From the Board of Education

Hello Nerdy Chicks, Writers, Readers, and all around wonderful people. Have you been busy honing your craft since last summer? We hope so!

The five of us have been doing just that. We’ve collectively been very busy this year! Some of the things we’ve dealt with have been stressful things, other things have been amazing. But altogether we’ve had too many things to juggle. So when we put our heads together, we found that we are unable to devote the kind of time it takes to pull off Kidlit Summer School this year. 😦 As you all probably know, it is a herculean effort to put all of the amazing pieces of this event together, almost a full time job. So, for 2017, we’re going to have to go on vacation.

We know this is disappointing to many of you. It is to us, too. We love the webinars, the blog posts, and the exercises! Most of all we loved interacting with all of you and seeing many of you move forward in your craft and your careers. Kudos to you all!

We want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has helped make KLSS awesome. We appreciate all of the authors and industry professionals who’ve contributed their time to share knowledge. And we thank all of you for your devotion to the program, and for your dedication not just to becoming writers, but to becoming the best writers you can be.

Please stay subscribed to the blog. Announcements regarding Kidlit Summer School and other future events will be made here. You won’t want to miss anything good!

We wish you all of the very best moving forward, and hope that you will keep us posted on your good news. In the meantime, we hope you’ll enjoy some vacation time too, and maybe pick up a good book to read in the sun!

Best wishes to you all,

The Kidlit Summer School Board of Education

 

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More Prizes!!!!!!!

So Hurricane Matthew blew by and some of us lost power, internet, and a whole lot of time to evacuating. And some of us (ahem) still do not have proper internet… so we’re announcing a few more prizes this week, and hoping that we can make up for lost time next week and award those awesome author prizes that went along with the posts!

If you won one of these prizes, CONGRATULATIONS! You will receive an email in the next few days giving details on how to claim it. 🙂

Cue Drumroll…

The winner of the #30mdare prize is Shelly Hawley-Yan! Congrats Shelly! Rebecca will be in touch with you soon to arrange the details about your critique! 

The winner of our July 7 prize is Lori Mozdzierz! Hooray Lori! You will receive a free Tote Bag and Notebook with the KLSS Logo designed by Bonnie Adamson.   

The winner of the Brainstorming session with Kami and Sudipta is Lynn Marie! Yipeeee Lynn Marie! We’ll be in touch soon. 

The winner of  the May 31 Tote Bag giveaway is Carol Baldwin!!!! Three Cheers for you, Carol! You’ll receive a free tote bag with the KLSS logo designed by Bonnie Adamson. 

Thank you ALL for the comments! Winners were selected using Random Number Generator at Random.org.

More prize announcements coming soon!

Stepping Toward those Awesome 2016 Prizes!

Hello Kidlit Summer Schoolers! We’re sorry for the delays on awarding the prizes. A bunch of us on the board have been hit with some of those “Life Happens” moments recently and so we’ve had to push back our usual announcement times.

But we are rallying and organizing now, so we want to announce the first of those prizes!

In our last post at the end of Kidlit Summer School, we asked everyone who had perfect attendance to leave a comment. Over a hundred of you left comments! Wow! Using the random number generator at Random.org a number was selected, and the person who left that comment is the winner of the prize.

Congratulations Dayne Sislen! You won the Perfect Attendance Award for Kidlit Summer School 2016!!!! 

Now lets move forward on the #30mdare prize. For this prize, the amazing Rebecca Petruck is giving away a 20 page critique and follow up phone call to one writer drawn from all who participated in one of the #30mdares. If you participated in at least five dares, please fill out this very very short form so we can award that prize. You have a whole week to fill  out the form, so please do it before midnight on October 9! The winner will be announced the week of October 10.

The time to enter your name on the form is over! We’ll be announcing the winner soon!

What about the other awesome prizes? We are gathering data, drawing names, and compiling lists! We will start announcing the winners of those prizes the week of October 10 too.

Thank you all for participating in Kidlit Summer School! Keep Writing!

Week 4 POP QUIZ

Alright, are you ready to show off all that you have learned in our LAST Pop Quiz? We know you’re all going to nail it and will surely show off your heart and humor! Take this quiz to see what you learned during the fourth and final week of Kidlit Summer School.

