GETTING TO KNOW THE AUTHORS OF SPILLING INK

“I think SPILLING INK is a great book because it talks directly to you. I like it when the book does that.” – Rene, age 11


This week YA Literature Review has been featuring the book SPILLING INK by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter. Today, we get to know the authors behind the fabulous book. Thanks Anne & Ellen for answering some questions.

What made you decide to write SPILLING INK?

Ellen: Writing SPILLING INK was Anne’s idea (she seems to pluck ideas out of the very air molecules!). When she told me about it, I instantly knew it was brilliant. Why? Because over the years, both Anne and I have received so many e-mails from kids who love to write. They often ask these really great, quite sophisticated questions about things like plotting, creating strong characters, how to begin, how to end . . . all the same questions that adult writers ask. We wanted to write a book for these young writers, as well as for kids who are nervous about writing. We wanted it to be fun, and maybe even funny, but also very practical. We wanted it to be the sort of book that would make kids want to curl up and read it, then jump up and write!

Anne: For years I wanted to write a book about writing. You see, I had the good fortune to grow up with two writers (my parents, the young adult novelists, Harry Mazer and the late Norma Fox Mazer). It was like living in a 24/7 Writer’s Boot Camp. My parents were obsessed with writing – and although I didn’t think I was paying attention, apparently, I was. Later on, I realized how much I had learned - mostly while half-asleep! (It’s very nice when many of your important life skills are learned while unconscious.) I didn’t learn about plot and character and description and mood – I learned about how important it is to write every day, to never give up, and to do what you love. I’ve always wanted to share what I received with others. I had stacks of index cards with thousands of notes for the book I wanted to write, but unlocking this particular dream wasn’t possible until I met Ellen Potter.



Is it difficult to write a book with another person?

Ellen: Before SPILLING INK, I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I’d be able to collaborate on a book. I mean, how do you DO that, right?? However, when Anne asked if I wanted to write a book with her, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I just knew that she would be a dream to
work with.

I think some qualities writers need in order to collaborate successfully are:

1. A massive amount of respect for each other

2. Open minds. Just because you thought up the idea doesn’t mean that
the other person can’t improve it.

3. To be motivated by the same thing. Neither Anne nor I were overly
concerned if SPILLING INK would be a best seller. We weren’t concerned about making a ton of money. That bottom line was that we wanted to share what we’d learned about writing, and we wanted the book to be
warm and fun and unput-downable.

4. To genuinely like each other.

Anne: Depends on who the person is! Writing the book with Ellen was one of the best experiences of my life. It was a partnership with someone who shared my deepest dreams, who completed and enlarged my ideas, and who was just plain fun to work with. To me, the spirit of the book is joy. There was joy in writing it, joy in our partnership, and we want to transmit the joy of writing to our readers.

What was your favorite part of working together?

Ellen: Well, imagine this: Every day you get to call your friend and chat, laugh, be silly, make each other think, and generally brighten each other’s day. Oh and by the way, you are writing a book while you are doing this. That’s as good as it gets.

Anne: I can’t say it any better than that.

Did you have any thoughts about the students’ reaction to SPILLING INK?

Ellen: When I first started using Twitter I thought it was all pretty silly. After awhile, though, I began to “meet” some interesting people, including the extraordinary Alyson. She wrote to me about her impressions of SLOB (it’s always so great for an author to hear directly from her readers. People often think writers don’t care about that stuff, but we do. Of course we do!) Right away I could see that Alyson was a genuine dynamo who was totally dedicated to her students. When she said she’d like to try out some writing ideas from SPILLING INK with her students, Anne and I were overjoyed! The whole time we were writing SPILLING INK, Anne and I kept imagining teachers using it in schools. We imagined kids, inspired by our book, hunkered over their notebooks, creating fictional worlds out of thin air. And then voila! Like magic, Alyson started to send us regular updates and photos of SPILLING INK writing workshops at her elementary school. You can’t imagine what a joy these updates are for us! Now Anne and I feel
forever connected to Alyson and her wonderful students, and we can’t wait to see what these young L.A. writers will do next!

