Written Anything Good Lately?

By: Susan Allen and Jane Lindaman
Publisher: Millbrook Press
Publicationn Date: February 2010
ISBN: 978-0761354772
Reviewed by: Deb Fowler
Reviewe Date: March 2010

It's circle time and everyone is gathered around the teacher as she reads from the book, "Written Anything Good Lately?" There are many different ways to communicate and when she reads this book, they will learn about the many ways they can all use the written language, from A to Z. Everyone has an autobiography to write. They can see a boy tapping away on his PC as he pores over a photo album and thinks about his life. Some students have to write essays as an assignment. "E" is for essay . . . "I think it is important to think about other people, and to help people any way we can." They can see a girl writing her essay in English class as she thinks about how she helped out in a nursing home.

"F" is for fable, "G" is for greeting card (a great thing for grandparents), and "H" is for Haiku, a three lined Japanese poem that can be lots of fun to create. Sometimes when you do especially well in class, perhaps when you write something neat or share with someone you get "K" as in kudos written on an index card tacked to the Gottcha Board. Kids `n keys begin with the letter "K" too. Have you ever written a "long letter," a newsletter, an outline, or a play? Those are all things that you can write. A not so fun thing to do is to have to answer questions on a quiz. There is something special or interesting that you can write that represents every letter in the alphabet. Now there is that very tricky letter "Z." Mmmmmm, what do you think represents the letter "Z" in this book?

This marvelously creative and charming book about the ABCs of writing would be an excellent classroom addition. At first glance the book appears to be a simple ABC book, but if you take a closer look you will find some surprisingly good suggestions about writing reminders and suggestions. Each page has a letter, both in upper and lowercase, in the top left-hand corner with an illustration of something beginning with the letter. For example, with the letter "S" we have a wide-eyed snake curling around the letters and the accompanying sentence, "A sensational speech for social studies class" below the page illustration. The "s" in the word speech is highlighted in red. The written speech is shown on the page. The accompanying art work is vibrant, detailed, and meshes well with the text. This would be a perfect book to glean suggestions for writing assignments for the elementary school student in the homeschool or classroom setting!

Quill says: This marvelously creative and charming book about the ABCs of writing would be an excellent classroom addition!