I once had the good fortune to open a letter and discover that award winning author, Jerry Spinelli, was to be my mentor at a writer’s conference. I was thrilled- certain that I had been assigned this amazing author because of my own literary brilliance and couldn’t wait to hear his praise of the first ten [...]

A cousin recently shared with me a literary treasure: the complete archives of The Weekly, a newspaper her mother Flora and a friend wrote and distributed from September through November of 1936. Flora and Mary were the sole proprietors, reporters, editors, and publishers.  Their writing is honest, straightforward and completely charming.   Both [...]

I’m preparing a power point presentation for a series of sessions at NCTM meetings this autumn. My session is: Stories that Count: Literature in the Math Classroom.
In choosing books to include in the session, I have 2 caveats:         

All books aren’t meant for mathematics. Books shouldn’t be “twisted” in order to suit math instruction purposes. [...]

On jumping back into fiction and starting a novel
I’m a writer coming home. I started in fiction. I love its power to move children; to touch them deep and deeper still. I love spinning characters out of the air, building them layer by layer until they rise from the page to walk into the reader’s [...]

Author Partners with Non-Profit for Fun Family Event
A top priority for many parents, librarians and educators is putting more books into the hands of kids, more words into their heads, and more fuel sparking their imaginations. Libraries offer weekend book clubs, teachers give nightly reading assignments, and parents read aloud to their young children [...]

Alice suggested that I post a link to the poem Miss Molly Mop as it appears in Highlights September issue.
http://www.highlightskids.com/Magazine/Sept09/h10909_mollyMop.asp
Highlights has been a favourite of mine forever; seeing my own work appear within its fun filled pages is always a thrill.
You know, as I was writing this I realized that I didn’t include the entire name of the piece, [...]