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Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children's Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career

List Price: $19.95 Price: $17.95 You Save: $2.00 (10%)

Customer Reviews

Worth getting!
The book was a quick read and it approached writing as a freelance business. Practical and helpful.

2010-02-11 | P.J. (Denver CO) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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You can, too
I love the positive "yes, you can" attitude and the kind, encouraging tone of the book. However, I was almost insulted by the simplicity of her message. She's saying a lot of things I already knew, or painfully obvious stuff, over and over again. And the force of the repitition emphasised the simplicity of her message. Heck, by mid-book, I knew I could even write a book like this one if I would just get off my bum and do it. Well, writing does involve a lot of sitting, so I found myself getting on my bum and writing my blog every day. And the new commitment to writing that Ms Sanders' book inspired has started a major rehaul of my writing life. Yay!
I am really grateful for the practical, practicable advice, the almost irresistible challenge to just do it (because, yes, I can), as well as the inherent acceptance and acknowledgement that each reader is at a different stage of her development. I'm not sure seasoned professionals would benefit much from the tips for professional wriers as they seem pretty basic to me, but for developing and beginner writers, this book is great. Then again, my favourite writing mentor Hope Clarke of Fund for Writers recommended it, so I take back what I just implied about it not being much for pros.
Thank you Nancy Sanders for this inspirational book--and to the Amazon folks for delivering it in record time: two months ahead of the initial estimated delivery date!!! Hooray!

2009-12-11 | sun frisch (Germany) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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A 366-page compendium of insider information, tips, tricks, techniques, tactics and strategies
It is every writer's dream to have their book sold to a publisher before it is even written. But that's no pipe dream! Not with "Yes! You Can: Learn How To Write Children's Books, Get Them Published, And Build A Successful Writing Career". This is a 366-page compendium of insider information, tips, tricks, techniques, tactics and strategies that can be readily adopted by anyone seeking to establish themselves as professional authors and earn their living by writing books for young readers. "Yes! You Can" is more than just a 'how to' instruction manual for beginning children's books authors, it is a combination workshop, seminar, tutorial, professional reference, career guide, and inspiring motivational. Replete with practical, real-world, insights into how publishing works and how writer's can best advantage themselves within the industry, "Yes! You Can" also delves into writing as a business, including such aspects as publicity and marketing. Of special note is the bibliography of recommended professional books for children's writers and a glossary of specialized terms. "Yes! You Can" is especially recommended for anyone aspiring to successfully write and have published books for young readers, and has a great deal of background value for writers in other fields seeking successful publication for their work.

2009-08-11 (Oregon, WI USA) | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 5

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Learn about The Triple Crown of Success
The first of a projected series that will include titles on how to write beginning readers and chapter books, middle grade fiction and children's nonfiction, this volume supplies the very basics a beginning writer ought to know before blasting off into the world of fame and fortune available to those who write for children. Unlike other titles in the genre (Ann Whitford Paul, Tracey Dils, Barbara Seuling, Aaron Shepard, Nancy Lamb, Jean Karl, Uri Shulevitz, Harold Underdown, Lesley Bolton, ) on how to write, illustrate, and sell your book for children, Nancy Sanders take the approach that you need to sell the title before you've written it. She repeatedly emphasizes what she calls "The Triple Crown of Success: Using three separate strategies to meet three separate goals" q.v writing for personal fulfillment, writing to get published, writing to earn income. This, she says, is her "super-duper extra-special million-dollar secret." She encourages aspiring writers to sort and set priorities and to establish serious goals in terms of time-per-week devoted to the objective of getting published. She does cover most of the basics--how to write a query, how to write a cover letter, how to write a proposal. Mentions of SCBWI, Write4Kids, Children's Writer, and other helpful organizations are listed in the index and embedded in the text, with websites listed. There are lots of references to Eve Heidi Bine-Stock's books on writing for children (perhaps because she is the publisher). All in all, it's an easily read volume with lots of practical suggestions that will empower and connect beginning writers to their target: getting published. One of the ways Sanders suggests for writers to do so is to set up a "writer's pyramid"; she assures the reader that "those who implement this model into their own schedule see valuable results." In the Writer's Pyramid are layers she calls the "no-pay/low-pay markets you submit to relentlessly to build experience and clips; the "income" you build by targeting a publisher, studying its website, and brainstorming ideas that would fit into their product line; and then always working on "your own manuscript for personal fulfillment", your magnum opus. The Writer's Pyramid, Sanders says, "helps you manage your time and focus your energy on very specific purposes each day in your writing week as you pursue the Triple Crown of Success." This formula is repeated throughout the book in subsequent chapters, sometimes verbatim, which may be a really good idea for beginning writers. The goal of the book is to have the reader shout, "Yes I Can!" and fearlessly make it so. This would be an excellent title to choose if you work with aspiring young writers who want to try their hand at children's books. Includes list of recommended books, index, books by the author, glossary.

