Story Power Once upon a time there was a small girl who loved stories. She loved listening to stories, reading them once she learned her letters, acting them out in the wild expanse of her 90-acre forest “backyard” in rural West Virginia, and later performing them on the stage. Bit by bit, the small girl […]
Author Archives: CBethM
April
08
The Story Behind Sometimes by Stephanie Stansbie
posted by CBethM
Sometimes is one of the most challenging and rewarding books I’ve ever worked on. You could say that I ran the whole gamut of emotions during its creation! I’m an editor as well as an author, so I get to experience the joy of choosing an illustrator and figuring out how to make the art […]
April
07
Ten Children’s Books about Growth Mindset by Helen H. Wu
posted by CBethM
Introducing children to the concept of growth mindset is essential for their personal and academic growth. A growth mindset helps children understand that they can develop their abilities and skills through hard work and perseverance, and that failure is an opportunity to learn and improve. One of the best ways to teach children about growth […]
April
05
Pepita Meets Bebita: How This Mother/Son Picture Book Came to Be by Ruth Behar and Gabriel Frye-Behar
posted by CBethM
We started writing the first draft of Pepita Meets Bebita just three weeks after Gabriel’s first daughter and Ruth’s first granddaughter, Mila, was born in New York on the last day of Hanukkah in 2020. With our family gathered to celebrate (and help with the new baby!), we noticed how Eloise, who had been the “baby,” or the “bebita,” of […]
April
03
Not Too Big to Fail by Eric Smith and Lauren Gibaldi
posted by CBethM
There was a part of me that was terrified of college. Growing up, grades were this wildly important thing at home. To the point that report cards were something that caused me so much stress I felt like I was going to fall apart at any minute. Despite graduating in the top one hundred students […]
March
31
Music and Lyrical Writing by Karen Chow
posted by CBethM
Music requires lyricism. The best musicians make you feel a certain way through their music, expressing emotion through the notes on a page. I grew up learning, listening to, and loving music. I started learning the piano at five, flute at ten, piccolo at eighteen–and then, cello, handbells, and harp, each for a couple of […]
March
30
Cover Reveal: The Secret of the Dragon Gems by Rajani LaRocca & Chris Baron
posted by CBethM
Hi Nerdy Book Club friends! It’s Rajani LaRocca and Chris Baron here with the cover reveal of THE SECRET OF THE DRAGON GEMS, our middle grade novel coming on August 29! Here’s what it’s about: Eleven-year-olds Tripti Kapoor, a feisty “word nerd” from Massachusetts, and Sam Cohen, a shy, imaginative, budding geologist from California, are […]
March
29
Re-Learning Our Lives as Readers by Whitney Phillips and Ryan Milner
posted by CBethM
Nobody starts out reading like a specialized academic researcher; that is something a person learns over time. One of the consequences to that kind of training is–very often–a narrowed-in focus, which you need and is a valuable skill when building particular kinds of arguments for particular kinds of readers. But that narrowing-in can also be […]
March
28
HATCHING AN IDEA by David Obuchowski
posted by CBethM
A topic I write about quite a bit is cars. I don’t write car reviews, I don’t write about how to fix them, I don’t write about them as machines. I write about people’s experiences with them. I am frequently asked why I write about this topic. My answer is that everyone has a car […]
March
17
Taking Stories on the Road by Tara Dairman
posted by CBethM
Many writers get their first wisp of inspiration from a character who pops into their head, or a plot idea that won’t let them go. But I love starting with setting. Other than writing, travel is my great passion, and I’ve been lucky to visit more than 90 countries. This gives me a huge library of real-life places to draw from when […]
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