HIC! HIC! Writing about the Hiccups

by Jacqueline Jules

Hiccups are funny! They happen to everyone! An experience everyone can relate to makes a great writing prompt for a personal narrative. It can also give your students an opportunity to write humor since hiccups often create a funny situation.

In my new book, Hector’s Hiccups, Sofia and her cousin, Hector plan to attend a movie with Abuela. They are all ready to go when they realize Hector has the hiccups. Abuela tries to cure Hector with a lemon and other remedies. Sofia tries to help by holding her breath with Hector. HIC! HIC! Now Sofia has the hiccups, too. Abuela suggests a change of plans and soon they are all dancing in the kitchen. Who says the hiccups can’t be fun?

After reading Hector’s Hiccups to your class, ask your students to describe a day when they experienced the hiccups. Ask them to consider the following questions to expand their narrative.

1.    Describe the time of day and what you were doing when the hiccups started.

2.    Did you change your plans or keep on with whatever you were doing?

3.    Did you get the hiccups in a place where you were supposed to be quiet?

4.    How long did your hiccups last?

5.    Were you embarrassed? Frustrated? Or did you laugh?   

6.    Did others try to help you?

7.    What is your favorite cure for hiccups?

8.    Did you learn something from the experience?

Happy Writing!

www.jacquelinejules.com

Writing Connections with Nick Bruel

by Mary Quattlebaum

Nick Bruel is the creator of highly popular chapter books, picture books and early readers, all of which feature his inimitable feline character Bad Kitty.  In an interview with the KidsPost section of the Washington Post, Bruel talks about his latest book—Bad Kitty Takes the Test--the testing climate in schools, and combating test-stress through creativity and playfulness.

Bad Kitty Takes the Test is a funny book, with chickens trying to sabotage the cats that are taking a standardized test to prove they are cats.  There are graphics, dialogue balloons and even portions of the very odd test.  Bruel’s aim is to help kids to laugh and take the whole testing-thing less seriously. 

So, with the aim of being silly and having fun, below are some writing lessons for the classroom or for individual writers 8 and up.  By poking fun at a serious issue (schools’ emphasis on standardized testing), Bruel helps both to defuse tension and highlight the negative effect on kids.

MAKING A GRAPHIC STORY:  Classroom Discussion:  After reading the book, ask kids about their feelings of stress and worry around standardized testing.  Have them write down three things they dislike about the testing process.  Talk about how Bad Kitty gets so frustrated that she refuses to take any more pretests.  Classroom Writing:  Have kids create their own animal or human character or work in pairs to do so.  The character is going into school to take a standardized test.  Encourage students to use dialogue balloons to directly show what the character is thinking and saying about the test.  Does she or he express feelings to other characters that are about to take the test?  What happens?

CREATING A SILLY TEST:  Students have certainly taken enough pre- or practice tests to know the standard format.  Have them create their own silly tests on a personal interest or passion (superheroes, dogs, chess, dance, swimming, etc.).  For multiple-choice format, students might write 2 silly questions and 2 serious questions--and answers for all might be one correct answer and three obviously silly ones.  Once they’ve designed their tests, students can have a friend, parent, or even the teacher take it.  Much laughter will ensue.

MAKING A GRAPHIC STORY REDUX: JOURNALING THROUGH WORDS AND PICTURES: Encourage students to use this graphic-story format as a way of keeping a journal or exploring, in writing and drawing, the things that worry or stress them.  First, have them identify, by listing on paper, one thing they feel stressed about at that point in time and why they feel stressed and how they deal with it.  Let them know there is no right or wrong to this and encourage them to write about this in more detail and/or draw pictures. Students can also cut images from magazines and make a collage of their feelings, adding in their own drawings, as they wish. Students should not have to share unless they wish to do so.  Ask them if they felt better just getting their feelings out and down on paper.

Additional Resources

Bruel’s website  includes games and resources.

In Bad Kitty Drawn to Trouble, Bruel takes kids through the basic elements of story—and drawing--as he guides them to write their own story.

 www.maryquattlebaum.com

I'M NOT--Writing About Fears with Peep and Egg

by Laura Gehl

In Peep and Egg: I’m Not Hatching, Egg is scared of everything—from the too-high roof of the hen house to the too-dark sky at night.  Egg wants to stay inside of her nice, cozy, SAFE shell. 