(*blushes – aww shucks* Thanks Ellen for the great compliments…I think you are pretty special too!)

Anne:

“Anne and Ellen were no longer just names on the cover of a book but real people who had an interest in them…”

When I read this, I was so happy. Yes, it’s true. We feel as if we’re part of your school. There was another reason I felt happy reading this sentence. Often students think of authors as shadowy, remote creatures, possessed of fantastic and mysterious powers. I admit it; I STILL think of some authors this way. But actually, it’s not true. We’re people like you. We don’t want you to think of us – or writing – as out of reach or frightening. There’s a lot of fun, excitement and discovery in writing (although it can be hard work, too) – and we want to transmit that to our readers. If we’re “real people who have an interest in you,” it’s not much of a leap to what Debbie (classroom teacher) said in the classroom post: “My students are beginning to see that they are writers - even the ones that didn’t believe that they were writers.”

If you could choose a fictional character as a BFF who would it be?

Ellen: Calvin O’Keefe from A WRINKLE IN TIME. He just seems like the kind of friend who would really watch your back.

Anne: Pippi Longstocking. Because she’s utterly herself. And she always sticks up for the underdog. And she has such fantastic adventures!

What has been your favorite school visit and why?

Ellen: Honestly, I have so much fun at every single school visit that I couldn’t choose a favorite. I do have some favorite questions from kids though. Such as:

“Do you ever get reader’s block? It’s when you read a book that’s so
good, you can’t write another word.”

Or

“Do you, like, ride around in a limo all day?”

Anne: I love school visits where kids’ art and writing decorate the hallways, where the kids are full of questions, and everyone is excited about books.

And yes, like Ellen, my favorite part of ANY school visit is the Q & A with the kids. I LOVE that.

What was the one book that you wished that you had written?

Ellen: HOLES . Yeah, that was pretty darn spectacular.

Anne: Please! There are way too many of them! Anything written by Katherine Paterson. THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak. And this last weekend I read SKIN HUNGER by Kathleen Duey. It was one of those books I’ll never forget…

If you are interested in learning more about what Anne and Ellen are up to, I encourage you to check out their websites:

Anne Mazer - www.annemazerbooks.com

Ellen Potter - www.ellenpotter.com

I hope everyone has enjoyed our week with Anne and Ellen. Don't forget to enter the SPILLING INK signed ARC contest.

-Aly


"I think that the book SPILLING INK: A Young Writer's Handbook is a great book for kids like me to get enthusiastic about writing...Thank you Ellen Potter and Anne Mazer for writing this great book." - Karla,age 11

SPILLING INK: One Classroom's Journey In Writing

"I love this book, Spilling Ink. It makes me laugh." - Cierra, age 11

What do you get when you take one enthusiastic teacher, an involved principal, 31 sixth graders, two authors and a book about writing? A recipe for success.

At the beginning of the school year, I decided to challenge my sixth graders to read more books. My students do not come from homes where there are an abundance of books. Nor do they necessarily even have adults who model reading. Thus began my weekly book chats and read alouds in their classroom. As I shared books that I had read over the past week, I discovered how motivating it is for them to read what the principal is reading. Consequently, my office became a branch of the school library where students began checking out books from my personal collection.

One of our discoveries was Ellen Potter’s book SLOB and I shared with them my correspondence with the author herself. As I got to know Ellen and then her friend and sometime writing partner Anne Mazer (author of the Abby Hayes, Sister Magic Series and my personal fav – Salamander Room), I continued to update my students on my conversations. At the same time, I shared my students’ reactions with Ellen and Anne. I also offered to try some of the writing activities from SPILLING INK with my students.

Naturally, when Ellen and Anne sent me a couple of ARC’s of their new book SPILLING INK, I immediately shared it with my sixth graders. Despite having heard about my emails with the authors, seeing the actual book and knowing that the authors sent it to us transformed Anne and Ellen from just names on the cover of a book. Here were authors that had an interest in them and wanted to know what these students thought about their book. I discussed the possibility of trying out the activities from SPILLING INK with the classroom teacher, Mrs. Debbie, who enthusiastically embraced the challenge. Nearly overnight, the teacher had organized journals for each student. She copied the Official Writer’s Permission Slip (Ch. 1) for everyone and began to introduce lessons to the classroom.



