I’ve decided to write a review of E. Lockhart’s Dramarama for a couple of reasons. One, because I love it. I read it last spring, and the story is still churning about in my brain. And two, because I’ve seen a lot of tired, sweaty high school students roaming the halls after preseason practices the… Read more »
A little over a year ago, I put aside the novel I’d been working on during the first year of my MFA program to start something new. After reading an inspiring blog post by E. Lockhart on Cynsations about where fiction comes from, I had the seed of a new idea. I had a clear… Read more »
I love to include read alouds in my middle school English classroom. That usually means choosing an effective read-aloud novel, reading somewhere between five and fifteen minutes per class, and giving students some time to discuss their reactions and predictions as we go. I find that read alouds increase students’ enthusiasm about books and lead… Read more »
During my third semester at Vermont College of Fine Arts, my wonderful advisor Mary Quattlebaum gave me prompts to spark short writing exercises she called wordplays. At one point, she asked me to write a wordplay about a time from my childhood or adolescence when I was learning something that didn’t come easily to me,… Read more »
I set an ambitious writing goal this summer. Spurred on by my enthusiastic MFA classmates, I decided that I would try to complete a draft of my young adult novel Rebound by August 31. I think I’m going to make my deadline, but if I’d counted on sitting in front of my computer and banging… Read more »
As I’m gearing up for the school year to begin, I’ve been doing my summer reading assignments. First, I read Moying Li’s Snow Falling in Spring: Coming of Age in China During the Cultural Revolution, which is required reading for rising seventh and eighth graders, and then I slowly made my way through the required… Read more »
A little over a year ago, I read Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande, which was published in 1934 but still feels timely. There are many things I appreciate about this book (and if you’d like you can access the full text of it here), but I especially love the frank and funny life advice… Read more »
As you’ve probably seen, NPR recently compiled a list of the top 100 best-ever teen novels. NPR came up with this list after inviting people to nominate YA novels and then select their top ten from the nominations. The list has generated plenty of controversy—for instance, some people have objected to the imprecise criteria NPR… Read more »