Writing Radar by Jack Gantos

Writing Radar: Using Your Journal to Snoop Out and Craft Great Stories
by Jack Gantos
Macmillan. 2017
ISBN: 9781427291226
All ages
Note: While Cathy Potter is on Sabbatical, Louise is writing all the reviews. Cathy will return February, 2018.

In his new book, Jack Gantos, the hilarious, Newbery-Award winning author, offers his knowledge of writing in this creative writing guide that encourages any aspiring writer to find story ideas in their own lives. His step-by-step guide offers useful advice so that anyone can become a brilliant writer. Don't we all dream of seeing our name on the spine of a book?  

I could go on and on about this fabulous book, but let's listen to Gantos, who is one of the best storytellers around, promote his book,

https://youtu.

       ttps://youtu.be/RsUA11I6cww

"More than just a how-to guide, Writing Radar is a celebration of the power of storytelling and an ode to the characters who—many unwittingly—inspired Gantos’s own writing career." from Macmillan.

From adult to children, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be a writer. Be sure to have it on your library shelves. Teachers, use it as a guide when teaching creative writing. Like Gantos himself, Writing Radar is a gem. If only Writing Radar had been available when I was a kid maybe my parents might have understood my obsession and used this excellent writing handbook to channel my creativity.

To write this review, I borrowed the book from my local public library.

P.S. I am going to be hearing Jack Gantos speak today (Monday, October 2), at the Maine Library Conference. I am beyond excited.

Schomburg: the Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford

Schomburg: the Man Who Built a Library

By Carole Boston Weatherford; Illustrated by Eric Velasquez

Candlewick Press. 2017

ISBN: 9780763680466
To write this review, I borrowed the book from my,local public library.

Note: While Cathy is on sabbatical until February, 2018, Louise is writing all the reviews.

“Where is our historian to give us our side, to teach our people our own history?”

Afro-Puerto Rican, Arturo Schomburg spent his life amassing a large collect of over ten million items of print, music, and art.

“Like a detective, he hunted clues and found facts affirming the role of African descendants in building nations and shaping cultures.”

This stunning informational biography follows Arturo’s life, from his birth in Puerto Rico in 1874 to his arrival in the United States at age seventeen, and traces his life-long passion of searching for materials that confirmed African achievements in art, science, literature, and music. He died June 8, 1938.

 "History was not history unless it was complete from all angles."

Weatherford (Freedom in Congo Square) is a master at crafting poems that say so much with few words. Accompanying the text are the illustrations by Eric Velasquez. Rendered in oil on watercolor paper, these large, luscious paintings give a visual depth to Schomburg’s life.

It is remarkable to learn about some of the materials Schomburg was able to find. A copy of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phyllis Wheatley, published in 1773. He purchased the military orders of Toussaint Louverture, the leader of the revolt to liberate slaves in Haiti and two volumes written by early American whaler, shipbuilder, and maritime trader, Paul Cuffee.

Arturo was inspired after reading the word written by Frederick Douglass, “his speeches awake Arturo to the power of the pen.”

Arturo wondered why the African heritage of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and German composer Ludwig van Beethoven was never mentioned.

When his vast collection threatened to overrun his home and threaten his family’s happiness, Arturo sold his collection for $10,000 to the Carnegie Corporation where it was donated to the New York Public Library in 1926. In 1932, Stomburg added four thousand volumes to the Fisk University Library’s Negro Collection.

An extraordinary book about a remarkable man.

Back matter includes a time line, source notes, and bibliography.

“Schomburg placed his personal bookplate in every volume he collected. It featured an engraving of an enslaved woman in chains, hands clasped, looking heavenward. Her plight and her plea spark questions. Schomburg’’s collection holds answers: each artifact a window on the past, each book cover a door of possibilities, each page a passport to freedom.”

A Girl Called Vincent

A Girl Called Vincent: The Life of Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay 
by Krystyna Poray Goddu
Chicago Review Press, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61373-172-7
Grades 5 and up

April is Poetry Month, so it's fitting that A Girl Called Vincent was released earlier this month. The biography provides middle grade and teen readers with an in-depth look at the life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, who was known to her friends and family as Vincent.

Millay grew up on the coast of Maine in the towns of Camden and Rockport. When her parents divorced, Millay was forced to take over the household duties while her mother worked long hours as a nurse. Despite her many responsibilities at home, Millay found time to write and publish dozens of poems while attending high school. Throughout her life, Millay faced adversity including being estranged from her father, being mocked by her male classmates and losing a national poetry competition because she was female. Goddu shows readers how Millay persevered and took advantage of opportunities to better herself including accepting an offer to attend Vassar. Millay went on to become the first female to receive the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

The book makes is clear that Millay's admiration of nature and the beauty of Maine greatly influenced her work. Black and white photographs of Millay give readers a sense of what life was like for the gifted writer. Gouda's thorough research is evident as she uses numerous quotes and poems by Millay to paint a vivid picture for readers. Give A Girl Called Vincent to middle school and high school students looking for an interesting biography. The book is packed with enough information to satisfy students doing in-depth research on the poet's life.

