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Answer to Heather's question
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From: melissa_at_melissa-stewart.com
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 08:16:50 -0400 (EDT)
Thanks for your question, Heather. For me, finding the right structure for a manuscript, especially a picture book manuscript, is the toughest part of writing nonfiction for kids. For No Monkeys, No Chocolate, I was shooting in the dark. I’d have an idea, try it, fail, and then spend a lot of time trying to come up with a new idea. I don’t really know how or why I stumbled onto the final structure and at the time, I didn’t have any vocabulary to describe it. I called it House-that-Jack-Built-like for lack of a better term. Today I would say that it’s a combination of a cumulative structure and a circle story.
There are three main reasons I now have better vocabulary for describing nonfiction book structures. Firstly, Common Core specifies six structures, and they help me think about the structure in the nonfiction books I read as well as the ones I write. Secondly, it’s something that my colleagues and I have been talking about more and more over the last few years. I’ve given talks about nonfiction structure at two SCBWI conferences and I attended a fantastic session on the topic by Loree Griffin Burns and Alexandra Siy. Thirdly, I’ve been influenced by ideas developed by a group of thought leaders who call themselves the Uncommon Corps (http://nonfictionandthecommoncore.blogspot.com/).
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Received on Sun 22 Jun 2014 07:17:13 AM CDT
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 08:16:50 -0400 (EDT)
Thanks for your question, Heather. For me, finding the right structure for a manuscript, especially a picture book manuscript, is the toughest part of writing nonfiction for kids. For No Monkeys, No Chocolate, I was shooting in the dark. I’d have an idea, try it, fail, and then spend a lot of time trying to come up with a new idea. I don’t really know how or why I stumbled onto the final structure and at the time, I didn’t have any vocabulary to describe it. I called it House-that-Jack-Built-like for lack of a better term. Today I would say that it’s a combination of a cumulative structure and a circle story.
There are three main reasons I now have better vocabulary for describing nonfiction book structures. Firstly, Common Core specifies six structures, and they help me think about the structure in the nonfiction books I read as well as the ones I write. Secondly, it’s something that my colleagues and I have been talking about more and more over the last few years. I’ve given talks about nonfiction structure at two SCBWI conferences and I attended a fantastic session on the topic by Loree Griffin Burns and Alexandra Siy. Thirdly, I’ve been influenced by ideas developed by a group of thought leaders who call themselves the Uncommon Corps (http://nonfictionandthecommoncore.blogspot.com/).
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Received on Sun 22 Jun 2014 07:17:13 AM CDT