 

 

1. On Monday, Terra McVoy encouraged us to add heart to our stories through the following:

a) Developing character relationships to better understand motivation.

b) Learning specific details about character in order to make them more complete and real.

c) Understanding that building character is the hardest and most complicated aspect of writing, but is worth the time.

d) All of the above

2. On Tuesday, Kelly Starling Lyons’s prompts writers to create soulful stories by…

a) Putting yourself in your characters’ shoes.

b) Studying writers who do it well.

c) Look for internal cues within yourself. Make yourself feel.

d) All of the above

3. On Wednesday, Jason Kirschner made us laugh by adding the following to his stories…

a) Funny sounding words.

b) Exaggeration.

c) Visual gags and fart jokes.

d) All of the above

4. On Thursday, Mimi Cross demonstrated how she uses the following to “listen” to her character’s heart:

a) Interviews with the character.

b) Meditation to prepare yourself to really listen to what the character is saying.

c) Listening to yourself as a writer and connecting on a deeper level.

d) All of the above

5. On Friday, Bonnie Adamson’s case studies illustrated what lessons she has learned to add heart to her stories?

a) Find your star player and make it *all* about him.

b) Draw on real people you’ve known to flesh out tropes like “the class clown,” or “the homecoming queen.”

c) Energize your characters with something totally unexpected.

d) All of the above

Hip, hip hooray, you got an A right? 100%? If you’re unsure, go back and check out the posts from Week Four. This is an open blog test. (And you don’t even have to turn it in. Grade yourself and then pat yourself on the back!)

You did it! Now you get a chance to kick back, and enjoy the rest of your summer…or if you didn’t get a chance to go through all the KLSS posts yet, no worries, you can go back anytime and catch up!

 

Does Your Story Need a Heart Transplant? by @BonnieAdamson and #GIVEAWAY

Three case histories

Sometimes I have what I think is a great idea for a story. I plot it out, polish the text, start thumbnailing scenes and begin working on character design. And then I hit a wall. Many of the elements are there, but the story just won’t come to life. This happens most often when there’s something in the way of the characters.

Character = engagement = heart. When I haven’t fully engaged with my characters, there’s no heart and the project flatlines. In that case, the task is to give the characters some breathing room. Maybe the plot has taken over, or  there’s too much detail choking the story—or maybe I simply haven’t given the characters enough to do.

Whose story is it?

For a long time, I didn’t know who the main character was in this story. I didn’t *care* who the main character was. A fellow who has accumulated enough points to win the big prize at the rodeo, doesn’t.  Misunderstandings ensue, plus slapstick humor and a surprise at the end. I liked it. I really, really liked it. But the story wasn’t breathing on its own.

The fix

A critique partner read the manuscript to her daughter. She reported that the daughter was sad when the fellow at the beginning didn’t win the trophy. Sad??? This was only a minor plot point! What about the funny stuff and the twisty ending? What did it mean?

It meant this young listener had found the heart I wasn’t even aware was missing.  Eventually, after much whining and thrashing about,  I realized I had to commit to the trophy-less cowboy. The immediate solution was to switch from a storyteller’s voice to close third person. The opening went from something like “Have you heard the one about . . .?” [plot-centered] to “Pete never met a trophy he didn’t like.” [character-centered]

Bam.

The lesson

Find your star player and make it *all* about him.

Read your manuscript to an actual child.

The lock-up.

I thought I had this one nailed—a classic underdog-saves-the-day story with heart built right into the concept. Yay! But was saving the day enough? What if readers didn’t care about my little bumbling bee from the start? I was also having a lot of trouble coming up with a visual identity for her main rival. Worse, this seemed to be the main character’s only story. I know you’re not supposed to think in terms of sequels, but I had a character I liked who was totally boxed in by a dead-end plot.

The fix

The Miss Marple Trick. Agatha Christie’s famous sleuth solves mysteries by observing behavior she can relate to that of inhabitants of her tiny village. One day while trying for the umpteenth time to come up with a sketch for my main character’s nemesis, I suddenly thought of two girls I had known in high school. One was better at *everything* that ensures popularity in that environment. The other was not so much an underdog as simply and thoroughly eclipsed by her friend. Eureka! Once I understood the dynamics  the story became more about the relationship than saving the day, and future story possibilities opened up.

The lesson

Draw on real people you’ve known to flesh out tropes like “the class clown,” or “the homecoming queen.”

Read vintage British murder mysteries.

A thicket of details.

For this story, I did oodles of research to make sure the setting was authentic, accumulating notes upon notes about jungle habitats. I had a hook and a decent text and even some quirky character traits for the main character. But the obsession with the setting and the research had used up the energy that should have gone to showcasing the characters. My quirky crocodile didn’t have enough to do and came off as merely  part of the scenery.

