Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is publishing a monthly series of e-only essays to correspond with Katherine Paterson's two-year term as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. The subjects of the essays include: writing and literature for young people, the wonder and imagination found within great books, common questions novice writers ask, and Katherine's own personal experiences throughout her historic career.

"In his essential writing guide, This Year You Write Your Novel, Walter Mosley supplied aspiring writers with the basic tools and practical advice needed to write a novel in a single year. In this complementary follow up, Mosley guides the reader through the fundamental building blocks of fiction to deliver a master class on the writer's craft. In a series of conversational and instructive chapters, Mosley breaks down the art of fiction to its most...

What do you do with an interrupting sibling? Especially when she's stepping all over your story with wild ideas that don't. Even. Rhyme. Knights riding rockets? Dancing pirates? Who's ever heard of a fire-breathing armadillo?! But when this big brother realizes his sister just might be improving his yarnand doing it with an impressive surprise of her ownit's clear what you do with an interrupting sibling. You share the narrative! Turns out adventure...

"Interested in writing but don't know how to get started? Love reading and want to know more about how stories are created? Like ridiculous tales about troublesome sisters, peanut butter and steamrollers? Look no further! Esteemed writer Richard Scrimger is here to answer all your burning questions about writing: whether about plot, character, structure, story hooks or commas. (Actually, don't ask him about commas, it's not that kind of book.) Using...

"Organized into six accessible, easy-to-navigate sections, The Way of the Writer is both a literary reflection on the creative impulse and a utilitarian guide to the writing process. Johnson shares his lessons and exercises from the classroom, starting with word choice, sentence structure, and narrative voice, and delving into the mechanics of scene, dialogue, plot and storytelling before exploring the larger questions at stake for the serious writer....

Rather than a lemonade stand, Rufus sets up a story stand one summer and makes a series of trades with his friends--a story for a shell, for a kitten, for a surprise, and one more as a special birthday gift for his sister.

Why write when it sometimes feels that so few people really read--read as if their lives might be changed by what they're reading? Why write, when the world wants to be informed, not enlightened; to be entertained, not inspired? Writing is backbreaking, mindbreaking, lonely work. So why? Because writing, as celebrated professor Mark Edmundson explains, is one of the greatest human goods. Real writing can do what critic R. P. Blackmur said it could:...

A child struggles to write a story until he finds inspiration outside his window.

"Everybody has a poem inside them! Writing one is not as hard as you think, you just need to know how to get started. Discover all sorts of ways to write and perform your very own poems, from found poems, to haikus, to tanka poems, to tongue-twisters!" -- "Discover 40 ways to write a poem, with Joseph Coelho, Children's Laureate 2022-24. An essential for any budding writer or performer. This is a fabulous resource for creative writing, with an emphasis...

Holiday hijinks abound in this very merry Christmas story about three siblings who can't resist sneaking a peek under the tree before it's time, for fans of How to Catch Santa and 5 More Sleeps. Everyone knows there's no peeking at presents before Christmas morning. But what if there's a very, very good reason to take a look? It's Christmas Eve and the three kids in this story are trying their best to go to sleep, but something keeps waking them...