INTRODUCTION Where Only Storms Grow by Alyssa Coleman is a suspenseful and seminal novel centered around the dust storms of the 1930s in Oklahoma. This historic story showcases the perspectives of two adolescent twins, Joanna and Howe Stanton. Throughout a six year journey, they overcame family turbulence, natural disasters, grief, and financial insecurity. REVIEW During the… Continue reading Alyssa Coleman’s Where Only Storms Grow: A Review
Congratulations to Clara Gillow Clark for winning Hanukkah Hamster from last week's blog. Clara is a fellow writer and blogger with whom I often trade books! ******** In this post, I'm introducing a new format for some of my book reviews. I'm known to five of my six grandchildren as the grandma who loves books.… Continue reading Finding Home: My Arf-O-Biography: A Grandmother/Granddaughter Review + Giveaway!
As I mentioned two weeks ago, I recently completed teaching an eight-week class in writing fiction. I knew Joyce Hostetter's recent book, AIM, would appeal to both boys and girls and chose it as a mentor text for the class. Here are a few more reasons--from the perspective of my teen students--why you should read… Continue reading Teaching Fiction, Using AIM as a Mentor Text, and a Giveaway!
Lori, our 17-year-old, graduated from Covenant Day School on Saturday and we are very proud of her. She is bound for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a possible major in journalism. (I wonder where she got that from? Not from her father the dentist! I believe she has potential to be… Continue reading And a word from our graduate, Lori Baldwin