SPELLBINDERS

The Class of 2012 on SPELLBINDERS!

2012-02-06T09:14:00.000-08:00

February 6, 2012

Feature Article: What New Authors Do Once Their Books Are Born

Publishing a book in today's competitive marketplace and weak economic climate isn't for the faint of heart.

New authors are learning of creative ways to market their work through group promotion. The first example of this to hit the middle grade and young adult scene was the Class of 2k7.

Founder Greg Fishbone started the Class of 2k7 "after realizing that signing [his] first book contract wasn't the finish line [he'd] always thought it would be. Instead [it was] the start of a new process with a steep learning curve that required a whole new set of skills."

His idea "was that a group of debut authors would be able to accomplish things together better than any of [them] would be able to do on [their] own." The group would "share knowledge and resources along the way." That first Class had a great year and drew a lot of attention to their books. There have been 2k Classes every year since and "a number of other collective [promotional] groups inspired by" this initial group, as well.

The focus of the 2k Classes is marketing to Booksellers, Librarians, and Teachers--the BLTs who have the power to put books in front of readers. The Classes use a variety of tools including a class website, blog, social networking, group signings, school and library postcard mailings, newsletters, giveaways, and group swag, such as bookmarks, pens and buttons. Members are required to pay dues into the Class budget and provide a fair share of the work necessary to make the group a success. Each 2k Class so far has included members with a wide range of amazing talents and useful experience.

Here are some previous Class members you might recognize:

New York Times bestselling author, Carrie Jones

National Book Award Finalist, Sara Zarr

New York Times bestselling author, Jay Asher

Newbery Award winner, Rebecca Stead

New York Times bestselling author, Cassandra Clare

Winner of the 2002 Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Work in Process grant, Jo Knowles

This Year's Group:

The Class of 2k12 is a group of twenty middle-grade and young adult debut novelists working in concert to promote their books and reading. Their titles include historical fiction, paranormal, steampunk, verse novels, fantasy, and contemporary stories.

Each month, the Class of 2k12 gives away two copies of their novels through their Facebook page. Monthly newsletters and weekly blog posts cover everything from authors' favorite writing resources to downloadable study guides and book talks. Throughout the year, there will be opportunities for classrooms and libraries to win gift certificates toward building their own libraries. At the end of the year, teachers and librarians will be able to enter to win a basket of all twenty 2k12 books.

There are so many ways to connect your young readers to new stories! Be sure to visit the links below to find out about 2k12 books, authors, and events:

our website
our blog
our Facebook page
our Twitter link
our newsletter (Click to sign up -- simply write ADD ME in the comment line)

The Class of 2k12 Book Trailer

Join Our Mailing List!

Meet the Spellbinders

Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.
Website
Blog





Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Acts of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.







Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.




Upcoming Author Events

Sunday, March 11
Kimberley presents at the
Tucson Book Festival

12:30 -1:30 Panel with Author Will Hobbs: "Opening Minds Across Borders: Characters in Conflict"
AND
2:30 - 3:30 "Breaking into Children's Novels through Magazine Writing"

Each session followed by autographing


Saturday, March 17
UNM Continuing Ed
Young Writers Conference

Kimberley is presenting "The Creative Diary" - a hands-on Writing Workshop for kids and teens

Sunday, April 29th
9-5 Preconference Session

Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"

Join us for this all day session
featuring 11 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose

Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"
Carolee Dean

Forward email

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Book Launch for MAY B! And a Giveaway!

2012-01-30T09:31:00.001-08:00

January 30, 2012

Caroline's Classroom Connections

May B. : An Interview with Caroline Starr Rose

Mavis Elizabeth Betterly, or May B. as she is known, is helping out on a neighbor's Kansas prairie homestead, "Just until Christmas," says her Pa. Twelve-year-old May wants to contribute, but it's hard to be separated from her family by fifteen long, unfamiliar miles.

Then the unthinkable happens: May is abandoned to the oncoming winter, trapped all alone in a tiny snow-covered sod house without any way to let her family know and no neighbors to turn to. In her solitude, she wavers between relishing her freedom and succumbing to utter despair, while trying to survive in the harshest conditions. Her physical struggle to first withstand and then to escape her prison is matched by tormenting memories of her failures at school.

Only a very strong girl will be able to stand up to both and emerge alive and well.

In this debut novel written in gripping verse, Caroline Starr Rose has given readers a new heroine to root for, one who never, ever gives up.

Spellbinders: How did your life path lead you to writing as a career?

I'm a former middle school English and social studies teacher and have been an avid reader since childhood. Writing books was always a dream, one I started to take seriously in 1998. I had no children at the time and was on summer vacation -- there really was no excuse not to give it a try. By the end of the summer, I had the first draft of a (horrendous!) children's novel about the Oregon Trail. I revised during the school year and began contacting editors the following spring.

This first manuscript helped set the pattern I was to continue until 2009: writing, revising, then sending out query letters to editors I hoped might be interested in my writing. May B. was my fourth novel and eleventh book overall (I write picture books, too).

Spellbinders: I read that MAY B. did not start out as a novel in verse. What made you decide to change to this format, and why do you think your story lends itself to being written in verse?

My first few attempts at writing the story as prose felt distant and lifeless. It wasn't until I returned to my research (and specifically a book called Read this Only to Yourself: The Private Writings of Midwestern Women, 1880-1910) that I saw the patterns these women's writings had in common: terse language, stark circumstances, a matter-of-fact tone. It was if the heavens had opened for me, and I was able to climb inside May's world, using the voices of the women I'd encountered through research.

