Start school with Sally Derby’s A NEW SCHOOL YEAR

I know. I KNOW. It feels like summer vacation just started. You’ve barely cleaned out your kid’s backpack from this past year. You still have friends’ graduation parties to attend. You haven’t even taken a vacation. But the calendar does not lie, my friend. Now that July 4 has passed …

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DAD AND THE DINOSAUR dazzles — for readers and writers

Dad and the Dinosaur

Recurring elements are one of my favorite features in picture books. Picture books are shorter affairs, so the writer has to fit a plot into a tighter-than-normal space. To make the story hang together and feel like a coherent whole, there often are words, phrases or themes that repeat throughout …

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