Tall Tales with Sid Fleischman

Happy Birthday Sid Fleischman! Celebrate this Newbery award-winning author by writing a tall tale, one of his many talents. From an interview in The ABCs of Writing for Children, Fleischman says, “Tall tales are highly specialized humor. . . Take Jim Bridger (he really lived) who discovered that it took eight hours for an echo to return from a distant mountain. He turned it into an alarm clock by shouting, “Wake up!” before he went to bed. The next morning, eight hours later, the echo returned and woke him up.”

Exercise: Brainstorm like Sid Fleischman does. In McBroom’s Ghost, it was so cold, “Polly dropped her comb on the floor, when she picked it up the teeth were chattering.”

It was so hot . . .
The mountain was so steep . . .
He was so fat . . .
She was so skinny . . .

Have fun with tall tale humor!

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Mysteries, villains, rats . . . oh my!

Happy Birthday Thacher Hurd! In celebration of this California author, check out his Mystery on the Docks.

1. Tough looking customers. Villainous rats. A kidnapping. These rats will stop at nothing. This describes Hurd’s book, but it COULD describe yours. Write your story, incorporating these elements.

2. Write a simple mystery for a child, in hard-boiled style. Think Maltese Falcon, detectives in raincoats and hats pulled down over their eyes . . .

Speaking of mysteries . . . if you are in middle school, you may like The Big Splash by Jack D. Ferraiolo, a mystery with a great voice and fast pacing. On the back cover: “Someone took down Nikki Fingers. The most feared squirt-gun assassin at Franklin middle school! Matt Stevens is on the case!”

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Scholastic Novel Writing Contest for Kids!

http://www.artandwriting.org/
Grades 7 – 12
Due March 13

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Involve your surroundings in your writing

Happy Birthday John Steinbeck! (1902) One of my personal favorite authors, he’s most known for The Grapes of Wrath. But don’t miss East of Eden, Travels With Charley, or Cannery Row either.

Notice how he involves the setting around him in his writing. How can your surroundings influence your writing?
Exercises 1. Write about a setting throughout your life that has been important to you. Why has it been important or special? Share any good memories you have with this place. 2. Place: A carnival. Mood: Spooky. 3. Place: Dentist Office Character: Dentist just out of dental school, trying to impress a new patient.

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Is there a song you need to write?

Happy Birthday Johnny Cash, 1932.

Exercise 1: Have you ever written a poem that felt like it needed to be sung? Try and write a song lyric. It doesn’t have to be a complete song, just a phrase or two. See if you can set it to music. It can even be a familiar tune.
Exercise 2: Take a well-known lyric and change the words slightly, making them funny or different in some way.

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Speaking of doughnuts . . .

My doughnut memory takes me back to my childhood in Wisconsin. There used to be German bakeries there that made the BEST cruellers! Have you ever seen the movie The Wizard of Oz? There is a scene where Auntie Em offers cruellers I do believe. They are the BEST!
However, if you live in California, as I do now, you can’t find them anywhere! So I literally drool when I think of them. They are crunchy and sugary on the outside, and light and flakey on the inside.

Do any of you have a food memory that brings your senses to life? Try and describe a food with words that will make your reader feel the same way.

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Yummy Doughnut Memories

This from Mary K regarding Yummy Doughnut Memories:

Mrs. Schimming, who lived across the road from us when we were kids on the farm, made the best doughnuts we ever tasted! They were raised (made with yeast) doughnuts, very light and perfectly done. She put sugar on them or frosted them with brown sugar frosting. I made similar doughnuts when I was young but they were never as good as hers. There used to be a bakery in Milwaukeee named Militzer’s that had sugared doughnuts reminicent of Mrs. Schimming’s.

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What’s your impression?

Happy Birthday Renoir! (1842) Take a look at this great impressionist, and see if his work inspires any poems, stories, or memories for you. What was a piece of art that you’ve created with a story behind it? Have you created art for someone else?

Exercise: 1. His name was Art. But he hated art. What happens to change his mind? 2. Scene: Art Museum. Characters: thieves planning the greatest heist in history What goes wrong? 3. Renoir time travels and appears at your side today. Write a conversation or scene.

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Funny writing from a reader!

Thank you, mlcpinky for sending me this great piece you wrote today. I laughed out loud, which is proof it IS funny and it works! Here it is. I’m pasting it here, because for the life of me, I have trouble finding comments afterwards. I’ll just put them in the main post so it’s easier for everyone to read.

“Well… the plan would have worked if that rebel hadn’t spotted us.”

“Excuse me? Are you trying to make me feel better?”

“… I just thought that maybe you might feel comforted–”

“Yeah, right. Look at us! We’re prisoners stuck in the middle of Rebel Fortress, surrounded with no hope of escape, and guaranteed a most painful death. Now how exactly will you make me feel comforted?”

“… Well, if you really want to be that pessimistic… I mean, if you just look outside, you know, it looks kinda nice with the trees and the sunset and the–”

“Prison guards?”

“… That too.”

“I say we need to bust outta here. Whaddya say?”

“Um…”

“Don’t be such a wimp! If we don’t try, we’ll never make it out.”

“Well… okay.”

“That’s the spirit. Come on.”

Clatter. Clank. “Huh–?” Bonk. Guard goes down.

“Now, let’s keep going.”

“Okay–”

WHEEEOOOOOEEEEOOOOO.

“They spotted us! Run! Run!”

“They’re catching up to us! I can’t–”

“Keep goin’–”

–

“… Well… they have pretty good meatballs here, don’t they?”

“Shut up!”

—–

mlcpinky

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YOU win an Oscar!

Did you watch the Oscars last night? Enjoy the fantastic gowns? Spot the botox-laden stars? Enjoy Ben Stiller’s impersonation? I enjoyed it when Kate Winslet mentioned her childhood fantasy of winning an Oscar in front of her bathroom mirror, using a shampoo bottle in place of the Oscar statue.

Exercise: You have just won an Oscar or perhaps a Pulitzer or another major literary award. What is it for? Write your acceptance speech. Write the pitch for whatever you won. Write the bookjacket or p.r. blurb for what won! Send it to me and we’ll post them if you are brave enough! Accept the challenge. It can be fun!

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