A confession: I'd read only two verse novels before writing May B. -- Karen Hess's Out of the Dust and Sharon Creech's Heartbeat. This both terrified and liberated me. I stayed away from all verse novels while drafting, worried any sort of comparison would paralyze me. On the other hand, I wasn't bound by patterns or rules. Several readers have said May B.'s pacing reads more like prose (swifter than the typical verse novel), which ultimately serves the story.

Spellbinders: Your book is set in 1870s Kansas. What research did do you do to keep everything historically accurate? Why did you pick that era and Kansas?

I read. A lot. At first, all I knew was I wanted to write about the frontier but hadn't honed in on Kansas specifically. My first attempt at writing had been historical fiction, and I learned from that disastrous manuscript that regardless of the history, the story had to belong to the character; I couldn't beat historical facts into my readers' heads. I went into May B. trusting that if I kept my protagonist's perspective and understanding of her world, enough history would organically seep in.

A blizzard plays a key part in May's story, so I needed her somewhere where weather extremes weren't uncommon. I also was enamored with sod houses, which also limited in what part of the country May could live.

One special challenge was locating exactly where May's sod house stood. There's a reference in May B. to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, so the book had to take place in 1876 or later. I wanted her in a part of western Kansas that wasn't very developed and was semi-close to a railroad. It was also necessary to have wolves around. The first place I located May was outside of Dodge City, where she would have been smack dab in the middle of the Chisolm Cattle Trail -- not exactly the solitude I was looking for (I also wasn't interested in telling the sort of rowdy cowboy story that Dodge City brings to mind). The story couldn't take place much beyond 1880 because in order to have wolves, buffalo still needed to be prevalent; by 1880 these animals were widely wiped out. Gove County, Kansas became a good location: the railroad (and therefore surrounding communities) was still relatively new but old enough to have been there before 1880; the short-grass country of western Kansas supported sod houses; and wolves, while not spotted everyday, would have still roamed in packs at this time.

Spellbinders: How did you get the inspiration for May B.? Why did you choose to make her dyslexia a focus of the book?

I grew up with the Little House on the Prairie books and wanted to create my own strong pioneer girl. I was also curious how someone might write about solitude and challenged myself to experiment with a storyline that would confine one character to a limited space (believe me, there were many times I didn't feel up to this challenge!). I'd also fallen hard for Gary Paulsen's Hatchet and wanted to create a survival story told from a girl's perspective.

May's name, Mavis Elizabeth Betterly, came to me before I did any character development. I liked the way I could shorten Mavis Betterly to May B. and loved the way her name hinted at the wishy-washy word "maybe" (which is a word like mediocre or okay; it doesn't carry a lot of conviction), but also contained the strong word "better". Though I wasn't quite sure of the specifics, I determined there had to be something in May's life that made her feel mediocre, something she longed to do better and something that spoke not only to her lack of ability but also her sense of worth.

As a teacher, I'd always wondered how children with learning disabilities had fared at a time before their challenges were understood, especially in the days when recitation and reading aloud were the major means of instruction. Dyslexia became a perfect obstacle for a child striving to do better and mirrored nicely May B.'s theme of isolation.

Spellbinders: Do you have any advice about how to nurture a love of writing within our students?

It is so essential to give children the freedom to experiment with words. Allow kids to write things you'll never see (maybe have them keep a nature journal or a reader's response booklet as they read their favorite books). Give them a place that is a spelling and grammar-free zone. And most importantly, give them opportunities to write about things of their own choosing. While there are times and situations when essays, grammar, and the like need to be addressed, there are just as many times when they don't need to be.

Two things I firmly believe: children can't find their writing voice unless they are given permission to explore a lot of different ways to write. Also, as any writer will tell you, not everything we create is meant to be taken to the final draft stage. While it is important to teach children the steps of the writing process (brainstorming, rough draft, editing and revision, final draft), not every piece of writing needs to be taken this far.

And one more thing: Pick up a copy of Chris Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick and watch your young writers blossom.

May B. Giveaway: As a reader, which middle grade protagonist has made the biggest impression on you? Why?

Stop by my May B. Facebook page and enter to win by answering the question above. One winner will be randomly selected. Contest ends 2/14.

Join Our Mailing List!

Meet the Spellbinders

Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.
Website
Blog





Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Acts of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.







Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.



Upcoming Author Events

Sunday, March 11
Kimberley presents at the
Tucson Book Festival

12:30 -1:30 Panel with Author Will Hobbs: "Opening Minds Across Borders: Characters in Conflict"
AND
2:30 - 3:30 "Breaking into Children's Novels through Magazine Writing"

Each session followed by autographing

Saturday, March 17
UNM Continuing Ed
Young Writers Conference

Kimberley is presenting "The Creative Diary" - a hands-on Writing Workshop for kids and teens

Sunday, April 29th
9-5 Preconference Session
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"

Join us for this all day session
featuring 11 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose

Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"
Carolee Dean

Forward email

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Spellbinders | 3 YAF Authors | Albuquerque | NM | 87181

Caroline's Classroom Connections: Book Clubs

2012-01-23T08:25:00.000-08:00

January 23, 2012

Caroline's Classroom Connections

Book Clubs, Part Three: Running a Meeting

Once you've

planned

and

organized

it's time to get started!

It's a good idea not to have a book discussion that first meeting. Instead, talk about ground rules and what you hope your book club will become. Here are some things to think through beforehand:

Will members be allowed to drop in when they feel like participating or will they be expected to attend regularly?
What happens if a member hasn't finished the book?
How can members prepare before the meeting?
And a key question: What's the point of a book club?

Here's a handout I gave my students our first week together:

Welcome to Book Club!

Here are some things you should know:

In order to attend a meeting, you need to read the book. That's it!

