Another Writing Challenge - of Fairy Tales

If you can get a copy of the May 21, 2007 TIME Magazine, be sure to read the article "The End of Fairy Tales?" on pages 83-85.

In the meantime, or after you read the article, study the types of re-writes fairy tales have gotten, then think about whether or not particular types of re-writes might be clever or go too far, and then think about how you might re-write a fairytale. Which fairy tale would you choose? How would you change it, modernize it, or give it a unique twist?

And think about this: would you return to the original grim Grimms' fairy tales style, stay with a sweet Disney version, try another different grim version, or go in a completely opposite direction, or use your very own unique technique? 

Go ahead now - take the challenge!

 

another writing challenge - An Age Old Question Updated and Adapted for Children's Writers

Here is an adaptation of a question that is often asked of readers: Suppose you were stranded on a desert island, or (in keeping with the modern age), suppose you were on a space station or moon base for a long time. Choose 6-12 children's books you would like to have with you to help pass the time. They should also be books, or even magazine articles, that would keep inspiring you to write. One of your choices can be something written for writers by a children's book or article writer. Here are my choices: parts of LITTLE WOMEN, all of THE SECRET GARDEN, A WRINKLE IN TIME, THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS BASIL E FRANKWEILER, TOM'S MIDNIGHT GARDEN, BARBARY, and an article by Rachel Carson on the sense of wonder in children. Now its your turn.  

Tags: challenge for children's writers

Can You Pick or Choose? - Of Great Writings For Children

Because we have been living at the end of one century and at the beginning of a new century the past few years, you have surely seen this question: Who Was/Is the Greatest Writer of the 20th Century?

As writers for children, we might consider a similar question in this way: Who Were/Are Ten Great Children's Writers, Not Just of the 20th Century, But From Anytime Starting From the Beginning of Children's Literature to the Present?

Here are a few suggestions: Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Madeleine L'Engle, and J.K. Rowling. 

Can you think of others?

Tell why you think they may be among the "TOP TEN."

Tags: A Challenge for Children's Writers

Another Writing Challenge - Can You Remember? Can You Adapt It?

What is your first memory, or your second one or third one?

Try writing a picture book based on one of these memories.

Try writing about it the way it happened, or take the memory as a seed and plant it, then imagine how it might sprout and then nurture it.

Writing Prompt for Today - TimeCapsuleChallenge

The library system in Queens County, a part of New York City, is celebrating its one hundredth anniversary. One way library goers are celebrating is selecting things to be put in a time capsule made of two steel trunks. Among the items to be put there: the children's book THE POLAR EXPRESS and  a sleigh bell to ring while reading this popular children’s book. (excerpted from the "Queens Courier" newspaper online, April 28, 2007)
A challenge for you - which children's book would you select to be put in a library's time capsule, and why? OR which type of children's book would you like to write and get published so it could be put in a library's time capsule?

Tags: childrens books, writing challenge for childrens writers

Writing Prompt for Today - From Printed Word to Movie Screen

The new children's movie "The Last Mimzy" (2007) is based on a classic science fiction story featuring children - "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" (or "Mimsy Were the Borogroves") published and written in 1943 by Lewis Padgett (pen name for Catherine Lucille [C.L.] Moore and her husband Henry Kuttner). There are similarities and differences between the original story and the movie version, as seems inevitable when printed stories are made into movies. Both "Mimsy" and "Mimzy" each in its own way features a young someone noteworthy in the history of children's literature, and each features the young main characters in different although similar ways. Think about the ways the young characters are featured in each version, and how the young literary person is important in each version, then consider writing your own fictional children's story that features either a real literary person or a literary character from classic literature.  

Tags: childrens stories, writing challenge for childrens writers, book-movie tie-ins