Randomness Right Now

What we are reading:

MOM (not revealing my age!) -

• Knit One Pearl One by Gil McNeil (I have read the first two and had to grab this when I saw it in the "NEW" section at the library.)
• Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool (I saw this in Target and remember liking the cover, and that it had a shiny Newbery Award seal on the front!)
• The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry

SON #1 (age 10) - He has finished several series recently and is not into another right now.

• The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch (he blew through all five of these in about 2 weeks!)
• The Zombie Chasers series by John Kloepfer (will read #3 when it is available at our library)
• The Talent Thief by Alex Williams (he says this is good but he is not devouring it... I grabbed it at the library because it had an eye-catching cover!)

DAUGHTER (age 8) -

• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (I just finished reading this to her and we both enjoyed it.)
• Junie B., First Grader: Cheater Pants (she has read several in this series recently to finish her eight books for the Barnes and Noble Summer reading challenge. Now if she would just finish her chores we could go to the mall and pick up her free book!)

SON #2 - a few favorites (he is age 1) -

• Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
• My Very First Book of Colors by Eric Carle 

HUSBAND #1 (LOL!) - He doesn't read.


Blog Education:

A few things I have learned recently, and yes, I have been focusing on learning a little more about Twitter!

1. How to shorten links to a blog post to put into your tweet.  You can go here to a site called Bitly and shorten your link so there is actually room to write more than just the link in your tweet. Yes, I'm sure most of you already know this, but I had to look it up!

2. Add a Follow Me button to your blog. If you would like to add a basic "Follow Me" button to your blog go here in Twitter. I selected the "follow" and then "user name" options. This will bring up a "Preview and Code" section and you will want to copy the code to put on your blog. In your Blogger account go to the layout page of your blog and select "Add a Gadget" and then "HTML/Java Script." Add and title and copy the code into the "Content" section. Click save and then drag your new gadget to where you want it on the sidebar.

On Writing:

Being a new writer there are a lot of writing terms I come across that I haven't heard before. I have just been writing off the cuff, which is OK for now, OK for a first draft, but I know there will be a lot to go back and fix.

1. Beats. I have read one book on self-editing with the brilliant idea that if I learned about all the things I would do wrong upfront then I could do it right the first time through. LOL! The big thing I took from that book was about using beats to enhance dialog. There is a good article here at Writing Fiction @ suite 101 which says "Physical descriptions, or beats, and active sentences can show a reader the intent behind a writer's dialogue."

So intead of simply writing:
     "What did you do?" Mrs. Dixon said.

You could write:
     "What did you do?" Mrs. Dixon frowned at Tyler and put her hands on her hips.

In the second example you get a better understanding that Tyler did something naughty and is probably about to get in trouble.

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What also like about using beats is that instead of always using a standard attribution like "he said" or "she said" to tell the reader who is speaking, you can show it though action. This is especially useful when there are more than two people in the conversation.

So instead of:
     "What do you want to do tonight girls?" Sarah asked.
     "Oh, I don't know." Betty said.
     "Well, we could go to the new Spiderman movie." Megan said.

You could use beats like this:
     Sarah was lounging on the couch reading a new book. She paused and looked up at her roommates. "What do you want to do tonight girls?" she asked.
     "Oh, I don't know." Betty said.
     Megan had just finished flipping through the entertainment section of the paper. "Well, we could go see the new Spiderman movie."

I know these are not the most sophisticated examples, but it's a start in the right direction I think. Of course there is a lot more to beats, but these are the most useful stategies that fit what I am working on.

2. Pacing. Another word I keep hearing is pacing. I really haven't known what that is all about until today when I finally decided to look it up. I found a good article at Fiction Facter here, which describes pacing as "the rhythm of the novel, of the chapters and scenes and paragraphs and sentences. It's also the rate at which the reader reads, the speed at which novel events occur and unfold. It's using specific word choices and sentence structure - scene, chapter and novel structure - to tap the emotions of the reader so that the reader feels what the writer wants the reader to feel at any given time during the story."

