Writers pause to notice the obvious and obscure moments in life. They preserve their memories in their notebooks by jotting words, tucking away photographs, ticket stubs, and other items that have left an imprint. Each of these items waits inside the notebook until the writer pulls them out and forms them into a story to be shared.
Mentor texts can nurture the relationship between a writer and a notebook. Some mentor texts help to illustrate the attentiveness of a writer by modeling how writers notice the world. An important aspect of a writer’s work is to find and share the stories that exist within their daily lives. These texts model how we can do that.
I hope the books here will hook your writers helping students see even the smallest of moments are catalysts for a story.
Further Reading on Nurturing the Relationship Between a Writer and a Notebook:
Lessons From Characters Who Are Writers: Discovering The Writer’s Life by Beth Moore
Sharing Our Notebooks by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater
The Amazing Search for Joseph Cornell by Candace Fleming
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION:
- This giveaway is for a free 20-minute classroom Skype session with author Amy Ludwig VanDerwater whose popular blog Sharing Our Notebooks is an excellent
resource for notebookers of all ages and interests. - For a chance to win this Skype session with Amy, please leave a comment about this or any blog post in this blog series by Sunday, November 11th at 6:00 p.m. EST. Betsy Hubbard will use a random number generator to pick the winner’s commenter number. His/her name will be announced in the ICYMI blog post for this series on Monday, November 12th.
- Please leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment so Betsy can link you up with Amy if you win.
- If you are the winner of the Skype session, Betsy will email you with the subject line of TWO WRITING TEACHERS – AMY LV. Please respond to her e-mail with your mailing address within five days of receipt. A new winner will be chosen if a response isn’t received within five days of the giveaway announcement.
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
Deb – These are great titles, especially since theyr are all focused on making the “ideas” visible to our youngest learners. Thanks!
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What a great post and a great series! I anxious to get my hands on these books.
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Thank you for these mentor text recommendations — I’ve asked my school librarian to order them for me. Perfect for my personal narrative unit!
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Deb, even as an 8th grade teacher these are four terrific books to share with my students as they collect writing and reading ideas in their WRNotebooks. It is so important that they hear again and again, we collect to have an abundance of ideas from which to draw, never knowing, but trusting, we will be able to use those fragments of thinking some day. Thanks so much.
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Linda,
Thank you for stopping by to read and taking the time to leave a comment! We all learn so much from you!
I agree, even in 8th grade, students need to hear the importance of the message of collecting. Your students might find particular interest in The Amazing Collection of Joey Cornell by Candace Fleming. Jimmy collected random items, it wasn’t until he was much older that Jimmy began to see the connection between the items and then the purpose of the items revealed themselves to Jimmy. It is a beautiful book
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Thank you, Deb. I will look for that book. Picture books have so much to offer to every reader– young or older. I learn so much from you. Thanks for all the writing and sharing that you do.
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Thank you for this post. We actually have a unit on the writing process (the possibilites for each of us) where the notebook is the centerpiece. Outside of sharing my own entries, it’s nice to know there are some mentor texts to share with the kids. Would the book “Ish” fit this category of collecting and process?
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I think “Ish” just may fit! How would you present it to the kids? What do you think about “The Word Collector” by Peter Reynolds as well? So many possibilities! Aren’t we lucky?!
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We are a writing classroom. We would love a Skype with Amy.
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I love this post and the mentor texts you’ve shared!!! Writers “save” ideas and generate more of them. A wonderful gift for young writers of all ages!.
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