Craft Articles

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Here you will find explorations of mentor texts – articles that dive into specific craft elements in published books, interviews with authors, and tips on growing and improving as a writer.

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Writing Action Beyond the Play-by-Play: Dangerous Play by Emma Kress
Young Adult Anne-Marie Strohman Young Adult Anne-Marie Strohman

Writing Action Beyond the Play-by-Play: Dangerous Play by Emma Kress

Emma Kress’s debut YA novel, Dangerous Play, has plenty of action and a lot of games. It’s a book about a girls’ field hockey team who uses parkour to supplement their summer training, and puts those skills to use as vigilantes against perpetrators of sexual assault. It takes place over an entire hockey season, and Kress makes smart choices about how to condense the many field hockey games so that each one serves the story, especially by manipulating pacing and creating tension.

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