I like the opening of the article:
For a moment, let's pretend that the words we write on the page are sound. If all the sounds are the same, then we have monotone. Monotone puts us to sleep, bores us to tears, turns us off  - and if it goes on for any length of time - ticks us off."

Yes! Now I get it.

Finding time to Read

Since I have been rearranging my schedule the past couple weeks (and going to bed much earlier) it has been hard to find time to read. So I have picked a couple books and keep them in strategic locations. Every weekday morning I drive the big kids to school. Since my toddler likes his car set pretty well I will keep a book in the car and read a chapter or two sitting at the school while he relaxes and listens to toddler music. I keep another book on my nightstand and read a chapter before I go to sleep, and then if the toddler happens to be playing quietly at some point during the day I might read a little more. I am also reading The Secret Garden to my daughter and will read a chapter now and then when it fits into our afternoon schedule... which is going slower than I would like. It doesn't help that she is trying to read the fifth Harry Potter book and has recently become obsessed with the Beast Quest series.

What we are reading:

MOM (not revealing my age!) -

• Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow (in the car - couldn't help grabbing this one at the library after seeing it constantly on Nathan Bransford's homepage)
• The Fault in our Stars by John Green (recommended by several agents at the conference)

SON #1 (age 10) -

• The Warrior Series (the one with the cats) by Erin Hunter (who is actually four people - cool!)
• I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916 by Lauren Tarshis
• The Serpent's Shadow (he can't wait for this one!) by Rick Riordan

DAUGHTER (age 8) -

• As mentioned above, the Beast Quest series
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

SON #2 - a few favorites (he is age 1) -

• Kiss Good Night (we have loved this book for 10 years!) by Amy Hest
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar (and others) by Eric Carle

HUSBAND #1 (LOL!) - He doesn't read.

More Book Research

My writing project is along the lines of Judy Moody... realistic fiction, on the lower end of middle grade, or high end of lower grade chapter books. I have been reading as many of these types of books as I can find, with the main character's name and hint at subject matter in the title. Some books I have found through research but when I was at the library recently I strolled up and down the aisles in the juvenile section trying to spot books that had "that look" and surprisingly I found several. They are usually about the same size and of course have a name on the spine!

Cinderella Smith by Stephanie Barden, Harper Collins (word count 20264; pgs. 148; AR 4.2) Age Range: 8 and up; Middle Grade: 4-8

Penina Levine is a Hard Boiled Egg by Rebecca O'Connell, Roaring Brook Press (word count 28147; pgs. 164; AR 4.0) Age Range: 8 and up; Middle Grade: 4-8

Just Grace by Charise Mericle Harper, Houghton Mifflin (word count 16004; pgs. 138; AR 4.8) Age Range: 6 and up; Lower Grade: K-3

Piper Reed Gets a Job by Kimberly Willis Holt, Henry & Holt (word count 15289; pgs. 149; AR 3.7) Age Range: 8 and up; Lower Grade: K-3

Alice's World Record by Tim Kennemore, Eerdmans Books (word count 10225; pgs. 76; AR 4.9) Age Range: 8 and up; Lower Grade: K-3

More thoughts on the reading level of books. I was reading "Just Grace" to my daughter (who is 8) last night. I hadn't checked the reading level yet but was thinking to myself that, even though the main character is in 3rd grade, the book had to have a much higher difficulty level. And I was right. Some of the sentences in this book are WAY long and I actually found myself gasping for a breath while reading. Even though my daughter is an advanced reader for her age/grade, I don't think she would be able to read through such long sentences, pausing when necessary, and get the gist of all the thoughts packed together. I'm also not sure that almost 5th graders (as the reading level suggests this book is suited for) would be interested in reading about a 3rd grader. But I could be wrong on this point b/c my own almost 5th grader was listening in and has also been seen reading the Ivy and Bean books we have laying around. I asked him what he liked about the Ivy and Bean books and he said "that they are being bad" which of course I should have known would be his answer!

