51 Wacky We Search: We Ports Facing the Facts with Fun FROM THE PUBLISHER
Are you sick of writing factual reports that put you and your audience asleep? Do you wish there were a way to write research that both informed and entertained like your favorite non-fiction books do? Do you need a laugh? Do you want to make your teacher laugh?
Congratulations! You hold in your hands the key to facing the facts with fun. 51 Wacky We-search Reports will teach you how to hunt for the best facts and turn them into cartoons, parody performances, jokes, wacky poetry and much, much more.
About the Author:
Barry Lane is nationally known for his dynamic, hands-on wokshops on writing and revision, as well as for his popular writing books Revisor�s Toolbox, After THE END, and Why We Must Run with Scissors with Gretchen Bernebei. Teachers leave his workshops inspired by his stories and songs and filled with dozens of practical ideas to bring back to their classrooms. Barry has taught writing at the University of New Hampshire, founded a literacy program in Vermont prisons and continues to work as a writer in residence in hundreds of elementary and secondary school classrooms throughout the country.
SYNOPSIS
Written by Barry Lane and illustrated by Miles Bodimeade, this is a book you can either hand to kids or use yourself to create unusual, exciting and downright silly research reports. The richly illustrated lessons include advice columns, recipe poems, world�s thinnest books, a day in the life of a cell, how to poems, and much more that you can take right back to your classroom to start making writing and research more interesting and fun.
FROM THE CRITICS
KLIATT - Paula Rohrlick
Why should writing research reports be dull? Humorist and children's book author Lane offers ideas for presenting information in various creative ways: wacky art, such as trading cards or a wanted poster; concepts like "A Day in the Life of a Cell," "The Crazy Advice Column," biography board games, and offbeat menus ("for the species of your choice"); or parodies, such as a movie preview, auction, or job interview ("I am writing this letter to recommend the Shoshone woman Sacagewea for a position in your tour company..."). Other suggestions include a testimonial TV ad; a rap poem; a top ten list ("Top Ten Things to Say to Your Mother When You Tell Her You Are Going to Fight in the Civil War"); goofy greeting cards ("To the Mongol Hordes"); cartoons; Web sites; graphs; performances (a press conference, a fashion show) and more. For each idea, Lane gives the setup (the basic concept and materials needed), the punch (like the punch line of a joke; how to make the presentation effective and humorous), a funny tip (further ideas for extending the project and making it amusing), and an example of a report. Cartoon-like b/w line drawings illustrate the ideas. The cover proclaims, "Face the facts with fun!" and this lively book has great suggestions for doing just that for upper elementary, middle school and junior high students and teachers alike. KLIATT Codes: P*—Exceptional book. 2003, Discover Writing Press, 180p. illus. bibliog., Ages adult.
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