Month: June 2019

  • When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead Novel Study

    When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead Novel Study

    When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is ten years old now, published 2009. I’ve seen this middle grade novel described as magical realism, though for knotty political reasons we might prefer to call it fabulism. It is also science fiction and grounded in the real world. It packs a lot into 40k words. There […]

    Continue reading

  • If I Loved You by Robin Black Short Story Analysis

    If I Loved You by Robin Black Short Story Analysis

    “If I Loved You” is a short story from a collection called If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This (2010), written by American author Robin Black. A woman dying of cancer writes an imaginary letter to her new neighbour, who has uncharitably built a fence along their boundary line. This fence prevents her […]

    Continue reading

  • Avoiding the word ‘crazy’

    Avoiding the word ‘crazy’

    We are at a point now where ableist language is considered just that. Children’s book editors are editing it out. Yet some words, for instance ‘crazy’, are so frequent in everyday English it may seem ‘unnatural’ to leave it out.

    Continue reading

  • Insults and Swearing In Children’s Literature

    Insults and Swearing In Children’s Literature

    Sticks and stones can break our bones, but words can break our hearts. Tim Minchin A quandary for writers of middle grade fiction in particular: By about age ten, regular kids have heard all the insults out there. They may hear far more insulting language than adults do on a daily basis. (Did you get […]

    Continue reading

  • Hotels and Motels In Stories

    Hotels and Motels In Stories

    Hotels and motels, it seems, are inherently scary.  My theory is that they fall into the uncanny valley of attempting to emulate home without actually being our home. Hotels and motels mimic the dream version of home, like when you ‘know’ within a dream that you’re ‘at home’, but the dream home is nothing like […]

    Continue reading

error: Content is protected