NONFICTION PIZZA, Classroom Project

Sample for Nonfiction Pizza Book Report Project

At a recent school visit a third grade teacher shared with me a project she was using to help her students learn about the structure of a nonfiction book and to identify text features and text structure. It was a “Nonfiction Pizza Book Report” with parts cut out from a paper template, downloadable from a site called Teachers Pay Teachers. For the sample to show the students, the teacher made a “pizza” that describes a book about the city of Los Angeles. The crust represents the finished book, mushrooms represent facts, salami is for text features, and mozzarella clumps are used  for the main topic, author’s purpose and key words. Structure is key in the creation of a good nonfiction book or a school report. I thought this was an excellent project to help students visualize the process of organizing and writing a nonfiction book. When everything works together, the end result can be delicious!

Sailing the High Seas of the Publishing World

The following is an excerpt from a talk that I gave at the SCBWI-LA Writer’s Day in 2006.

I know almost nothing about sailing and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been on a sailboat. But one thing that has always fascinated me is how boats manage to sail against the wind. It’s easy to see how one sails with the wind–you simply stick out your sail and the wind pushes you forward. But how do you get back where you came from–or how do you reach a destination that is in the opposite direction?
The answer is that you tack. You sail across the wind in a zigzag pattern. You reach your goal by aiming elsewhere. And sometimes, as you are zigging and zagging, you make new discoveries along the way, like the ancient Polynesian navigators who sailed in one direction from their homeland in central Polynesia and found Hawaii, and went in the other direction and discovered a tiny speck of land now called Easter Island, or Rapanui.
Tacking against the wind also has its application in writing.  Whether one is an already published writer or hoping to be published, the most direct route to your next book may be to change your course and try something new. It could be something fairly simple such as changing your point of view or writing for a different age group, or it could be a more drastic change such as adopting a while new format or genre.

Today, nearly ten years after I gave that talk, the publishing world continues to evolve. The key is to evolve along with it, while staying true to yourself.

THE WRITING PROCESS: Where Do I Write?

At my desk in my office

A number of years ago I moved to a new house and got a new office.  One of its attractions is that it has a huge closet for storing my many boxes with the research material for my books.  In many ways I have found my perfect work space--it is no longer in the center of the house, it is light and airy with a view of the garden, it has room for desks, filing cabinets and bookshelves, and it has plenty of space for the proliferating equipment of the modern home office.  My desk and office are where I conduct the business of writing.  Yet, when I am in the midst of a writing project, my favorite place to work is still at the dining room table.  Not only does the table have a comfortable familiarity, but it takes me away from the distractions of my office and gives me the space I need to write.

FICTION OR NONFICTION: What's Best for Your Story? UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, March 1st, 2014

My Writer's Program T-shirt!

Enrollment for Winter Quarter classes in the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program opens November 4, 2013.  I will be teaching a one-day class on Saturday, March 1, 2014: Fiction or Nonfiction, What’s Best for Your Story?  The class will focus on writing for school age children ages 5 to 12.  I have been teaching in the Writer’s Program since 1981 and have the distinction of being in the program the longest of the current instructors!

Here’s a description of the class:
Shaping your idea and turning it into a book just right for your intended audience involves many choices. This workshop will cover both fiction and nonfiction techniques and how to use them to create a book for children that is both fun and informative and just right for the child and just right for you. From picture books to chapter books, we will discuss developing an idea into a framework for a book or article, choosing a point of view, writing lively prose, and conducting research. Special attention will be paid to organizing material; selling your story to trade, school, library, and magazine markets; and editing your work.
Go to the UCLA Extension website for information about enrolling.

DO YOU WANT TO BE A WRITER? Read to Write

Caroline, Age 10

When I was ten years old, I met a girl who loved to read as much as I did.  We went to the library together, checked out books, and talked about what we had read.  One day we decided to have a project:  we would read all the books in the public library!  Week by week we systematically went through the library shelves pulling out the books we hadn't read. Did we read all the books in the library?  Not quite, but we read a lot.  And I realize now that my love of books that began when I was a child was the perfect preparation for becoming a writer.