Sometimes we'll read a book about a boy. Sometimes we'll read about a girl. If you are a boy, you CAN read about a girl and survive. I promise. Girls, same for you.

To make Book Club as interesting as possible, it is good, though not required, to jot down things as you read. Here are some ideas:

How does this book compare to others I've read?
Three words to describe this book would be...
If I were the main character, I would have...
I was suprised/annoyed/happy etc. when __________ happened.
I like this book because...
I didn't like this book because...
My favorite character is _________ because...
If I could change a part of the story, it would be ___________
An important sentence in this story was _________ because...
Any of your own ideas!

You can get yourself a notebook to write notes in. You can write ideas on a scrap of paper. Where you write doesn't matter.

Come to the meeting with something to say! The more you say, the more fun the discussion. If you have a copy of the book, bring it along, too.

Come as often as you like.

Invite your friends!

Challenge yourself to read a type of book you might not pick up on your own.

Have fun!

I'm looking forward to our year together.

Now that you're all on the same page, assign the first book, select it together, or pass out the list of books you've planned for the group to read ahead of time. Make sure to include a way to contact you. Make sure you've arranged with parents for transportation. Be prepared to be flexible. And just like I mentioned above, commit to having fun!

Next month, Book Club Pitfalls to Avoid.

Join Our Mailing List!

Meet the Spellbinders

Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.
Website
Blog





Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Acts of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.






Upcoming Author Events

Sunday, March 11
Kimberley presents at the
Tucson Book Festival

12:30 -1:30 Panel with Author Will Hobbs: "Opening Minds Across Borders: Characters in Conflict"
AND
2:30 - 3:30 "Breaking into Children's Novels through Magazine Writing"

Each session followed by autographing

Saturday, March 17
UNM Continuing Ed
Young Writers Conference

Kimberley is presenting "The Creative Diary" - a hands-on Writing Workshop for kids and teens

Sunday, April 29th
9-5 Preconference Session
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
Join us for this all day session
featuring 11 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose

Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"
Carolee Dean

Forward email

This email was sent to kglittle@msn.com by spellbinders@peifercomputing.net |

Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy.

Spellbinders | 3 YAF Authors | Albuquerque | NM | 87181

Newbery and Caldecott Buzz!

2012-01-17T14:21:00.000-08:00

January 16, 2012

Newbery And Caldecott Award Buzz!

Got Plans for the Weekend? Read any great books lately?

If you combine weekends and wonderful books, maybe you're headed to the American Library Association conference January 20-24 where librarians from all over the country will converge on Dallas Texas for the Midwinter meeting!

AND will your favorite book of 2011 win the coveted Newbery or Caldecott or Printz Award this weekend, too?

Here at SPELLBINDERS I'm highlighting a few books today that have been discussed/argued over, read and loved and considered for the Newbery Medal for the best distinguished novel of 2011 for young people. Last month I put out some of the best picture books of 2011 that will be up for the Caldecott Medal which you can see here: http://spellbindersbooknews.blogspot.com/2011/11/best-picture-books-of-2011.html

Eighteen Children's Awards will be announced in Dallas on Monday, January 23 at 7:30 a.m. Central Time. You can watch the live broadcast here at this link: Webcast

While waiting for the official announcements this week you can read some of the lively and "passionate" discussions going on about favorite picture books and novels of 2011 here on these two blogs:

Horn Book's "Calling Caldecott": http://www.hbook.com/category/blogs/calling-caldecott/

School Library Journal's Heavy Medal Blog on Newbery Buzz: http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/heavymedal

Here are a few titles that may win that have received excellent reviews and recommendations and that you may want to consider for your library or classroom collections.

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming

Note: Each book's title is a link that will take you to the author's website.

Fun stuff - enjoy!

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai (the 2011 National Book Award Winner for Young People).

Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt

The Trouble with May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Join Our Mailing List!

Meet the Spellbinders

Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well

as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing
workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please
visit her website
to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.

Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Acts of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to www.caroleedean.com.




Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.

Website

Blog

UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS




Sunday, March 11

Kimberley presents at the
Tucson Book Festival

12:30 -1:30 Panel with Author Will Hobbs: "Opening Minds Across Borders: Characters in Conflict"
AND
2:30 - 3:30 "Breaking into Children's Novels through Magazine Writing"

Each session followed by autographing

Saturday, March 17
UNM Continuing Ed
Young Writers Conference

Kimberley is presenting "The Creative Diary" - a hands-on Writing Workshop for kids and teens

Sunday, April 29th, 2012
9-5 Preconference Session
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
Join us for this all day session
featuring 9 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders:
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose
Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"
Carolee Dean

Forward email

This email was sent to spellbinders@peifercomputing.net by spellbinders@peifercomputing.net |

Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy.

Spellbinders | 3 YAF Authors | Albuquerque | NM | 87181

Why We Need Stories - a great article!

2012-01-09T07:57:00.001-08:00

January 9, 2012

The Secret Language of Stories - Carolee Dean

WHY WE ALL NEED STORIES

I would like to start the year reminding us all about the importance of stories in our everyday lives. Spring is approaching with its emphasis on SBA testing and graduation rates and it's easy to get caught up in the high stakes game of meeting AYP, but before we get bogged down with test reviews and benchmarks, let's explore why we still need to remember the story.

