Getting back to the Land of the Bloggers . . .

I've been so AWOL the past several months - or is it year? Probably ever since my brother got so ill last summer and I spent the next 6 months traveling like crazy to San Diego to visit him and then for his funeral and internment, and then for research and presenting at several conferences . . . I counted up 14 trips in the past 12 months. From New Mexico/Texas/Utah to California to Niagara Falls to Jordan & Israel. Just, wow. I have never traveled that much in such a short space of time before, including international travel to three countries (with nerve-wracking border crossings and delays and questioning!)

Except for posting SPELLBINDERS blog posts every Monday, my personal blog has been exhausted. I mean, *me* - I've been exhausted. Throw in the trauma and emotion, not only of losing my brother, but 14 months of a hundred doctor appts for my oldest son who has been so ill and now has a severe heart murmur which will probably need open heart surgery, and you have an author who never was a great blogger, but who misses it, too.

I do still read many, many blogs on a daily basis and usually post several time a day on Facebook. (Twitter is getting better for me . . . .:-))

One of my favorite blogs is author Beth Kephart's site. Many times I just want to copy and paste her beautiful, heartrending, perfect words right here on my blog (giving her credit, of course!).

Here is Beth's post from Tuesday and it sums up a bit of the writing life . . .

"Here, on my desk, the notes I have made for the final seven scenes in the Florence, Italy, novel. 

"Seven scenes is a large number and I refuse to write fast; there's too much pleasure to be found in writing slow—in taking the time to look around, in stopping to live in the thick stew of it all, in feeling deeply, in walking to the end of that alley."

Go here to read the rest - only two paragraphs, but they are powerful paragraphs. http://beth-kephart.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-writers-life-is-all-here-in-making.html 

Then go read her gorgeous book, SMALL DAMAGES.

Maybe someday I can write just a little bit like that. Perfect word choices, perfect cadence, perfectly beautiful thoughts and wisdom.

xo,
~Kimberley

Please READ!!!

May 15  , 2013 RAFFLECOPTER   MALFUNCTION THE RAFFLECOPTER LINK IN YESTERDAY'S NEWSLETTER DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE WORKING. IF YOU WANT TO SIGN UP TO BE IN A DRAWING FOR FREE BOOKS, PLEASE VISIT THE RAFFLECOPTER AT THE SPELLBINDERS BLOG  Don't forget the survey at   Spellbinders Survey Winners will be contacted by email and announced on our blog Tuesday, May 20, 2013. Giveaways include these Spellbinders books:           Have a great summer!! See you next fall. Join Our Mailing List! Meet the Spellbinders Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a master's degree in communicative disorders, and has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. Take Me There is a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. Her paranormal verse novel, Forget Me Not, was published by Simon Pulse in October of 2012.    She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Act of Haiku."             Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in NewMexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.   To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website    Kimberley Griffiths Little has won the  Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs   She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.          Upcoming Author Events   Caroline Starr Rose  July 27 19th Annual Norfolk Public Library Literature Festival, Norfolk, NE

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FREE + LUNCH = GIVEAWAYS! Please take our very fun survey!

May 14  , 2013

FREE + LUNCH = GIVEAWAYS   The Spellbinders met at Jason's Deli to discuss our plans for Year 5. There are some exciting things on the horizon including a real life Spellbinders Tour Across Texas in  April 2014 in conjunction with TLA (The Texas Library Association Annual Conference). Watch for details in next October's issue. We are also changing from Constant Contact to Mail Chimp, so be sure to let your IT administrators know. We will send more information next fall in Constant Contact. As we contemplate how to best serve our readers, we would really appreciate it if you would take a brief survey to assist us. This is your opportunity to tell us what you love, what you want, and what we could make even better. Go here for the Spellbinders Survey Your input is so important to us that we're having a drawing for free BOOKS, so after completing the survey, please sign up at the Spellbinders Blog.    or at RAFFLECOPTER Winners will be contacted by email and announced on our blog Tuesday, May 20, 2013. Giveaways include these Spellbinders books:           And before we head off to summer vacations, sipping cold sodas on a lovely beach with a good book, here is the winner from our giveaway two weeks ago: Kimberley's Book Launch of WHEN THE BUTTERFLIES CAME.   The Winner is: KKC or Kelly Karsner Clarke!! Congratulations!   Please send your address to Kimberley at kglittle@msn.com!   Thank you, everyone, for entering the giveaway and posting a lovely comment on the blog. Thank you as well for reading SPELLBINDERS this year - and filling out our survey, too!   Have a great summer!! See you next fall. Join Our Mailing List! Meet the Spellbinders Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a master's degree in communicative disorders, and has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. Take Me There is a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. Her paranormal verse novel, Forget Me Not, was published by Simon Pulse in October of 2012.    She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Act of Haiku."             Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in NewMexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.   To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website    Kimberley Griffiths Little has won the  Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs   She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.          Upcoming Author Events   Caroline Starr Rose  July 27 19th Annual Norfolk Public Library Literature Festival, Norfolk, NE

