As teachers we want our students to use writing to get to know themselves and our world and to discover why we write. By sharing children’s and young adult literature in different genres from fiction to memoir to poetry, our students will be able to think about how texts can help their own writing. Through literature our students can find topics, genres, styles, forms and craft techniques. Books can be shared in their entirety or teachers may choose to share one passage or poem to spark writing or show a writer’s techniques. In this column from the Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group of the International Reading Association (CL/R SIG), we discuss recent picture books and novels that can be used as writing mentors for K-12 classrooms. 

Grades K-3

Neftali, the curious boy who would grow up to become the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda, loved the natural world that surrounded him in his Chilean home. He also fell in love with words, in part through the influence of a teacher. This picture book biography traces the early influences on the poet and then follows his growth as a writer, drawing inspiration from everything around him, but also using his words to call for justice and to bring attention to unsafe working conditions. The author creates particularly effective phrases to describe Neruda’s writing topics; for instance, the poet “wrote about stones tumbling down the mountaintops and stones in the hands of the stonecutters” (unpaginaged) and “dolphins playing in the surf and rusty anchors washed ashore" (unpaginated). This is a wonderful writing mentor text because of the savory word choice employed to trace Neruda’s journey as a writer but also because of his keen observational skills, discovering treasures in the forest as well as along the bustling streets of Santiago. The colorful illustrations are filled with soft greens, blues, and bits of reds, swirling Spanish and English words all around the page.  Through illustrations and text, readers are reminded of the influence of words and ideas on the budding poet, and his own use of words to change the world.
- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman

This picture book begins with, “All is peaceful on the banks of the river. Everyone is relaxing in the morning sun, until…” (unpaginated). The illustration portrays a smiling crocodile hiding in swamp water. On the next page the crocodile is walking through grass and the text says, “Uh-oh, here comes trouble!” (unpaginated). The crocodile makes the frogs jump and they tell him, “Go away, Solomon. You’re nothing but a pest” (unpaginated). Solomon isn’t dismayed and continues to wreck havoc with the dragonflies, the storks and the hippos. Each time the animals remark with the same repeating line, “Go away, Solomon. You’re nothing but a…” Teachers could point out this repeating line and show how it changes with each animal. Rayner also uses ellipses effectively, causing the reader to pause as they turn the pages. Students could discuss why authors use ellipses in their writing. Young children could then be invited to try repeating lines or ellipses in their own book making adventures.
- Deanna Day, Washington State University Vancouver

Schimel, Lawrence. (2011). Let’s go see Papa! Illus. by Alba Marina Rivera. Translated by Elisa Amado. Toronto: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press.
While her father works in the United States, a young girl counts the days that pass with him gone—one year, eight months and twenty-two days—and records all the events he has missed in a notebook that she mails to him, a way to insure that the family’s important moments are not forgotten. She eagerly awaits his weekly phone calls on Sunday, but this time Papa shares news that leaves her without words to write in her notebook. Now that he has saved enough money for the family to be reunited, she is eager to see him and yet anxious about leaving behind the familiar and navigating a new place.  The typical doubts assail her as she wonders how she will fit in when she moves to a new home, leaving behind her dog and grandmother. As the plane rises into the air, she begins her first letter to her grandmother, a fresh page in another notebook intended to keep the family bonds tied even across a great distance. For her, writing offers a way to express her feelings while also sharing parts of her life with loved ones. The story blends humor and pathos as she tries to find a way to take as much of her present life with her when she leaves. The illustrations are particularly effective in showing the emotions in the eyes and faces of the story's characters, both human and canine.
- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman

Fans of The Quiet Book (2010) are likely to find this companion title equally delightful as the author celebrates things that are loud.  Clearly, each of us has different levels of tolerance for loud sounds. Young readers will have no problems in identifying the good and the bad kinds of loud as the animals featured in the book experience loudness at various volumes. Consequently, they may jump in surprise as they recall the always unexpected cruelness of the loud alarm clock that greets them in the morning. They may smile at the sheepishness of someone slurping up the last sips of a favorite drink and making a rude sound. Few of us would fail to recognize the particularly annoying "candy wrapper loud" caused when someone tries surreptitiously to open a package of candy in an otherwise quiet cinema, resulting in disapproving glares from the audience members directed at the offensive noisemaker. Together with its predecessor, this title would be useful as a writing mentor text focusing on all the different levels and kinds of sounds or as a mentor text for simple description since the simple ones contained in this book are so evocative. It also might prompt readers to be more observant of ordinary sounds heard around them. The pencil and digitally colored illustrations featuring stuffed animals are wonderful too. The perspective is unique with some illustrations showing fuzzy bears, fluffy bunnies, and well-groomed hedgehogs looking upward in amazement or a wide-eyed bunny, trying to fall asleep amid a cricket's clamor. Merely reading each page aloud to youngsters will prompt creative responses for an effective writing lesson. The message about the volume of sounds that surround us may be subtle, but it's clearly found on the book's pages.
- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman

Grades 4-8

A fictional character as interesting as Huckleberry Finn must surely have plenty to say about his creator, and in this amusing picture book biography, the straw hat-wearing rapscallion offers his version of the life and times of his creator, author Mark Twain whose books The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are considered American classics. Describing a carefree childhood filled with adventures and the unexpected death of his father when he was eleven, Huck also relates the allure the Mississippi River had for Twain—the author’s pen name—back when he was known as Samuel Clemens and worked on a steamboat.  A brief sojourn as a Civil War soldier and a fruitless search for silver in Nevada led him to his destiny as a news reporter, and he became skilled at reporting the news as well as sometimes making it up. There is much to like about this title including the narrator's voice and authentic vocabulary as well as the clever use of fonts throughout the book and the endpapers featuring important elements in Twain's life. A Warning to the Reader informs readers that the author has used unusual spellings, improper grammar, idioms, and word choices. Soft pen, ink, and watercolor illustrations show Twain (and Huck) enjoying life, traveling along the Mississippi River, and creating his stories, many of them drawn from Twain’s own experiences. Huck Finn is ever-present as Twain lives out his larger-than-life existence.
- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman

In the author’s note Sallie Wolf describes how her seventh grade teacher set up bird feeders outside the classroom and taught students how to keep detailed records of the birds that fed there. This experience led Wolf to a life-time of bird-watching.  Her journal shows the power of observing, thinking, evaluating, recording and creating through poems, sketches and water color illustrations. Through each season she identifies the birds that she notices and uses these lists to write poems. One example is, “Seagulls hang out at the mall. / They laugh. They squawk. They strut. / They’re not shy. / They travel in packs, / fighting over French fries / and scraps of burgers-- / just like the kids from middle school (p. 19). Teachers could provide nature journals for their students to record observations of wildlife around their school. Children could imitate Wolf by jotting down their observations, sharing their feelings or wonderings, sketching or drawing the animals or natural habitat, and eventually creating poems.
- Deanna Day, Washington State University Vancouver

Grades 9-12

Completely written in verse this novel shares the story of a Mexican American family who immigrates to Texas. Lupita, the oldest of eight children, takes over the role of mother when Mami is diagnosed with cancer. She writes her secrets, including poems and stories, in a composition book to help her make sense of the changes that are occurring in her family and the struggles of growing up. She escapes to her favorite writing place: “The mesquite is my confidant. / I lean back against its sturdy trunk /and read aloud every word / imprinted en mi corazón. / The mesquite listens quietly— / as if the poems budding in my heart, / then blossoming in my notebook, / are Scripture—and never tells a soul / the things I write” (p. 123). Middle school and high school students will be encouraged as they read about a character who is a writer. They will be reminded that writing can sooth and heal the ups and downs of friendships, family and school.
- Deanna Day, Washington State University Vancouver

New, Jennifer. (2011). Dan Eldon: Safari as a way of life. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. 

As the result of an unusual upbringing with independent-minded parents, Dan Eldon spent most of his formative years in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was drawn to the land and its people. When traditional British schooling dampened his creative spirit, Dan transferred to the International School of Kenya where he thrived as the result of its diverse student population and many field trips. These experiences as well as his travels to 47 different countries during his short life and his friendship with many Kenyans nurtured his creative spirit, and he maintained fascinating multi-layered journals filled with notes, essays, photographs, and whatever realia he could find to paste in their pages. This book describes the young photojournalist’s incredible life before being killed in 1993 at the age of 22 in Mogadishu. The author details Dan's adventures, supplementing them with actual pages from his journals. Readers learn about someone who took action to solve some of the world's problems. For instance, after creating a student organization to raise money to aid refugees, Dan and his college friends traveled to Malawi themselves in order to make sure the $20,000 they had raised was used wisely. While his travels and personality loom large in this book, equally impressive is how his spirit lives on almost two decades after his death through the efforts of family, friends, and others who have been inspired to make a difference. This beautiful volume hints at a life well-lived, brief though it was, and readers will be fascinated at Dan’s sophisticated thinking and ability to lead others to places they’d never have traveled otherwise. For Dan, the journey was far more important than the destination.
- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman