A "Thank You" from Helping Hands Press

THANK YOU!!!

We can’t say it any more plainly.

As each day grows closer to those times of the year that makes one pause and reflect on what they are thankful for and what their year was like, we cannot help but come back to the one place any Author or Publisher needs to think of and consider with each and every word-YOU –our readers and supporters.

We count on you each and every “Thirsty Thursday” Party for your feedback, every review you give, every email and direct message you send the Authors in our Community. Without your guidance and support we know that we would cease to exist. “THANK YOU!!!!”

As a small token of our appreciation we are going to try to do a few fun things for you over the next 4 weeks.

We are going to offer all of the paperbacks, audio books and ebooks in the Helping Hands Press Store at 30% off from Nov. 20 to Dec.18^th.All you need to do is use the code word “THANKYOU” when you check out to receive the discount.  

We are also starting a contest that will run the same length of time. There will be a Rafflecopter located on the Helping Hands Press blog that will have all the details. There are a lot of prizes:

-Grand Prize -Kindle Fire HD6

-Second Prize- 12 paperbacks-Full list is below

-Third Prize-6 paperbacks-Full List below

-Fourth prize-6 audio books-Full List below

-Fifth Prize-audio book of choice

We hope that you have fun, enjoy the contest, and most of all know that all of us here at Helping Hands Press are very thankful for your support each and every day!

THANK YOU!!!!!

Second Prize-12 paperbacks: Declaration of Independence Series I, Colony Zero Complete Series I, The San Francisco Wedding Planner Series I, ’Tis The Season in Sweetland Complete, No Revolution Is Too Big Complete Series, Marsha Hubler’s Heart-Warming Christmas Stories Complete Series, No Matter What, Uplifting Devotionals Book I, 12 Days of Christmas Complete Series, The Ambassadors, Preacher Man Volume I, Legacy of Grandpa’s Grapevine

Third Prize-6 paperbacks:Dark Enough To See The Stars, The Blizzard, The Christmas Wish, Mother Can You Hear Me?, Homeschool Co-ops 101, God,Me and a Cup of Tea  

What Worked This Week in Secondary Reading: Introduction

I had a brilliant idea last week! At least I think it’s a brilliant idea.

Now that I’m back in the classroom, teaching my little heart out, I’m going to do my best to blog each week about what is working in my classroom. I don’t claim to know everything about Secondary Reading instruction and I don’t claim that just because it worked in my classroom it will work in your classroom (I can’t even guarantee that it will work in my classroom next week), but I do believe that positive stories about successfully educating students is one small piece to the puzzle of what keep us going back to the classroom each day.

So take these stories for what they are: reflections of the positive, hilarious aspects of my week that make getting out of bed next Monday possible.

Here is some background on me and my classroom. This is my 14^th year in public education. I spent most of my career working with urban students in grades k-12 as a teacher, instructional coach, reading specialist, and administrator. After a two year hiatus from education, (during which I became a published author—check out my books here http://ow.ly/DPI9v ), I am back in the classroom in a suburban school district in Pennsylvania. I begin my day at the high school where I teach two periods before traveling to the middle school for the remainder of the day. I am privileged to teach a group of students who have experienced struggle with acquiring the reading skills we would expect to see in students of this age. After experiencing years of frustration, I believe that 80% of my job is convincing these students that reading is a skill within their grasp while the remainder of my job consists of trying to find methods for teaching that will result in the learning I’m looking for.

Join me on this journey! I look forward to reading about your journey in the comments. You can also find me on Facebook www.facebook.com/trostlestreasures and Twitter @TrostleMichelle.

Writing for Children

I have made the courageous choice to intentionally write for children. I say it that way because writing for children is much more difficult than most people realize. In my many years of working with children and writing for a young audience, I have learned two essential lessons that I would like to share.

1.       1. Writing for children requires concise word choice. Children have a smaller working vocabulary than most adults. There is a fine line that authors must walk between staying within the typical child’s vocabulary, possibly creating a story that feels stilted, and injecting too many advanced words, thus creating a story that is out of reach of the reader. Choosing just the right words to convey the message while honoring the child is a true art form. To illustrate this point, did you realize that Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss uses only 50 unique words to create a full storyline? That is true artistry!

2.       2. Children can sense inauthentic characters from a mile away and will stop reading without a second thought. Adults are more willing to give an author a second or third chance to draw them in to a believable story. Children are not so indulgent. If you try to make your story about teaching a lesson, your audience will lose interest. If, however, you are able to weave a believable tale about a character that learns a lesson, then your reader may learn that lesson as well.

Don’t simply take my word about the difficulties in writing for children. Here are some words of wisdom from authors of children’s stories that have been beloved through the years.

“I don’t write for children. I write — and somebody says, ‘That’s for children!’” Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are)

“The third way [of writing for children], which is the only one I could ever use myself, consists in writing a children’s story because a children’s story is the best art-form for something you have to say: just as a composer might write a Dead March not because there was a public funeral in view but because certain musical ideas that had occurred to him went best into that form.” C.S. Lewis (The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe)

“I know what I liked as a child, and I don’t do any book that I, as a child, wouldn’t have liked.” H.A. Rey (Curious George)

“I’m probably more pleased with my children’s books than with my adult short stories. Children’s books are harder to write. It’s tougher to keep a child interested because a child doesn’t have the concentration of an adult. The child knows the television is in the next room. It’s tough to hold a child, but it’s a lovely thing to try to do.” Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

"Children are very good about finding mistakes. We get probably thousands of letters, and some of them find mistakes in our books. As some readers know, Sister Bear always wears a pink hairbow. In one book we forgot the hairbow, and we got a letter about it. That proves to us that the children are really paying attention, and that's good." Stan and Jan Berenstain (The Berenstain Bears)

Sources: http://mentalfloss.com/article/51869/16-quotes-about-writing-children

http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/06/18/c-s-lewis-writing-for-children/