Category Archives: books

Award-Winning Children’s Book

Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Coretta Scott King Awards For the last 40 years the Coretta Scott King Awards have been given to African American authors and illustrators for their outstanding contributions to children’s literature. The books chosen promote understanding among races and uphold the American Dream. The Awards commemorate the work of Dr. [...]

Deborah Frontiera Celebrates New Book

What: WITS Writer Deborah K. Frontiera celebrates the release of her memoir, Fighting CPS. When: Saturday, January 14, 2012 from 3-5 PM Where: River Oaks Bookstore, 3270 Westheimer @ River Oaks Blvd., Houston, TX 77098, ph. 713-520-0061 Cost: Free and open to the public More about the author Deborah Frontiera grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula [...]

“Heroes Worth Writing For” Contest

Pentel of America celebrates National Handwriting Day with Heroes Worth Writing For, a new promotion in partnership with Operation Gratitude. Pentel of America, a company in the writing instruments industry, encourages children to hand-write a letter to the U.S. troops between now and January 23, 2012. The contest has a dual purpose: 1) to celebrate the importance of handwriting [...]

Live, Laugh, Love with Allen Shamblin on November 3rd

Writers in the Schools (WITS) invites you to A Celebration of Story on November 3rd -  an evening of storytelling through music. Our featured performer, Allen Shamblin, is famous for penning chart-topping hits like Clay Walker’s “Live, Laugh, Love” and Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” He will be inducted to the Nashville [...]

Banned Books Week

Every year organizations dedicated to reading and freedom of speech unite to sponsor Banned Books Week (BBW).  This year the annual event will be celebrated September 24- October 1, 2011. If you are unable to participate in a local event in your city, then please join in the first-ever national virtual read-out. Libraries and bookstores [...]

Little Free Library

Need a great way to inspire kids (and adults!) to read?  Check out the work of Rick Brooks and Todd Bol, who came up with a fantastic idea: build out of wood and Plexiglas “little free libraries” (24″ X 24″ X 30″) that contain a collection of about 20 books and a sign “Take a Book, [...]

“One Book, One City”

Have you heard about Gulf Coast Reads: On the Same Page, a “one book, one city” program that will take place through September 30th, 2011?  Everyone in the the city of Houston is invited to read and discuss the book One Amazing Thing by author Chitra Divakaruni, an internationally acclaimed writer who is featured in one of our  WITS [...]

Public Poetry Summer Series This Saturday

Public Poetry and the Houston Public Library present another series of excellent readings by Houston’s finest. The program includes photography by Katya Horner and selected works from Joseph Campana, Jeannie Gambill, Van Garrett, a resident writer of WITS, Destiny Gonzalez, a current WITS student, and former WITS writers Alan Ainsworth and Sarah Cortez. What: Pubic [...]

Self and Other: Writing Biography

Writing biographies is fun!  Many children love researching the lives of people that they admire and then producing mini-books about them. I’ve also found that children respond with delight when they use the 3rd person to describe themselves or write the biography of imaginary characters! Here is an example of a boy whose autobiography was [...]

The First Rule for Writers: Read

Zadie Smith, a British novelist whose first novel White Teeth was an instant bestseller when published in 2000, shared with Guardian some of her rules for writers, and I was struck with her first one: When still a child, make sure you  read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else. As [...]

Get Thee to the Library!

I will never forget the impact that Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet Laureate in 1985, had on me when she visited my high school and spoke to a small group of us in our school library.  She read a few poems, including ones from We Real Cool, and then answered questions.   One of the questions was about [...]

Students Respond to Civil Rights Exhibit Tonight at the Menil

WITS invites you to The Watchful Eye Reading, at 7PM tonight at the Menil Collection, 1515 Sul Ross. Writers in the Schools (WITS) has developed a unique program (initiated with the support of The Menil Collection in 1989) in which students visiting the museum write poetry and prose inspired by the work on view. WITS [...]

Ryan Dilbert’s Book Tour Starts at Kaboom Books

WITS Writer Ryan Dilbert will launch the tour for his book, Time Crumbling Like a Wet             Cracker (No Record Press), on Thursday, May 19, 2011, 7:30 PM at Kaboom Books, located in the Heights at 3116 Houston Ave. In a review of Ryan’s book, Jillian Lauren,  author of N.Y. [...]

Father/Son Writing Duo

WITS writers often turn to Paul Fleischman when they teach choral poetry. His book Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices has delightful, double-column poems about insects. The poems, which include everything from a love affair between lice to fireflies writing in the sky, are written for two readers alternating turns. What I did not realize [...]

Child Authors

When our daughter turned 4 years old, we signed her up for the Summer Creative Writing Workshops sponsored by Writers in the Schools and Rice University’s School Literacy & Culture Project. Carrie wasn’t really “writing” at all when she started camp, but she was bursting with energy and ideas. By the end of camp, she [...]

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