Robert McKee, screenwriter, author, and lecturer, serves as a consultant to film studios and teaches writing seminars. In his book, Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, he discusses how story is not just the most prolific art form, but rivals all other activities for the amount of time we spend on them. He reminds the reader of the endless hours so many people spend watching television, but then goes on to discusses how we tell stories to our co-workers at the water cooler, to our neighbors over the fence, engage in internet gossip with our friends, and share bedtime stories with our children. Even when we sleep we dream. He states that humans have an endless need for stories because, "Day after day we seek an answer to the ageless question Aristotle posed in Ethics: How should a human being lead his life?" He says stories help us discover the answer to this age old question and find order in the chaos of our lives.

As a speech-language pathologist, I often analyze a student's ability to retell a story and to produce original oral narratives as part of an overall process to determine if they have a language disorder. The ability to construct a story says a lot about overall language abilities and it is a skill important to everyday life. Natalie L. Hedberg, Ph.D., and Carole E. Westby, Ph.D., two noted speech-language pathologists discuss this importance in Analyzing Storytelling Skills: Theory to Practice. They list several ways that we all use storytelling in our everyday lives.

"We tell stories to entertain, to explain where we have come from and where we are going, and to reflect on our own experiences and the experiences of others. We come to know ourselves and others through the stories we tell. We tell one another stories about ourselves, and we live by the stories we tell. Narrative is a primary mode of thought that plays a major role in both our waking and sleeping lives" (Hedberg & Westby).

They go on to discuss how the ability to create stories requires not only linguistic skill, but also the understanding of the world and of people. It reflects conceptual knowledge, such as social problem solving and the understanding of cause and effect, the ability to take another person's point of view and to understand why people act the way that they do. They report that the ability to retell a well organized story based on a picture stimuli at first grade is a strong predictor of later reading success and overall school success.

Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and storyteller, explores female archetypcal motifs in her book Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype. She uses the archetypes found in multicultural myths, fairy tales, and folk tales to help women explore their unconscious motivations and sharpen their insights. She uses stories as her medium partly because, "Stories are embedded with instructions which guide us about the complexities of life."

As we share stories with students, we should ask ourselves if the tales we choose for them are helping them to find meaning in their lives, to discover metaphors and archetypes to help them understand themselves, and those around them, and to structure their personal experiences. Bruno Bettelheim, in The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, discusses the importance of stories to help find the meaning in life, but warns that, "The acquisition of skills, including the ability to read, becomes devalued when what one has learned to read adds nothing of importance to one's life."

He lists several things a story must to do hold a child's attention. Besides entertaining him, it must arouse curiosity, develop intellect, and clarify emotions. He states that stories that are meaningful and memorable will be sensitive to a child's anxieties and aspirations while recognizing his difficulties and providing solutions to the problems that baffle him. This is not to imply that young people should be spoon fed didactic morality tales or that we should only teach the classics because we think those are the stories of established worth. In fact, the best stories don't state overt messages, but through the experience of compelling characters and the choices they make, the reader learns what choices might be available to him. We must strive to see the importance in the stories that students find meaningful, whether or not we appreciate their intrinsic value. We can learn as much about life through farce as through drama and a child who discovers the joy of reading through Captain Underpants has found a great treasure.

I recently had a student spend all winter break reading World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Wars by Max Brooks. The book tells the story of a world wide battle against zombies in a series of interviews conducted by "the author." To my knowledge, my student had never read a book for leisure. I'd never even seen him crack open a textbook. But over winter break, of his own free will, he completed this 432 page novel. I was able to connect with him on the subject of zombies, in which he gave an excellent summary of the events of the story. He now considers himself a good reader and is looking forward to the Zombie Survival Guide.

This was not a book that I necessarily would have recommended for him, but I have learned the importance of taking a student's interest in zombies, or football, or historical battles, or comic strips, or manga and using that as a springboard to talk about stories and to instill a love for reading. It reminds me that one of our greatest jobs as parents, educators, and authors is to help get the right book to the right student, whatever that book may be.

Join Our Mailing List!

Meet the Spellbinders

Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a

speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random

Acts of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.

Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.

Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New

Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.

Website

Blog

UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS

Saturday, January 14th, 2012

2-3:30

Launch Party for May B.

Caroline Starr Rose's Debut Novel

Alamosa Books

8810 Holly, Suite D

Albuquerque, NM 87122

Sunday, April 29th, 2012

9-5 Preconference Session

Author's Panel at the

International Reading Association Conference

Chicago, Illinois

"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"

Join us for this all day session

featuring 11 authors including

all 3 Spellbinders

Carolee Dean

Kimberley Griffiths Little

Caroline Starr Rose

Tuesday, May 1

3 p.m. - 4 p.m.

International Reading Association Conference

Chicago, Illinois

"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"

Carolee Dean

Forward email

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Finishing up our Delicious Book Recipes!

2012-01-03T08:48:00.001-08:00

January 2, 2012

FEATURE ISSUE: Food for Thought

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

To wrap up our holiday food theme and ring in the new year, for this issue each of the Spellbinders will discuss simple recipes from their books that may be shared with a classroom or book club.

Comfort (Houghton Mifflin) by Carolee Dean

Grades 6-12

Kenny Willson wants nothing more than to get out of Comfort, Texas, away from his alcoholic, ex-convict father and his controlling mother. In order to promote her husband as a country and western star and keep him out of bars, Kenny's mother opens the Comfort Cafe where her husband can sing without risk of violating his parole. The problem is that Kenny's father has no desire to be a country and western star and his wife hates cooking. Kenny's mother serves a variety of frozen, processed, and ready-made foods such as frozen pizza, corn dogs, honey buns, and frito pie and forces her son to quit football and band to work night and day in the cafe. Kenny finds his voice through mentorship of his journalism teacher and a pretty senior girl who encourages him to get involved in poetry competitions. Unfortunatley, she has a muscle-head boyfriend she can't seem to get rid of. This novel explores the idea that the things we find "comfortable" are often the things that keep us stuck.