When I present Peep and Egg to school groups, I ask kids to think about their own fears.  What would make them want to stay inside their eggs? 

When Egg finally hatches, it is because she wants to be with Peep, and because she wants to read a story.  I ask students, “What would make you hatch out of your egg?  What do you love enough that you would come out of your safe, cozy egg for it?” 

In your classroom, you may want to have each student make a chart—one half of the paper for What Would Make Me Stay in My Egg and one half of the paper for What Would Make Me Hatch.  Ask students to write a list, or draw pictures, on each side. 

(So far, I’ve found sharks to be the most popular answer for What Would Make Me Stay in My Egg and ice cream to be the most popular answer for What Would Make Me Hatch.)

Peep and Egg: I’m Not Hatching is the first in a series of books that will include Peep and Egg: I’m Not Trick or Treating, Peep and Egg: I’m Not Taking a Bath, and Peep and Egg: I’m Not Eating That.

Ask your students to think about an I’m Not title that reflects their own fears.  Ask, “What would YOU be scared to do?”  I often tell school groups that my title would be I’m Not Skydiving.

Next, ask students to write or tell an I’m Not story, with the story primarily written in dialogue like Peep and Egg. A student could use the characters Peep and Egg, she could use herself and a parent (“I’m Not Trying Out for the School Play!”) or she might use a scared penguin and a comforting polar bear (“I’m Not Ice Skating!”).  Anything goes! 

Writing I’m Not stories can help students think about their own fears in a humorous way.  I’m Not stories can also help kids remember that we can overcome our fears, although we may need a special someone like Peep to help us break out of our shells!

Laura Gehl is NOT skydiving!  But she IS the author of One Big Pair Of Underwear, a Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended Title, International Literacy Association Honor Book, and Booklist Books for Youth Editors’ Choice for 2014; Hare And Tortoise Race Across Israel and And Then Another Sheep Turned Up (both PJ library selections for 2015 and 2016); and Peep And Egg: I’m Not Hatching, an Amazon Best Book of the Month for February 2016. A former science and reading teacher, Laura also writes about science for children and adults.  She lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with her husband and four children.  Visit Laura online at www.lauragehl.com. 

Writing Connections with Jennifer Allison

by Mary Quattlebaum

Writing and reading are new challenges for second and third graders, and Jennifer Allison motivates kids to tackle them with her rambunctious new Iggy Loomis chapter-book series.  Short chapters, a fast-paced plot, and Mike Moran’s zany illustrations playfully engage young readers even as they help hone reading skills—and perhaps even inspire kids to write/draw their own superhero adventures.  Jennifer shares her writing process and a classroom writing prompt for Iggy Loomis: Superkid in Training (Dial, 2013), the first book in the series. Check iggyloomis.com for additional activities.

Welcome, Jennifer!  As you know, my family members are big fans of your Gilda Joyce mystery series for ages 10 and up.  Iggy is a departure from these mysteries.   What inspired you to write a chapter book?

I have three kids in elementary school (boy-girl twins who are first graders and also a 4^th

grader), and I was inspired to write a book that all three of them would want to read.

The combination of real-life problems (how to deal with difficult friends and siblings) and science fiction (secret alien technology and curiosity about other worlds) was inspired by the way ordinary life, imaginative adventures, and ridiculous mishaps all blend together in the daily lives of young kids. Quite a few funny details in Iggy Loomis began with me jotting down a note about something one of my kids actually said or did.

How do you see the illustrations enhancing the text & what were some of the

challenges you faced in writing this chapter book?  

In a nutshell, I was reminded that just because a book is “easy to read” does not mean that it was easy to write!