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Final Interview with THE BOOK WHISPERER!

Hello Dear Friends, it's the last installment with Donalyn Miller,  author of THE BOOK WHISPERER.    Don't forget to enter at this link to win a signed hardcover copy of my brand new book, WHEN THE BUTTERFLIES CAME!  

 

May 6, 2013 An Interview with Donalyn Miller, author of THE BOOK WHISPERER Part IV Click through to read parts one, two, and three.   I find your approach to standardized testing to be refreshing. Can you explain how you discuss testing with your kids? (I won't ask how you prepare them; that takes place in your room all year long.) It is February and I haven't talked to my students at all about our state tests. My district conducts benchmark testing that mirrors the format of our test, so I don't see the value in spending more days on it.  As we near the time for the test, I will show my students sample questions and evaluate how the test is formatted, but that is all. Tests are just another genre of reading with its own specific vocabulary, format, and purpose. That's all.  Do you think a lot of the "extras" that are attached to traditional reading instruction come from fear, the worry that kids can't make connections unless we spell it out for them or that reading without the hoop jumping somehow isn't enough? Honestly, I think that a lot of what we ask kids to do are grade generators or efforts to motivate kids to read because we think they won't if we don't give them an assignment. We don't know how to effectively assess students' mastery and growth, so we attach assignments to reading in order to have some proof. Can you tell us about the difference between managing and controlling -- both a classroom and students themselves? Managing a classroom requires organization, planning, structure, and expertise. Controlling involves keeping most of the power. I give a lot of my power over to the children. Does it matter to me where they sit when they read? Does it matter to me if they organize their notebook differently? Does it matter to me if they chat while they are working? Does it matter to me if they want to sketch their rough draft as a storyboard before writing an essay? No. I don't have complicated procedures for classroom routines, either. My students take down chairs, take lunch count, shelve books, restock the Kleenex, empty our pencil sharpener-all of it without asking. Whenever a student mentions a needed job, we discuss it as a class, ask a volunteer to do it, and we are done.    I want my students to learn what life readers know: reading is its own reward. Reading is a university course in life; it makes us smarter by increasing our vocabulary and background knowledge of countless topics. Reading allows us to travel to destinations that we will never experience outside of the pages of a book. Reading is a way to find friends who have the same problems we do and who can give advice on solving those problems. Through reading, we can witness all that is noble, beautiful, or horrifying about other human beings. From a book's characters, we can learn how to conduct ourselves. And most of all, reading is a communal act that connects you to other readers, comrades who have traveled to the same remarkable places that you have and been changed by them, too. - Donalyn Miller, THE BOOK WHISPERER Thank you so much for sharing your book and ideas with us, Donalyn! Learn more about Donalyn and her book at www.thebookwhisperer.com.  Join Our Mailing List! Meet the Spellbinders Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.  To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to her website, stop by her blog, or follow her on Twitter.    Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. Take Me There is a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Act of Haiku."             Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013.    She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.       Upcoming Events Caroline Starr Rose April 19 New Mexico Library Association Youth Luncheon Albuquerque, NM July 27 19th Annual Norfolk Public Library Literature Festival, Norfolk, NE

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