The pen, marker, and crayon prove mightier than the sword!
Parent organizations, please use these lists to help create and fund classroom writing centers!
Non-Fiction
How a Book is Made by Aliki
A Book of Your Own: Keeping a Diary of Journal by Carla Stevens
Author: A True Story by Helen Lester
What Do Authors Do? and What Do Illustrators Do? by Eileen Christelow
If You Were a Writer by Joan Lowery Nixon
From Pictures to Words: A Book About Making a Book by Janet Stevens
A Caldecott Celebration: Six Artists Share Their Path to the Caldecott Medal by Leonard S. Marcus
A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You by Ralph Fletcher
Talking With Artists Volumes I, II and
Author Talk edited by Leonard S. Marcus
Fiction for Future Writers
Hey, World, Here I Am! by Jean Little
Author's Day by Daniel Pinkwater
Amelia's Notebook or anything else by Marissa Moss
Love From Your Friend, Hannah by Mindy Warshaw Skolsky
Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
Heads or Tails: Stories from the Sixth Grade by Jack Gantos
Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse
Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise
Fourth Grade Celebrity by Patricia Reilly Giff
Edwina Victorious by Susan Bonners
The T.F. Letters by Karen Ray
The Long, Long Letter by Eizabeth Spurr
Frindle by Andrew Clements
Dear Diary by Sara Fanelli
Skinny Melon and Me by Jean Ure
Scooter by Vera B. Wiliams
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Only Opal by Opal Whiteley, illustrated by Barbara Cooney
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Age 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend (mature readers)
My Angelica by Carol Lynch Williams (mature readers)
Dear Great American Writer's School by Kate Bunin (mature readers)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (mature readers)
Charlotte the Starlet by Barbara Ware Holmes (out of print---find it at the library or bibliofind.com!)
King Kong and Other Poets by Robert Burch (out of print---find it at the library or bibliofind.com!)
Fiction for Aspiring Artists
The Man in the Ceiling by Jules Feiffer
The Paper Dragon by Marguerite Davol
The Fantastic Drawings of Danielle by Barbara McClintock
The Boy Who Loved to Draw by Benjamin West
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
The Boy Who Drew Cats by Arthur A. Levine
Cherries and Cherry Pits by Vera Williams
Defenders of the Universe by D.V. Kelleher
City of Light, City of Dark: A Comic Book Novel by Avi
The Chalk Box Kid by Clyde Bulla
Simon's Book by Henrik Drescher
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
Mice Make Trouble by Becky Bloom
Norman the Doorman by Don Freeman
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery
Yes, Kids Get Published, Too!
Teen Angst? Naaah...A Quasi-Austobiography by Ned Vizzini
Ten Second Rainshowers: Poems by Young People compiled by Sandford Lyne
A Walk in the Rainforest by Kristen Joy Pratt
The Diary of Chickabiddy Baby by Emma Kallok
The Pain Tree and Other Teenage Angst Ridden Poetry collected and illustrated by Esther Pearl Watson and Mark Todd
The Diary of Latoya Hunter : My First Year in Junior High by Latoya Hunter
Zlata's Diary by Zlata Filipovic
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (mature readers)
Periodical Power!
My favorite magazine that publishes wonderful stories and artwork by children around the world is Stone Soup. To visit their website, click here, or snail-mail them at
Teens can get published through Merlyn's Pen. To visit their website, click here, or snail mail at
And speaking of snail mail...having an old fashioned "penpal" is a great way to practice writing. Penpals from one hundred countries are available to children ten and up from International Youth Service (IYS), and order forms may be requested by clicking here. I know there are other services available, but this is my favorite...I was hooked up by IYS with a penpal in India when I was fourteen, and now she lives in St. Louis and is my son's godmother! Never underestimate the power of the post!