Melissa Stewart
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Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep

50 Award-Winning Children’s Book Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing

50 Award-Winning Children’s Book Authors

Share the Secret of Engaging Writing

Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep

by Melis­sa Stewart

Nation­al Coun­cil
of Teach­ers of Eng­lish, 2020

for Grades 4 to 8

ISBN 978–0‑81413–352‑1

In the U.S, avail­able for pur­chase through NCTE, Per­mabound, Book­source, Mackin, or Ama­zon. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, it’s not avail­able through Ingram, which sup­plies most inde­pen­dent book stores.

In the rest of the world, Eurospan can pro­vide print-on-demand copies.

In Non­fic­tion Writ­ers Dig Deep: 50 Award-Win­ning Children’s Book Authors Share the Secret of Engag­ing Writ­ing, some of today’s most cel­e­brat­ed writ­ers for chil­dren  share essays that describe a crit­i­cal part of the infor­ma­tion­al writ­ing process that is often left out of class­room instruc­tion. To craft engag­ing non­fic­tion, pro­fes­sion­al writ­ers choose top­ics that fas­ci­nate them and explore con­cepts and themes that reflect their pas­sions, per­son­al­i­ties, beliefs, and expe­ri­ences in the world. By scru­ti­niz­ing the infor­ma­tion they col­lect to make their own per­son­al mean­ing, they cre­ate dis­tinc­tive books that delight as well as inform. In addi­tion to essays from men­tor authors, Non­fic­tion Writ­ers Dig Deep includes a wide range of tips, tools, teach­ing strate­gies, and activ­i­ty ideas from edi­tor Melis­sa Stew­art to help stu­dents (1) choose a top­ic, (2) focus that top­ic by iden­ti­fy­ing a core idea, theme, or con­cept, and (3) ana­lyze their research to find a per­son­al con­nec­tion. By adding a piece of them­selves to their drafts, stu­dents will learn to craft rich, unique prose.

Fea­tur­ing essays by:

100 per­cent of the pro­ceeds will be divid­ed among the Nation­al Coun­cil of Teach­ers for Eng­lish (NCTE), We Need Diverse Books (WNDB), and the Soci­ety of Children’s Book Writ­ers and Illus­tra­tors (SCBWI)

Reviews

“Each essay in Non­fic­tion Writ­ers Dig Deep feels like sit­ting down to have a cup of cof­fee with a good friend. Each author opens up about their process, their craft, their truth. This book will chal­lenge your every con­cep­tion about what non­fic­tion writ­ers do and how they do it. Read­ing this book will trans­form what and how you teach non­fic­tion writ­ing, mak­ing it a book you will return to time and time again.” (Shana Frazin, Co-Direc­tor of Class­room Libraries and Senior Staff Devel­op­er, Teach­ers Col­lege Read­ing and Writ­ing Project, Colum­bia University)

“What struck me most about read­ing Non­fic­tion Writ­ers Dig Deep was the per­son­al nature of non­fic­tion. There were some essays that brought tears to my eyes or left me with goose­bumps. I closed the book with a new­found appre­ci­a­tion for non­fic­tion, feel­ing like the genre taps into some­thing about us all that makes us human … our curios­i­ty about the world around us.

“These essays rein­forced the idea that explor­ing some­thing out­side of our­selves, dig­ging deep into the con­tent but also into the emo­tion­al response that it elic­its with­in our­selves, is an expe­ri­ence worth revis­it­ing time and time again (if you’re a read­er) or shar­ing with oth­ers (if you’re a writer).” (Katie Carr, ele­men­tary ELA cur­ricu­lum specialist)

“Non­fic­tion Writ­ers Dig Deep is a gift to read­ing and writ­ing teach­ers and to stu­dents. Fifty chil­dren’s authors share sto­ries of their process, and the book is orga­nized in a way that makes it a must-have tool for teach­ers. This col­lec­tion of essays will give stu­dents the men­tors they need as writ­ers of infor­ma­tion­al pieces.” (Fran­ki Sib­ber­son, past pres­i­dent of the Nation­al Coun­cil of Teach­ers of English)

