Children’s / 3 posts found
Paula Merlán: On Inspiration in Nature
Paula Merlán (Vigo, 1979) is a Spanish award-winning author. She graduated in Law and Education. Currently, she combines writing with teaching, her two passions. She has published more than twenty children’s books, many of them translated into several languages such as Galician, Basque, Catalan, English, Italian, French and Korean. Her most important books are The Bizzies (Cuento de luz, 2019) and A Surprise for Mrs. Tortoise (Nubeocho, 2017), winner at the 2018 International Latino Book Awards. Find her at her blog and on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Paula Merlán In this post, Paula discusses how a walk along the water […]
5 Steps for Using Setting to Write Compelling Middle-Grade Narrative Fiction
Middle-grade protagonists and readers have minds hungry to define their worlds. It’s the work of this age group, after all, before they grow into young adults with the angst of determining how they fit, or do not, into the worlds they’ve defined. For this reason, setting is vital to middle-grade narrative. (Why We Should Read Middle Grade Fiction as Adults) I live in Vail, Colorado, where our inclined Rocky Mountain setting is obvious. Many people live or travel here to ski, snowboard, hike, bike, raft, hunt, kayak, Jeep, camp—to interact or recreate with nature. The surrounding peaks’ zig-zag horizons and […]
How to Make Tough Topics for Adults Into Experiences for Children
Here’s the thing about tough topics: they may feel tough for you, but for someone else they are just life. In Alphabet Rockers, we write and create for children, from two Grammy-nominated albums about racial justice and gender justice to our first published picture book, You Are Not Alone, which is about empathy and inclusion. Our work invites us all—adults and children—to create the world of belonging and equity we need. Our writing is not just for kids, but inclusive for generations. We’re here to build a new cultural foundation, and it’s our responsibility to evolve and do the work […]