Avi’s 2025 Summer Blog Series
Pam Muñoz Ryan
From Avi: As I have for the last three summers, (summer of 2024, summer of 2023, summer of 2022) I’ve invited 13 admired authors to write for my blog for the next three months. I hope you’ll tune in each Tuesday to see who answered this year’s question, which we hope provides you with inspiration. And by the end of the summer, you’ll have new authors to follow!
What’s your favorite strategy for encouraging young people to read?
I often think about the types of stories I liked at the same age as my reader — stories that were fast-paced, or mysterious, or dramatic.
When I write, I try to move the story forward in a way that captures the reader. That can be accomplished in different ways: captivating opening lines, cliff hangers at the end of chapters, chapter openings that foreshadow something interesting is going to happen.
I also try to keep the story taut by avoiding long narrative sections of “telling.” Instead, I try weave into the dialog some of the information and descriptions about characters, the weather, or the setting.
I also attempt to give my protagonist (and my reader) enough tools to emotionally handle whatever happens at the end of the story, whether it’s a happy resolution, sad, poignant, or open-ended.
When writing, one of the goals on which I try to stay focused is this: I want the reader to feel compelled to turn the page, and if I’ve done my job well enough, to read the story more than once.
Particulars
Pam Muñoz Ryan is a New York Times Best-selling author, and the 2026 U.S. nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award. She is the author of Echo, a Newbery Honor book and the recipient of the Kirkus Prize. She has written over forty books, including the novels Esperanza Rising, Becoming Naomi León, Riding Freedom, Paint the Wind, The Dreamer, Echo, Mañanaland, Solimar, and most recently, El Niño.