“If you write non­fic­tion for chil­dren and/or you teach non­fic­tion writ­ing, please gift your­self this incred­i­ble book! Non­fic­tion Writ­ers Dig Deep is chock full of hon­est intro­spec­tion and tips from a diverse array of won­der­ful non­fic­tion authors. You won’t be able to put it down.” (Jen­nifer Mary Grole­mu­nd, K‑2 sci­ence teacher and writer for young people)

“Edu­ca­tors often won­der what’s miss­ing in their stu­dents’ infor­ma­tion­al writ­ing. We for­get that, in addi­tion to shar­ing facts, non­fic­tion can be pas­sion­ate and inquis­i­tive and inspire read­ers to change the world. The essays in Non­fic­tion Writ­ers Dig Deep shows teach­ers how to help stu­dents breathe new life into infor­ma­tion­al writ­ing.” (Michele Knott, lit­er­a­cy specialist)

“Non­fic­tion Writ­ers Dig Deep is ide­al for teach­ers who want to expand and deep­en their prac­tice of teach­ing with and about non­fic­tion lit­er­a­ture. It offers us all a fresh per­spec­tive on non­fic­tion, one that rec­og­nizes that behind every book is a pas­sion, a con­sid­er­a­tion of per­spec­tives, and a pal­pa­ble sense of pur­pose.” (Mary Ann Cap­piel­lo, pro­fes­sor of Lan­guage and Lit­er­a­cy at Les­ley Uni­ver­si­ty and past chair of the NCTE Orbis Pic­tus Award for Out­stand­ing Non­fic­tion committee)

“Whether you teach kinder­garten­ers or col­lege-age stu­dents, there is so much use­ful infor­ma­tion in Non­fic­tion Writ­ers Dig Deep. I planned on read­ing just a few essays, but I couldn’t put it down. I was so moved by what these ‘cre­atives’ had to say. Learn about writ­ing from 50 amaz­ing authors, and then share your new knowl­edge with your stu­dents!” (Les­ley Bur­nap, sec­ond grade teacher)

Behind the Book

“The idea for this book traces back to the 2017 Nation­al Coun­cil of Teach­ers of Eng­lish (NCTE) Annu­al Con­ven­tion in St. Louis, Mis­souri, when I was for­tu­nate to par­tic­i­pate in a pan­el titled ‘The Secret of Craft­ing Engag­ing Non­fic­tion’ with two of the most tal­ent­ed children’s non­fic­tion authors of our time—Candace Flem­ing and Deb­o­rah Heiligman.

“Dur­ing our dis­cus­sion, mod­er­at­ed by edu­ca­tor and children’s non­fic­tion enthu­si­ast Alyson Beech­er, we dove deeply into what fuels our work and why we rou­tine­ly ded­i­cate years of our lives to a sin­gle man­u­script. As we com­pared our thoughts and expe­ri­ences, we came to real­ize some­thing crit­i­cal­ly important—each of our books has a piece of us at its heart. And that per­son­al con­nec­tion is what dri­ves us to keep work­ing despite the inevitable obsta­cles and setbacks.

“Sev­er­al oth­er non­fic­tion authors attend­ed our pre­sen­ta­tion, and after­ward they praised our insights. That con­ver­sa­tion helped us all under­stand our cre­ative process in a new and excit­ing way. And it even­tu­al­ly led to the essays in this anthol­o­gy, which are our way of shar­ing an important—and often unrec­og­nized and underappreciated—aspect of non­fic­tion writ­ing with edu­ca­tors and students.”

Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep

by Melis­sa Stewart

Nation­al Coun­cil
of Teach­ers of Eng­lish, 2020

for Grades 4 to 8

ISBN 978–0‑81413–352‑1

In the U.S, avail­able for pur­chase through NCTE, Per­mabound, Book­source, Mackin, or Ama­zon. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, it’s not avail­able through Ingram, which sup­plies most inde­pen­dent book stores.

In the rest of the world, Eurospan can pro­vide print-on-demand copies.

Book Extensions

STUDENT RESPONSE ACTIVITY

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