A Writer's Story
by Bauer, Marion Dane. (Clarion, 1995 ISBN 0 395 72094 X) Nonfiction. 134 pages. Grades 5+.
This book was reviewed by Carol Otis Hurst in Teaching K-8 Magazine.
Review
Marion Dane Bauer has taught writing for many years in addition to being the writer of many fine books for children. She wrote an earlier book about writing, What's Your Story, but this one concentrates on how some writers, especially herself, use bits of life experience and observed behavior to create characters and events which ring true for an audience. Her advice to fledgling authors about daring to be different, calling on pieces of hurt or rejection to fulfill them in writing is sensitive and well-thought out. There is autobiographical information here, but the concentration is on how one author creates her work.
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Spilling Ink: A Young Writer's Handbook by Anne Mazer. Illustrated by Matt Phelan. Nonfiction. 288 pages.
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There are specific suggestions here but the entire work comes off more in the style of coaching or of a veteran sending back stories from their own experiences. It has just the right tone of encouraging and inspiring without intimidating the reader. It blows lightly but quite decisively on the embers of inspiration. Read More.
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