Activities: Before reading the book, have students explore the theme of the book by making posters of things that bring them comfort. During the reading of the novel, explore how some of things that feel comfortable to us are actually harmful. Afterward have a "Comfort Foods Potluck" having students bring items from the Comfort Cafe or other comfort foods.

Recipe for Frito Pie

Heat 5-6 cans of chile in a crock pot

For each serving:

Place 1 cup of fritoes in a styrofoam bowl

cover with:

1/2 cup of chile

1/2 cup cheese

optional toppings may include:

chopped onions

green chile

sour cream

olives

shredded lettuce

The Healing Spell (Scholastic) by Kimberley Griffiths Little

(Grades 3-8)

From ALA Booklist Review:

Eleven-year-old Livie is terrified when her father insists that they bring her comatose mother home from the hospital. How can she look at, much less touch and care for, Mamma when she alone knows that she caused her illness? As Mamma continues to languish in bed, Livie grows more and more estranged from her family, a chasm that begins to close only after she gathers her courage to visit the local traiteur, who gives her the formula for a healing spell. As Livie collects the spell's necessary ingredients, she begins to open up to the knowledge that she is loved and cherished by her family. Little explores the extremes of childhood guilt and its consequences in this harsh yet well-crafted story about fully drawn people. The bayou, with its rich culture, is an atmospheric character that overlays the story with mystery and dread. A special offering for readers seeking a challenge of the heart as well as the mind. Grades 5-8. --Frances Bradburn

Go to this website and read the article "Cajun Wedding Traditions" by Jane Vidrine.

Compare Faye's wedding in the book with the description of a Cajun wedding in this article. What was the same and what was different? Write a compare/contrast essay about your findings.

At Faye's wedding, there was boiled crawfish and gumbo and boudin (a type of sausage) plus lots of side dishes and desserts.

Here's a recipe for gumbo that can be prepared the day before and plugged into a crockpot in the classroom for your students to try, using plastic bowls with spoons. Very yummy!

Kimberley's Favorite Louisiana Gumbo:

For Roux:

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup cooking oil

Stir together flour and oil in a saucepan until smooth. Cook over medium-high heat for 4 minutes, stirring constantly for a few minutes longer until the roux is a dark reddish brown color. Let cool while you prepare the following:

3 - 5 cups of chicken broth

12-16 oz smoked boudin or sausage, sliced 1/2 inch thick

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

2 cups diced cooked chicken

1-2 cups sliced okra

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 cup chopped celery

4 garlic cloves and salt to taste

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp ground red pepper

Boiled white rice

Add chicken to broth in a 6 quart slow cooker. Stir in roux and mix well. Add sausage, okra,onion, green pepper, celery, garlic, salt and peppers seasonings. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Serve with hot, cooked rice.

May B. (Schwartz & Wade) by Caroline Starr Rose

(grades 3-7)

In this debut novel written in gripping verse, Caroline Starr Rose has given readers a new heroine to root for, one who never, ever gives up.

Activity: Four Pieces of String

20 feet, 16 feet, 20 feet, and 12.5 feet

Find a room big enough and stretch the string out, making a rectangle with a door-sized opening at one side.

Measure a bed, a dresser, a table, a stove. Mark the furnitures' dimensions on butcher paper and arrange it inside your string rectangle.

What do you have?

A furnished soddy! Imagine a family living together in this small space.

Recipe:

Send a self-addressed stamped envelope to the address below for free sourdough starter.

Oregon Trail Sourdough

P. O. Box 321

Jefferson, MD 21755

Here's a sourdough biscuit recipe to use with your starter:

1 Tbs active dry yeast

1 1/4 c water-lukewarm

1/3 c sugar

3/4 ts salt

1 c sourdough starter

5 c bread flour

melted butter or margarine

Dissolve the yeast in warm water with a little sugar till bubbly. Sourdough is a yeast but rises faster with added commercial yeast. In a large mixing bowl add sugar, salt, sourdough starter, yeast and flour. Cover; set in warm spot and let rise until double. Punch down and turn out onto floured work surface. Roll out to 3/4 inch thickness. Cut with biscuit cutter. Dip both sides in butter or oil, and place on well-greased baking sheet. Let rise 15 min. Bake at 425 - 20 min. or until golden brown.

Join Our Mailing List!

Meet the Spellbinders

Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.
Website
Blog





Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Acts of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.







Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.


UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS

Saturday, January 14, 2012
2:00-3:30pm
Launch Party for Caroline Starr Rose's debut novel, May B.

Alamosa Books
8810 Holly Ave.
Suite D
Albuquerque, NM 87122

Sunday, April 29th, 2012
9-5 Preconference Session
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
Join us for this all day session
featuring 11 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose

Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"
Carolee Dean

Forward email

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More holiday Yummy from SPELLBINDERS!!!

2011-12-26T10:11:00.003-08:00

December 26, 2011

Caroline's Classroom Connections

EVERYTHING ON A WAFFLE

My name is Primrose Squarp. I am eleven years old. I have hair the color of carrots in apricot glaze (recipe to follow), skin fair and clear where it isn't freckled, and eyes like summer storms.

Readers will know right from the start that the narrator of Everything on a Waffle is going to tell her story straight and pull no punches. Primrose's parents have been lost at sea, but she believes without an iota of doubt that they are still alive, somewhere. She moves in with her Uncle Jack, but feels generally friendless. Her only real refuge is a local restaurant called The Girl on the Red Swing, where the owner, Miss Bowzer, serves everything on waffles -- except advice and good sense, which come free of charge and are always reliable.