2009-07-27 (Mancos, Colorado) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 5

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This will turn your writing career around!
If you're serious about writing for children, get this book! It's filled with clear direction, tips, and strategies that will as Nancy Sanders says, "Take your writing career to the top!" I have NEVER read a book as informative as this one on how to build a career in writing for children. This author of over 70 books knows her stuff.

2009-07-08 | Bookworm (Santa Clarita) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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The Children's Book

List Price: $16.95

Customer Reviews

`An illusion is a complicated thing, and an audience is a complicated creature.'
This novel is set in late Victorian and Edwardian England (between June 1895 and May 1919) and involves the interconnected stories of three families: the Wellwoods, the Fludds, and the Cains. The novel begins when two boys find a third boy (Philip Warren) hiding in the cellar of the South Kensington Museum. It is Philip's story, including his quest to become a great potter, which anchors the novel.

Art is important to each of the three families. Prosper Cain is Special Keeper of Precious Metals at the South Kensington Museum. Benedict Fludd, Cain's friend, is a potter of volatile temperament who destroys his own work at times. Olive Wellwood writes children's stories, inspired in part by her own large family. There is a tension between the positive and negative impacts of creativity - sometimes obvious (as in Fludd's destruction of his pottery) and sometimes far more subtle (Wellwood's impact on her family). It's tempting to see parallels between the changing roles of family members (especially Benedict Fludd and Olive Wellwood) and the changing shape of the society in which they live as the creativity of the late 19th and early 20th centuries gives way to war.

At times I found the novel complicated: the intertwining of stories and the number of characters made it challenging. I did not find it an easy novel to read but it was ultimately both enriching and rewarding.

`She thought of marching forwards and retreated.'

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

2010-08-25 | Expect the Unexpected (ACT, Australia) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Nothing less than an Edwardian Epic
I savored this novel every evening for the 2 months or so that I chipped away at its formidable length. A.S. Byatt has written a whopping, inimitable masterpiece of a heavy handed Victorian England succumbing to the blithe, jaunty Edwardian era which in turn gives way to the disillusionment and terror of trench warfare and World War I. Byatt, so unapologetically erudite, gives us a labyrinthine novel that is both devastating and whimsical. It's full of complexity and contradictions, stories within stories, and an abundance of detail, both historical and literary, so that people and objects d' art almost become palpable.

Byatt can be a bit pedantic at times, and in this work she is often overly descriptive and uses authorial elucidation too much, so that it seems she's doing our research work for us, especially with regard to historical background. Generally, though, her lavish descriptions and exposition work because we're invited, through her garrulity, to live in this world she has built and conjure it according to her exact instructions. Moreover, when she interrupts her narrative fervor it is always exposition concerning historical and social mileposts or facts about the arts and crafts movement, art noveau and pottery. It's pardonable, perhaps appropriate, because so much of the novel centers around modernization --- the shift in art and politics away from Victorian values to modernist art and liberal politics. There are so many beautiful sentences in The Children's Book and the narrative brims with flesh and blood characters and ideas one can mull over and over, that she more than makes up for any shortcomings.

Suffice it to say that, in my humble opinion, she has created nothing less than an Edwardian epic. As in Possession, Byatt fully displays her considerable academic talents. In this work, she writes pastiches of World War I poems and victorian children's tales. The novel is so brilliantly infused with fairy tales and children's literature ranging from Perrault and the Brothers Grimm and ETA Hoffman to J.M. Barrie, Rudyard Kipling, and Kenneth Grahame that I'm still, weeks after finishing, working out the intertextuality. Fairy stories, allusions, and sinister tales of children simply inundate the reader. Through the German marionette master, Anselm Stern, Byatt alludes to the darker force of fairy stories, and art in general, a force that will eventually lead to the death of one of the characters. It is also through Stern and his family that Byatt presents German English relations on the eve of WWI and delves into the avante-garde German art and political scene.

At the heart of the novel are five families and a cast of dozens, tied together in various ways (blood, art, friendship, politics). Byatt traces their lives and entanglements through more than twenty years and several locales, evoking the effervescence of the 1900 Paris World's Fair, the haunting loneliness of Romney Marsh and Dungeness, the bustle of London, the subversive edges of Bavaria, and finally, the killing fields of Belgium.

