NCTE schedule

Hi everyone,

Sandy Asher would like for you know about an event coming up that might be of interest to you. Here’s the scoop. https://epa.scbwi.org/events/poetry-day-in-lancaster-pa . I know Sandy (and who doesn’t) so we know this will be a great event or she wouldn’t be involved in it. If you have questions, contact Lindsay Bandy lkbandy84@yahoo.com

On other matters, my schedule is now in place for NCTE this fall in St. Louis. On Friday, November 17, Mary Jo Fresch and I will make a one hour fifteen minute presentation about how to prepare students to research their subject before writing about it. Immediately following, we’ll sign our new Scholastic book, which will be out just in time for the conference, 7 KEYS TO RESEARCH FOR WRITING SUCCESS. Here’s a look at the cover.
7 Keys_cov_tf-rev
On Saturday I’ll sign copies of NOW YOU SEE THEM, NOW YOU DON’T at the Charlesbridge booth from 11:00 – 12:00 then go to the Authors’ Luncheon from 12:30 – 2:15. I’m not speaking at that event but I’ll be at a sponsored table (Thanks Charlesbridge!) with free books for ticketed guests who join me for lunch. NOW YOU SEE THEM is one of NCTE’s picks this year for Notable Books of Poetry for Children. My next title with Charlesbridge, A PLACE TO START A FAMILY, won’t be out yet but promotional pieces will be available. The pub date is January 6.

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Every book starts with a “what if”

ANNOUNCEMENT: Kathy Temean is featuring Giles Laroche today on her blog at https://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2017/08/05/illustrator-saturday-giles-laroche/#comment-77773 . I hope you’ll go check it out. Giles is the artist-half of NOW YOU SEE THEM, NOW YOU DON’T and A PLACE TO START A FAMILY. He gives a good, thoughtful interview.

Hi everyone,

My good friend and colleague Mary Jo Fresch had one of those “what if” moments yesterday that could lead to another collaboration for the education market. I love working with her and hope this will lead to our 7th book together.

Mary Jo and Hank and Sandy and I will be on a trip together next month but I’m guessing we won’t get much writing done then. Can’t even cross the trip off to research. But maybe we’ll sneak-talk about a book while we’re together.

Here’s a poem that sprang from one of our earlier efforts.

Need a Bigger Tank

I put two guppies
in a tank.

One was Bob.
One was Frank.

One of them played
a little prank.

Bob’s a girl
or else it’s Frank.

(C) 2013 by David L. Harrison
Reprinted from LEARNING THROUGH POETRY: Level D
Short Vowels
Shell Education

A good Monday

Hi everyone,

Yesterday Mary Jo Fresch and I placed an article with the Missouri Reader for the Fall 2017 issue. We also moved a step closer to finishing the book with Scholastic. Mostly all it needs now is to tidy up teacher and student input. Our editor plans to start some early buzz before much longer so that was good news too.

I spent the day making small changes in the desert story and finished just at 6:00. Today I start again on page one and do it again. This will be my final time through so when I complete this one I’ll be ready to send it away. I’m really happy about that!

I love beginnings

Hi everyone,

I agreed to start another project yesterday, this one with two other poets. As always, beginnings are exciting and filled with anticipation of challenges ahead. We hope to finish the submission draft by the end of May, which seems reasonable. My current manuscripts in process should be finished or at rest by the end of April so whatever work is left on this new one should be doable in a sprint during May.

For now I’m focusing on two other projects especially. Mary Jo Fresch and I are still waiting for teacher and student input for the book we’re doing for Scholastic. During the Children’s Literature Festival, several teachers took my card so I hope to hear from some of them soon. And I’m well into the revisions for my desert story. I started on Monday and have made good progress this week. If the pace continues, I should finish it before the end of April.

Calling for teachers

Hi everyone,

SONY DSC

Mary Jo Fresch and I have been at work on a book for classroom teachers for quite some time and have finally arrived at a point where we need to work with some teachers who can provide samples of student writing to go in the book. The target audience is grades 3-6 and the subject is about how to help students prepare to write before they start writing. There are a number of good books in the market about finding ideas, drafting, revising, etc. but few give appropriate space to the importance of researching the subject before writing the first word.

Between us we have a list of teachers to turn to for input and we recently sent them an outline of classroom activities they can try with their students and submit the results for our book. Some of them responded to an earlier call for help so we have their comments and samples in hand. One problem we encounter in situations like this is that teachers plan their year in advance and few of them can rearrange their lessons to accommodate folks outside their classrooms. Our deadline to complete this book is the end of this month. Obviously we won’t hit it, but we need to keep moving.

So this is a call for teachers who like the idea of having their names and samples of their students’ work in a Scholastic book and are in a position to work with us on a quick turnaround basis. If you know of other teachers who might have an interest, please share this with them and urge them to get in touch. We’ll gladly forward an outline of the book with specific activities that we’d like to include. We won’t overload anyone. No teacher should need to tackle more than one or two of them.

Thanks!

David