This time around, my fellow TeachingAuthors and I share the myriad
of ways we keep keepin’ on.
Zeena and Joann underscored the importance of Patience, Persistence
and Perseverance.
Each of these abilities could be my middle name. 😊
Indeed, upon the sale of my first picture book, I proudly declared
myself The Susan Lucci of Children’s Books.
My “Rx for Moving Forward (Upright and Satisfied)" is but one
of my many posts meant to keep writers writing.
Except for the reference to The Oprah Show, all references and
resources remains true today.
I’m all about Writer Resources – for my students, my writers, myself
and our Readers. Today I share three, to keep you – and/or your
students - keepin’ on.
Remember: the name of the game is WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!
Young Writers will certainly delight in Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s
collection of poems - appropriately titled Write! Write! Write!
(Wordsong/Boyds Mills & Kane, 2020), though truly writers of all
ages will also find the fare delicious. The twenty-two poems take
“the new writer just learning how” through the ins and outs and ups
and downs of any writer’s life and process. Think: ideas (growing
like peaches), patience, revision, edits and more. The writer’s
first discovered “WOW!’ in time translates to POWER, and isn’t that
grand? Ryan O’Rourke’s illustrations capture the wonder of it all.
“WRITE. RIGHT. RITE.”– a “GRAB THE MIC: Tell Your Story” video
series, gifts Young Writers with a whole lot of fun-filled ways
to engage with Jason Reynolds, the 2020-2021 National Ambassador
of Young People’s Literature. The series aims to teach
“authentic” - not “correct” or “exact” – expression. In each
video, the award-winning author and singular storyteller first
tells a story in his own inimitable style, then offers a prompt
to keep writers writing, always making sure to brainstorm
“get-you-going” questions. Imagine a new writing device. Create
a bobble head. Take an imaginary road trip. Write the first line
of a story. Thirty in all, ending with Create an award for
yourself!
And, every writer needs to sit down with a cup o’ Something, then
click here to watch and listen to Jason grab the mic himself and
present the 2021 Zena Sutherland Lecture. Lots of WOW! and lots
of POWER! as Jason shares an unforgettable story about his father,
brilliantly linking its greater meaning to how we need to keep all
children readingreadingreading, and thus writingwritingwriting.
FYI: Maurice Sendak presented the very first Zena Sutherland
Lecture in 1981. In the video, The Horn Book editor Roger Sutton
shares more about this most distinguished, life-changing professor
and review editor in whose name these lectures are given. The Fall
issue of The Horn Book will reprint Jason’s Lecture.
Finally, Christie at Wondering and Wandering hosts a special and
surprise Poetry Friday today, celebrating Mary Lee Hahn and her
37 years of teaching – and growing – writers and poets. You can
participate by contributing a poem to honor Mary Lee at
#PoemsforMaryLee and #MarvelousMaryLee.
The last lines of Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s “Anything Can Grow”
from Write! Write! Write! seem more than appropriate for Mary Lee.
“I can turn day into night,
I can do this when I write
with my hand in black on white.
Anything can grow.”
Mary Lee Hahn. Yet one more Writer Resource to keep us keepin’ on!
Happy Resourcing!
Esther Hershenhorn
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