Summer Break

Summer vacations take you away from regular life, work, and deadlines. The break is ideally relaxing and focused on activities that you find interesting, but away from time pressures, away from home. After a vacation break, you return unstressed and with a clear head to tackle life and work projects with a positive energy.

A break from a writing project should be like a vacation, so that you can return to your writing with a clear vision of the story. Your voice is hitting all the beats and is informed.

Reading preparation and breaks are invaluable to the writing life. Writing is a creative endeavor that flows better with rest, preparation, and only a little pressure. Let all writing simmer on the back burner while you take a break. The magic is in rewriting.

 

 

Summer Reading

Well-Known and Not So Well-Known Books:

THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT by Edward Lear, pictures by James Marshall (HarperCollins, 1998).

THE GIFT, story and pictures by John Prater (Puffin Books, 1985).

HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON, story and pictures by Crockett Johnson (HarperCollins, 1955).

A POCKET FOR CORDUROY, story and pictures by Don Freeman (Scholastic, 1978).

THE BOXCAR CHILDREN by Gertrude Chandler Warner (A. Whitman, 1942).

THE TREASURE, story and pictures by Uri Shulevitz (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1978).

LITTLE BLUE AND LITTLE YELLOW, story and pictures by Leo Lionni (Scholastic, 1959).

BLACK AND WHITE, story and pictures by David Macaulay (Houghton Mifflin, 1990).

FORTUNATELY, story and pictures by Remy Charlip (Aladdin Paperbacks, 1964).

HOW TO PAINT THE PORTRAIT OF A BIRD by Jacques Prevert, translation and pictures by Mordicai Gerstein (Roaring Brook Press, 2007).

WALK WHEN THE MOON IS FULL by Frances Hamerstrom (The Crossing Press,1975).

VOICES IN THE PARK, story and pictures by Anthony Browne (DK Publishing, 1998).

The Best Word

authentic