Avi
word craft
blog
A computer radically changed the way I wrote. Even when I had committed to professional writing—and had already published some books—I had struggled all my life with being dysgraphic.
I am a believer that the best way to teach young people how to write (and read) is to read to them out loud. It is also the best way to improve your own writing.
When I talk to my young readers and sometimes adults, one of the most common questions I am asked is, “Of all the books you have written, what’s your favorite?”
In my years of writing this blog, I haven’t commented much about what it takes to work in the publishing industry, the world that creates the physical book.
In the course of my lifetime, the printed, hard-bound book has undergone a massive transformation. It is still a codex, but the quality of the book itself, the binding, the paper, the design, and the printing has, in my mind, greatly deteriorated.
Little is known about Lambert Simnel. Who was he really? Where did he come from? How did he come to be chosen as a legitimate pretender to the English throne?
One of the key questions a writer must come to terms with right from the beginning is—how is the story to be told? What is “the Point of View,” also known as POV? Is it me or he/she?
When you win a Newbery award one of the questions you are often asked is, “How did you react when you learned of your award?”
A recent article in the New York Times, Daniel Bessner reports on the massive falling off of the study of history, the teaching of history, and, inevitably, the decline in the learning of history.
Starting this week, I will be reading a new book to a class of 6th graders. I’ll be reading it even though it is not truly finished.