“We have theprivilege ofseeing first-

hand howkids’ brains

really work.”—Blue Balliett, author of

Chasing Vermeer and The Wright Three

Famous children’s book writer Richard Peckspends his free time at the mall, hanging out infood courts to eavesdrop on kids. CarolynMackler, author of Vegan Virgin Valentine, tapsher teen sister to find out what young adults aredoing and thinking these days. But as a teacher,

you don’t have to mount an espionage campaign—or evenlift a finger—to get the inside scoop on the latest kid slang,interests, or obsessions. Maybe that’s why teachers writesuch funny, true, and popular books for kids.

But where do they find the time? BlueBalliett, a former teacher and author of thewildly successful children’s mystery, ChasingVermeer, points out what we all know:“During the week, if you’re a good teacher,there’s not much left over after the schoolday to put into writing.” Nevertheless, wherethere’s a will there’s a way (in some cases, itmight take the form of less sleep), as we dis-covered by talking to teachers whose ownbooks have a spot on the library shelf.

Blue BalliettHER BOOKS: The bestseller Chasing Vermeer and itsrecently released sequel, The Wright Three. HER TEACHING HISTORY: Balliett taught at The University ofChicago Lab School for 10 years. WHY SHE STARTED WRITING: It wasn’t until six years ago,when her third-grade class requested a novel to followtheir popular read-aloud of The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs.Basil E. Frankweiler, that the idea for Chasing Vermeerwas born. “When I tried to find another book like Mixed-

Up Files, there was nothing else out there. Itold my students we’d just have to write ourown,” recalls Balliett. “I always did myself theassignments I gave my students, and during thefollowing summer I found I was still thinkingabout what I had started that spring.”HOW SHE DID IT: Ever resourceful, Balliett setup shop in her laundry room. “It’s in the middleof my house, so I could hear who was comingand going,” she says. By the end of the sum-mer, Balliett had completed sixty pages of

INSTRUCTOR MAY/JUNE 200643

TEACHERSMAKE THE BESTAUTHORS

(COULD YOU BE NEXT?)How five classroom teachersrealized their publishing dreams. By Judy Bradbury

TO COME

what was to become her first novel forchildren and an international best seller.WHY SHE MISSES TEACHING: Balliett cred-its the “teacher’s privilege of being ableto see how kids’ brains work and howkids synthesize information,” with alarge part of her success at writing fic-tion that children adore. “My charactersare combinations of real kids, and Ms.Hussey [the teacher in her novels] usesideas that came out of my classroom.”

Patricia Reilly GiffHER BOOKS: More than 90, includingToday Was a Terrible Day, Lily’sCrossing, and Pictures of Hollis Woods. HER TEACHING HISTORY: Giff has beenwriting for 30 years, and taught elemen-tary school during the first 20 of them. WHY SHE STARTED WRITING: As a teacherGiff found a dearth of interesting materi-al for reluctant readers. “I was thinkingabout the plight of kids who couldn’tread, and I wrote about them.” Thosestories became the beloved The Kids ofPolk Street School series. HOW SHE DID IT: “I wrote for a half hourevery morning,” Giff recalls. “That’s all Icould give to it. I had to make lunches,do laundry, and prepare for class.” HER ADVICE TO YOU: “Think about all thework you put into your training tobecome a teacher. It takes time andeffort and determination. And so doeswriting for publication.” She encouragesnew authors to bear with writing queryletters, study the marketplace, join theSociety of Children’s Book Writers andIllustrators (www.scbwi.org), and form awriters’ group. But most of all, “read,read, read children’s books.” (We thinkyou’ve got that one covered.)

Vicki CobbHER BOOKS: I Face the Wind, ScienceExperiments You Can Eat, and over 80other nonfiction books for children.