Busy but not Productive

Things I have done recently. I have read three books: My Best Frenemy by Julie Bowe, Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows (several times - my daughter loved it), and Princess Posey by Stephanie Greene. I found Princess Posey because I was looking at the different authors who had visited my kids' school, and Stephanie was one of those authors. Princess Posey is short - under 3,000 words, and the main character is in 1st grade. So this book would target a different age group then my story, but still good for getting a broader look at what is out there in children's chapter books.

I bought a book on editing, with the idea being that I will learn the mistakes I would make and need to fix BEFORE I make them and do it right the first time! Ha, ha... we will see. The name of the book is Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print by Renni Browne and Dave King. I have to admit though, the reason I purchased this book is because it was the ONLY book on editing in the "how to write" section at Barnes and Noble. I just pulled it up on Amazon and it has a 4.7 out of 5 stars rating (178 reviews) so I am feeling good about the purchase!

I am up to about 4,450 words now. I jumped ahead to a chapter that will come later in the book. I am pretty sure this would not be the advised way to go about writing a book, but I am kind of winging it anyway. Ideally I would have an outline showing what happens in each chapter and write from there. Maybe this is something I should do now, as I do think it would help me focus. I have read advice that you should just get the entire first draft done before going back and making any changes, but I keep re-reading what I have so far and tweaking it... especially when I am not sure how I want to contine the story.

Lots of things have been keeping me away from writing. I am a digital scrapbooker and sometimes that is where my creative urges pull me. Birthdays... my son's this past Friday, my husband's yesterday, and my daughter's tomorrow. Treats to be made for the kids to bring to school, parties to plan and last-minute presents to buy. Spending time with the kids today, home from school for Presidents' Day. Snuggling on the couch watching TV with my husband... every year I say I don't need to watch American Idol and every year I end up watching it anyway.

Thoughts about Accelerated Reading

As a mom, I thought I was pretty familiar with the Accelerated Reading (AR) program which my kids' school uses to track their reading progress. Now that I am digging a little deeper it gets very confusing! In my previous posts I have been assigning an AR number to each book, but the number is actually an ATOS level. I get most of my information from a site called AR Book Finder, which our school website provides a link to. ATOS is basically a formula used to determine how hard the text is to read, for example length of the sentences and difficulty of vocabulary words. So an ATOS level of 3.6 would be suitable for the average child in his/her sixth month of third grade. Here is where it gets a little confusing, because even though the text may be suitable for the child, the content may not be. I found a pretty good article called a Parents Guide to Accelerated Reading explaining the AR program in greater detail.

So when choosing books for a child, you can't go on the ATOS level alone. The AR Book Finder site also provides an interest level, broken down into four categories: Lower Grades (K-3); Middle Grades (4-8); Middle+ (6 and up); and Upper Grades (9-12). Therefore it would be possible to have a book with an ATOS level of 4.5 but based on content suitable for kids in the Upper Grades category.

To make it more confusing there are other scales out there for determining reading levels. The Lexile Framework for Reading is one, and as stated in Wikipidia is "Recognized as the most widely adopted measure of reading ability." A Lexile reader measure is indicated by an "L" after the number and can range from below 200L for new/beginning readers to above 1700L for higher-level/advanced readers. Others you might find are the GRL (Guided Reading Level) and DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) numbers which, as a mom searching for the right books for my kids, confuse me even further! A good site to make some sense of this is Scholastic. There is an area called Book Wizard that will tell you any of the different leveling systems for a particular book. I think in the end you just have to use your best judgement based on each kid.

As an example of how subjective this whole system seems to be, my 4th grade son took a STAR reading test that put his reading level at 11.5, which would be mid way through 11th grade! The report said he should read books in the ATOS range of 6-13, but his interest level is mostly still in the 4th to 5th grade range. Now a STAR test only takes about 10 minutes, so really, how much can a computer learn about a human in such a short time, especially when the test is multiple choice?! One of my son's favorite books so far this school year was The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan and that has an ATOS level of 4.5! The 4.5 is on the low end of the interest level which is middle grades (4-8) but right where my son should be reading.