Here's a waffle recipe to use with our BAKING MIX:

2 cups BAKING MIX (see recipe below)

1½ cups milk

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon oil

1 Tablespoon sugar (optional)

Preheat waffle maker. Combine sugar and mix. Then combine wet ingredients and add to dry mixture. Bake according to directions. Makes about 8 - 4 inch waffles.

If using for a classroom or book club group, waffles may be cooked in advance and heated in a toaster.

Have students bring the following toppings:

Fresh fruit

Whipped cream

Syrup

Nutella

Peanut Butter

Jelly

Gummy Bears

Tuna salad

Cheez Whiz

If you want to be adventurous, cut waffles into fourths and try different toppings on each piece.

BAKING MIX

1 five pound bag (or seventeen cups) of unbleached flour

9 Tablespoons (a little over ½ cup) of baking powder

2 Tablespoons of salt

3 one cup containers of Crisco shortening (one pound)

Put all ingredients except for shortening into a large bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Cut the shortening into small pieces and then add to the dry mixture. Use two large knives to cut the shortening into the mixture. You may use a pasty blender, but it will get messy. Put the contents into an airtight container. This recipe makes about 21 cups of mix. A plastic, one gallon ice cream container (cleaned and dried and minus the ice cream) will hold about 18 cups of the mix. Store in a cool, dry place and use within 2-3 months.

Join Our Mailing List!

Meet the Spellbinders

Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.
Website
Blog





Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Acts of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.







Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.


UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS

Saturday, January 14, 2012
2:00-3:30pm
Launch Party for Caroline Starr Rose's debut novel, May B.

Alamosa Books
8810 Holly Ave.
Suite D
Albuquerque, NM 87122

Sunday, April 29th, 2012
9-5 Preconference Session
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
Join us for this all day session
featuring 11 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose

Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"
Carolee Dean

Forward email

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Spellbinders | 3 YAF Authors | Albuquerque | NM | 87181

Yummy Book Buzz!

2011-12-19T18:36:00.000-08:00

December 19, 2011

December Book Buzz Recipe!

IF YOU GIVE A MOOSE A MUFFIN

If a big hungry moose comes to visit, you might give him a muffin to make him feel at home. If you give him a muffin, he'll want some jam to go with it. When he's eaten all your muffins, he'll want to go to the store to get some more muffin mix.

In this hilarious sequel to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, the young host is again run ragged by a surprise guest. Young readers will delight in the comic complications that follow when a little boy entertains a gregarious moose.

Here's a recipe using our BAKING MIX that is perfect for any moose you entertain over the holidays:

1½ cups BAKING MIX (see recipe below)

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ cup chopped nuts (optional)

½ cups chopped apples or other fruit

½ cup plus 1 Tb. milk

1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine first five ingredients, then combine milk and egg and add to dry mixture until just blended. Grease muffin pan. Fill large muffin pans 2/3 full. For mini muffins fill until level with pan. For six large muffins bake 20-25 minutes. For 16 mini muffins bake 15-20 minutes.

Fruit suggestions:

Chopped apples, peaches, strawberries

Whole blueberries, fresh or frozen (thawed)

Mashed bananas

Pumpkin

Applesauce

Note: If using a mashed fruit, add to wet ingredients instead of dry ingredients.

Adjust milk as necessary to create a thick batter.

BAKING MIX

1 five pound bag (or seventeen cups) of unbleached flour

9 tablespoons (a little over ½ cup) of baking powder

2 tablespoons of salt

3 one cup containers of Crisco shortening (one pound)

Join Our Mailing List!

Meet the Spellbinders

Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well

as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing
workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please
visit her website
to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.

Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Acts of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to www.caroleedean.com.




Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.

Website

Blog

UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS

Saturday, Jan 14
2:00-3:30
Launch Party for May B.
Caroline Starr Rose's Debut Novel
Alamosa Books
8810 Holly, Suite D
Albuquerque, NM 87122

Sunday, April 29th, 2012
9-5 Preconference Session
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
Join us for this all day session
featuring 11 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose

Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"
Carolee Dean

Forward email

This email was sent to kglittle@msn.com by spellbinders@peifercomputing.net |

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Spellbinders | 3 YAF Authors | Albuquerque | NM | 87181

The Secret Language of Stories

2011-12-16T21:51:00.001-08:00

December 12, 2011

The Secret Language of Stories - Carolee Dean

TORTILLA SUN

One of the topics I frequently discuss in The Secret Language of Stories is the idea of a character moving from the familiar, ordinary world, to a new world full of adventure and surprise. Tortilla Sun, by New Mexico's own Jennifer Cervantes, is a perfect example. Twelve-year-old Izzy is not happy when she finds out that she will be spending the summer with her grandmother in an isolated village in New Mexico while her mother goes to Costa Rica. Nana proves to be the perfect mentor as she teaches Izzy about folk remedies. Izzy learns how to make tortillas and gather herbs, and finally begins to unravel the mystery of her father's death. This heartfelt, multicultural tale is for grades four and up. If reading the novel with a class, I suggest exploring the recipe for tortillas below.

TORTILLA RECIPE

2 cups baking mix

¾ cup warm water

The recipe for BAKING MIX may be found in our December 5th issue of Spellbinders, or at the bottom of this page.

Add just enough warm water to form the dough into a ball. Knead on a lightly floured service about 20 times. Cover with the bowl and let rest for 10 minutes.

Form the dough into golf ball size circles. Roll out with a rolling pin into a circle about 6 inches in diameter.

Heat a griddle or large cast iron skillet over medium heat or set an electric skillet at 450 degrees. Before heating, pour in about a teaspoon of cooking oil. Spread across pan with a paper towel and discard the excess oil.