If you want to be a writer, there is no better way to get started than to be familiar with the books that have already been written. My basic words of advice to aspiring writers are to read as much as possible.  It is also important to know your audience.  Writing for a three year old has different challenges from writing for a ten year old. Go to a bookstore or library and browse the shelves.  Look at how long the books are, the relationship of text to illustration, the variety of topics for each age level.  Try reading the text aloud and listen to how it sounds.

Of course, every writer must also write and, like every other skill, writing improves with practice.  As you work on your stories, use what you've learned through your reading to improve your writing!

The Writing Process: My Idea Box

So you want to write a children's book!  Ideas for books are everywhere. They come from our own interests and experiences, both as adults and when we were children.  They can be found in all kinds of written material including books, newspapers, magazines, museum and travel brochures--even junk mail!  Here are some good sources of ideas.

•     Television, radio, movies, the internet.

•     Children’s questions.

•     Your observations of children at school and at play.

•     School curriculum needs.

•     Parenting needs.

    I’ve learned to keep my “idea antennae” up all the time because I never know when something will trigger an idea that might later develop into a topic for a book.  It might be a conversation with friend, an interaction with a child at a school, or a news item on the radio.  I always keep a pen and paper handy so that I can quickly jot down a few words when the idea is fresh.
    On the shelf above my desk I have my “idea box” in which I toss notes scribbled on bits of paper, articles cut out of the newspaper or torn out of magazines, brochures collected on vacations and anything else that might be relevant to a future book project.  Periodically I go through the box and select a few items to develop into possible books.   I already have enough ideas to last for at least two more lifetimes, and since I’ll never be able to use them all, my challenge is to try to select the best ones.

Author Chair: LA's Best Young Author Program

Every author needs a special chair!  I found one waiting for me when I arrived at Micheltorena School in Los Angeles last week to meet with kindergarten, first and second grade students in the LA’s Best Young Author program.  Each one of the students had a book in progress and was becoming a young author and illustrator.  In my presentation I shared how my process of creating a book is much like theirs.  At the end of the hour I asked the students to share some of their favorite pages from their books.  I was impressed by their lively examples, their use of comparisons, their imaginations and their overall creativity! Here are some examples from their books:
 

I like dinosaurs because they play with me.
I am riding my skateboard because I do tricks.
I am a dancer because I practice and practice, and then I become one, and I show every body.
My sister is like a star.  She is pretty like a butterfly.  She is smart and I love her.
Dedicated to: my Dogs and cousins and Brother and Mom and Dad and Tia and sister and friends.
I am growing up to be a Firefighter because I help people.

The author visits to students in the LA’s Best Young Author program are funded by Target and coordinated through California Readers. California Readers is a group of educators, librarians, authors, artists, parents, book sellers, and business representatives whose mission is to connect California children, young adults, and their school communities with California authors, artists, and their creative works.

The Writing Process: Beginnings and Endings

    Beginnings: The beginning of your book creates the first impression.  If you don’t grab your reader’s attention on the opening page, it doesn’t matter what else you say. In the opening of your book, you want to make the reader eager to find out more.  At the same time you establish your tone, style and the level of complexity.  You are telling the reader what to expect.   There are many ways to start a book, but I like to set a dramatic scene that pulls the reader in and then tells what the book is going to be about.  Here’s the beginning of my book, El Nino, Stormy Weather for People and Wildlife:
    For nine straight days in January 1995 rain poured down on the usually sunny state of California, causing floods, mud slides, and power outages.  During the same period on the opposite coast flowers began to sprout, bears woke up from their winter naps, and people wore shorts as unusual springlike temperatures warmed the air.  Both of these atypical weather events were due to El Nino, a powerful tropical ocean current that periodically disrupts weather all over the globe.
     Endings: The final paragraph of the book is your opportunity to leave the reader with one last impression.  Endings are always hard to write, but in the same way that the opening of the book told the reader what to expect, the ending tells the reader what he or she just learned. In all my books I like to end with a thought that places the topic of the book in a larger context.   Here is the final sentence of El Nino:
   As scientists find out about El Nino, La Nina, and the Southern Oscillation, they are learning how ocean warming that begins in the tropical Pacific is one of the most important keys to understanding the earth’s weather.