The main reason I wanted to research this more, is to make sure if I am going to write a book that it falls into the appropriate reading level AND interest level for my target age group. So if my intended interest level is lower grades (K-3) then I want to make sure the ATOS level would not be over 4.0 or the equivalent in other rating systems. And to keep the reading level down I would need to keep my sentences shorter and vocabulary fairly simple. Off to check my manuscript! LOL!

Middle Grade Books

Moving on. I asked at the book store about titles similar to Judy Moody and the others on my initial list, and this gave me another list of books to research. These recommendations ended up being much longer reads and also a slightly higher age range. But I was glad to get through this group because I am now beginning to see the distinction between the middle-grade and early chapter/lower-grade books.

The Accidental Cheerleader by Mimi McCoy, A Candy Apple Book, Scholastic (word count 29,744; pgs. 160; AR 4.3) Age Range: 9 and up; Middle Grade: 4-8

Allie Finkle Rules for Girls: Moving Day by Meg Cabot, Scholastic Press (word count 39,959; pgs.228; AR 5.0) Age Range: 8 and up; Middle Grade: 4-8

My Best Frenemy by Julie Bowe, Puffin (word count 37,914; pgs. 234; AR 3.4) Age Range: 8 and up; Middle Grade: 4-8

Slowly but Surely

And here we are seven or so months later with only three and a half chapters, just over 4,000 words, in first-draft form. I never said I would write it quickly! It is coming along though and I am enjoying giving the story some substance.

Recently I decided if I was going to take the time to write a book, then I would want to see if it was good enough to be published. Something which kids other that my own, who by law must say it is the most wonderful thing they have ever laid eyes on, would be interested in reading. So I have done some research into books that I feel are in a similar age range to what I am writing, trying to determine about how long the book should be. In addition to jotting down the length and other facts about each book, I have checked out and read as many of them as my local library has availabe. This has been in between reading books for my own pleasure, as I just had to finish the last installment of The Hunger Games series! I saw a piece of advice in the 2012 Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market that said you should "Read at least 200 children's books in the age group and genre in which you hope to be published. Follow this by reading another 100 children's books in other age groups and genres so you will have a feel for the field as a whole." I was lamenting the fact that I barely have time to do the laundry (although as noted above I do make time to read for my own pleasure) let alone go read 300 kids books, and my husband pointed out that I probably already have, seeing that I am constantly reading to my kids who are in my target age group! Unfortunately my kids are currently obsessed with the Hardy Boys books (the original series) so I’m not gleaning any great tips on modern children’s writing from those. But we are all learning the meaning of words that even I need to look up in the dictionary to explain the definition properly!

Judy Moody by Megan McDonald, Candlewick Press (word count 11,249; pgs. 176; AR 3.5) Age Range: 6-10; Lower Grades: K-3

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker, Hyperion (word count 12,706; pgs.160; AR 4.5) Age Range: 7-10; Lower Grades: K-3

Ivy & Bean by Annie Barrows, Chronicle Books (word count 7,888; pgs.120; AR 3.2) Age Range 6-9; Lower Grades: K-3

Junie B. Jones Cheater Pants by Barbara Park, Random House (word count 8,174; pgs.96; AR 3.1) Age Range6-9; Lower Grades: K-3

Only Emma by Sally Warner, Puffin (word count 13,763; pgs. 144; AR 3.9) Age Range: 8 and up; Lower Grades: K-3

Now I do feel the need to add here that I am a little upset with Judy Moody’s mother. I am also a mom, with kids in 2nd and 4th grades, and my husband and I are trying like crazy to implement a proper amount of discipline in our family. At this point in the war on discipline, if my son responded to a simple request to wake up and get ready for school with a “ROAR,” that would definitely be the WRONG answer. Maybe it is possible that when the pages of the book close (or the e-reader shuts off) that little Miss Judy gets a talking to, as some parents feel it is not kind to scold their child in public, but I’m thinking not. I was explaining this particular Judy Moody behavior to my husband recently and he was like “Hey, our son says that.” And I said, “Yes I know, this is where he got it from.” And thanks, Judy Moody’s mother, for that.