Show; Don't Tell!: Secrets of Writing

by Josephine Nobisso, Eva Montanari (Illustrator)

Overview

American Booksellers Association "Picks List"


Winner of a 2004 Parents' Choice Recommended Award


Winner of the Best Trade Book with Educational Application award from Global Learning Initiative, a partnership of The Bologna Children's Book Fair and The Association of Educational Publishers


Selected for The Original Art exhibition at the Museum of Illustration


Winner of a Children's Choices Award from the International Reading Association/Children's Book Council


Winner of the National Parenting Publications Honors Award
Innovative yet accessible writing strategies appropriate for both fiction and nonfiction are presented in this enchanting tale of a writing lion who holds court for a cast of animal friends. Aspiring writers learn the essential nature of nouns and adjectives and how to use them to express their individual visions so that they “show and don’t tell” every time. Writing lessons are cleverly integrated into a tale that incorporates a sound chip, a scratch-and-sniff patch, and a tactile object to engage the aspiring writer’s five senses in fun proofs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780940112131
Publisher:	Gingerbread House
Publication date:	09/01/2004
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.75(w) x 11.50(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	7 - 11 Years

About the Author

Josephine Nobisso is a writing consultant and the author of Grandpa Loved, Grandma’s Scrapbook, and Shh! The Whale Is Smiling. She lives in Quogue, New York. Eva Montanari is an artist who has both written and illustrated several books in Italian.

Editorial Reviews

With a title that broadcasts the classic mantra, Show; Don't Tell: Secrets of Writing by Josephine Nobisso, illus. by Eva Montanari, acts as a manual based on the author's writing workshops. Prompts to incorporate tactile, audio and olfactory details help kids focus on their senses when writing; a cast of animal characters-rendered in whimsical acrylics and pencil-lead aspiring authors along with brief tips and words of wisdom. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 3-6-This sophisticated picture book attempts to demystify the writer's craft, offering insight into authors' most crucial decisions: their choice of specific nouns and adjectives. Montanari's whimsical animal characters represent students in a writers' workshop. The lion urges his classmates to engage in a "language arts experiment," in which the directions and the animals' playful antics are splashed at many angles about the dreamscape pages. Indeed, the alluring illustrations achieve the "daydream state" to which Nobisso declares "writers go for story." Having made this clear and convincing pitch for selecting powerful nouns and adjectives, the author continues with a preachy section on the senses and figurative language, which is unoriginal despite some interactive "bells and whistles," including scratch-and-sniff pages and a sound module. The text is tedious for students who need clear explanations, the cuddly animals belie the complexity of the concepts, and the layout often makes reading difficult.-Gloria Koster, West School, New Canaan, CT Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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