Around the Web with OAV Authors: February 2016

It’s the fourth Thursday of the month, and that means it’s time for another edition of our blog series highlighting random online sightings of a few of our authors. Let’s go!

You must see this video re-enactment of Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams‘s Zeus and the Thunderbolt of Doom performed by some adorable young fans of the Heroes in Training series.

Speaking of videos, enjoy this trailer for Stealing Popular, one of Trudi Trueit‘s delightful middle grade novels.

Check out Patrick Jennings’s author page at the Scholastic website. You’ll find some interesting biographical information and a handy list of his Scholastic-published titles.

Next, surf to Laurie Ann Thompson’s Simon & Schuster author page, where you can learn a few fun facts (what she thinks about bats, for example) and stay up to date on her future releases with the publisher.

Clare Hodgson Meeker is this month’s featured guest at Janet Lee Carey’s Library Lions Roar blog. Head on over to read about Clare’s childhood library, recent author visits, and more.

On Goodreads, David Patneaude has his own Ask the Author page. Find out how he deals with writer’s block and what he most loves about being a writer. You could even submit your own question — he might just answer it!

Lisa L. Owens occasionally writes supplemental curriculum materials, and here’s “Exploring Friendship with Bridge to Terabithia,” a six-session Grades 4–6 lesson plan she developed for the International Literacy Association’s online database of teacher resources.

And, last but not least, here’s a sampling of Dana Sullivan‘s wonderful illustration work, handpicked by the artist himself!

Illustration of Dana Sullivan, by Dana Sullivan

 

Clare Hodgson Meeker, Author of the Month: Creating Nature Narratives in the Classroom

One of my favorite writing workshops for elementary school–aged kids is to have them create Nature Narratives, or fictional stories starring an animal they choose as the main character.

The first step: Find three facts about their animal that they can use in their story.

Every story has a problem to solve. In the natural world, there are problems of survival: finding food and shelter, dealing with predators, and raising a family. There could also be environmental problems humans have created in their habitat.

What’s the animal’s goal? Several years ago, I wrote a monthly series of nature narrative stories for the National Wildlife Federation’s Your Big Backyard magazine. These stories are now published in ebook form at schoolwide.com. One of them, Up and Away, is about a family of baby spiders that emerge from the egg sac and need to find new homes. Three facts:

 

• Baby spiders spin threads, which they let out into the wind to carry them to a new place.
• Birds are potential predators.
• Hundreds of baby spiders are holed up together in one egg sac.

What are three problems or obstacles along the way to reaching the main character’s goal? The idea here is that each problem provides dramatic tension in the story and every solution to a problem helped move the plot further along toward reaching the main character’s goal.

Using my Up and Away story as an example:

1. The first obstacle is getting out of the egg sac. The solution is that the baby spiders tear open the egg sac together and crawl out.
2. Now they are hungry. But their mother has conveniently left a dead fly next to the egg sac for them.
3. The third problem is that Wendy Wren is flying near where the baby spiders are. With a little help from Olive Opossum (the main character in the series), who distracts Wendy Wren with conversation, the baby spiders are able to scurry up to the top of a bush and balloon off into the wind.

One last plotting idea that really grabs kids’ attention is the darkest moment! Nature Narratives really lend themselves well to the idea of whether the character will survive to reach its goal. The darkest moment in the story is when the main character has a moment of doubt or fear about whether he or she can overcome the last obstacle. This is a great time to make a list of adjectives with the class that describe this emotional cliffhanger in the story.

The climax of the story is when the main character figures out a way to solve this problem and summons the courage to face this last challenge and reach his goal.

Let your imagination go wild and have fun writing Nature Narratives!

Clare Hodgson Meeker is the author of 11 books for young readers, including the Smithsonian Notable Book Lootas, Little Wave Eater: An Orphaned Sea Otter’s Story. Her new chapter book, Rhino Rescue! And More True Stories of Saving Animals is published by National Geographic KIDS and will be available in bookstores starting this month. She works from home on Mercer Island near Seattle, and teaches writing in schools through Seattle Arts and Lectures.

Author site: www.claremeeker.com
Blog: www.claremeeker.com/blog
Twitter: @ClareMeeker

Around the Web with OAV Authors: December 2015

It’s time again to round up random cyberspace sightings of some of our Online Author Visits members:

Deb Lund blogged some insightful advice for any writer trying to add obstacles for characters and remove them from his or her writing life.

A selection from Deb Lund’s Fiction Magic: Card Tips & Tricks for Writers

Here’s a terrific article on how David Patneaude became a writer.

Dia Calhoun welcomed Winter Solstice on her blog.

Patrick Jennings has a Wikipedia page!

The Olive and Max magazine series by Clare Hodgson Meeker was recently released in an ebook format. Read all about it at Clare’s website.