Vivacious and attractive Olive Wellwood, a children's author and mother of seven (modeled after E. Nesbitt [remember Five Children and It?:]), is at first the central focus of the work, but Byatt regularly shifts between the families and deftly illuminates the lives of both parents and children. Olive and her husband Humphrey Wellwood are socially progressive Fabians, intellectuals, writers, and proponents-not-quite-agitators for social justice,and through them Byatt portrays the complexities of marriage, sexuality, what it means to be a father and what constitutes motherhood. The Wellwoods are also a vehicle for the author to explore the dissonance between creativity and family life, the destructive toll of creativity and art, as well as the melding of the political with the personal. Byatt fleshes out the eldest Wellwood children, the Peter Pan-like Tom who never wants to grow up; serious, tenacious Dorothy; and violent suffragette Hedda, while glossing over the rest of the brood. Olive gives each child a fairy story of his/her own that is obviously an allegory for the child's life.

As a foil for Olive and Humphrey's exuberant family, Byatt gives us Humphrey's brother and sister-in-law: the London Wellwoods --- Basil, a banker and Katharina,a wealthy German heiress, along with their children Charles/Karl and Griselda. Basil and Katharina are everything Olive and Humphrey are not: concerned with social conventions, conservative, wealthy, and part of the old Victorian establishment. Charles and Griselda, though, rebel against their parents' ideals and dabble in feminism, anarchy, and socialism. Through Charles/Karl, especially, Byatt develops a theme dealing with hidden identities, masked identities and transformation, as Charles becomes the anarchist Karl.

There is the disturbing and tragic Fludd family, with their laudnum-addicted, vacuous mother and (in)famously bizarre, brilliant, and wanton sculptor father who damages his daughters, Pomona and Imogen, in countless cruel ways. Geraint, the oldest sibling of the family, manages to escape the marshes and dilapidated Fludd home, entrenching himself in the London world of finance. Patriarch and artist Benedict, like Olive Wellwood, embodies the dangerous self-absorption and self-destruction art can engender. His brand of fatherhood squarely aligns him with Bluebeard or the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, but throughout the novel Humphrey, Prosper Cain, and other male characters will, to varying degrees, echo this characterization.

In juxtaposition to Benedict Fludd is Major Prosper Caine, a curator at the South Kensington (Victoria and Albert) Museum in London, and an expert in the decorative arts, who befriends the Wellwoods and Fludds. He is the embodiment of Victorian chivalry and philanthropy, and it is his charitable actions that often advance the plot. Seemingly the deus ex machina of the story, he is perhaps a bit contrived. Prosper's daughter and son become part of the cast of children that fill the novel, as readers watch them all move from the buoyant naivete of childhood into hapless adulthood.

One of the best threads in this novel involves Philip Warren (and eventually his sister, Elsie), apprentice and heir to Benedict Fludd, and an escapee from poverty and the lead-filled air of the potteries. Although the Victorians invented the concept of childhood, the notion that children were developmentally different from adults and should be allowed to play, explore, roam about and speak freely applied only to middle and upper class children. In The Children's Book, Philip and Elsie (and Olive and Violet, by means of flashbacks) are the only glimpse readers get of what childhood is like for impoverished Victorian children. In a notable and poignant opening scene, Cain's son Julian and Olive's son Tom catch Philip in the basement of the Victoria and Albert Museum, (where he has been sleeping for weeks) with a stack of expertly rendered drawings of the museum' holdings. Eventually, upon discovering Philip's unparalleled talent with pottery, Olive and Major Cain install him with the Fludd family, where he promptly makes improvements in Benedict's pottery studio, working his way up to master craftsmen and artist.

Philip's sister Elsie eventually runs away from the potteries and joins him at the Fludd's home, and becomes a focus of Byatt's narrative primarily due to her relationship with Herbert Methley, (modeled on, it seems, the promiscuous Mr. H.G. Wells) a lubricious libertine who has a knack for impregnating young women. Elsie's redemption comes in the form of her very own fairy godmothers, three women from around the marshes who help her become an independent Edwardian "New Woman" in the vein of Ibsen or G.B. Shaw.

And so the story goes. And goes. All the way to Belgium and the machine guns and trenches and mass casualties of World War I. Our Edwardian summer is over; the children have been sacrificed, marching to war for the fairy tale ideals of honor, country, duty, and glory.

2010-08-11 (Germany) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Exclusively for Rabid Byatt fans
This rambling, lengthy historical tome may appeal to a select group of A.S. Byatt fans but it left me cold. I have read Byatt's POSSESSION several times and consider it one of my all-time favorite books. I struggled through this novel even though it is set in a period (19th Century) that interests me.

I felt that Byatt's academic background both added to and detracted from the book. She describes the arts & crafts community of late 19th Century England in such detail that you can almost see the ceramic pots and feel the richness of the embroidered clothing of the artisans. But she also inserts pages and pages of almost text-book style history that felt like nothing but filler.

And, there is a less-than-savoury sexuality that runs through the book that may be unappealing to some readers.

