• Poetry Friday: On a Flake-Flying Day

    September 29, 2023 /

    This week’s Poetry Friday host is Jama at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. https://jamarattigan.com/   On a Flake-Flying Day       On a Flake-Flying Day: Watching Nature’s Wonders by Buffy Silverman Millbrook Press, 2023   On a Flake-Flying Day is another book in Buffy Silverman’s season series. You can see…

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  • Historical Fiction Mentor Texts: ReFoReMo 2021

    March 2, 2021 /

    Every year it’s such a joy to participate in ReFoReMo–Read for Research Month. It’s an opportunity to study mentor texts as a writer. There are hundreds of books featured this month. I’m there today talking about historical fiction picture books.  Do you have a favorite historical fiction picture book?…

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  • Studying Mentor Texts with Spreadsheets

    March 6, 2019 /

    I’m over at ReFoReMo (Read for Research Month) today with a guest post about first and last line in nonfiction picture books. I talk about 10 books specifically. Hop on over to read my post there. I thought it might be helpful to dive deeper into how I read…

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  • Deep Concept Books: ReFoReMo 2018

    March 22, 2018 /

      For the last several years, I’ve been honored to contribute a mentor text list to ReFoReMo (Read For Research Month). This year, I focused on concept books for older readers that really hone in on deep concepts. Take a peek at my list here. Past ReFoReMo posts: 2017–Reader…

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  • NF10for10 2018: Sidebars are Not for Skipping

    February 10, 2018 /

    As a kid, I’m pretty sure I only read sidebars if they looked interesting. But there are a whole bunch of nonfiction picture books with excellent sidebars. As a writer and a librarian I’ve been keenly interested in nonfiction books that have two levels of text—a main text and…

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  • ReFoReMo is Here!

    February 27, 2017 /

    ReFoReMo stands for Reading for Research Month. It is run by Carrie Charley Brown and her team and focuses on diving into picture books as mentor texts. My post is the first one in the line up today with a focus on reader engagement in picture books. Hop on…

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  • Back Matter in Picture Books

    March 2, 2016 /

    Carrie Charley Brown is hosting ReFoReMo (Read for Research Month), a time when writers challenge themselves to read picture books as mentor texts to improve their writing. I’m the guest author/educator there today talking about back matter in picture books. Hop over to her blog and give it a…

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