Writing for the SCBWI Team Blog, Martha Brockenbrough filed a great preconference interview with fellow children’s author Kate Messner.

Click through for a peek at some fun images from Trudi Trueit’s launch party for her latest novel.

Trudi Trueit reads from The Sister Solution during its launch.

This is an exciting find: Just this week, Laurie Ann Thompson’s Be a Changemaker won a 2015 Gelett Burgess Award! All the winning books must “stimulate the child’s imagination, as well as inspire them creatively.” Congratulations, Laurie!

Did you know that Lisa L. Owens is also a long-time editor? Here’s an interview she did with Copyediting about why she specializes in children’s publishing.

Check out this video from the Seattle Mandolin Orchestra’s holiday concert. Can you spot Dori Hillestad Butler playing with the group?

That’s a wrap for this month’s OAV author-stalking fun. We’ll be back with more tidbits in the new year!

Around the Web with OAV Authors: October 2015

It’s the fourth Thursday in October, which means it’s time for our monthly roundup of links to a few interesting tidbits featuring Online Author Visits members:

Mother Daughter Book Reviews enjoyed Goldilocks Breaks In, a book in the Grimmtastic Girls series by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams.

Looking to schedule a Skype visit with one of our terrific authors? As always, we encourage you to visit our Author Profiles page to see bios, presentation topics, fee structures, and contact information!

Speaking of virtual visits, a reminder that OAV’s author of the month, Trudi Trueit, is running a contest through October 31 — and one of her prizes is a FREE half-hour Skype visit. You’ll find details about how to enter that giveaway online here.

In this Sounders FC video, Clare Hodgson Meeker discusses her inspiration for the chapter book Soccer Dreams: Playing the Seattle Sounders FC Way.

Registration is still open for Dana Sullivan’s fall graphic novel workshops scheduled at several Seattle-area King County Library System locations.

Ooh, here’s a super-fun find: the trailer for I Remember the Sky, Sony Japan’s film version of Janet Lee Carey’s novel Wenny Has Wings.

And, we’ll close with this wonderful photo of Dori Hillestad Butler and one of her adorable young fans, taken during last weekend’s Humboldt County Children’s Author Festival.

Posted by Humboldt County Children’s Author Festival on Saturday, October 17, 2015

Around the Web with OAV Authors: August 2015

Another month, another fun sampling of clickable insights into our authors’ goings-on!

Deb talks creativity during a school visit.

Here’s a terrific piece by Deb Lund on helping students (and everyone) claim their creativity.

In “Two Are Better Than One,” Dori Hillestad Butler interviews Suzanne Williams and Joan Holub about their successful writing partnership. (That’s three OAVers in one click!)

Lisa L. Owens discusses what makes her feel alive in “Hark! How the Bells” at Dia Calhoun’s blog.

The Irish Times praises Martha Brockenbrough’s masterful storytelling in her YA novel The Game of Love and Death.

TTPM reviews Dana Sullivan’s adorable Kay Kay’s Alphabet Safari on their YouTube channel. (Spoiler alert: They loved it.)

Lucky teachers and librarians will want to snag this handy downloadable curriculum guide at Patrick Jennings’s website.

Clare Hodgson Meeker blogs about her rewarding experience leading an in-school field trip on teamwork.

Kids participating in Clare’s in-school teamwork field trip make soccer balls out of newspaper and plastic bags.

Around the Web with OAV Authors: June 2015

Our author members pop up online so often that we decided to start doing regular links roundups so readers of this blog can learn more about us. To that end, each month I’ll do a bit of OAV-specific surfing to pick out a few tidbits to share.

Some gems I found this time:

Clare Hodgson Meeker blogged about a Grade 3 writing workshop she taught as a Seattle Arts & Lectures Writer-in-Residence at Whittier Elementary School.

Clare poses with third-grade students who’ve completed her writing workshop.

Have you seen Trudi Trueit’s super-fun FAQs on her author site? Take a peek!

This month, Janet Lee Carey’s Library Lions Roar blog features a teacher librarian doing fantastic work at Hopewell Elementary School in Bettendorf, Iowa.

Amazon.com made a list of the “Best Nonfiction Kids’ Books of 2015 So Far,” and Emmanuel’s Dream by Laurie Ann Thompson is on it!

Did you know that you can print your own stickers to accompany the Goddess Girls series by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams? Yes, you can!

Check out Dia Calhoun’s recent blog about creating a special place that serves as a personal invitation to mystery.

This Is Teen has put together a handy book club guide for The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough.

In case you missed the link on our Facebook page, here you can see details about the Skype visit Patrick Jennings did with a classroom in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Skyping from Washington State, Patrick visits with students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.