So it's Friday and time to celebrate the small things again. This time I'm celebrating a book The Magic Words, by Cheryl Klein. But first, Celebrate the Small Things is a blog hop co-hosted by Lexa Cain at: Lexa Cain, L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Tidbits Blog. You can go to any of these sites to add your name to the links, if you want to participate. So, the book: The Magic Words, Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults, by Cheryl Klein, book editor, formerly for Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, and now editorial director at Lee and Low Books; but also an author in her own right. And, as I read her book, it's inspiring, exciting, informative, encouraging, practical, useful — she knows her stuff! This is a book meant to be read and consulted more than once.
I first heard of this book in a FB post by the children's book editor, Harold Underdown, who also writes a blog called The Purple Crayon and gives writing workshops for writers of boos for children and young adults. All I can say is, "Thank you, Harold Underdown!" I really recommend this book to other writers — even writers of adult fiction. You can learn more about Klein and this particular book HERE .
What are you celebrating today? Do you have a favorite book on writing you can share? I'm always looking for good books on writing.
19 comments:
Thanks for letting us know about this book. I'll look for it.
Have a great weekend!
I have a copy of this book and haven't gotten to it yet. I will put it on top of my stack. Thanks for the nudge. I'm celebrating another good day above ground.
I tend to avoid books about writing, or 'how-to-write' books because I reckon I know how to write, and I learn and improve through the feedback of readers and editors, but as a Stephen King fan I did read On Writing and though it was very good.
Thanks for sharing these. I'm definitely going to check them out.
Thanks for stopping by, Kimberly. I think you'll enjoy this book. Writing for Tolstoy is a little dry at times, and is more "about" writers and their processes, although I enjoyed that one a great deal, too. The Magic Words is more "hands on" advice.
Hmm. Above ground. That sounds interesting. Tell me more about that. Meanwhile, I think you'll like The Magic Words.
Hi, D.A. I read Kings book, too, and liked it a lot. I used to read more "how to" books when I first decided to write full time, but now I go for long stretches without reading them, feeling I need time to apply what I've learned rather than to keep reading more advice, if you know what I mean. But every now and then, when I'm in a dry spell, I find a good book on writing"jump starts me again.
They are both interesting reads, T. Although, as I mentioned above to Kimberly, The Magic Words is more hands on, and How to Write Like Tolstoy is more philosophically about writers and their processes. I found them both useful in different ways.
Thanks, Elizabeth. I'm always on the lookout for good writing guide books. I'm currently reading Mary Buckhams's Writing Active Settings series. I love it.
Besides Stephen King's On Writing, I also liked Sol Stein's Stein On Writing, which was recommended to me by an agent. Hmm. I wonder if Stein had to change his title to include his name because of King's book?
Oooh, I like the sound of that one. As a reader, I love good settings, and you don't find many books on how to write them. That seems like a "must read" for me. Thanks for the tip.
Hi, Tamara, I read King's book and really enjoyed it and found it helpful. I keep hearing about Stein's book. I'm going to have to take a look at it. As I mentioned to someone else, I've come out of a dry spell recently, and I find books on writing good refreshers for jumpstarting my energy again. Thanks for the suggestion.
So apropos to my current reading. I'm RE-reading The Phantom Tollbooth, as my kid-lit group has chosen for our next meeting's discussion. It's all about words and idiomatic use of words.
As to books on writing and the writing life, I have loved Stephen King's, which was a wonderful surprise since I am less a fan of his horror stories, and have loved Ann Lamott's Bird by Bird.
Oh, I loved The Phantom Tollbooth! It was just great! I need to read it again. thanks for the reminder. How cool that your kid lit group discusses other books. (Ours just critiques). Re: King, I'm not a horror fan at all and haven't read his fiction, but loved his book on writing. Enjoyed Bird by Bird, too!
It holds my interest. And it points out what all can be done with setting that I just hadn't thought about.
Again thanks for sharing Magic. I'll have to check it out.
I have quite a few books on writing, but not this one. Will have to take a look. I always enjoy advice that helps me with my stories. Thanks.
Hi, Beverly, Thanks for stopping by. I think you'll find this book full of lots of little nuggets of useful advice. She provides exercises, too, that you can apply to your current WIP. (I haven't done the exercises yet, but plan to use some of them when I go back to an earlier novel I was working on but put aside a few years ago.
I have some antipathy toward Klein. Old story.
Thanks for the good tip! I haven't heard of this one.
What a strange coincidence that people are talking about The Phantom Tollbooth because I just checked that out from the library. I checked it out because I like the illustrator, but now I think I should actually read it! lol
Have a great weekend!
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