Visit the author's website for more information about the book and the work of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

An excerpt from Millay's poem "Renascence" can be seen on top of  Mt. Battie in Camden Hills State Park in Maine.

Photo credit: Casteel, David. "100_6119.jpg" 1 September 2005. Online. Flickr Creative Commons. 10 April 2016.  

The reviewer received a copy of the book from the publisher.

Firefly July by Paul Janeczko

Firefly July: a year of very short poems
Selected by Paul Janeczko; Illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Candlewick Press. 2014
ISBN: 9780763648428
All ages (Preschool up through high school)
I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

There are times when a book comes across my desk that is so perfect I am at a loss for the best words to describe it. From the design, selection of poems, to the illustrations done by the incredibly talented Maine artist Melissa Sweet, Firefly July: a year of very short poems, selected by anthologist Paul Janeczko is one of those books. It is the combination of poems and Sweet’s attention to the smallest detail as she interprets those poems, all just a few lines long, that makes this book so appealing.

Starting with spring, readers are taken though the four seasons. Sweet’s signature collage art captures the playfulness and essence of each poem. The pictures and text do play nicely together. It is possible to interpret the meaning of each poem by looking at the pictures. In April Halprin Wayland’s poem, Sandpipers, you can actually see the sandpipers hemming the ocean.

Sandpipers run with

their needle beaks digging—they’re

hemming the ocean.

Whoever was responsible for the design of this book had a keen eye for detail, for many of the poems are placed directly on the object they describe. For example, Screen Door by James Stevenson is placed on a screen door.

Contributors include Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, X.J. Kennedy, Richard Wright, Alice Shertle; 36 in all. The art even matches up across the gutters. The only minor flaw, and it does not detract from the book's overall quality, is with the double-page spread for Fall. It takes awhile to find the letters that spell F-A-L-L.

Firefly July can be used in a myriad of ways with students. Not only as an introduction to poetry, but when studying the night sky show the page with the poem by Charles Reznikoff. When sharing Kittens First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes, read, In the Alley by Alice Schertle. 

            In the alley, a

stray cat drinks the round white moon

from a rain puddle.

In closing, the final poem by Jim Harrison and Ted Kosser, shows a sleeping child wrapped in a quilt made of fabric that has snippets of illustrations from the book; a beautiful conclusion to a book that will be read again and again.

The End.

Nonfiction Monday

It's our pleasure to host Nonfiction Monday this week! 

Add your nonfiction reviews to Mr. Linky at the bottom of this post. 

Be sure to check back throughout the day to read all of the nonfiction reviews.

Just Write: Here's How!
by Walter Dean Myers
Collins: an imprint of HarperCollins. 2012
ISBN: 9780062203892
Grades 7 and up 
I checked this book out of my local public library.

Okay. Here’s a loaded question: Who hasn’t entertained the possibility of writing a book? Seriously, haven’t you daydreamed that once written and published, your book will be well-reviewed in Kirkus or The Horn Book Magazine, and might even be a Newbery winner or honor book. Come on. Be honest. If you’re like me, you might have a file drawer full of ideas that might have a beginning, but never a middle or an end. You say to yourself, “How does an author get from an idea to a completed story?” I got my answer after reading Just Write: Here’s How by Walter Dean Myers. It’s all about the process and hard work, and who better to take us through that process than the current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Ladies and gentleman, a round of applause for Mr. Walter Dean Myers. 

Just Write: Here’s How! is a candidly written handbook that takes hopeful authors through the different stages of writing a story. “Some authors pretend that writing is easy. Maybe it's fun for them to imagine they are very special, enlightened beings who sit still and wait quietly for inspiration.” Yet Myers explains, “For me and for the young people I have written with and mentored, it is work.” 

The book is set up like your own personal writing course. Each of the twenty-one chapters being the next step in moving forward with your idea. “The structure is simply a question or problem, a logical road leading to an answer to that question or problem, and the answer or conclusion itself.”  Simply put, a beginning, a middle, and an end.  We learn about the need for an outline, revisions, and detailed notes on each of your book’s characters, and that daydreaming is another equally important facet in writing. For each example, Myers references his own books and includes reproductions of his handwritten notes which were helpful, except I found his cursive handwriting difficult to decipher. 

Walter Dean Myers has written many (over 100) books that children devour. Fallen Angels, his story that takes place during 1967 and the Vietnam War is one that I frequently replace because it wears out after repeated readings. When he is not writing, Myers gives generously of his time hoping to make a positive difference in the lives of young people. He visits correctional facilities, jails, and schools. Visit his web site to learn more about him.

So, the next time someone comes up to me, regardless of their age, and says they have an idea for a story, I will recommend they read Just Write: Here’s How! by Walter Dean Myers before they record that first sentence. Just Write: Here’s How! can be used as a textbook for high school writing classes or for creative writing workshops in public libraries. This book definitely belongs in every writer’s bookcase along with On Writing: a memoir of the craft by Stephen King. 

Add your Nonfiction Monday review here.