Debbie began by having children write on all types of paper from scraps to napkins to sticky notes to illustrate the point Anne makes about not needing fancy equipment (p.2). She then had them attach the pieces of paper to their journal. In an effort to tie the writing activities into the curriculum, she helped them relate Anne’s comments about “writer’s gold” and dreams in Chapter 3 Inspirations with a lesson they were doing about Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” and then write their own dreams. She was amazed at how enthusiastically her students embraced the writing activities. According to Debbie, “My students are beginning to see that they are writers even the ones that didn’t believe that they were writers.”

For both Debbie and I, it has been exciting especially to see our English Language Learners who struggle to write finally overcome their fear of writing. SPILLING INK’s “give yourself permission to write anything” writing activities have given them the freedom to write without the fear of making mistakes or worrying about being graded. In the past, writing caused many of them to become anxious and nervous. Students worried about making mistakes or needing to write to a specific standard. Debbie indicated that they are now interested in writing and even ask when they will be doing more of the writing exercises from the book. Marissa, age 11, recently shared “When I heard my teacher say that we were going to do the activities I was mad but not anymore. Now when she tells us ‘get your journals out’ I take it out like there’s no tomorrow.”

As I have watched Debbie read portions of the book out loud to her students, I notice that there is a sense that the class has a personal connection to the writers. Anne recommends this or Ellen suggests that. Even the classroom teacher has embraced the humor and dramatic style of the book into her presentation of the lessons providing more motivation. Jeniffer, age 11, said “The most enjoyable thing was how my teacher read it. I enjoyed Spilling Ink.”

Tomorrow – An interview with the authors of SPILLING INK and their reactions to the writing workshops at our school.


The Contest
Ellen and Anne have graciously offered up a signed ARC of SPILLING INK as a giveaway. In order to win the signed copy, you need to do the following…

Try out one of the following dares listed below (you are on an honor system here) and tell us about it in the comment section.

• Dare #1 Baking Characters From Scratch – Think of six qualities for a character and write a recipe for him or her using the model above. For example, 5 cups of cocky attitude, sifted; 2 cups of loyalty to friends; 2 tablespoons of insecurity about big feet, etc. (Ch. 4, p. 23)

•Dare #2 Heart’s Desire – Make a list of all the things you want. Pick one of the items from your list and write a short scene in which you try out one of those ideas. What happens? (Ch. 4. P. 29)

•Dare #3 Descriptions: Describe the color yellow to someone who cannot see. Get creative. (Ch. 13, p.134)

Note: All Dares and page references are taken directly from the Advanced Readers' Copy of Spilling Ink by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter.

You have until Wednesday, February 17, 2010 to enter. Please leave an email address or your twitter name so that we can notify you if you win.

Have fun and until Thursday,
Aly

Middle Grade Mondays: SPILLING INK

Author: Ellen Potter and Anne Mazer
Publisher: Flash Point/Roaring Brook Press
Pages: 288
Reading Level: Ages 9 to 12 years

When I first read Ellen Potter’s book SLOB, I was deeply touched and emailed my reactions to her. She was kind enough to respond back. Once I posted a review of SLOB here a few months ago, I again found myself going back and forth on Twitter and email with her. From there, I found myself connecting with author Anne Mazer. Through our correspondence, I have come to deeply admire both of these fabulous women. Over the months, I shared my thoughts and student examples with them. As a result, Anne and Ellen graciously agreed to share with me their upcoming book Spilling Ink.

When I received my advanced reader’s copy of Spilling Ink, I was excited but also a tad bit nervous. It is one thing to review a book when you have no connection to the author(s) but a totally different situation when it is someone you respect and really like. I decided it was best just to dive into the book and see what I thought.

Remind me though the next time I decide to dive into a book not to do it at 10 p.m. I started reading Spilling Ink and nearly had trouble putting it down. However, I realized that as a non-fiction book I should probably slow down and process the writing advice being shared by Mazer and Potter. The next morning I brought the second ARC to one of my teachers. I asked her to share it with her students. Over the next several weeks, she set up writing journals for her sixth graders. I stopped in to see what the students thought and to watch her use the activities as part of her writing time.

