author:
Becky Levine
“The end never comes when you think it will. It’s always ten steps past the worst moment, then a weird turn to the left.” -Lena Dunham I’ve been struggling with endings lately. So I did my usual thing—went back to some of my mentor books. And I found three books I want to talk about: […]
craft review by Becky Levine You hear this over and over again: your story hero needs to face obstacles, grow and learn, and then . . . dive into that dark cave for the sword, come out swinging, and change their world for the better. Even in a picture book. Even when your hero is […]
craft review by Becky Levine Before I read Paul Acampora’s Confusion is Nothing New, my favorite of his books was How to Avoid Extinction. It’s now a toss-up which of the two sits at the top of my list. Confusion is Nothing New is brilliant in so many ways. For today, though, I’m going to […]
We are delighted to have Lois Sepahban, author of Paper Wishes, stop by to answer some of our questions. (See our craft review here.) Below you’ll find Lois’s thoughtful responses, which give insight into her writing process and research process, as well as the story itself. Lois hails from Minnesota and has written non-fiction for children. […]
craft review by Becky Levine It’s fiction. We can write pretty much anything you want, right? We’re making up the story, we’re creating the world, and what we put into that world is up to us. There’s just one challenge. Our readers have to believe it. In Lois Sephaban’s Paper Wishes, Manami and her family […]
Craft Review by Becky Levine I absolutely loved How to Avoid Extinction. I fell in love with the hero Leo on page one, and stayed in love as I watched him try to keep up with his grandmother as she journeys across the country in search of dinosaur fossils. His attempts to keep her safe, […]
by Becky Levine I don’t do resolutions. They stress me out and actually reduce my productivity. But I certainly, around this time of year, take a look at what I’ve been doing and muse about whether there are any ways I want to shift those things around. Do I want to reset a pattern that […]
craft review by Becky Levine I started Jason Reynolds’ Ghost on a weekend as I ate breakfast, and then I saw the morning pass as I kept reading and kept reading. Or, more accurately, I didn’t see the morning pass, because I was totally immersed in the book. I love the story. But I love […]
