Writing Connections with Kelly Barnhill

by Mary Quattlebaum

Kelly Barnhill’s atmospheric novel The Girl Who Drank the Moon won this year’s Newbery Medal.  In an interview with the KidsPost section of the Washington Post, Barnhill talks about trying to create nuanced characters and her desire for a pet dragon as a kid.

Below are writing lessons for the classroom or for individual writers ages 8 and up.  Barnhill’s website has a hilarious FAQ about her writing process and information on her other books.

CREATING CHARACTERS:  Exploring Stereotype:  Barnhill’s novel is full of witches, who are usually presented as problematic in most books. Witches often are the villains or antagonists in fairy tales, for example.  Barnhill said that she wanted to push beyond the usual stereotype of the witch as mean (even evil), old, homely, and solitary.  Her witch characters are unique individuals, with a mix of positive and negative traits.

Classroom Discussion:  Have kids read the novel and make a list of the positive and negative traits for some of the witches.

Classroom Discussion and Writing:  Have students think about a character in a fairy tale or story that is usually presented in a stereotyped way.  The wolf in “The Three Little Pigs” or “Little Red Riding Hood,” is an example of a character that is usually presented only with negative traits.   The princess (“Cinderella,” “Snow White”) is usually presented with only positive traits.  Ask students to read their fairy tale carefully and list traits of this character or what they learn about the character from this tale.  Then ask them to give this character 1 or 2 traits that are the opposite of what they listed.  For example, the wolf might be listed as “nurturing” or Cinderella as “lazy.”  Ask students to write a story or even just a short scene to show this character with at least one positive and one negative trait.

An Unexpected Character:  We usually think of dragons as large fierce characters but the young witch’s pet in Barnhill’s novel is a tiny bossy dragon.  Classroom Discussion:  Ask kids to list some the physical and psychological traits of one of their favorite animals.  Then ask them to change one or two of the traits to its opposite (for example, from “big” to “small” of from “cuddly” to “fierce”), and in this way the character becomes fresh and unexpected.  Classroom Writing:  Ask students to create a story about or that includes such an unexpected pet.   Perhaps the unexpected pet is even the main character!  What happens next?

Ask a few students to volunteer to read their pieces aloud.  As a group, discuss what they learned about creating more nuanced or well-rounded characters and unexpected pets.

www.maryquattlebaum.com

Writing Connections with Kwame Alexander and The Crossover

by Mary Quattlebaum

The Crossover, the 2015 Newbery Medal winner, offers powerful lessons for writers of all ages. At a recent meeting of the Children’s Book Guild in Washington, DC, Kwame Alexander shared craft insights related to his novel in verse, which I then shaped into the following three writing prompts:

1.  UP YOUR LANGUAGE GAME:  Read aloud some hip-hop basketball poems (“Dribbling,” “The Show,” “Man to Man,” “Show-off,” “The Last Shot”).

Classroom Writing:  Have students write down the words and elements (line breaks, capitalization, font-size changes, rhymes, onomatopoeic words) that make this poem look and sound like a game of basketball.  Why might the author have made these choices?  Ask students to close their eyes and picture themselves playing a sport or doing an activity they love (soccer, ballet, hiking, painting, playing a musical instrument), then jot down words that remind them of this sport/activity and how it makes them feel to do it.  Ask them to write a poem or paragraph that captures (through sound, capitalization, font-change, line breaks, etc.) the way this sport/activity moves.  The final line or sentence might be how they feel doing it.

2.  WHAT’S IN A NAME:  Main character Josh Bell talks about his nickname in four poems (“Josh Bell,” “How I Got My Nickname,” “At First,” “Filthy McNasty”).  What’s the nickname and who gave it to him?  How does he feel about it at first?  Why does he change his mind?  How does he feel the nickname fits him in the last poem of those four?

Classroom Discussion:  Ask students if they have a nickname.  Is it a shortening of their real name?  A characteristic?  How do they feel about it?  Has that feeling changed over time?

Classroom Writing:  Ask students to write a name (could be an actual name or a nickname) that they would like to be called.  Why does this name fit them better, perhaps, than their real name?  (This could be a paragraph or a poem.)

Newbery winner Kwame Alexander and librarian Deborah Taylor, honored this year by ALA.

3.  WHO’S IN YOUR LIFE?:   Kwame thanked Deborah Taylor for suggesting, early in his career, that he write about a father, like his own, who is a strong influence on a young main character.  (Deb was in the audience and is the recipient of the 2015 Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.  She works at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Md., and has been a beloved literacy advocate and mentor for teens.)

Classroom Discussion:  Have students discuss Josh’s father.  Josh includes many details about Dad so that readers get a clear sense of his personality.  What does he like to do?  (Give advice about basketball to his sons, tell stories and puns, eat salty foods.)  How does Josh feel about him?  Can students find the italicized words that Dad actually speaks?  What does he say?

Classroom Writing:  Ask students to think of someone in their life that they would like to write about.   Have them jot down what this person likes to do and eat, their favorite words or phrases, and something that the student and this person have done together and how student feels about that.  (This might be a poem or piece of prose.)

MORE DETAILS ABOUT KWAME:  Click here for Abby McGanney Nolan’s interview with Kwame in the KidsPost section of the Washington Post.

www.maryquattlebaum.com