May has bloomed, summer's a peekin' around the corner, and your meager funds for writing classes/workshops are all designated. What to do? Join two wonderful Facebook groups, Debut PB Study Group and Word by Word Book Club.
Study for free with these two active, closed FB groups! Meg Miller is the administrator for Word by Word and group founder Margaret Chiu Greanias Joanne Sher, Debbie Bernstein LaCroix, Julianna Lee, and Rene Traxel head up administration at Debut PB.
Word by Word boasts 209 members and was created to study books like Ann Whitford Paul's book WRITING PICTURE BOOKS. Meg notes how much easier it is to push through these wonderful resources with others in tow. Under the group's banner you'll find past Q & A with Linda Ashman and Nancy I. Sanders, and in the "files" section is a list of early chapter books we recommend along with Ann Whitford Paul's Q & A. Yes, the authors of these seminal craft books come aboard and graciously answer our burning questions as we study the books. Thursdays new chapter summaries are posted by group members and we all chime in with observations and resources to share. Volunteer to lead a chapter and you'll learn even more!
Currently we're discussing Nancy I. Sander's YES, YOU CAN LEARN HOW TO WRITE BEGINNING READERS AND CHAPTER BOOKS. Hope over to Nancy's blog, too, where she is teaching about chapter books to compliment our study!
Over at Debut PB study, you'll join 304 members as we analyze the newest books and also ask questions of the debut authors. The key here is we only review "author-only books," NOT author-illustrators for story structure, page turns, rules broken, showing v. telling, sentence structure, and more!
Recent studies include MADDIE'S FRIDGE by Lois Brandt, BACKHOE JOE by Lori Alexander, and SOPHIE'S SQUASH by Pat Zietlow Miller. Next up is LITTLE MELBA AND HER BIG TROMBONE by Katheryn Russel-Brown.
What I love best about these groups is this:
1. Bite-sized chunks of information to study
2. Others to motivate me to read on and really study
3. Connecting with the authors who share oodles of great info
4. Resources shared by other members.
Enjoy the upcoming summer and I hope to see you at Debut PB and Word by Word!
We know to read mentor text picture books that match our manuscripts, but writers also need to keep up with craft books, their own professional development. I was lucky enough to stumble into a great book and Facebook group, Word by Word Book Club, run by children's writer Meg Miller. We are studying/discussing Linda Ashman's THE NUTS AND BOLTS GUIDE TO WRITING PICTURE BOOKS. You can purchase this book as a PDF, Kindle edition from Amazon or an ePub. It's inexpensive and I find the ePub is a perfect platform for this type of reading. I can highlight, take notes, click live links, it's fabbity-fab! (Gotta confess this is the first e-book I downloaded on my new MacBook Air and I'm loving it.)
I joined the FB group late but it was simple to jump right in on Chapter 6, "Writing the Rollicking Read-Aloud." As a busy writer, it's easy just to dip your toe into any chapter you need. Each chapter has examples, advice from editors and published writers, up-to-date reading list of picture books (mentor texts galore!) and a section entitled "Sharpening Your Tools."
Linda's style of writing is fun, breezy and not pedantic. Here's a short example from chapter 6: ""And, yet, if things go well, one day you will face down that squirmy group of preschoolers. Talk about intimidating. That’s when you find yourself wishing you’d cut out those long, descriptive passages—as lovely and poetic as they may be—and written something a bit shorter and zippier."
Open up that laptop now and get started on a fun, professional mentor text for all picture book writers, regardless of genre! Linda's got it all: humor, subbing, character-driven books, rhyme, voice and point of view! Also, join the Word by Word Book Club on Facebook for great discussions!
