Emma McKenna, Full Out! A sneak preview of The Kids in Mrs. Z’s Class for World Read Aloud Day
Kate Messner
by kmessner
1M ago
Happy World Read Aloud Day, friends! To celebrate, I’m sharing a sneak-preview read-aloud from EMMA MCKENNA, FULL OUT! It’s the first book in a brand new multi-author series called THE KIDS IN MRS. Z’S CLASS, which launches this spring and is available for pre-order now. You can read more about the series below and pre-order now if you’d like your class to be invited to a special virtual author visit with Rajani LaRocca and me in the spring. But for now, let’s get celebrating WRAD! Here’s your sneak-preview read-aloud… Here’s more on the series and how you can pre-order to be invited to a spe ..read more
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Zoom with an Author or Illustrator for World Read Aloud Day 2024!
Kate Messner
by kmessner
4M ago
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 7, 2024! 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 school teacher and a forever reader. Each winter, I help out with LitWorld’s World Read Aloud Day by pulling together a list of author & illustrator volunteers who would like to spend part of the day doing quick virtual read-aloud visits with classrooms around t ..read more
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Getting Ready for World Read Aloud Day 2024 – a call for author & illustrator volunteers!
Kate Messner
by kmessner
5M ago
LitWorld’s amazing World Read Aloud Day is coming up on February 7, 2024! One of the fun traditions of this day of sharing stories is for authors and illustrators around the world to Zoom into classrooms & libraries for short read-alouds. For a while now, I’ve helped out by compiling a list of author and illustrator volunteers so teachers & librarians can connect with them to schedule virtual read-aloud sessions on that day. Teachers & librarians: Please hold tight for right now… the list will be coming soon! Sign up for my email newsletter if you’d like early acces ..read more
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Pre-order THE KIDS IN MRS. Z’S CLASS and get a free virtual author visit with Kate Messner & Rajani LaRocca!
Kate Messner
by kmessner
6M ago
The first two titles in our new series THE KIDS IN MRS. Z’S CLASS are now available for pre-order – and we have a special offer for educators, librarians, and home school families. Just pre-order the first two books, EMMA MCKENNA, FULL OUT and ROHAN MURTHY HAS A PLAN from The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid, NY and you’ll get a two-part virtual author visit with authors Kate Messner and Rajani LaRocca! Here’s how it works… Part 1… When your order your books, we’ll use the email you provide to the bookstore to send you a note in early May, with a link to a 20-minute recorded virtual author visit ..read more
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Free Author Visit Opportunity with Kate Messner & Rajani LaRocca this Spring!
Kate Messner
by kmessner
7M ago
Meet THE KIDS IN MRS. Z’S CLASS – an exciting new multi-author series launching in June ’24! One third grade classroom. 18 amazing kids. 18 secrets. 18 stories, each written by a different beloved author. I’m absolutely thrilled to be heading up this new series with an incredible team of authors, along with Pura Belpré Honor illustrator Kat Fajardo and the team at Algonquin Books for Young Readers. I’ll be writing the first and last books in the series as well as coordinating the team and our overlapping stories. Book one, EMMA MCKENNA, FULL OUT and book two, ROHAN MURTHY HAS A PLAN by Rajan ..read more
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Teachers Write 2023 – Line Breaks with Mentor Poet Margarita Engle
Kate Messner
by kmessner
8M ago
It’s hard to believe that Teachers Write wraps up this week! Today, we’re talking about one of the things that makes a poem different from prose — the way it looks on the page. Mentor poet Margarita Engle joins us for a mini-lesson on line breaks.  The Power of Line Breaks in Free Verse  Line breaks are one of the most misunderstood aspects of poetry. Beginners often attempt to write verse novels by simply inserting random line breaks into prose. Since poetry is musical, arbitrary line breaks cannot substitute for the varied rhythms and melodies of free verse. Even when there is no m ..read more
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Teachers Write 2023: The Sounds of Poetry with Mentor Poet Nikki Grimes
Kate Messner
by kmessner
8M ago
Reading aloud is a great way to revise a poem, listening for the magic. The sounds that make a line sing. As today’s mentor poet Nikki Grimes tells us, poetic devices such as alliteration and assonance help to create that magic. Tiny Tricks to Make Your Writing Sing Using words with the same letter or sound in close proximity—whether words with the same/same sounding consonants, or the same long vowel sounds—makes your writing sing. In the following poem, I’ve underlined such consonant pairings, and set a few paired vowel sounds in italics. This is “Sweet Sister” from Legacy:Women Poets o ..read more
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Teachers Write 2023 – A Poetry Challenge from Rajani LaRocca and K.A. Holt
Kate Messner
by kmessner
8M ago
One of the great things about being part of a writing community is that we’re constantly learning from one another. Today mentor poet Rajani LaRocca shares a challenge that’s all about how putting constraints on our writing can spark creativity — an exercise she learned about in a workshop with award-winning author K.A. Holt. Say It Without Saying It In poetry and verse novels, we use figurative language and sensory detail to evoke emotion—and to say things without being too on-the-nose. During a recent conference, amazing author K. A. Holt shared this exercise, and I absolutely loved it. Firs ..read more
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Teachers Write 2023 – The Power of Names with Mentor Poet Rajani LaRocca
Kate Messner
by kmessner
8M ago
This week, we turn our attention from poetic forms to subjects. Mentor poet Rajani LaRocca joins us with a challenge to write about names.  What’s in a Name? Names are important in the real world and in fiction. When I write, I do a lot of research when I’m trying to choose character names. In verse novels in particular, the way that characters think about their names can reveal important aspects of who they are. Consider these poems from Red, White, and Whole: And these poems from Mirror to Mirror: Think about what each of these poems reveals about the characters. How do they feel abou ..read more
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Teachers Write 2023 – Haiku Week with Loree Griffin Burns
Kate Messner
by kmessner
9M ago
Welcome back to Haiku Week at Teachers Write! Today, mentor poet Loree Griffin Burns shares her own haiku experience and offers up a writing challenge with lots of bonus resources to explore!  Finding Haikus My haiku journey began in the summer, near a beach in Rhode Island. Not on the beach, because it was raining there and had been for days. But in a library near the beach, where a used book sale was underway. I was coaxing three kids through another wet vacation day with a new- to-them book when a slim paperback about writing haiku—Seeds of a Birch Tree by Clark Strand—caught my eye. I ..read more
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