Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep

50 Award-Winning Children’s Book Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing

Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep

Edited Melissa Stewart
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
ISBN: 978-0-814-13352-1
190 pp. Grades K–12

How to Order:

In the U.S, available for purchase through NCTE, Lerner Books, Booksource, Mackin, or Amazon. Unfortunately, it is not currently available through Ingram, which supplies most independent book stores.

In Canada, available for purchase through Lerner Books.

In the UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, or Oceania, Eurospan (located in London) will supply print-on-demand copies. Please direct inquiries to www.eurospanbookstore.com/ncte or email info@eurospan.co.uk.


Some of today’s most celebrated nonfiction writers for children, including Barb Rosenstock, share how their writing processes reflect their passions, personalities, beliefs, and experiences in the world. Editor Melissa Stewart offers a wide range of tips, tools, teaching strategies, and activity ideas to help students learn to craft rich, unique prose.

In Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep, 50 award-winning writers for children share essays that describe a critical part of the informational writing process that is often left out of classroom instruction. To craft engaging nonfiction, professional writers choose topics that fascinate them and explore concepts and themes that reflect their passions, personalities, beliefs, and experiences in the world.

By scrutinizing the information they collect to make their own personal meaning, they create distinctive books that delight as well as inform. In addition to essays from mentor authors, the book includes a wide range of tips, tools, teaching strategies, and activity ideas from editor Melissa Stewart to help students (1) choose a topic, (2) focus that topic by identifying a core idea, theme, or concept, and (3) analyze their research to find a personal connection. By adding a piece of themselves to their drafts, students will learn to craft rich, unique prose.

Featuring essays by Sarah Albee, Chris Barton, Donna Janell Bowman, Mary Kay Carson, Nancy Castaldo, Jason Chin, Lesa Cline-Ransome, Seth Fishman, Candace Fleming, Kelly Milner Halls, Deborah Heiligman, Susan Hood, Gail Jarrow, Lita Judge, Jess Keating, Barbara Kerley, Heather Lang, Cynthia Levinson, Michelle Markel, Carla Killough McClafferty, Heather Montgomery, Patricia Newman, Elizabeth Partridge, Baptiste Paul, Miranda Paul, Teresa Robeson, Mara Rockliff, Barb Rosenstock, Laura Purdie Salas, Anita Sanchez, April Pulley Sayre, Steve Sheinkin, Ray Anthony Shepard, Anita Silvey, Traci Sorell, Tanya Lee Stone, Jennifer Swanson, Stephen R. Swinburne, Don Tate, Laurie Ann Thompson, Pamela Turner, Patricia Valdez, Sandra Neil Wallace, Laurie Wallmark, Jennifer Ward, Carole Boston Weatherford, Lee Wind, Paula Yoo, and Karen Romano Young.

Stars long