The fix

Pure serendipity. In  organizing a list of portfolio pieces by project, this one happened to be followed by a wordless story that had its own problems. How about a mashup? What if the protagonist in the wordless story showed up in the jungle? Bingo! The crocodile leapt at the chance to reveal himself as a method actor, uncovering motivations I had not been aware of. The text hasn’t changed, but now there’s a much richer subtext playing out in the illustrations, and the secondary characters have gotten into the act as well.

The lesson

Energize your characters with something totally unexpected.

Have more than one idea in your portfolio.

If  *your* stories lack heart due to characters that are hidden in plain sight, boxed in by the plot, or smothered by the scenery, check out the download for exercises that will help you find the right treatment.

Meanwhile, the stories above are all off life-support and should be up and around soon. Stay tuned!

Bonnie Adamson is the illustrator of Bedtime Monster and the “I Wish” series of picture books for Raven Tree Press, as well as Rutabaga Boo!, written by the lovely and talented Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and due in Spring 2017 from Atheneum. Visit Bonnie at www.bonnieadamson.com.

If you are registered for Kidlit Summer School, you can download a worksheet of Bonnie’s writing exercise at our Exercise Book. This is a password-protected area—only members allowed! Please check your email for the password.

GIVEAWAY! Bonnie is kindly giving away a Kidlit Summer School tote bag, featuring her fabulous design. For a chance to win, please leave a comment below.

Don’t miss your chance to get perfect attendance! Leave a comment on this post within the first 24 hours. Moderators have to approve first-time commenters, so your comment may not show up immediately.

Listening to Your Characters by @mimicross and #GIVEAWAY

“She’s gonna listen to her heart
It’s gonna tell her what to do.”

— Tom Petty

And it’s going to tell you, the writer, what to do. Listening to your main character’s heart—is going to tell you what to write.

But how do you listen to a fictional heart?

Partway through writing Shining Sea I realized that the voice of my main character, 17-year-old budding singer-songwriter Arion Rush was becoming harder to hear. Her heartbeat was growing faint. Soon I began to understand, it was because I didn’t know her heart.

Whenever there was a ‘musical moment’ in the story, Arion explored her feelings through songwriting, and her lyrics definitely showed what was in her heart. But everywhere else in the novel, her feelings, her wants, her needs—were hidden.

I decided I should speak to her.

But when I tried to interview Arion the first time, I didn’t get very far.

EXCERPT, INTERVIEW 1:

Me: Hey Arion, how are you? And, where are you?

Arion: I’m in my room at the lighthouse.

Me: Cool. So . . . you probably know, I’m having a little trouble figuring out what’s up with you.

Arion: Yeah, I know. I also know you want me to be nicer than I really am.

Me: Okaaay . . . How about I ask you a few questions?

Arion: Sure. Doesn’t mean I’ll answer.

Me: That’s . . . fine. Let’s start with basics. What’s your favorite color?

Arion: Red. That’s the only thing you got right about me.

Me: Huh. Well . . . that’s something. How do you like Maine?

Arion: I love Maine. I feel like, I belong in the woods. There’s a certain kind of wildness here. It makes me—I can’t believe you just stopped to fix a typo, are you even listening?

Was I even listening?

Most of us take listening for granted. We believe we’re good listeners, and that everyone knows how to listen. But many people aren’t accustomed to listening on a deep level, and that’s very often where characters speak to us.

In preparation for a second interview, I practiced specific meditation exercises that encouraged me to listen to my body, and focus awareness on my breath and emotional flow.

The next time I interviewed Arion, I was much more prepared to listen.

I heard about Arion’s relationship with her mother, and learned it was a source of pain. I found out Arion experienced anxiety due to her sister’s accident, but also that her sister had treated Arion badly in the past. As a result, Arion had closed her heart off to others, including me. She worked on her songs alone, and at the start of Shining Sea, she hadn’t sung for many people.

But by the end of the book, Arion is well on her way to becoming a performer, and more. I’m convinced her transformation occurred not only because I started listening on a deeper level, but because I’d spent some time with my own heart.

EXCERPT, INTERVIEW 2:

Me: I’d like to talk a little more about your mom.

Arion: Look at her canvases.

Me: Um . . .

Arion: Look at the brush strokes. The colors. See all that freedom? All that wild self? See her letting go of control, of normal? She’s not worried about what people think—I’m tired of worrying about what people think. It wears on me. When I’m in the woods, or when I feel the salt air on my skin—

Me: Slow down. Wears on you? Isn’t that kind of an adult thing?

