Think about all your young writers who get stuck in the writing process at the very beginning—in the planning. Their pencils break, they have no ideas, they are distracted, they can’t find the right words even to get started. If you have young writers like this you will want to introduce them to a young writer with the same problem. Then he finds inspiration from a surprising source. I won’t give the source away because that might spoil the first reading for you.
Your students will be intrigued by the illustrations rendered by Hadley Hooper and will like it that the book is written to them. There are many gentle hints to aspiring writers of any age. Just past the middle of the book the young author-to-be finds his inspiration and from there the text shifts to what he does as a writer once he is inspired.
The book ends with “Now it’s your turn! Readers are encouraged to use the ideas on this page to write the story the boy is just beginning at the end of the book. There is also a link for children to use to learn more about the character for their story.
About the Author
Deborah Hopkinson believes that reading makes writers. But before she was a writer, children might like to know that when she was a kid in school she would hide the book she wanted to read inside her big textbook. She is drawn to stories that she hadn’t found as a young reader and she writes those stories. Because she usually writes books about real things that happened in the past she insists on working with an illustrator to ensure the illustrations are accurate. She keeps her own eyes and ears open for ideas and finds them everywhere she looks—like in The Story of a Story. When she talks with children she tells them about having editors who always help her make the stories better. Young writers need each other and their teachers to be editors who help with ideas to make their own stories better in every way, not just perfectly edited.
Pathways Themes: Personal Feelings & Growth
Reviewed by Krystal Bishop, EdD
Professor of Education
Southern Adventist University
Authors: Steve Ventura and Michelle Ventura
