Certified Resolution Writing Endeavor Review Report: Week Twenty-Six

So, I think I must still be exhausted from last week's intensive class, because I had trouble focusing long enough to do any of my work no matter how often I tried to catch up on my sleep (read:  I took a lot of naps).

I did, however, complete the first draft of TWEETS FROM THE DEEP!!!!!!!!  I think I'm going to have to delay actually posting it on twitter for a little while though.  I want to incorporate a lot of pictures for this story and unless anyone has a plastic (or real) shark they want to loan me, I'm going to have to take a trip to a toy store in the future.  Then, I'll have to find a way to either make my bathtub look more ocean-ey or dye the river I live nearby blue.  So it may be a few weeks before I figure out the details what with also needing to prepare for these pesky candidacy exams in the fall.  

Presenting Tweets from Space!

In TWO minutes the twittering of Tweets from Space will begin from my twitter page.

Feel free to read as the dramas unfold.

REVIEW: The Little Prince

De Saint-Exupery, A.  (2007).  The Little Prince.  New Delhi:  Heritage Publishers.

 

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After he has to make an unscheduled stop to repair his airplane in the Sahara Desert, an unnamed narrator encounters a lonely Little Prince who is visiting the planet.  Over the time that it takes the narrator, who is both child-like and has similar experiences to the author, to fix his plane he and the Little Prince talk and the narrator eventually learns of the prince’s journeys.

 

Throughout much of the text there is a sense of “us vs. them” between children and adults.  This is an aspect that many children will latch onto as being humorous.  I, myself, (perhaps as an adult *gasp*) grew tired of critique after critique of various adult jobs.   But this part of the text (roughly chapters 10 to 15) could be a way to jump into having students write their own (hopefully more positive) descriptions of their family members’ jobs.

 

This book includes a lot of quotable language and has illustrations that are recognizable to this book.  It explores issues of perspective, innocence, friendship, individuality, loneliness, etc.

 

 

Activities to do with the book:

 

Students could create their own drawings of asteroids, planets and animals (or even hats) in response to the text.  And a teacher could give a lesson on astronomy and the Earth's rotation.

 

Also, since the narrator was discouraged by grown-ups responses to his art when he was six-years-old, a teacher could have a tentative discussion about hopes for the future and never giving up, despite what others say.  (A teacher could even bring in Langston Hughes’s “Dreams” poem.

 

Since The Little Prince feels lonely and friendless throughout much of the story, a teacher could also begin a discussion on how to handle feelings of loneliness or how to make new friends.

 

For older middle-grade students, a teacher could also consider the way that the different adults living on the various asteroids the Little Prince visits are portrayed and why.  It is worth noting, one of the adults featured is an alcoholic, so a teacher could discuss substance abuse as an illness to help create a sense of sympathy and understanding instead of immediate judgements.

 

Also, students could listen to an audio track of a portion of the book in French to trigger young readers to take an interest in learning a second language.

 

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them” (p. 3).

 

“But on your tiny planet, my little prince, all you need do is move your chair a few steps.  You can see the day end and the twilight falling whenever you like…” (p. 24).

 

“Is the warfare between the sheep and the flowers not important?  Is this not of more consequence than a fat red-faced gentleman’s sums?  And if I know—I, myself—one flower which is unique in the world, which grows nowhere but on my planet, but which one little sheep can destroy in a single bite some morning, without even noticing what he is doing—Oh!  You think that is not important!” (pp. 28-29).

 

Don't miss TWEETS FROM SPACE! going down tonight on my twitter page @SJKessel.

Certified Resolution Writing Endeavor Review Report: Week Twenty-Four

This week I've been devoting my time to write a new project:

TWEETS FROM SPACE!

For the final project in the class I'm attending next week, I'll be posting my short middle grade, science-fiction story in real time tweets from my twitter account.

The story will be posted on Wednesday night between starting around 9 PM.  So stop by to check it out.

