Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep: 50 Award-Winning Children’s Book Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing
“Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep is a gift to reading and writing teachers and to students. Fifty children’s authors share stories of their process, and the book is organized in a way that makes it a must-have tool for teachers. This collection of essays will give students the mentors they need as writers of informational pieces.”
Franki Sibberson, past president of NCTE
About the Book
In Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep: 50 Award-Winning Children’s Book Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing, some of today’s most celebrated writers for children share essays that describe a critical part of the informational writing process that is often left out of classroom instruction.
To craft engaging nonfiction, professional writers choose topics that fascinate them and explore concepts and themes that reflect their passions, personalities, beliefs, and experiences in the world. By scrutinizing the information they collect to make their own personal meaning, they create distinctive books that delight as well as inform.
In addition to essays from mentor authors, Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep includes a wide range of tips, tools, teaching strategies, and activity ideas from editor Melissa Stewart to help students (1) choose a topic, (2) focus that topic by identifying a core idea, theme, or concept, and (3) analyze their research to find a personal connection. By adding a piece of themselves to their drafts, students will learn to craft rich, unique prose.
100 percent of the proceeds from this book will be divided among the National Council of Teachers for English (NCTE), We Need Diverse Books (WNDB), and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).
An excerpt from my contribution to this book:
In “Animalia,” I write:
“My first memory: reaching through the wooden bars of a playpen, trying to drag a puppy in by his ears. Although my dog-handling skills have improved, I’m still drawn to animals in a way I can’t fully explain. Perhaps it’s their otherness, the presence of a gulf that seems almost crossable but isn’t. …
“Crow Smarts was a very personal book for me because I volunteer as a wildlife rehabilitator specializing in crows and ravens. At the moment, in fact, I have a juvenile crow recuperating in my aviary after being trapped in a chimney for a week and losing about half its body weight. I have no idea how this crow got into the chimney, but intelligent animals are sometimes too curious for their own good!”
edited by Melissa Stewart
National Council of Teachers of English, 2020
paperback ISBN 978–0814133521