Cook tortilla on one side until air bubbles appear. Then turn to see if opposite side is browned. If so, turn and cook the other side. Stack cooked tortillas in a clean dish cloth.

Makes 10 small, thin tortillas. For thicker tortillas, double the amount of dough for each.

If using this recipe with a class, the recipe may be doubled or tripled. Let each student roll out his or her own tortilla. If they are small, several may be cooked at once time in a large electric skillet.

Top with butter, honey, or Nutella®.

BAKING MIX

1 five pound bag (or seventeen cups) of unbleached flour

9 tablespoons (a little over ½ cup) of baking powder

2 tablespoons of salt

3 one cup containers of Crisco shortening (one pound)

Join Our Mailing List!

Meet the Spellbinders

Acts of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.

Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.

Website

Blog

UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS

Saturday, January 14th, 2012

2-3:30

Launch Party for May B.

Caroline Starr Rose's Debut Novel

Alamosa Books

8810 Holly, Suite D

Albuquerque, NM 87122

Sunday, April 29th, 2012

9-5 Preconference Session

Author's Panel at the

International Reading Association Conference

Chicago, Illinois

"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"

Join us for this all day session

featuring 11 authors including

all 3 Spellbinders

Carolee Dean

Kimberley Griffiths Little

Caroline Starr Rose

Tuesday, May 1

3 p.m. - 4 p.m.

International Reading Association Conference

Chicago, Illinois

"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"

Carolee Dean

Forward email

This email was sent to kglittle@msn.com by spellbinders@peifercomputing.net |

Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy.

Spellbinders | 3 YAF Authors | Albuquerque | NM | 87181

Special Holiday Treat!

2011-12-13T08:46:00.001-08:00

December 5, 2011

A Special Gift From Spellbinders

A HOLIDAY TREAT JUST FOR YOU

We know everyone is busy this holiday season, so rather than give you more to think about, we've decided to spend the next five weeks trying to make your life easier. We'd like to start by sharing a very simple, yet versatile recipe with you that will help you get your busy day started, and also warm you on cold December nights.

BAKING MIX

1 five pound bag (or seventeen cups) of unbleached flour

9 tablespoons (slightly more than 1/2 cup) of baking powder

2 tablespoons of salt

3 one cup containers (one pound) of Crisco shortening

QUICK BISCUITS

for 9 small, 2 inch biscuits for 14 small, 2 inch biscuits

2 cups BAKING MIX 3 cups BAKING MIX

½ cups milk 3/4 cups milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine ingredients. Add just enough milk to form a stiff dough. For fluffier biscuits add one tablespoon of cold butter cut into pea size pieces before adding milk. Stir until just blended. Press onto a cutting board and form dough into a 1 inch thick slab. Use a 2 inch biscuit cutter to form round biscuits, or cut into 2 inch squares. Place side by side on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 12 minutes.

FLUFFY DUMPLINGS

1 cup BAKING MIX

1 tablespoon milk

1 egg

Make a large pot of your favorite chicken soup or use the recipe below. The key is to use a pot with a large circumference because the dumplings will float along the top of the soup. Combine ingredients into a stiff dough. Stir until just blended. Press onto a cutting board and form dough into a 1 inch slab. Cut into 2 inch squares. Drop into boiling soup and cover with a tight fitting lid. Cook for twenty minutes. Dumplings should be wet on the outside and dry on the inside.

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL

Put the following ingredients in a 4-5 quart crockpot:

6 cups chicken broth

1 large frozen chicken breast

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon minced garlic

salt and pepper to taste

cut into bite size pieces and add:

2 potatoes

2 carrots

2 celery stalks

1 small onion (chopped)

Cook on low for 6-8 hours then take out chicken breast and cut into pieces and return to pot. Turn crockpot to high. Add dumplings and cook another 20 minutes.

A HOLIDAY GIFT

Are you running out of time to bake and distribute hundreds of holiday cookies? Are your friends tired of the sugar overload each holiday brings? Get 7 plastic bags and put three cups of BAKING MIX into each one. Secure each bag with a twist tie or zip lock and put in a decorative paper bag along with a stick on bow and these recipes. Your friends will be glad to receive something they can make for dinner instead of something that will just make them fat and cranky.

FOR THE NEXT FOUR WEEKS STAY TUNED TO SPELLBINDERS FOR RECIPES WITH BOOK TIE-INS THAT USE THIS BAKING RECIPE. NEXT WEEK WE WILL EXPLORE THE MIDDLE GRADE NOVEL TORTILLA SUN.

Join Our Mailing List!

Meet the Spellbinders

Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.
Website
Blog





Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Acts of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.







Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.


UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS

Saturday, January 14, 2012
2:00-3:30pm
Launch Party for Caroline Starr Rose's debut novel, May B.

Alamosa Books
8810 Holly Ave.
Suite D
Albuquerque, NM 87122

Sunday, April 29th, 2012
9-5 Preconference Session
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
Join us for this all day session
featuring 11 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose

Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"
Carolee Dean

Forward email

This email was sent to kglittle@msn.com by spellbinders@peifercomputing.net |

Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy.

Spellbinders | 3 YAF Authors | Albuquerque | NM | 87181

HOW TO START A BOOK CLUB FOR KIDS!!!

2011-12-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

November 28, 2011

Caroline's Classroom Connections

Book Clubs for Kids: Getting Started

Book clubs can take some work getting off the ground. If you're interested in starting a group, first think through the kind of community you'd like to form. Will this be a parent / child group? Will members be both boys and girls? Will they all be in the same grade? Will the book club have a theme of some sort?