The narrator of Iggy Loomis: Superkid in Training is Daniel Loomis (Iggy’s older brother), who’s approximately nine years old, although I never reveal his exact age. His voice is sometimes challenging for me because Daniel is far less verbal than a teen like Gilda Joyce, who is a self-described “preternaturally gifted” writer. Writing from Daniel Loomis’s perspective pushes me to think visually and to reveal character traits through actions. The verbal limitations of a less-than-bookish elementary school narrator also make Mike Moran’s illustrations crucial to the book – not just as fun enhancements to the text, but to show the reader the range of emotions Daniel, his little brother Iggy, and best friend Alistair experience.

Another challenge for me was the very streamlined form of this humor/adventure genre for elementary school readers: it’s more linear and pared-down than the structure of the Gilda Joyce books, which include several subplots and an exploration of the inner lives of multiple characters. I naively assumed that writing in a very spare form would make my task as a writer easier, but I was wrong. My editor at Penguin, Lucia Monfried, was crucial when it came to helping me refocus my first drafts of Iggy Loomis on only the most essential story elements.

What was your greatest joy?

A few weeks ago, we launched Iggy Loomis with a pajama party for kids at a wonderful independent bookstore in Chicago called The Book Cellar. There aren’t many bookstore owners who will personally make “bug Jell-O” for a children’s book event, and Suzy Takacs did just that in an effort to get kids thinking about the insect theme of the story.

We planned the bookstore event as a “birthday party” for a new storybook character (Iggy Loomis), and the store was packed with a somewhat zany crowd of sugar-fueled kids ranging from 1^st graders through 4^th graders. I loved how, when I started reading from the book, they all fell completely silent – on the edge of their seats and genuinely listening to this story about a boy whose little brother gets mysterious superpowers. This was also the first book event that included my own three children and lots of their classmates as participants. I will always remember the end of the party: my younger son Marcus came up to me and asked if I would please also sign his book. He took his copy of Iggy Loomis everywhere for the next week “because I love it so much!”

Wow, it’s lovely to be able to inspire your own kids to read and write!  Do you have a writing prompt or suggestion that might connect with the book?  

Iggy Loomis: Superkid in Training is a humorous science fiction book that introduces several “real world” science concepts including the study of insects and DNA. The website www.iggyloomis.com includes a list of suggested nonfiction resources for kids who want to learn more about science. The website also includes a complete classroom discussion guide and a list of interdisciplinary projects that will engage visual and experiential learners. Here’s one project that teachers can find on the website:

Paint Your Own Planet! How do you imagine Alistair’s home planet (Planet Blaron) looks? Draw or paint your vision of Alistair’s home planet. Write a paragraph explaining the choices you made (details of the landscape, color choices, etc.) based on details from the text of Iggy Loomis and/or research about planets in distant galaxies.

I love that this prompt includes writing and drawing since kids this age seem to enjoy and get so much from doing their own visuals.  What are you working on now?

I’m currently finishing the second book in the Iggy Loomis series entitled A Hagfish Called Shirley. Kids interested in unusual sea creatures and weird pets should add the next Iggy Loomis book to their reading lists!

This sounds like so much fun, Jennifer!  I’m going to add it to my reading list.  Thanks for joining us at Pencil Tips. 

www.maryquattlebaum.com

IF YOU ELECT ME

by Laura Krauss Melmed

Last week I worked with a sixth grade class of about twenty students in a single session poetry workshop.  When I introduced our topic, Hurricane Sandy, some of the boys said they wanted to write about the election instead, since after all, it was the morning of November 6.  The students even started calling out some spontaneous, funny rhyming lines on the subject.   But feeling rather tense about the possible outcome of the election and also wanting to stick to my lesson plan, I had them stay with the topic of the storm.

Once the election was over, I began playing with the question of how it could have become the focal point of a lesson in creative writing.   What if the students were presented with a set of election rivals, but instead of real politicians like President Obama and Mitt Romney, they were funny combinations of rivals such as Cat and Dog vying for Best Pet, or Moon and Sun competing for Best Celestial Body, or Broccoli and Candy Bar facing off for Best Food.  Students could break into two teams, each tasked with preparing materials for one of the candidates.   It would be each team’s job to convince the “voters” that their candidate should win by producing materials such as a campaign slogan, a stump speech, a poster and maybe even a (non-negative!) TV ad.  To accomplish this, students would have to combine creative thinking with humor and the art of persuasive writing.  To conclude, each team might present their materials to another class to be followed by a mock election.  