Arion: I’ve been taking care of myself for a while, in case you haven’t noticed. Dad’s got his boats, Mom’s got her art, and Lilah—even before the accident, Lilah was mom’s favorite. She sees Lilah’s wildness, that’s part of it. She thinks it’s like her own. She doesn’t get my wildness. Hey, how about a cup of coffee?

Me: ???

Arion: I need caffeine. Arion RUSH—hello?

Me: I’m here.

Arion: Are you?

Me: Yes, I’m listening.

Arion: I’m becoming an artist.

Me: (Stunned) I’m impressed you know that.

Arion: It hurts.

Me: (Floored) Why?

Arion: I’m different.

Me: Every adolescent feels that way. Every person feels that way.

Arion: Different, like—there’s something wrong with them?

Me: Well there is something wrong with you. You’re not afraid of Bo, and he’s a Siren.

Arion: That makes him wild. I am too—inside. I’m wild, in my heart. Can you write that?

Mimi Cross is an author, singer, and songwriter. Grammy award–winning artist Rosanne Cash has described Cross’s writing and singing as “Fusing delicacy and power, heart and gut. Inspiring, evocative, and refreshing.” Cross received a bachelor of music from Ithaca College and an MA from New York University and is the creator of Body of Writing, a practice combining yoga and writing that boosts creativity. Her novels, Before Goodbye, and Shining Sea are published by Skyscape. She resides with her young son in New Jersey. Visit her online at mimicross.com

If you are registered for Kidlit Summer School, you can download a worksheet of Mimi’s writing exercise at our Exercise Book. This is a password-protected area—only members allowed! Please check your email for the password.

GIVEAWAY! Mimi is kindly giving away a copy of Shining Sea, the paperback or MP3 audiobook version. Winner’s choice! For a chance to win, please leave a comment below.

Don’t miss your chance to get perfect attendance! Leave a comment on this post within the first 24 hours. Moderators have to approve first-time commenters, so your comment may not show up immediately.

Week 2 Pop Quiz

Now that we’re through Week 2, let’s review what you learned and take a Pop Quiz. We know you’re gonna ace it! So go on, take this quiz to see if you learned even more cool tips to add to your tool box during the second week of Kidlit Summer School! 

.

1. In Monday’s post, Suzanne Selfors shared that:

a) A pet gives you, the writer, a great device for unlocking your hero’s deeper feelings.

b) A pet will elicit protective emotions in your child reader.

c) The relationship between child and pet will definitely enrich your hero’s character arc.

d) All of the above

2. In Tuesday’s post, Leeza Hernandez suggested that:

a) Cleverly-written dedications, disclaimers, or special notes to the reader can set up the tone of your book.

b)  If you’re trying too hard. Take a break. Deconstruct your work then build it back up.

c) You can have a lot of one (heart or humor) but need a little of its counterpart to create harmony.

d) All of the above

3. On Wednesday, Jo Whittemore recommended to:

a) Let life happen. It will, whether you want it to or not.

b) Be aware. What makes a story realistic are the details that come from living in the moment.

c) Find the humor in life and pass it on. So that future generations will know to eat less beans.

d) All of the above

4. In her post on Thursday, Laurie Hallmark mentioned that:

a) You can add humor to any novel by giving your characters unexpected traits.

b) You can apply this technique to any character, not just your main one.

c) The more outrageous the character trait, the funnier.

d) All of the above

5. On Friday, Matthew Cordell shared ways to: 

a) Write picture books not just for kids, but also for the adults who love and read them too.

b) Vary the way humor is used in your book, so both kids and grown-ups can be satisfied.

c) Always be funny. Even if just a little bit.

d) All of the above

Well? How did you make out? Top marks? Of course you did! If you’re unsure, go back and check out the posts from Week Two. This is an open blog test! (And you don’t even have to turn it in. Grade yourself and then pat yourself on the back!)

Okay, now you get a chance to kick back, and enjoy your weekend…or if you didn’t get a chance to go through all the KLSS posts yet, no worries, you can go back anytime and catch up! The new format to keep Saturdays free for you to take a breather is sizing up to be a big hit with KLSS students so go … go and do just that.

See you in Week Three!