   (El Nino: Stormy Weather for People and Wildlife (Clarion, 1996 and 2000) can be found in your library and online.)

The Writing Process: One Idea Leads to Another

I frequently discover ideas for a new books as I am working on other projects.  What is mentioned as a passing fact in one book later turns out to be the main theme of another project.  For instance, in my book, The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde, I wrote a short section about petroglyphs, or rock art.  I was fascinated both by the stone images that had been carved into the rock and by the fact that they have endured for hundreds of years.  A few years later, as I was leafing through a publication that I receive as part of my membership in a local museum, I learned of a rock art site in the California desert where thousands of petroglyphs lined the canyon walls.   I arranged a visit and discovered the subject for a new book, Stories in Stone: Rock Art Pictures by Ancient Americans.   Of course, the book wasn’t just about petroglyphs, but the stone images provided me with  a theme that allowed me to discuss the people who made them, how they did it, and what the symbols may represent.
(Both The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde and Stories in Stone are out of print.  You can look for them in your library.)

Easter Island: Captions Add Information

Perhaps the most exotic site I’ve ever visited is Easter Island in the South Pacific, where I went to photograph and research my book, Easter Island: Giant Stone Statues Tell of a Rich and Tragic Past. Although I had read about the giant statues and the people who made them a thousand years ago, nothing prepared me for standing in the ancient quarry amid dozens of half carved statues that never made it to their seaside platforms or climbing to the top of the cliff where the birdman rituals were once performed. My personal experience on Easter Island was important for bringing a sense of immediacy to my book, but the cost of time and travel meant that I could only spend a short time there. After I got home I needed to do extensive museum and library research as well. It took me a year to collect everything I needed and when I was ready to write I had a box bursting with notes, brochures, books, tapes, and other research materials. My book was for children ages ten and up so I knew I was limited to a manuscript of about 5000 words. Several months later, after distilling the mass of material I had collected to its essential points, the manuscript was ready to turn in to my editor.

The agony of being a nonfiction writer is that the space allotted for text in the book is never enough for all that wonderful information that was discovered in the research. This is particularly true when writing for children since the text and page length of the book are relatively short. Even if I were able to include every detail, I don’t want to overwhelm the reader by providing more than he or she wants to know. But there are several ways I supplement the information included in the main text and enrich the overall impact of the book: through captions, sidebars, charts, maps, time lines, projects, list of further resources, author notes and acknowledgments.

Since most books for children are widely illustrated, there are ample opportunities to add information through captions. Minimally the caption needs to identify the illustration and show how it ties into the text, but often there is room to elaborate. For instance, in my book Easter Island, a scenic photo showing several cultivated fields has the following caption: View from the crater Puna Pau. Now, as in ancient times, much of Easter Island’s land is tilled for agriculture. (Captions are almost always written in the present tense) Throughout the book I used captions not only to add information but to tie the photos and text together to create a more unified presentation.

Note:  You can read more about Easter Island at my October 1, 2012 post on my travel blog The Intrepid Tourist.

The Puzzle of Books in Tiny Lights

I love to do crossword puzzles.  I love the way the words fit together to complete the pattern of the puzzle grid. I love figuring out the puns and wordplay that lead to the correct answers. I love learning new words and making connections that I hadn't thought of before. In many ways, writing a book is similar to the process of solving a crossword puzzle.  Several years ago I wrote a short article about this for the SCBWI-LA chapter for their newsletter, Kite Tales.  When I mentioned this to my friend Susan Bono, editor of Tiny Lights, a journal of personal narrative, she asked if she could share this in the section of the magazine called Guiding Lights.  It has been posted this week  If you like to do crossword puzzles, or even if you don't, you can find out about my book writing process by reading the article.
Tiny Lights is a wonderful resource for writers and readers.  And, you can stay connected to the Tiny Lights online community via a monthly email which includes information about the monthly Searchlights & Signal Flares column, quarterly Flash in the Pan postings, and the annual essay contest, classes, services, and more! News & Notes makes for good reading and great writing. It’s monthly, spam-free and free. Go to the subscribe section at the Tiny Lights website to sign up.

