Authentic Writing Experiences for July - Fun at the Fair

Summer and fall are the time for local fairs to pop up all around the country. Whether or not you are attending a real fair, consider reading Mr. Ferris and His Wheel written by Kathyrn Gibbs Davis and illustrated by Gilbert Ford. It's a picture book for all ages about the engineering and construction behind the first Ferris Wheel. It was first designed by engineer George Ferris as part of a competition to create something entirely new for the featured attraction for the Chicago World's Fair. 

George Ferris originally got his idea for this unique amusement park ride as he studied the water wheel near the home where he grew up.  He imagined something on a much larger scale that could carry people instead of water. 

If you do go to the fair, be sure to visit the Expo tent. This is the area where entrepreneurs demonstrate new products. Some will be things you've never seen before. When I was young, my parents didn't want to spend money on tickets for the rides, so we spent all of our time at the free exhibits. This can be a place where kids get bored, but you can make it fun by asking them questions about the products they see. Stimulate their imagination. Many of the gadgets have practical uses. You may even inspire your young person to invent the next new household cleaning aid or fly swatter.

Great inventions often begin with observing the world around us and imagining ordinary things repurposed in a brand-new way. Imagine how the following might be turned into an amusement park attraction: a slippy slide, a tree house, a gopher tunnel, a pinwheel, a whirligig, or even a flying seed.

Building on last month's idea of a nature journal, encourage kids to observe everyday things in the world around them and reimagine them for different uses. They could make a list in their nature journal or start a brand new journal for invention ideas. They might even build a design for their own unique amusement park attraction and create a 3D model with a paragraph describing it. 

Sign up for my newsletter HERE and receive a free copy of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man. Don't miss any of the fun-filled activities coming up for A Year of AWE: Authentic Writing Experiences.

My 2024 Conference Presentations

Texas Region 10 Summer Dyslexia Institute - Plano, TX July 23-24

July 23 - Title: The Goldilocks Effect: Finding "Just Right" Books for Struggling Readers - Fairview Room 

10:15-11:30 & 1:00-2:15 - Fairview Room

July 24 - Title: Using Narratives as a Bridge to Informational Text - Fairview Room 

10:15-11:30 & 1:00-2:15 - Sunny Slope

I will give a keynote address and a breakout session at the Wasatch Reading Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah October 3-4. Watch for details coming soon.

National Council of Teachers of English Annual Conference - Sunday, November 24 - Boston, MA

I will be part of an author/educator panel with Jolene Gutierrez, Beth Anderson, and Debbie Myers "The Heart to Head Connection: Using Illustrated Narrative Nonfiction to Give Hope to Readers Struggling with Informational Text" - National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Conference - Boston, MA.

ASHA (American-Speech-Language-Hearing) Seattle Conference Center - December 5-7

Session Number: 1238
Title: The Write Stuff: Creating Narrative-Based Interventions for Articulation, Vocabulary, Decoding, and More 
Day: Thursday, December 5, 2024
Time: 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM

Gods and Gifts Coming in August

Set 1, Book 4: Gods and Gifts: Three Greek Myths Retold – (coming August 2024) The same three stories below that make up books 1-3 of the HOT ROD series are told in this chapter book version with black and white illustrations for older students and adults. Background information about the discovery of fire, additional creation myths, and other topics such as ancient writing systems and how we got our alphabet are included. Watch for details coming in August. A 200-page Activity Book will follow!

Level 1 – Closed syllables and consonant blends.

About Set 1: This set includes three colorful picture books that together form the Greek Creation Myth. They are separate books but work best as a set. Book 4 above will be a black-and-white version of the three stories for older students written as a chapter book. The decodable portion is the same as in Books 1-3 but Book 4 includes extensive background information. 

Set 1, Book 1: No Gift for Man – Zeus asks Prometheus and his brother to fill the world with living creatures. Prometheus makes man. Epimetheus creates the animals and gives them all sorts of interesting gifts, but when man comes around for his gift, there is nothing left. The story is available in paperback and e-book formats at Amazon. You may get a sneak peak PDF download for FREE if you sign up for my newsletter HERE. 

Set 1, Book 2: The Bandit - Prometheus steals fire from Mount Olympus to give to the humans and suffers the wrath of Zeus. Available as an ebook, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. You may also order books from your favorite local bookstore.

Set 1, Book 3: The Box – Zeus gets revenge on mankind for accepting the gift of fire. The gods create Pandora, giving her many talents and charms. Then they send her to Epimetheus as a bride and give the couple a mysterious box they are told to never open. Available on Amazon.

Sign up for my newsletter HERE and receive a free copy of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man. Don't miss any of the fun-filled activities coming up for A Year of AWE: Authentic Writing Experiences.

Communication Community Interview

While I was at the ASHA conference last November in Boston, I met the two lovely SLPs who run the Communication Community - Kristi Stearns and Becca Sylvia. They were my booth neighbors and asked to interview me at a future date for one of their Office Hour podcasts. That date has come. I recently joined them to discuss my journey as a Speech-Language Pathologist and what inspired me to write decodable books. The link to the interview and information about their online community may be found at Communication Community. 

ALA 2024 Conference Highlights

I got to sign my Hank the Tank books, talk about decodables, and share the wonderful work of Teach My Kid to Read at The 2024 American Library Association Conference in San Diego last weekend. I'm pictured above at the IBPA booth for the Independent Book Publishers Association. I talked with many librarians about resources for struggling readers. The man above is author Ryan Van Cleave who has compiled works by famous poets in beautifully illustrated books for children. I'll be talking more about his Edgar Allan Poe collection in October when my Level 3 decodable book, The Raven Remix: A Mashup of Poe Titles, is released. His publisher is Bushel and Peck. They had a fun book display just across the aisle from IBPA.

When I wasn't signing books, I helped out at the IBPA booth with other delightful volunteers, including Kathyrn Sparks from the American Academy of Pediatrics publishing department. In the photo below we just realized we were wearing the same navy blue pants from Betabrand. If you aren't familiar with their products, you must look them up. I won't share our fashion secrets here. (Hint: It involves the word "yoga.")

I ended the conference talking with librarians about my Hank the Tank Activity Book which recently was named a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award over at the booth for Headline Books. Cathy Teets, owner of Headline Books invited the award winners to sign books at her booth. She made these amazing signs and hosted podcast interviews which will be available later this month. Watch for the link to my interview coming soon.

Sign up for my newsletter HERE and receive a free copy of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man. Don't miss any of the fun-filled activities coming up for A Year of AWE: Authentic Writing Experiences.