Crafting Characters We Can’t Help But Root For by @megan_shepherd

Have you ever heard the piece of writing advice that goes, “readers come for the plot, but stay for the characters?” This means that often times readers are drawn to a story by a cool premise or promise of a twist, but that by the time they finish reading, they soon forget the plot and are left with the memory of the characters. That’s because our minds love a good twisty, exciting plot, but our hearts love memorable characters.

Crafting strong characters begins with thinking about characters not as stiff creations with a certain height, eye color, or hometown (though it can certainly be a useful exercise to fill out character trait worksheets), but with looking at how they act in certain situations. For example, let’s say your main character is a third grader who sees two bigger boys bullying a stray dog. How he choses to respond to such a difficult situation will be much more informative about who he is as a person than a list of his favorite books or hobbies.

Here are three simple ways to create characters that readers will instantly care about:

1) PUT YOUR CHARACTER IN A DANGEROUS OR UNFAIR SITUATION

It’s human nature to worry about people in danger. If you open a book about the Titanic, you are already hoping the characters survive the shipwreck. If a girl is being bullied in the opening pages of a story, you can’t help but hope she escapes unharmed. Instantly, we are rooting for these characters to thrive.

Likewise, it can be very effective to put your character in situation that is clearly unfair: a boy punished for his brother’s mistake, or a girl forced to sweep floors of her stepmother’s house. Readers find unfair situations deeply troubling, which makes them automatically root for your character to persevere, in some cases even before we know what your character’s name is.

2) MAKE OTHER CHARACTERS LIKE YOUR CHARACTER

We tend to like people with an upbeat, funny, kind-hearted attitude. And giving your character these traits is a great way to make your character likeable. However, not all characters have to be “likeable” in the strictest sense; it’s okay to have pessimistic, angry, complex, or sarcastic characters, as long as they are still relatable and sympathetic. A great way to make any type of character attractive to a reader is to have other characters value him or her. For example, a boy who comes across as gruff, but who has a little sister who adores him, instantly softens our hearts.

Likewise, if there are clearly nasty characters in your book—say, a mean stepsister or cruel teachers—who don’t like your character, it will make readers actually like your character more. Remember: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

3) MAKE YOUR CHARACTER HIGHLY SKILLED OR TALENTED

It’s also human nature to admire people with extraordinary gifts. That could be supernatural powers like the ability to fly, bend steel, or read minds. Such supernatural powers fascinate us and draw us in instantly. But it can be just as effective—perhaps even more so—when a character is highly skilled not through magic or a twist of fate, but because of the hard work they’ve put into mastering a skill. We can’t help but root for a small boy who studies karate diligently over years and wins a big competition. We want such characters to be rewarded for their hard work.

Megan Shepherd grew up in her family’s independent bookstore in the Blue Ridge Mountains. A New York Times bestselling author, Megan is the author of several acclaimed young adult series and the middle grade novel The Secret Horses of Briar Hill. She now lives and writes on a 125-year-old farm outside Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband, two cats, and an especially scruffy dog. To learn more about Megan an her books, click on these links to visit her BLOG AND WEBSITE  Follow her on TWITTER and like her FACEBOOK PAGE.

If you are registered for Kidlit Summer School, you can download a worksheet of Megans’s writing exercise at our Exercise Book. This is a password-protected area — only members allowed! Please check your email for the password.

If you haven’t registered for #KidlitSummerSchool yet click HERE.

Striving for perfect attendance? Don’t forget to leave a comment in the first 24 hrs!

#KidlitSummerSchool Orientation 2016. Class Starts Tomorrow!

Welcome to Kidlit Summer School Orientation 2016!

Today we’re here to tell you what to expect so that you can feel comfortable and confident going forward. Looks like you’re sitting up straight and reading your assignment. Fantastic! You get a star!

For the most successful school experience, make sure you don’t cut class! Classes are offered Monday through Friday right here on the blog through our fabulous faculty guest bloggers. All you have to do is virtually show up here! If you subscribe to this blog, you can have the school come to you instead. We recommend this, so head to the right sidebar and subscribe if you haven’t already! You want to learn how to add heart and humor like a pro, don’t you? We’ll be covering all manner of strategies for doing just that over the next few weeks.

Weekends are a time to sit back and process what you’ve learned. We’ll have that covered here on the blog too! Along with some pop quizzes. Don’t worry about those. We have confidence you’ll pass with flying colors!

Now, take a look at your class schedule for the week. You’re going to learn a lot!