Young Authors at LA's Best

Welcome Banner at Arlington Heights

During the past school year children in the LA’s Best after school program at 33 Los Angeles schools participated in a Young Author’s program.  Children learned about getting and developing ideas and wrote their own books.  In coordination with California Readers, each participating school had a visit from a published author.  I visited six schools and was impressed by the enthusiasm of the children and how proud they were of their own books.  Even Kindergarten, First and Second Graders made their own books.  They learned that like most writers, their best material comes out of their own lives.  The theme of their books was “I Am...”  As I went around the room to meet the authors and admire each book I learned that “I am a good drawer,” “I am a good drummer,” “I am a good sister,” “I am good at basketball,” and “I am a good reader.”  Each book was different and expressed the personality of the author.  The children not only wrote their books but illustrated them as well.  Each book also had a title page, copyright page and a dedication.  I wish I had had a Young Author's program when I was growing up!

LA's BEST - Better Educated Students for Tomorrow - is a nationally recognized after school education, enrichment and recreation program serving more than 28,000 children with the greatest needs and fewest resources throughout the City of Los Angeles. LA's BEST After School Enrichment Program provides a safe haven for children ages 5 to 12 at 186 elementary school sites each day during the critical hours after school — at no cost to parents. Established in 1988, LA's BEST is a partnership including the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the private sector. LA’s BEST is part of Beyond the Bell, whose mission is to ensure that all children and youth in LAUSD have access to high quality, safe and supervised academic, enrichment, and recreation programs that inspire learning and achievement beyond the regular school day.

Bobcats: The Writing Process, Learning from Real Life

I love getting letters from readers.  They often tell me about their own experiences with animals.  They also want to know how I learn about animals for my books.
Recently I got a letter from a fifth grade student in Arizona.  She wrote:  I read your story Bobcats. I simply love it! I want to know how you got your ideas. Do you know all that information or did someone tell you? Did you ever see bobcat in real life? My dad is a mailman, he saw a bobcat in real life. He said it was amazing. That bobcat didn’t even move!

Here’s my reply:
I'm glad you enjoyed reading my book about bobcats. I learned about bobcats at the Living Desert Reserve in Palm Desert, California. The bobcats live in a large natural enclosure with good views where people can watch them. Even though the bobcats are in a zoo, they behave much as they would in the wild. I also got information for the book by doing research in my library and by talking to experts. I once saw a bobcat in the wild. It was sitting very quietly on a rock watching a deer. I was surprised to see how big it was.  One of the things I like best about writing books about animals is that part of my job is observing animals in real life.

Bobcats is an Earlybird Nature Book published by Lerner in 1998.  It is out of print but you can look for it in your library.

Curious Students

Recently, I received a letter from students in a third grade class who wanted to know more about my writing process.  Here are their questions and my answers:
1. When do you do your writing?
I usually write in the morning when I am fresh. When I am not writing, I am reading and doing research for my books. 
2. Do you write persuasive stories?
No. Almost all of my books are nonfiction books about animals.  
3. What do you do when you are stuck or don't feel like writing?
If I am stuck, I put my story away for the day. Usually, when I go back to it the next day I find ways to get unstuck. If I don't feel like writing, I sometimes take a walk, work in my garden, or read a book. 
4. Do you have stories for each season?
No, I write all the time.  
5.  Where do you keep all your writing ideas?
When I get an idea, I write it down on a piece of paper and put it in a box on my desk. Then, when I'm ready to start a new project I look at all my ideas and choose one. 
6. Which part of the writing process is the easiest/hardest for you (pre-writing, drafting, revising, or editing) and why?
The hardest part of the writing process is the first draft because I have so much to say and it is hard to get it all down in the right order. I usually forget things and then add them in the revising and editing process. That's my favorite part of writing. As I revise, I make small changes to make the story better. When I am finished, the story is exactly the way I want it!