YA and Children's Authors on Twitter

Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak, Twisted, Wintergirls) @halseanderson
Pam Bachorz (Candor) @pambachorz
Holly Black (Tithe, Ironside, Spiderwick Chronicles) @hollyblack
Coe Booth (Kendra, Tyrell) @coebooth
Robin Brande (Fat Cat, Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature) @RobinBrande
Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Going Bovine)  @libbabray
Cassandra Clare (Mortal Instruments Series) @cassieclare
Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon's Lexicon) @sarareesbrenna
Jennifer Brown (Hate List) @JenniferBrownYA
Rachel Caine (Morganville Vampire series) @rachelcaine
Ally Carter (Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover, Gallagher Girls series) @OfficiallyAlly
Kay Cassidy (The Cinderella Society) @kayCassidy
Cherry Cheva (DupliKate, She's So Money) @cherrycheva
Tera Lynn Childs (Oh.My.Gods!, Goddess Bootcamp, Forgive My Fins) @teralynnchilds
Matthew Cody (Powerless) @matthew_cody
Sharon Creech (Love That Dog, Hate That Cat) @ciabellacreech
Melissa de la Cruz (Blue Bloods series, Angles on Sunset Boulevard) @MelissadelaCruz
Sarah Dessen (Along for the Ride, Keeping the Moon) @sarahdessen
Becca Fitzpatrick (Hush, Hush) @becfitzpatrick
Neil Gaiman (Wolves in the Walls, The Graveyard Book) @neilhimself
K.L. Going (Fat Kid Rules the World, King of the Screwups) @KLGoing
John Green (Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns) @realjohngreen
Lise Haines (Girl in the Arena) @LiseHaines
Deborah Heiligman (Charles and Emma, Jump into Science:  Honeybees) @DHeiligman
Ellen Hopkins (Trick, Burn, Crack, Identical) @EllenHopkinsYA
Maureen Johnson (13 Little Blue Envelopes, Girl at Sea, Devilish) @maureenjohnson
Michelle Knudsen (The Dragons of Trelian, Library Lion) @michelleknudsen
Justine Larbalestier (How to Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness, Liar) @JustineLavaworm
Margo Lanagan (Tender Morsels, Black Juice) @margolanagan
Malinda Lo (Ash) @malindalo
E. Lockhart (The Treasure Map of Boys, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks) @elockhart
Carolyn MacCullough (Once a Witch, Stealing Henry, Falling Through Darkness) @CMacCullough
Robin McKinley (The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown, Chalice)  @robinmckinley
Lisa McMann (Wake, Fade) @lisa_mcmann
Carolyn Mackler (Guyaholic, Love and Other Four-Letter Words) @carolynmackler
Lisa Mantchev (Eyes Like Stars) @LisaMantchev
Kate Messner (Spitfire, The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z.) @KateMessner
Lauren Myracle (TTYL, Thirteen, bff) @LaurenMyracle
Barbara O'Connor (Greetings from Nowhere, How to Steal a Dog) @barbaraoconnor
Claudia Osmond (Smudge's Mark) @claudiaosmond
Jackson Pearce (As You Wish) @JacksonPearce
Mary Pearson (The Adoration of Jenna Fox, The Miles Between) @marypearson
Diana Peterfreund (Rampant) @dpeterfreund
Julie Anne Peters (Keeping You a Secret, Luna, Rage) @julieannepeters
Frank Portman (King Dork, Andromeda Klein) @frankportman
Cherie Priest (Boneshaker) @cmpriest
J.K. Rowling (The Harry Potter series) @jk_rowling
Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth) @carrieryan
Fran Slayton (When the Whistle Blows) @FranSlayton
Emily Wing Smith (The Way He Lived) @emilywingsmith
Natalie Standiford (How to Say Goodbye in Robot, The Dating Game series) @natstandiford
Rebecca Stead (First Light, When You Reach Me) @rebstead
Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver, Lament) @mstiefvater
Nova Ren Suma (Dani Noir) @novaren
Robin Wasserman (Seven Deadly Sins series, Skinned Trilogy) @robinwasserman
Scott Westerfeld (Uglies series, Peeps, Leviathan) @ScottWesterfeld
Suzanne Young (The Naughty List) @suzanne_young
Sara Zarr (Story of a Girl, Once Was Lost, Sweethearts) @sarazarr

Know of more children's authors that tweet?  Feel free to add to this list of authors in the comments!