Like so many, I’ve been watching heartbreaking reports from the LA County wildfires, sending donations, and looking for more ways to help. Kids in some communities are going to be out of school for at least another week, so I’ve pulled together a collection of my virtual author visits and read-alouds and opened them up ..read more

Hello, friends! Are you ready for World Read Aloud Day? It’s an annual celebration of sharing stories from the amazing folks at LitWorld and Scholastic. This year’s World Read Aloud Day will be February 5, 2025! If you’re new to this page, I’m Kate Messner, author of more than sixty books for kids. I’m also a former middle ..read more

My next novel comes out this spring, and I’m celebrating with an amazing offer for schools and libraries – a free virtual Author-in-Residence program! Just pre-order a copy of The Trouble with Heroes from my local independent bookseller, The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid, NY and you’ll get an email in early March with your ..read more

Reading THE SCARIEST KITTEN IN THE WORLD with your kiddos? Here are two coloring pages you can share with them, too! The Scariest Kitten in the World Coloring Page Draw your own “Scariest Kitten ..read more

Hello, friends! How goes your writing this week? It’s hard to believe that we’re already in our final week of Teachers Write. Before we get started with today’s mini-lessons, I want to say thank you. I’m so grateful you chose to spend part of your summer writing with us, and I hope you’ll take that ..read more

Welcome to Week 3 of Teachers Write! In last week’s camper survey, many of you shared that you’re working on picture books and/or poetry, both forms that depend on economy of language, where every word truly counts. So this week, we’re going to take a look at fine tuning. My next novel, THE TROUBLE WITH ..read more

Welcome to Week 2 of writing camp! Now that you’ve had a chance to settle in, we’re going to roll up our sleeves and get to work in earnest. Today’s session applies to all kinds of writing, but later on we’ll be looking at revision strategies for different genres and forms, and I’d like to ..read more

Happy summer, friends! And welcome to Teachers Write, our free online summer writing camp especially for teachers & librarians. Whether you’re a new writer or you’ve been with us from the very beginning, I’m so glad you’re here. A few housekeeping things before we get started… Teachers Write is meant to be a fun, low-stress way to stretch your writing muscles over the summer. That means there’s no pressure to complete every writing prompt or revision task on any given day. Take things at your own pace and if you have to take a week or two off, don’t feel like you need to step back. Just j ..read more

Happy June, friends! I wanted to let you know that I’ll be at ALA in San Diego this month. You can join Kekla Magoon, Tracey Baptiste, William Alexander, and me at the PopTop Stage for “From Brainstorm to Bookshelves: The Journey of Creating ‘The Kids in Mrs. Z’s Class’ series” at 1:30pm on Saturday, June 29th, and I’ll be signing at Algonquin Booth 616 from 3-4pm Saturday afternoon. If you’re there, please put us on your schedule to come say hello and get a signed copy of EMMA MCKENNA, FULL OUT!  (Photo from one of my book tour schools last month – every third grader went home with a si ..read more

Hello, teacher/librarian/writer friends! It’s almost time for Teachers Write, our free online summer writing camp for teachers & librarians. Have you signed up yet? If not, you can do that here. For those who are new, Teachers Write is all about writing in community. It’s about walking the walk and taking risks with our own writing so we can be more empathic teachers when we ask our students to take risks of their own, to be brave enough to put words on paper and maybe even share those words. Every summer, we have a special focus, and this summer’s theme is REVISION. It’s honestly wh ..read more