multimodal · Voices from the Community

Supporting Multimodal Composition in the Writing Workshop: Simple Ways to Begin

In this guest blog post by Angela Stockman, she contends that writing is and always has been multimodal. Check out her ideas for easy ways to begin supporting multimodal composition in your workshop.

Slice of Life Story Challenge

Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge

Join us today for the Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge!

community · gifted education · Joy

“I Feel Like a Real Writer:” Supporting Gifted Students in Writing

Teaching writing to gifted students isn’t the smooth, easy path some might suppose. Gifted kids often present a range of academic and affective needs. How can we encourage joyful and confident writing in this special population?

Author Spotlight Series · immigration · picture book

How My Immigrant Experiences Inspires My Book Ideas

Aya Khalil shares how she got ideas for her award-winning picture book, THE ARABIC QUILT, and experiences that inspired it. She talks about the importance of telling own voices and immigrant stories.

Author Spotlight Series · middle grade novel

Writing Elephants and Jungles in Suburban England

Middle grade author Nizrana Farook lives in the leafy English county of Hertfordshire in the UK. Find out how she came to write a tropical adventure of jewels, elephants, bandits, and jungles.

Author Spotlight Series

SHOWTIME!

The biggest surprise about becoming an author and illustrator has been just how much standing up in front of hundreds of children I would have to do. Then the second biggest surprise has been how much I would come to LOVE it.

Author Spotlight Series · middle grade novel · neurodiversity

Writing, Mind-Blindness & Parenting a Neurodiverse Child

Author Victoria Bond discusses how aspects of her son’s autism helped her to see some of her own blind spots while editing the last novel in the Zora & Me Trilogy, The Summoner.

Author Spotlight Series · illustrations · multilingual · picture book

The Smile Shop: A Tribute to Language and London

Award-winning author-illustrator Satoshi Kitamura details the inspiration for his picture book The Smile Shop. He explains how his introduction to the Spanish language planted the idea in his head and how the book is a tribute to the London he knew and loved when he was living there and developing his career as an artist.

Slice of Life Story Challenge

Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge

Join us today for the Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge!

Author Spotlight Series · biography · picture book

Embracing “First Words”: Writing FLYING HIGH: The Story of Gymnastics Champion Simone Biles

Michelle Meadows provides a look at her writing process for her new picture book biography about Simone Biles, gymnastics champion and Olympic superstar.

Author Spotlight Series · georgia heard · poetry

My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness

Poet and educator Georgia Heard discusses My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness and talks about how both poetry and mindfulness invite us to slow down, be present, listen more deeply, while quieting our restless minds.

Author Spotlight Series

Announcing the 6th Annual #TWTBlog Author Spotlight Series

For the next week, picture book and middle-grade authors will take over #TWTBlog to share their thoughts on writing, their writing processes, and the path to publishing with you. Check out their daily posts for book + author chat giveaways!