a while especially if it's a word you know they aren't going to be able to figure out. 

Some of my favorite strategies are: Look at The Picture,  Look for a word Inside the word (ie: hand),  look for parts you know (ie: playing), Skip the word and read to the end of the sentence (I always tell my students when using this strategy to remember to go back and see if they can get it),  Think about what makes sense, Think of the first word that “pops” in your head.  


As a child uses these strategies, I praise them for it by saying "That's what good readers do".  For instance, if a child reads a word wrong but then fixes it on their own I say, "Great job self correcting!  That's what good readers do!"  Or if I see a child look at the picture to try and figure out a word I say, "Great job looking at the picture.  That's what good readers do."  




Preparing a child before they read a book is also very effective.  When starting a new book with a child I always tell them the title. We look at the cover and I have them predict what they think the book is going to be about.  We then go on a “picture walk”.  Go through each page looking at the pictures.  Have the child talk about what they see and what they thing is going to happen.  As they are looking and talking about the pictures, scan the words and look for words you know they will have trouble with.  Use those words over and over again as you talk about the picture with your child.  Sometimes I even point out the word on the page.  I say, “look at this word.  It’s a hard one.  This says….).  Sometimes I say, “laugh is a hard word.  Do you think you can find it on this page?"  Then we talk about it.  I keep it light and joke with them.  I say, “what a crazy word!” and read it the way it would sound if I said the sound of each letter. They usually laugh and I say, “No one knows why that word is spelled that way, it’s a red word.  It doesn’t follow the rules”.  Basically you are preparing them to read the book, so when it comes time for them to read it they are more successful.

 

Thanks, Kirsten! We'll hear more from her later. What do you think? Anything she said surprise you? Any strategies that have worked for you?

What's the deal with those authors visiting schools and stuff?

When I wrote my first book, The Goose Girl, I didn't know I was writing a children's book. I thought I was writing a fantasy novel with a young protagonist, completely ignorant of the whole young adult category of books that had spread while I was in my 20s. I remember the first time I visited The King's English, my local indie bookstore, as a newly minted author and talked to bookseller Margaret about doing a possible event.

"Do you do school visits?" she asked.

"Sure, I do anything," I said, eager to be accommodating and to promote my baby any way I could.

But I was thinking, School visit? What does that even mean?

There were no author school visits when I was growing up. I had no idea that children's authors were expected to go around doing assemblies and no idea what on earth I was supposed to talk about. But I was determined to figure it out before Margaret and everybody else discovered I was a fraud who didn't deserve to be a children's author.

Jump ahead ten years. I've done at least 100 school assemblies and classroom presentations, perhaps double that. I've seen other authors do presentations and talked to a lot of teachers, librarians, booksellers, and authors. I've learned a lot. Let me impart here my wisdom, grasshopper. Please ask any school visit related questions in the comments, and I'll answer what I can next post. (Note: I'm not writing this to solicit school visits. With four small children at home, I'm not looking for anything extra for at least a couple more years.)

AUTHORS ARE PAID FOR DOING SCHOOL VISITS

I got an MFA in Creative Writing. Here's how MFA programs are staffed: excellent writers with MFAs of their own and professionally published (and usually award-winning) books teach in order to keep writing, because the royalties from their excellent literary and poetic works aren't enough to support them. In order to keep their jobs teaching, they must keep writing and publishing. In order to have enough money to support their writing, they must keep teaching. And students benefit by getting real working writers as their instructors.

This is basically the system with children's book authors. There isn't as much money in children's books as books for adults: smaller advances and smaller percentages of lower cover prices. In order to pay the bills, children's writers often do school visits. It's good for them to supplement their income, allowing them to keep writing, and it's good for the kids who get to hear from real working writers who sincerely care about kids and books.

FREE SCHOOL VISITS ARE THE EXCEPTION NOT THE NORM

Authors often do family's and neighborhood's schools for free. School visits for touring authors are usually free. When I'm on book tour, my publisher contacts the local bookstore where we'll be visiting. The bookstore arranges a couple of school visits with schools with whom they have a relationship, sending home fliers with the students so they can preorder any of my books. When I get to the school, I sign and personalize any preorders, then I do the assembly. Which is counter-intuitive, because after the assembly, after they know who I am and what my books are, they all want one, but unfortunately it's a tour so I won't be here tomorrow to sign any post-orders.

I like doing school visits on tour. I like getting to meet the kids and getting them excited about reading. And I have every intention of continuing to do them. I'm in their town, I'd rather talk with kids than just sit in my hotel. But those visits are often not perfect, partly because they're unpaid.

PAID VISITS ALWAYS GO BETTER

This is my observation: 95% of paid school visits go topnotchfantastic, 30% of unpaid school visits go topnotchfantastic. There are problems with the free school visit. There's less motivation for educators to prepare the kids for the visit. It's free, after all.

And sometimes they just don't go down at all. I cannot count how many times I've showed up for a free school visit arranged through a bookstore for my tour or through a book festival to discover that no one at the school remembered I was coming. Either they apologize and turn me away or else hastily gather a dozen kids from some class to meet me in the library. Often, I've had 4-5 hours of sleep, gotten up at dawn to catch a flight to that town in order to get there in time for the morning school visit that no one remembered or cared about. Why didn't they? Because they weren't paying for it. Truth I've learned: we value what we pay for.

