And They're Off! Writing in the Limelight with Award-Winning Words

Today's the 2nd Annual Writing in the Limelight event at the Fairfield University Bookstore at 11 a.m.. This year, I'm highlighting six Caldecott, Newbery and National Book Prize winners and finalists to encourage young people (and their families) to write like the "prose."

We will be coloring and dreaming like Javaka Steptoe in his children's book, Radiant Child: The Story of a Young Artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat.

We will be exploring the power of storytelling like Jason Reynolds does in Ghost (one of Lossine's favorites).

We will be mesmerizing ourselves with Kelly Barnhill's The Girl Who Drank The Moon through creating a one-of-a-kind setting to introduce a mysterious character.

We will be tapping into dialogue with Nicola Yoon's The Sun Is Also a Star,  exploring a single situation for all the talk that comes with it.

Of course, I can't help but bring back the "I Believe" poem from Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming and, in love with the power of lists, I have to shout-out to my friend Kwame Alexander and his soon-to-be prize-winning book The Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Shoot, and Score in the Game Called Life. We will be writing our own rules for what's most important to us.

The young people (and their families) who attend will be introduced to all these great pieces of work, and invited to choose one they wish to use as they develop their own writing in this fast-paced, motivational workshop.

Ah, we arranged a Mic, too. Why?

We have several young readers coming who published their writing in POW! Power of Words, our anthology of student and teacher writers. They will be there to perform their pieces composed last summer. The megaphone will also be available to any and all who write on-the-spot at the Bookstore event.

I'm looking forward to it!