But getting back to last week’s workshop on the storm, here is the poem my group produced together: 

Loosen the twisting, powerful drops that splash

Loosen the monstrous gale of the wolf

Loosen the sound of the drums

Let the shredding winds go free!

www.laurakraussmelmed.com

Writing Humor: Parallels with Advertising

by Pam Smallcomb

Hello, my name is Pam Smallcomb, and I have been hitting my head against the writing wall for twenty years (even more, but that would make me feel really old to admit). I have the dents in my forehead to prove it. I work really hard at coming up with ideas that don’t make me cringe. Maybe some of you have that problem, too, or your students do. So, in the spirit of piggybacking on to Joan Waites’ great post about Story Starters, I thought I would share part of a presentation I did for an SCBWI workshop.

My inspiration for the workshop came when it occurred to me that writing a humorous picture book has some parallels to advertising. The original brain jiggling thought I had was this: advertisers cram a lot of story into a short amount of time and space.

Advertisers are highly creative and innovative. They get a message across in a fresh way. Advertisers love humor and are very good at it.

So how do they go about making their advertising magic?

First, they decide on their target market. They define who their product is for.

As a picture book writer,  our target is a young child. But we have another target, too, because it is an adult that buys the book. Having something in your humorous picture book for a parent or an adult to chuckle over is a big bonus.

Think about Knufflebunny by Mo Willems. Both target markets are touched with this story. If you are a little kid and you lose your lovey, it’s like the world has ended. If you are a parent, and your kid loses his lovey,  you know you are in for a rough ride.

Advertisers also focus on the message they want to get across.

As writers, we should think about our ‘message’ or theme, too.

Here are some things to ask yourself when developing the theme of your humorous picture book:

Is my story of value to a young child (will it resonate)?

What are the worries of young kids?

What are some things that parents have to help their kids with (sleeping through the night, etc.)

Is the humor something a child will ‘get’?

Did you leave a little nugget for that parent/adult who is reading the book to the child?

Another thing that advertisers do when they get a new project is to brainstorm ideas.  We can brainstorm to generate ideas for humorous picture books as well. There are lots of ways to brainstorm. One way is to blend two unlike things.

Think of the Geico Caveman ad: cavemen and insurance. Not at all alike, which is why it is funny. Make two lists of items (just let your imagination run wild!). Then draw lines between unlike things. Connecting unlike things can help you find a jumping off point for a funny story. There is humor in incongruity. Take two things that are incompatible and build a relationship between them.

Here are some picture books that blend unlike things:

Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? by Audrey Vernick

This is a fun book about the first day of kindergarten with one's own buffalo. Buffalo and kindergarten – couldn’t be more different!

Todd’s TV by James Proimos

An affable TV takes over the parental duties of busy parents with hilarious results.

Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton

An humorous imaginary battle between a shark and a train. Two unlike things pitted against each other, and two things that boys will especially love.

So the next time you get stuck trying to come up with an idea for a funny picture book, break out a pencil, make two lists, draw lines between unlike things and see what happens! All our brains need a good jiggle now and then.

http://www.pamsmallcomb.com/

P.S. Don’t forget! To enter our book giveaway, just leave a comment here. A winner will be picked on September 30^th!

PENCIL TIPS GIVEAWAY!
Win a signed copy of I'm Not by Pam Smallcomb
To enter, leave a comment on a Pencil Tips blog post
Random winner contacted September 30th

"...a fresh take on friendship/reassurance stories and is, for sure, not boring"

- starred review Kirkus Reviews December 2010

Leave a comment at any Pencil Tips blog post between now and September 30th
for a chance to win a signed copy.

PENCIL TIPS WRITING WORKSHOP: STORY IDEAS FROM FUNNY FAMILY STORIES

by Pam Smallcomb

A common complaint from kids (and adults, for that matter) is “I can’t think of anything to write!”

Trying to help a group of kids come up with ideas for stories is a little like trying to catch smoke with a net. The more you try to explain the different ways to generate story ideas, the murkier things become.  Looking out into the room, you can see their eyes glazing over.

