Book Club meeting, May 2012

I had the best time ever at a book club meeting in Manhattan earlier this month. Wow. I got to hang out with four ten year olds who read Next to Mexico and had TONS of great questions and AMAZING writing advice for me. If you're a writer for kids, here are some of the reasons they gave for NOT liking a book (these are from the HORSES' mouthes): *It doesn't have enough action or bumps in the road *It doesn't have enough bad things that happen; it's too perfect *It doesn't have a plot, or a good enough plot; it has to have a point and drama *There are too many words about things that you don't care about, like too much description of someone's face instead of what that person did *It has to be current, like they have to have cell phones Okay. I went to grad school for writing and this is pretty much what we learned there. So, if you're thinking of spending a bunch of money on getting your masters, think again. Thank you to Chloe, Hannah, Natalie, and Ava, and to mom Ilissa for inviting me to this awesome meeting!