HER TEACHING HISTORY: Cobb taught sci-ence until she was forced to quit duringher sixth month of pregnancy (a com-mon practice during the 1960s). She saysshe misses being able to “mull over howto best present material.” WHY SHE STARTED WRITING: Without ateaching job, Cobb turned to writing educational materials. HOW SHE DID IT: Cobb says she attendedconferences on weekends, always sittingin the front row; sought out editors,joined organizations, and networked.When freelance opportunities came her way, she prepared well and foughthard to sell her ideas. Although her firstbook—written “on spec”—was neverpublished, she had begun the journey to becoming a successful author andspeaker. Her first blockbuster wasScience Experiments You Can Eat,published by HarperCollins in 1972.HER WRITING PHILOSOPHY: Cobb, who released a whopping five books in the fall of 2005, believes strongly thatevery word counts in good writing forchildren. “Take a creative approach.Use playful language. There’s so muchinformation in today’s world, kids needa conceptual framework to hang information on. Use facts as jewelry to decorate concepts. Make materialmeaningful in the child’s world.”

“I WROTE THE BOOK I WANTED MY KIDS TO READ”

INSTRUCTOR MAY/JUNE 200645

teacherauthors

Bob KrechHIS BOOK: Krech recently sold his firstyoung-adult novel, Rebound, to MarshallCavendish. It’s coming out in September.HIS TEACHING HISTORY: Krech has taughtfor 28 years. He’s now the ElementaryMath Specialist for New Jersey’s WestWindsor-Plainsboro district. WHY HE STARTED WRITING: “Teaching ele-mentary school, I was always creatingstories for my classes,” Krech says, butthe idea for Rebound grew out of a con-versation with high-school students. “Iwas at a strategic planning meeting forour school district and sat with somehigh schoolers. We talked about whatschool is like for them, and I wasamazed at how many issues were exactlythe same as when I was in school. In par-ticular, their comments about race sur-prised me. They described how studentsin school break into different ethnicgroups to hang out.” Krech recalled simi-lar behavior from his high school days.Hadn’t things changed in thirty years?Krech went home and wrote a scenebased on his own high school gym class.HOW HE DID IT: Krech believes in attend-ing SCBWI conferences. “I made con-tacts and learned through critique ses-sions and feedback from editors. I alsotook a class at the New School in NewYork City which helped me week-by-

week, chapter-by-chapter.” WHY PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF: Krech’sbook manuscript was rejected by “adozen or so” editors before being pickedup, but along the way the feedback hereceived helped make a better book.“You can write a good story, and noteveryone is going to like it enough topublish it. But that doesn’t mean it’s bador hopeless. You must be persistent insubmitting, following up, and revising.”

Liz ChipmanHER BOOK: From the LighthouseHER TEACHING HISTORY: Chipman teach-es science part-time at an elementaryschool in Albany, New York.WHY SHE STARTED WRITING: “I got theidea for my book from my grandmother’slife. Her mother left the family when mygrandmother was in junior high. I grewup hearing snippets of that story, and itmust have made an impression on me.”HOW SHE DID IT: Chipman entered herstory in the Ann Durell Fiction Contestsponsored by Dutton Children’s Books in2002. Her manuscript didn’t win, but itearned an honorable mention. After oneround of revisions with an editor, Duttonoffered Chipman a contract. WHY SHE THINKS YOU CAN DO IT, TOO:

“The misconception is that you musthave an entire afternoon or evening inwhich to get any writing done. This has-n’t been true for me, and my guess isthat most teachers simply don’t havehuge blocks of free time in which towrite. Take whatever you can find. Tenminutes here, twenty minutes there.Soon the sentences start to add up:you’ve got a paragraph, then a page,then a chapter. If it takes three years tofinish a book, so be it. If you don’t writeat all because you can’t find a block oftime, years will pass by and you’ll haveno manuscript. Each writer has to findwhat works for him or her.” nn

—Blue Balliett

Teachers are always coming up with storiesfor their kids, says Bob Krech, author of theupcoming Rebound.

It’s a teacher’s job to “mull over how best topresent material,” says Vicki Cobb. Writingnonfiction is a natural leap.

“The only way to find out what works for you is to start writing,” says science teacherand author Liz Chipman.

NTED MY KIDS TO READ”