Last weekend I visited the Maurice Sendak exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. It was fantastic—like taking a walk through his life as an artist. I was interested to learn about a practice he called “Fantasy Sketches.” In this exercise, he listened to a piece of classical music and challenged himself to draw a complete story before the last note sounded. Some of these ended up being the beginning seeds of books that were later published. (Like Where the Wild Things Are.)
I’ve been wanting to do more writing that’s just “for play”, to keep things feeling fun for myself, and the combination of sharing my prompt for Storystorm last week, plus seeing the Maurice Sendak exhibit, has sparked the idea of giving myself weekly writing prompts. And I thought maybe it would be fun to share these prompts online, too, in case anyone else wants to try them out. If you’re a teacher, feel free to use these with your class! I’d love to hear how the prompts work for you, if you do try them.
I’m also going to share my own responses to the prompts on Substack with paid subscribers. These will be my actual handwritten responses—no edits or revising— and that feels way too vulnerable to share beyond those who are seriously interested in learning about my writing process and/or having conversations about writing. I might also include some after-the-fact commentary about the prompt and my response, and if I do continue developing an idea, I’ll share that over there, too.
But priority #1 is to have fun with writing. Come play along!
Ms. Balsam, a teacher at White Pines Intermediate School in Michigan, read Book Scavenger with her fifth-grade students last fall and she incorporated puzzles and cipher challenges as they were introduced in the story. She said her kids loved it! She also did a logo contest, where her students designed the Book Scavenger logo based on the descriptions given in Chapter 12:
“The picture was a drawing of the Earth and a treasure map blended together.” (p. 107)
And:
“The more Barry stared at it, the more the dotted lines on the treasure map/Earth blurred together. And then, quick as a lightbulb flicking on, Barry could see a letter hidden in the drawing. ‘These dotted lines outline letters! See?’ He traced a finger showing a B on one side and an S on the other. It was like a hide-and-seek game with letters.” (p. 108)
Here is the artwork from the winner and the runner-up. I love them!!
Ms. Balsalm shared what she did with her colleagues and this year they have seven teams reading Book Scavenger to over 400 kids! I love hearing about cool things teachers and librarians are doing with their students to get them excited and engaged with reading, and it is a true honor when it involves a book I wrote. Happy reading, White Pines Pinecones!
If you’ve been with me for a long time, you might remember when I did an interview series on my blog with children’s book creators called Creative Spaces. (Those interviews can be found to your right in the right sidebar.) To go along with those interviews, I also ran the occasional “Book Cover Bingo!” game, which was a lot of fun.
I was thinking about those things recently, and about how much I love middle grade literature, and how we have so many fantastic books being made for kids these days. I was a children’s bookseller in 1999 (Linden Tree Books, whoop whoop!), and there were some great books being published then, but it is incredible how far we’ve come. The range of stories being published now makes it feel like there is truly something for every reader out there, and that is a wonderful thing.
I wanted to do something to shine a light on this and celebrate middle grade literature, and with summer quickly approaching I thought, “Why not make a list of middle grade titles but in the form of a game people can play?” So that’s what I have for you today: Middle Grade Summer Reading Bingo!
How to play is simple: Pick the books you want to read, and read them! Score a traditional bingo by reading a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line of books. Or maybe you want to go for the “four corners” or “outside edge” bingo. Or, for the very ambitious, go for a “full house” and read them all!
Middle Grade Summer Reading Bingo is not just for kids; grownups can play too! Even if middle grade literature isn’t typically your thing, you might be surprised at how much you enjoy reading these stories. If you have kids in your life, this can be a great activity for bonding over books.
All titles are published in the United States, so they might not be as easy to find if you’re in another country, but everyone is welcome to participate no matter where you live.
Teachers, librarians, booksellers, book groups, kid lit enthusiasts, anyone looking for a community activity—feel free to share this activity with the readers in your life. To print out the Bingo board, you can find the PDF file here.
If you’d like a prize when you get a bingo, email me through my website with your bingo titles and a mailing address, and I will send you an assortment of bookmarks and stickers, while supplies last.
I’ve linked to all the titles on Bookshop, where you can learn more about each one. Purchasing books through Bookshop supports independent bookstores, but of course you don’t need to buy the books to participate in Book Cover Bingo. All titles should be available at your local library, and if one isn’t, consider asking your library to add it to their collection. (Many libraries have a form for requesting new titles, and will be happy to add books they know their patrons want to read.) Another idea is to form a group that will share the books with one another.
If you’re on social media, share your Bingo progess as you go along. Let people know about the books you love! Use the hashtag #MiddleGradeSummerReadingBingo so others can find the posts. Let’s make this a summer of celebrating reading, middle grade literature, and having fun with books!
Fourteen middle-grade authors will be chatting LIVE about our new spring books – all in one place, all in one hour, all free, all followed by a live Q&A. If you weren’t able to join us live, don’t worry–there’s a replay! View it at this link to hear about a lot of wonderful books! https://www.crowdcast.io/c/pv7bv0l5ywq5
Hooray!!! Sisterhood of Sleuths is now available in paperback! I love this story, I love these characters, and I’m so excited it’s now in paperback and hoping that helps it reach more readers.
Sisterhood of Sleuths is a funny mystery about friendship, family, and was inspired by my love of Nancy Drew mysteries when I was a young, as well as the fascinating history behind the series and how it has endured for nearly 100 years. Yes, did you know that the iconic teenage sleuth is nearly 100 years old?!
The main character is Maizy, an aspiring film-maker who is working on a class project with her best friend, Izzy. For the class project, Maizy has written a screenplay called Shellfish Holmes about a lobster detective. But she and Izzy are having . . . creative differences, let’s say. And in general, Maizy is feeling like their friendship has been different—more strained—and she’s not really sure why. While she’s trying to navigate these things, she comes across a box of old Nancy Drew books and gets pulled into a mystery involving them that introduces her to the iconic teen sleuth and the history behind the Nancy Drew series.
It was a personal goal to write a “funny mystery” since I had just finished writing the first three Book Scavenger books, which do have funny moments and some quirky humor, but those are more intense mysteries with elements of danger and peril. The peril in Sisterhood of Sleuths is along the lines of being embarrassed in front of your classmates, or having a friend stop talking to you. So more realistic and relatable peril to the average young reader.
In the Sisterhood of Sleuths paperback, you’ll find the same wonderful interior illustrations by Vesper Stamper and author note and list of resources that are in the hardback, but you’ll also find a Reading Group Guide and a super special sneak peek at my next middle-grade novel, Back to Wonder. (Yes! I have a new book coming soon! It’s a mystery adventure set in 1985 about 3 children who come together to investigate something mysterious that arrives in their town, and then they go missing. Read the first four chapters at the end of Sisterhood ofSleuths!)
If you are a teacher or librarian and are reading Sisterhood of Sleuthswith your class, or if your book group has chosen it as your next pick, I’m happy to do free virtual QA chats! Contact me through my website and we can set something up.
