Like the difference between Good Teasing (where you feel liked, don't feel put down, and it will stop if asked), Ignorant Teasing (where you don't know how the first person feels or 'I was just joking') and Malicious Teasing (where the teasing is for insecurities, you're called 'uptight' or threatened with ending the friendship if you protest, and it's relentless and public.)
"It's normal to hate the kids who are mean to your kid. They're aware of who you judge."some kids' view that
"It's not a lie if you don't ask the right question."
"boys are extremely strategic about who they tell what"
"homophobia is absolutely key to shutting boys up when they see social injustice."
If the reader can't feel what matters and what doesn't matter then nothing matters, including finishing the story.
Speaking about curiosity and the brain chemical dopamine Lisa says we don't turn to story to escape reality, we turn to stories to navigate reality.
The story is not about the plot, the story is about how the plot affects the protagonist.
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| Writer/Illustrator Sanna Stanley |
"Please know that we love your books. We need your books. We remember your books. Don't quit. Write more."
"There's no way to appeal to everyone, and no reason to try: It will only ensure that a book appeals to absolutely no one whatsoever."
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| Peter Korn, author and craftsman |
"...I have come to believe that all people who engage in creative, self-expressive work - visual artists, craftspeople, writers, composers and others - are engaged in similar processes of self-transformation. None of us enter our studios because the world desperately demands another painting, symphony, or chair. But none of us take the work lightly, either, because it entails too much commitment, discipline, and risk of failure. Those who choose to do it professionally, expect for the very few who reach the top, could find more effective ways to earn decent livings. The simple truth is that people who engage in creative practice go into the studio, first and foremost, because they expect to emerge from the other end of the creative gauntlet as different people."
"Happiness and fulfillment feel like two distinct states of mind to me, and of the two, I find happiness greatly overrated by those who present it as life's ultimate goal. Whatever it may have meant to philosophers in the past, or to the Founding Fathers who were so intent on pursuing it, the glow we label happiness today seems relatively inconsequential. We get it if we buy the right car, fall in love with the right person, take the right job, win the lottery, become famous, or eat our favorite candy bar. But then we grow accustomed to our car or lover or job or candy bar ...and happiness seeps into the sands of the ordinary. Soon, we're hungry for it all over again, and not sure where to find it. Fulfillment, on the other hand, seems to be self-generated through the exercise of our own creative capacities. However recalcitrant the universe may be, when I am creatively engaged I have a sense of purpose and fulfillment that makes happiness seem like a bauble."
"As a child and teenager I longed for competence, for the ability to do something well in a way that mattered in the grownup world. As a woodworker I found that ordinary competence and something more. I discovered within myself the capacity to transform a wisp of thought into an enduring, beautiful object. I see the same empowering revelation take place in my students today as they perform the miracle of creation. This, I would suggest, is precisely what makes creative practice such a generous source of fulfillment, beyond the pleasure of engaging heart, head, and hand in unison. It exercises one's innate capacity to re-form the given world in ways that matter."
73% of kids ages 6-17 say "I would read more if I could find more books that I like."There's opportunity there, for librarians, teachers, parents, bloggers, and yes, especially for those of us who illustrate and writer works for children and teens!