Groups of all sorts are doable, though different approaches will be necessary in beginning and maintaining your special club. If you decide to work with all boys, for example, be aware active games might need to be incorporated into your meetings.

You'll need to advertise your club in some way, whether it's through informal conversation with other parents or through flyers distributed at the public library or (with permission!) your child's school. As a teacher I was able to draw from my own students and those in other grades. This gave me an advantage but wasn't a guarantee kids would attend.

Be sure to determine when and where you'll meet and keep this as consistent as possible. If at all possible, print this information and make sure to distribute it not only to the children but to parents, as well. My after-school groups met on Thursdays, the youngest group on the first Thursday of the month, the middle group on the second, and the oldest group on the third.

Be prepared to remind kids of this commitment. More than once. While teaching, I was able to keep the date of our next meeting listed with daily assignments. I'd mention it briefly every day. Did kids forget? Absolutely. Several usually had to call home the day of the meeting to let parents know. When I was no longer teaching, this was more of a challenge. I asked the dates to be listed in the school calendar and newsletter. Teachers posted flyers in their classrooms. Kids still forgot. If you're the only adult involved in your group, be prepared for this. Even responsible kids sometimes flake out. It's just the way things sometimes work.

Picking Books

If you're running a thematic group (fantasy, contemporary young adult, classics, historical fiction), your list will be easier to form. Book selection can be done as a group or on your own. I found, as the only adult in the groups I led, that it was easiest to pick all books beforehand. This way I was able to familiarize myself with titles (or re-familiarize), I could make sure kids had access to books, and I could plan ahead.

My school generously donated money to buy inexpensive paperbacks of the titles I'd selected. Of course, if I had more kids than books, some chose to purchase their own copies or check them out at the library (in situations like this, I'd hold a lottery for the copies I had to share). Planning ahead allowed parents to buy books, request books at the library, and schedule after-school activities with book club in mind.

Next month: Running a book club meeting

I received word that one of last month's links didn't work. Here they are again:

Where in the World Are We Reading

Travel Log

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Meet the Spellbinders

Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.
Website
Blog





Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Acts of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.







Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.


UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS

Saturday, January 14, 2012
2:00-3:30pm
Launch Party for Caroline Starr Rose's debut novel, May B.

Alamosa Books
8810 Holly Ave.
Suite D
Albuquerque, NM 87122

Sunday, April 29th, 2012
9-5 Preconference Session
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
Join us for this all day session
featuring 11 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose

Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"
Carolee Dean

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Best Picture Books of 2011!

2011-11-28T07:35:00.001-08:00

O
November 21, 2011

November Book Buzz is for Picture Books!

Best Picture Books of 2011!

We're talking and schmoozing picture books this month so here is a list you don't want to miss, all brand new this year. Will one of these win the Caldecott Award for Best Picture Book/Illustrations? It will be interesting to see in Dallas, Texas January 20-24 at the Midwinter ALA meeting.

Have any of you read these titles? Which books are your favorite? Which books will you run out and purchase for your school or library or classroom - or for your own children and grandchildren? Happy Reading!

Retellings of the classic Aesop's fable of good deeds rewarded are legion, but few are as elegantly and richly conceived as this mother-son collaboration.

Everything? Believe it. Fisher introduces readers to a wealth of concepts-numbers, letters, colors, shapes, weather, and more--and does so using photographic tableaus made up of vintage toys, knickknacks, and other odds and ends.

With deadpan humor and a hint of wickedness, illustrator Klassen makes his debut as an author with the deceptively simple story of a bear who just wants to find his missing hat.

In this alphabetically audacious romp, the letter E has an accident, and while it is recovering, the letter O takes its place (with comedic results). The pages are jam-packed with so many linguistic puns, acronyms, and jokes.

Nelson raises the bar in this ambitious account of the African-American experience, from slavery to the present day. Pairing luminous, electric paintings with a grandmotherly narrative voice, it's as unflinching, personal, and dignified account.

Wordless stories have a magic all their own, and that's especially true of Nolan's maritime fantasy, in which a child's sand castle is besieged by the tide, setting in motion a dramatic escape for the miniature family that lives within.

Rocco's joyfully illustrated story of an urban family drawn together by a power outage tingles with the magic of a night lit only by candles and stars, while reminding readers that the technologies that connect us can sometimes keep us apart, too.

Savage's wordless game of cat-and-mouse (or rather walrus-and-zookeeper) demonstrates how much one can do with a few simple forms, some repetition, and an effortlessly charming tusked hero.

A boy wanders through his great-grandfather's topiary garden, the sculpted hedges reflecting the elder's story, from a rural childhood to war and finding love. Lane's young narrator serves as a poignant reminder that the things we create-stories, memories, art (in whatever form it might take)--endure long after we do.

Tullet's simple and playfully interactive offering, which invites readers to press, shake, and turn it-and see the results on the next page. Books like this prove that there will always be a place for well-executed, and proudly low-tech picture books.

Friendship is friendship, whether with another child or with a blue toy alligator, and Willems treats the highs and lows of Amanda and her alligator's relationship with honesty and humor with Mo Willems exceptional talent.

Join Our Mailing List!

Meet the Spellbinders

Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well
as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing
workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please
visit her website
to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.

Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Acts of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to www.caroleedean.com.




Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.

Website

Blog

UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS





Sunday, April 29th, 2012
9-5 Preconference Session
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
Join us for this all day session
featuring 11 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose

Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"
Carolee Dean

Forward email

This email was sent to kglittle@msn.com by spellbinders@peifercomputing.net |

Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy.

Spellbinders | 3 YAF Authors | Albuquerque | NM | 87181