40 books every child should read

This was a newspaper article I saw with suggestions of books for Christmas gifts for kids.
Two of these books I’d never heard of, some are wonderful old favorites, and a few are newer arrivals.
The list is missing one I thought should definitely be there, “Good Night, Mr. Tom” by Michelle Magorian.



'The Lion & the Mouse' by Jerry Pinkney, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $17.99.

'Green Eggs and Ham' by Dr Suess, Random House, $9.99.

'Library Lion' by Michelle Knudsen, Candlewick Press, $16.99.

'Bread and Jam' for Frances by Russell Hoban, Harper & Row, $13.99.

'The Polar Express' by Chris Van Allsburg, Houghton Mifflin Co., $16.99.

'The Mitten' by Jan Brett, Spoken Arts, $15.99

'Where The Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak, Harper & Row, $17.99.

'Madeline' by Ludwig Bemelmans, Viking Press, $15.99.

'Strega Nona' by Tomie DePaola, Prentice Hall, $15.99.

'A Bear Called Paddington', Michael Bond, Houghton Mifflin, $19.99.

'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' by Jeff Kinney, Amulet Books, $14.95.

'The Story of Babar' by Jean de Brunhoff, Crocodile Creek, $31.95.

'The Magic Treehouse' series by Mary Pope Osbourne, Random House, $34.99.

'Ramona' series by Beverly Cleary, Listening Library, $22.99.

'Sylvester and the Magic Pebble' by William Steig, Simon & Schuster, $15.99.

'Charlotte's Web' by E.B. White, Harper & Brothers, $15.99.

'Captain Underpants' by Dav Pilkey, Blue Sky Press, $10.99.

'James and the Giant Peach' by Roald Dahl, Knopf, $13.99.

'One Crazy Summer' by Rita Williams-Garcia, Amistad, $11.99.

'The Black Stallion' by Walter Farley, Random House, $13.99.

'Island of the Blue Dolphins' by Scott O'Dell, Houghton Mifflin, $13.99.

'The Tale of Despereaux' by Kate DiCamillo, Candlewick Press, $15.99.

'Where the Red Fern Grows' by Wilson Rawls, Doubleday, $13.99.

'The Phantom Tollbooth' by Norton Juster, Random House, $13.99.

'All-of-a-Kind Family' by Sydney Taylor, Dutton, $25.95.

'The Borrowers' by Mary Norton, Brace & World, $13.99.

'D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths' by Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire, Doubleday, $39.95.

'Wonder' by R.J. Palacio, Knopf, $16.99.

'Esperanza Rising' by Pam Muñoz Ryan, Scholastic Press, $13.99.

'Smile' by Raina Telgemeier, Graphix, $14.99.

'Harriet the Spy' by Louise Fitzhugh, Harper & Row, $13.99.

'A Series of Unfortunate Events' (1999–2006) by Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events, $16.99.

'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret' by Judy Blume, Bradbury Press, $19.99.

'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' by C.S. Lewis, HarperCollins, $13.99.

'The Harry Potter' series (1997–2007 by J.K. Rowling, Levine Books, $16.99 each.

'Bridge to Terabithia' by Katherine Paterson, Crowell, $13.99.

'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak, Knopf, $19.99.

'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' by Anne Brasheres, Random House Children's Books, $16.99.

'The Hunger Games' trilogy (2008–10) by Suzanne Collins, $49.99.

'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Green, Dutton Books, $19.95.


For the complete list go to:
http://www.essentialkids.com.au/photogallery/entertaining-kids/parenting-and-childrens-books/40-books-every-child-should-read-20141118-3kmid.html#utm_source=FD&utm_medium=lifeandstylepuff&utm_campaign=40books


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

The Most Famous Author From Every US State

A few weeks ago mental Floss blogged on the most famous book in every state of the USA (http://helenwoodallfreelanceediting.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/a-book-for-every-state-in-usa.html).

Now they’ve chosen an author for every state. These are authors who were born in that state, not necessarily ones who lived and wrote there. They said, “We considered the authors’ fame in terms of ubiquity, literally acclaim, and financial success — and awarded bonus points if the author showed state pride by setting their works there.”

What do you think? Do you agree with them?

For the full article see: http://mentalfloss.com/article/60316/most-famous-author-each-state

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Varying sentences

Writing rules

Whatever blog or textbook or website you look at about writing will always itemize a lot of rules. Sometimes this is done with great seriousness, and at other times somewhat tongue-in-cheek. But the one thing everyone agrees on is that rules must be obeyed.

When it comes to grammar and spelling, this is basically true. Publishers and agents don’t like misspelled books. Readers find them hard to read and even the ones that enjoy the story hidden under the grammatical errors seldom come back to buy a second book by that author.

The same with formatting. If the formatting distracts the reader too much from the story, the book is basically doomed.

Then there are rules that are just plain weird.
Gooseflesh is one word but goose bumps is two words. Backyard is one word whereas front yard is two words

As far as the rest of the rules go, authors can be much more self directed. You might write very slowly or much faster than other people you know. You might start at the beginning and work your way logically to the end, or write scenes from all over the book as they occur to you. You might plot out and diagram every inch of the book or not have the slightest idea what will happen next until the words appear on the screen. You might sneak out of bed at four in the morning to write in silence, or tap obliviously at the keys as your family entertains the entire soccer team in your office.

Whatever works for you is good. Go with the flow. If it’s working don’t mess with the system just because it doesn’t fit into someone else’s mold. In that sense you are the creator and there are no rules for writing. BICFOK* is all it takes.

*Butt In Chair Fingers On Keyboard

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Digging down into deep POV

According to blogger Rhay Christou, readers are begging for deeper POV, and therefore editors and publishers are asking for it as well. But many authors are unsure of how to deepen their POV.

The aim is for the author to disappear, and for the reader to be immersed in the character’s POV.
One way to do this is to eliminate tags and “thoughts”. This can be difficult as instead of ending up with deep POV the author may end up with a wobbling POV. So first the author must know everything about the character whose POV she’s in at the time.

Let’s pretend the hero is cross with the heroine.
“No,” he yelled.

If you know how he’d react in anger you could go deeper, deleting the tag and adding his reactions.
“No!” He stomped out of the room and slammed the door.

Now the author has the opportunity to go deeper still. Instead of describing how he’s thinking or why he’s upset, that can be shown in his next actions as long as he remains exactly true to his character.
Would he throw something and smash it? Race to the bathroom about to be ill with the pain of yelling at her? The next few lines showing his actions could be genuine deep POV.

To read Rhay’s helpful explanation, see: http://writersinthestormblog.com/2014/10/diving-deep-into-deep-point-of-view/

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

A book for every state in USA

Business Insider has chosen what it considers to be the most famous book from each state in America.
I don't think too many people would argue about "Gone With the Wind" or "To Kill a Mockingbird".
But what about some of the others? What do you think?


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Oxford Commas

Back on 29 June 2011, the University of Oxford Writing and Style Guide decided that writers should, “as a general rule”, avoid using the Oxford comma. Have you missed the good old fashioned serial comma at all?

Here’s an explanation from the style guide: “As a general rule, do not use the serial/Oxford comma: so write ‘a, b and c’ not ‘a, b, and c’. But when a comma would assist in the meaning of the sentence or helps to resolve ambiguity, it can be used – especially where one of the items in the list is already joined by ‘and’ [for example]: They had a choice between croissants, bacon and eggs, and muesli.”

But although I have Googled far and wide, I find editors, journalists and writers don’t miss it at all. In fact most newspapers and popular fiction killed it off long ago.
But just in case anyone cares…

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com
Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.