PAID OR UNPAID, A SCHOOL'S PREPARATION IS WHAT MAKES A SCHOOL VISIT ROCK

Imagine you're a kid. Your teacher says, "Put away your notebooks, we're going to an assembly." You shuffle into the gym, not knowing what to expect. The librarian takes the microphone and says, "We have a special event today! Mrs. Blah-blah-blah (who you've never heard of) is here to talk to you about writing books!" And then Mrs. Blah-blah-blah, yet another adult who wants to talk at you, does just that for an excruciating 45 minutes while your bum gets sore sitting on the gym floor.

Now imagine instead that a week before the assembly, the librarian visits your classroom and does a 5 minute talk about the visiting author. And your teacher reads one of the author's books to your class. And the PTA gets involved helping students do projects to prepare for the author's visit. And by the time the assembly comes, you are so excited. You are more excited to meet this author than that uber-famous scantily clad singer or youtube star. You read her book! And visited her website! And she's actually coming to talk to you IN YOUR SCHOOL! Imagine how thrilling when the author comes on stage, shows you photos, talks about storytelling, calls on you to answer a question, chooses you to come up and help with a storytelling activity. How you can't wait to go home and tell your parents the most amazing things that happened in school today! And hey, can we go to the library and check out a book, because I know you usually have to pull my teeth to read but that one book the author talked about looks SO GOOD.

PREPARATION. I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH. PREPARATION.

Some schools have so much fun with the preparation, the creativity blows my mind. Awesome, awesome educators. Schools where the educators prepared the students for my visit, the assemblies went 1000x better, and students were still buzzing about the assembly and reading my books and other books I recommended for months after.

YES, ULTIMATELY SCHOOL VISITS ARE ABOUT SELLING BOOKS

Many educators and parents are rightly wary of bringing in an author to essentially tout their wares for a captive young audience. I've seen school visits that were no more than a long advertisement for the author's books. I don't approve of that, but it happens. But other visits are hands-down the best assemblies I've ever seen and everyone leaves so jazzed about reading and writing, feeling great about themselves and excited about stories and learning. And you know what books those kids most want to read next? That author's books of course. And that's great! As long as that author's books are great and worth of those kids' time.

BEFORE BOOKING AN AUTHOR, READ THAT AUTHOR'S BOOK(S)

A school visit is a combination of two things: how good that author is as a presenter, and how worthy that author's books are of being read. Just the fact that someone wrote a book is not enough to qualify him/her of doing a school visit (paid or unpaid) just as the fact of someone publishing any book is enough to qualify him/her of teaching in an MFA program. So first, read one of the books. You know quality. What about the presentation itself?

GET RECOMMENDATIONS FROM EDUCATORS

Educators who have had that author in the school can tell you if it was worth the students' time. I wouldn't trust anyone else's recommendation.

SCHOOL VISITS AREN'T ONLY ABOUT SELLING BOOKS

For authors, they're also about giving back, and reaching the kids, and spreading the love of reading and learning. It's an awesome part of this profession.

I was shy about talking about my books for a long time. That's kind of an understatement. I'd say for the first 4-5 years I did school visits, I never mentioned any of my books unless someone happened to ask me a direct question during the Q&A portion. I didn't want to seem like I was hawking my wares, I didn't want to be petty and self-interested. But I realize now (after much feedback from others) that that was silly. Kids sometimes need a hook to get interested enough to ready any book. Sometimes that hook is meeting the author. I don't only talk about my books, of course, but I've learned that people actually do want to hear something about them.

When kids are prepared for an assembly, and the author presentation is a good one, those kids never forget. They remember that author, that assembly, those books years later. And for so many of them, that moment is the one that made them want to be a reader after all.

"Girl" books that boys love

Hey, so you've noticed that girls will read anything, but boys often refuse to read a book about a girl. And you've thought, that's ridiculous. A book is a good book, a character is an interesting character, regardless of gender. Besides, reading represents the ability to empathize with other human beings, and it's going to be a long, tough life for boys if they can't empathize with 50% of the population of the world!

You want the boys in your life to read books with leading girls, but at the same time you're hesitant to recommend anything to them that's too "girlie" for fear of turning them off the book and helping to cement that no-girls-allowed prejudice. Have no fear! Here are some excellent books in many genres that have female main characters but don't emphasize romance or "girl issues" (ew, cooties!).

Ps. some of them are by me. SHAMELESS.

Middle Grade

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park
Icefall by Matthew Kirby
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon & Dean Hale, illustrated by Nathan Hale
Kiki Strike (and series) by Kirsten Miller
Leviathan (and series) by Scott Westerfeld
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede
Star Girl by Jerry Spinelli
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
A Wrinkle in Time (and series) by Madeleine L'Engle (good graphic novel too)
Protector of the Small quartet by Tamora Pierce
The Circle of Magic (and series) by Tamora Pierce
The Cabinet of Earths by Anne Nesbit
Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull
Kat Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis
Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
The Wee Free Men (and series) by Terry Pratchett
Palace Beautiful by Sarah DeFord Williams
The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Dragonflight (and series) by Anne McCaffrey
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Zita the Space Girl by Ben Hatke


Teen

Uglies (and series) by Scott Westerfeld
Liar by Justine Larbalestier
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
The Goose Girl (and series) by Shannon Hale
Prophecy by Ellen Oh
Legend by Marie Lu
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Blackbringer by Laini Taylor
The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris
The Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggon
The Nation by Terry Pratchett
Cold Fury by T.M. Goeglein
Heist Society series by Ally Carter
Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter
Across the Universe by Beth Revis
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Wow, that's an awesome list of books, and I know there are many more. Let me know what I should add to the list.