Though this isn’t a book that teaches the grammatical and technical aspects of writing, it does an amazing job with helping students understand the components of a story and how to craft a tale. I watched my students who frequently struggle to write become excited about writing for the first time.

You may be asking what it is about Mazer and Potter’s book that is so special. Through humor, frank dialogue, and practical examples and activities, the authors lead aspiring writers in the process of writing. In the chapter on Characters for example, children are taught how to not only create a character but how to bring their characters to life. I especially enjoyed the activity where Ellen encourages her readers to grab a cookie, a notebook and pen, and to sit down and pretend to have a conversation with their character.

Each chapter is filled with similar kinds of instruction, activities and small “dares” which challenge children to practice what they are learning. Ellen and Anne take turns sharing their own writing practice and lessons learned with their readers. And though the book is written for children, even adults can learn from the activities provided. I have to admit that thanks to the chapter on “Who is telling your story?” I finally understand second person narrative.

Before I even finished the story, I found myself telling booksellers, parents of elementary age children, and school librarians about Spilling Ink. When the book is finally released, I plan on purchasing quite a few copies to give to teachers that I know. I encourage you to pick up your own copy when it is released and enjoy trying out some or all of the writing activities with an aspiring child writer in your life.

On Wednesday, please check back in to Young Adult Literature Review. I will be posting another Spilling Ink related piece which will include comments from Ellen & Anne, as well as some of my students and their teacher. Readers will have a chance to win a signed ARC of Spilling Ink courtesy of Anne, Ellen, and their publisher.

Until then...happy writing,
- Aly

SLOB by Ellen Potter

Publisher: Philomel
Pages: 199
Reading Level: Ages 9 to 12 years

There are some books that readers might miss out on simply because they are not featured prominently in a store nor do they have the mass appeal that other more widely popular books enjoy. Ellen Potter’s SLOB is one of those books. Recently, there were no copies of this book available at my local Barnes & Noble and even at the local indie bookstore the only copy was way above kids’ eye level and if I hadn’t been looking for something else I wouldn’t have even seen it. To me, this is a shame because SLOB is an amazing piece of middle grade fiction which I only happened upon because it was assigned reading as part of a book club.

I will say that this review is going to be difficult to write because I really don’t want to give away any spoilers. What I can tell you is that the story is about a 12 year old boy named Owen who is a genius and overweight. With that information you might think that this is just another one of those middle school stories about a boy who is bullied because of his size. And though that is a big part of the book, it really isn’t what the story is all about. This is the first time that I can actually say that not having even read the summary made the book more enjoyable. I was able to truly appreciate the author’s skill in unveiling the motivations behind Owen’s behaviors.

My suggestion at this point is for you to stop reading the review and go out and read the book. This way I don’t have to worry about spoiling the story for you. However, since you are not likely to just go out and purchase a book because I said for you to do it, then if you must continue reading on be forewarned that there may be some spoilers.

The story opens with Owen discovering that the three oreo cookies in his lunch have been stolen. To most of us, this may not seem like a big deal, but for Owen, those three cookies help get him through his school day. Owen is the smartest and fattest seventh grader in his school. When he isn’t trying to discover who is stealing his lunch, he is trying to cope with a cruel P.E. teacher, and avoid the school bully. At home, Owen is an inventor who is attempting to build a machine that can capture digital information from a specific date and time from two years ago. Much of what seems like one thing on the surface turns out to be quite another thing as the story unfolds including the title of the book.

Anyone who has every gone through middle school will be able to relate with some part of Owen’s story. You will find places that will make you laugh and other parts that will make you want to cry. Potter does a wonderful job telling Owen’s story and though the ending might seem a little too nicely wrapped up, it does provide for a satisfying and hopeful conclusioin. Overall, SLOB is a stand-out in the field of “coming of age” stories. I recommended it to my sixth graders and have made it a point to tell my local bookstores that this is one book that should be on their shelves.

- Aly