A good exercise for elementary school aged kids is to have them write about their own childhood (as short as it may be!). That’s too general, of course, and so tightening their options is a good idea. One direction to go would be to have your students write about the funniest memory they have of their own family. The great thing about this exercise is that if they can’t remember a funny episode, they can simply make one up. By using their own families, each student has a cast of characters who are defined and ready to go. All they need to do is either ‘pretend’ that a funny event has happened in the past, or retell a real one.

Maybe their funny memory happened during a holiday (a Thanksgiving dinner disaster, perhaps). It could have happened on a family vacation.  Remind them of those long car rides to DisneyWorld, or of family reunions. Many will have brothers and sisters, or dogs and cats.  If they don’t, they can add one into their story and see what happens. It’s their chance to have the pet llama they always wanted for their birthday, but never got.

While they are writing their funny family memory, it’s a good time to remind students that when you write humor, exaggeration is your friend. If Aunt Ethel is tidy, she is super tidy. She is so tidy that she walks around the dinner table wiping the condensation from the water glasses so it doesn’t drip on the plastic tablecloth.

If Uncle Ernie snored through your big sister’s wedding, he was so loud the bride and groom couldn’t hear their vows.

 

  When retelling a funny memory, exaggeration is like an amplifier. It turns up the funny volume. But if you use too much exaggeration, your reader won’t know where to focus.  If Uncle Ernie is the star of your funniest memory, let his story build and climax, and make the best use of exaggeration when he snores through your sister’s wedding.

http://www.pamsmallcomb.com/

PENCIL TIPS: WRITING HUMOR

by Pam Smallcomb

Most kids love humor. They love reading funny books, telling jokes and seeing funny movies. Kids in middle school refine the art of sarcasm; practicing this skill with deadpan remarks to their parents (who are amazed to find a stand-up comedian lurking inside their child).

But when you sit down to write a humorous story, where do you start? Understanding the different kinds of comedic stories can help students to focus, and as a bonus, it will help to give them ideas for their plots. One type of story is the ‘fish out of water’ variety.

In a ‘fish out of water’ story, a normal character is plunked down in a humorous world, or a humorous character is thrown into a normal world. In the first case, your normal ‘fish’ could be a regular guy who has just landed on a planet populated by intelligent ducks. It could be your average kid who finds out the survival camp his parents have sent him to is run by zombies. Wherever a writer sends his normal ‘fish’, it should be somewhere that he will be given the worst time of his life. From adversity springs the opportunity for humor.

In the second case, where you have a humorous character thrown into a normal world, your ‘fish’ can be an alien who visits our world.  Or a mummy from ancient Egypt could come back to life in Kansas. Whoever your ‘fish’ is, put him in the ‘normal’ place that will cause the most mayhem and misunderstanding all around. Mayhem and misunderstanding are also opportunities for humor.

An exercise for students (to help them to understand the ‘fish out of water’ structure) is to have them list movies and books that follow one of the two types.  Here are some examples for younger kids:

Examples of a normal person in a humorous world:

Movies:

Freaky Friday

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Planet 51

Princess and the Frog

Books:

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

James and the Giant Peach

Alice in Wonderland

The Phantom Tollbooth

Examples of a humorous character thrown into a normal world:

Movies:

Enchanted

School of Rock

Herbie, the Love Bug

Books:

Aliens For Breakfast

Amelia Bedelia

Mrs. Piggle-wiggle

Mary Poppins

Of course, many tall tales have a ‘fish out of water’ element. Paul Bunyan is a comic character thrown into a normal world, as is Pecos Bill. You could even say some modern legends, like Bigfoot, follow the formula. ‘Fish out of water’ stories, don’t have to be humorous, of course, and students will be able to spot many other examples (Gregor the Overlander, Twilight, Star Wars, Tarzan, Avatar, to name a few).

A book on writing that I have found immensely helpful in writing humor and writing in general is The Comic Toolbox by Peter Vorhaus. Older students (middle grade and up), and adult writers will find it contains many useful writing nuggets and is a fun read, as well.

http://www.pamsmallcomb.com/index.html