EYEWITNESS NEWS (WBRE/WYOU) — For some students, reading and writing can feel like a chore, but a national children’s book author helps area kids with tips on how to make those types of assignments simpler and more fun.
Reading and writing are crafts that need to be taught, but not all kids develop those skills easily.
That’s why a national children’s book author held a writing workshop at a local school to help inspire the next generation of book authors.
All eyes and ears are on national children’s book author Sue Fliess from Virginia. These fifth and sixth graders from Wyoming Seminary Lower School are taking part in the author’s writing workshop. It’s a highlight of sem’s literacy program.
Sue Fliess has written 58 children’s books, and three more are set to be published next year. Fliess has been writing children’s books since 2006, but her first book wasn’t released until 2011.
Many of the themes of her books are based on her own curiosity about science, and nature.
“For three and a half years I submitted manuscripts, they all got rejected, then I sold my first manuscript ‘Shoes for Me‘ was my first book. I drew on my own childhood experiences, things that caused me to wonder about the world, and thought those might be fun things to write about,” said Fliess.
Fliess says writing is a skill that takes practice, and she hopes her visit will inspire these young writers to hone their literary talents and pursue their dreams. In this writing workshop at sem, she offered tips on how to write an interesting story.
“Figure out what your story is, what is it gonna be about, and make sure it has a character, setting, plot, elements of a story, and conflict. What is your character going to overcome, how are they going to grow in the end,” explained Fliess.
In addition to learning about the basic elements of a story, and how to include all five senses, students were also taught. To the basics of story writing, the students were inspired to bring the story to life through vivid description
“How to make your story more illustrated and get people to read them more. How? By making them more ‘juicy’ that’s the word she used, just adding more words to make it less boring,” added Penny Poepplerling from Wyoming Seminary.
This visit was anything but boring, as some kids left inspired to put pen to paper.
“I never thought about writing this summer, but now that I thought about it and I really like it,” says Abby Gowarty from Wyoming Seminary.
“It was cool seeing an author, an actual children’s book author because I never met an author before,” stated Anay Bhatti.
Sue Fliess also encourages kids to read over the summer break so they don’t miss out on opportunities to improve their vocabulary and comprehension.
She advises students to choose books that interest them even if they are comic books, graphic novels, or a book they’ve already read.