Since tomorrow is THE FIRST DAY, we’d like to get #KidlitSummerSchool trending. Please help us share the word by posting about it on Twitter, FB (including in groups of writers), Pinterest, and all other forms of social media. Please use the tag #KidlitSummerSchool wherever you post. If you want, you can copy the ready-made tweet below and paste it into your feed. Super-easy!

Join us for HEART&HUMOR on the 1st day of #KidlitSummerSchool with blog posts, webinars, exercises, and more! http://www.nerdychickswrite.com

Here are some ways you can get the most out of Kidlit Summer School:

• Make sure you are on the email list! Do this by registering this year. All passwords, webinar links, etc. will be sent out through email ONLY. If you are not getting emails, please click HERE to troubleshoot. Because there are so many of you, we ask that you read this carefully before contacting us about a problem. A regular weekly email will be sent out (usually on Sundays). Look for it to make sure you get it!
• Join our Facebook Group! If you have registered for Kidlit Summer School 2016, follow this link to ask to be added if you haven’t already.  If you haven’t registered, please register HERE, even if you registered last year! 
• Participate in our Twitter #30mdares: This year, Rebecca Petruck will post prompts on Twitter and Facebook twice a week so students have the freedom to arrange group dares that suit their schedules and time zones, or do them on their own. The only “rule” is to set a timer and go without stopping for 30 minutes. You can find her on Twitter at @RebeccaPetruck.   Prompts will be posted Tuesday at 9p ET and Saturday at 10a ET. To get prompts, check the Twitter hashtag #30mdare or visit the Facebook group.Publisher’s Weekly covered Rebecca’s first experience with the #30mdare. You can read about that HERE.
• FAQ page: Check out the pages for FAQs in the navigation bar for more information on webinars, email, and #30mdares.
• Cafe Press: Soon our 2016 design will be ready to order from our Cafe Press store. You can have your own Kidlit Summer School uniform. 😉
• Webinars: Stay tuned — we’re still working on these.
• New to School? If this is your first time attending Kidlit Summer School, check out our updated ABOUT page for a brief explanation of how things work!

GIVEAWAYS:

• Perfect Attendance: Remember the perfect attendance award? You can get one for attending Kidlit Summer School! We’ll hold a drawing at the end of Summer School for people who commented on every post here on the blog within the first 24 hours of it going up. When Summer School is over, there will be a post explaining how to be entered for the drawing for the Perfect Attendance grand prize.
• Author Giveaways: Some of our amazing authors will be sponsoring giveaways with their posts. You must comment on their post to qualify for these. Details will be at the end of each post.
• #30mdare Giveaway: Students who complete at least five of the seven dares will be entered to win a 20-page critique and follow-up phone call from Rebecca. 

ALL PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED AT THE END OF KIDLIT SUMMER SCHOOL 2016!

 

We’re looking forward to a great few weeks! See you in class!

The Kidlit Summer School Board of Education.

Follow us on Twitter: @dawnmyoung @kamikinard @leezaworks @marciecolleen @sudiptabq

Sign up for #KidlitSummerSchool 2016!

If you’ve already registered for Kidlit Summer School 2016… Hooray! You don’t need to register again, but you can still take advantage of the GIVEAWAY we are offering at the end of this post.

If you haven’t registered yet in 2016,  Just fill out the form by clicking HERE.  Regular registration is open from now until July 15 and to enjoy the benefits of the 2016 program, you should register this year even if you registered in the past. Note that this year we will not be offering late registration.

For those of you new to Kidlit Summer School – find out more about this awesome free program by checking out our updated ABOUT page. Also, if you missed last week’s great motivational posts, click on the home page and scroll down. You don’t want to miss the excellent advice from some amazing authors.

Our theme this year is Heart & Humor. The blog event will run from July 11, 2016 through August 5, 2016.  Why should you register? Well, as always, we’ve got perks for you if you do. Only registered (and pre-registered) members of Kidlit Summer School are:

• eligible to win any giveaways or books, critiques, or other swag that we’ll be handing out during the month
• eligible to participate in special Summer School events like webinars
• able to access the Kidlit Summer School exercise book
• invited to join our private Kidlit Summer School Facebook community where you can connect to other children’s book creators and lovers of kidlit

Best of all, you’ll be learning from our amazing faculty! Take a look at who you’ll be hearing from by checking out our FACULTY PAGE.

We hope we’ll see you in class!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS: All you have to do is mention where you shared this link on social media in the comments below, and you are entered in the drawing for a Kidlit Summer School 16 notebook and tote bag, even if you are already registered! One winner will be selected at the end of KLSS.