A New Little Free Library

There's a new Little Free Library in my neighborhood!

These libraries let you take a book and leave a book. They're a great way to find new books to read, and to share books you want others to know about.

What if you could leave a book YOU have written in a Little Free Library? 

Even though Little Free Libraries are little, let's think big!

Think of a title for your book. Write it down. 

Now write a blurb. A blurb is the paragraph on the back of the book that acts like a "teaser," making people want to read it. It's like a movie trailer. 

Here's the blurb for Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.

At her birth, Ella of Frell was the unfortunate recipient of a foolish fairy's gift--the "gift" of obedience. Ella must obey any order given to her, whether it's hopping on one foot for a day and a half, or chopping off her own head! But strong-willed Ella does not tamely accept her fate. Against a bold backdrop of princes, ogres, giants, wicked stepsisters, and fairy godmothers, Ella goes on a quest to break the curse--once and for all.

Now it's your turn. What will the blurb for your book say? 

After you've written down the title and blurb for your book, imagine walking to the Free Little Library and placing your book inside it. 

Keep imagining, keep writing, and one day it will happen. Best of all, someone will choose YOUR book, and read YOUR words! 

Write a Poem About a Library

Not only is this National Poetry Month. It's also National Library Week.

Put the two together, and what do you get? No, not a mixed-up calendar. You get a poem about a library!

Do you have a library at school or in your town? What do you love about it? Is it the big windows? The shelves of books? The rows of computers? The helpful library workers? The storytimes? 

We can celebrate our library with an acrostic poem. That's a poem in which the letters of a word (like "library") give us the first line.

Here's my library acrostic. Have fun creating your own!

Lots and lots and lots of 
Interesting 
Books.
Real stories and made-up stories
About animals, action, and adventure. 
Read! 
Your library has the perfect book to carry you away. 

Little Free Library

So how's your writing going over the summer?

Not so well? Summer brings a lot of temptations that take us away from our writing--like swimming, running through the fire hydrant, and eating ice cream (which I wrote about in my last post). And, of course, trips to the library. 

Which brings me to the Little Free Library I came across the other day when I was walking.  

Have you seen these? Little "libraries" are popping up all over the country. This particular library was made out of old keys, bottle caps, and can lids, which shows that reading and recycling definitely go together. It was filled with children's books, which made me even happier. 

The motto of the Little Free Library is "Take a Book. Return a  Book." This seems like a great way to exchange books, and that got me thinking. What if we used that same motto for writing? "Take a Story. Return a Story." 

In other words, what if you and a friend write a story for each other over the summer? You would "take a story" from your friend, and "return a story" to him or her. 

Or how about if you write one chapter, and your friend writes another chapter? Over the summer, you can exchange chapters or stories and create your own "Little Free Story Library." 

If you have old keys, bottle caps, and can lids around--or other fun objects--try decorating a box to create a place to put your story library. 

Don't forget the ice cream. That's a summer distraction I will never give up. 

Libraries

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE libraries!

What's better than a library? A story set in a library.

Think of all the story possibilities for a library:

• you get locked inside the library overnight
• you see someone stealing a book
• you're hiding from someone in the library bathroom
• you're at the library computer when a magical dragonfly whizzes past
• you find a talking tarantula with a chef's hat in the cookbook section

Try setting a story in a library. In YOUR library, no one will say, "Shhhhhh!"

A Bookmobile Story

When I was in Seattle last weekend, I saw this amazing, colorful bookmobile.

I love bookmobiles, even though I've always lived near a library and never got to actually use one.

To me, libraries are one of the best things about being alive. 

Think about it. In a library, you get to look at books, pick out movies, read magazines, listen to stories, and get your questions answered. They even let you take books home!

Now imagine all that in a bus painted with colorful characters...a library on wheels.

What if a bookmobile could talk? I bet it would have a lot of stories to tell. Think about all the people who have walked up the steps of this bookmobile and discovered magical worlds inside the pages of a book.

For fun, write a story set inside this bookmobile. Maybe it's a story about a boy who's looking for that perfect book on how to make cupcakes. Maybe it's about a girl who wants to find out how to care for her pet tarantula. Maybe it's about an anteater that wants to learn how to read. Maybe the story is about the people who painted the bookmobile.

Enjoy your bookmobile ride!