If you’d like to write for the educational market or just learn the differences between beginning readers, this is the perfect book. Nancy explains in detail the structures of the following: pre-emergent readers, emergent readers, easy readers, advanced readers, first chapter books, and hi-lo readers. Whew! She also touches on writing for children’s magazines and how to write a rebus.
If you want to know the nitty-gritty of this world of beginning readers, Nancy starts with the history of how it all came to be, reading levels, standards, word lists, etc…
Each reader section gives concrete examples of the structure: vocabulary, number of words in each sentence, characters, dialogue, plot, setting, topics and themes. She also lists mentor texts or samples of each kind of book. She shows you how it all works together under very tight guidelines by the publisher. I know. I’ve done it!
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| This is a spread from my guided reading book Flamingo’s Tricks, a phonics reader published by Lakeshore Learning. |
I appreciate Nancy’s expertise in sharing tips and strategies along with little assignments you can do to practice writing for this age group.
The back of the book has a wonderful glossary. When I started writing in 2008, I knew none of the writer lingo and was constantly asking Nancy questions, like why do they call publishing houses a house? What is a royalty check? So this is very helpful for beginning writers as well.
So if you’re interested in writing beginning readers or beginning chapter books, check out this book! Writing for this age group is so much fun!
If you’d like to get a feel for Nancy’s book, click here to read the transcript of a workshop she led on beginning readers for the Institute of Children’s Literature, March 2013.