2010-08-04 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Tale of a family
A.S. Byatt is not the sort of author you read casually -- her prose is thick with atmosphere and symbolism, her books are full of literate and mythic references, and she does a lot of time hopping. And "The Children's Book" -- loosely based on the life of writer E. Nesbit, apparently -- is Byatt's slowly-unfolding tale of the dangers of art and the secrets held by families. It's no "Possession," but it's definitely worth reading.

Banker Humphry and children's writer Olive Wellwood live in a large house in Kent along with a large brood of children; they are deeply involved in folklore, Fabianism (a sort of gradual socialist movement) and art. Additionally, they are involved with Humphrey's more "normal" brother, a museum curator named Prosper Cain and his eccentric children, and a weird potter named Benedict Fludd who has a runaway boy brought to him.

All seems well on the surface of their colorful little world, but of course the veneer starts cracking like an overbaked pot -- the various families have ugly secrets, both past and present. Even Olive (who writes for children) cannot connect with her own kids, including the child she is pregnant with. The world is changing around them, bringing war, love, social shifts and changes to the various families.

Apparently "The Children's Book" was based on Byatt's musings about how 19th-century/early 20th-century children's authors usually had some sort of horrible tragedy associated with them. And in "The Children's Book," it seems like nothing messes up the kids like their artistic parents, no matter what kind of art they pursue -- and there's a bittersweetness that fills the book, since you're left with the feeling that these scars will cripple them.

The biggest problem with "The Children's Book" is... it's messy. Gloriously, sublimely messy. Sensual prose ("The glaze was silver-gold, with veilings of aquamarine. The light flowed round the surface, like clouds reflected in water...") and vivid imagery are mingled with infodumps and lectures, as well as hefty chunks of information about the social and literary circles of the day. And like golden thread in a tapestry, Byatt weaves in her considerable store of knowledge.

In short: the plot -- such as it is -- sprawls all over the place, and throws out a thousand loose threads. But her velvety prose is almost enough to make up for that. Almost.

As for the characters... well, there are a LOT of them. On the first read, I had a little trouble keeping all the myriad kids straight, and repeatedly forgot who one of the secondary characters was. But on the second try, I found myself fascinated by some of the characters, especially the neglectful figures of Olive and Fludd -- she insulates herself from reality by cocooning herself in her stories, and he is a parent/husband from hell whose mad genius has shattered his family.

"The Children's Book" is one of those grand stories in which fiction, folklore and fact are all united... and then they explode into a messy, luscious piece of work. Not brilliant, but fascinating.

2010-07-22 | ea_solinas (MD USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Another historical novel from the author of Possession
A S Byatt,the sister of Margaret Drabble (although they don't speak to one another) had a surprising success with Possession, which was a radical departure from her previous novel. The Children's Book bears some resemblance to Possession in that it delves into the interrelationships between a group of creative artists during a period slightly later than that of Possession, running up to the First World War in this case. Byatt's grasp of period and penetrating insight are as effective as ever and the culminating devastation of a way of life by the First World War is brilliantly evoked.

2010-07-16 (Myersville, MD United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Childrens Mini Wedding Activity Sets ~ Crayons & Books

Product Details Each set includes a 3 1/2" coloring paperback and a box of 4 assorted non-toxic crayons. Each words is 20 pgs. Make 12 individually wrapped sets.

The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor

List Price: $6.99 Price: $6.99

Product Details Contingency: New ISBN13: 9780590414319 Notes: BUY WITH Self-assurance, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Amends Guaranteed

Customer Reviews

Ms. Frizzle is at it again!
Ms. Frizzle is at it again! With her wacky field trip and real life science experiments, the class ventures to sea in Joanna Cole's The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor. This integrated book of fantasy and nonfiction takes us past the beach and into some of the deepest parts of the ocean.
The book starts off with the students presenting their projects about the ocean in the classroom. Then Ms. Frizzle tells them that tomorrow they are taking a field trip to the beach. A field trip seemed to be an understatement when the bus drove past the parking lot and into the ocean, turning into a submarine. Lenny the Lifeguard joins them as they explore the different parts of the ocean.
Along the pages of the book, there are scientific facts that go along with the subject of that page, for example, when the bus is driving past the beach, there is a drawing about the tide pools and what exactly lives in one.
As the group goes scuba diving in the ocean, the classification of fish, crustaceans, plankton, and seaweed fill the pages. The class even dives down into the parts of the ocean where there is no sunlight, seeing these different and obscure looking fish that only live in the dark and deep places of the ocean. Soon, the group finds themselves over a coral reef, exploring the different habitat and the creatures that live in it. Then the bus turns into a surfboard where everyone rides the bus back to the shore.
At the end, the class creates new projects about the ocean, labeling the ocean and animals in it. Then at the end of the book is a multiple-choice test with the answers. This book is great for students 2nd grade and up who are looking to find cool information about the ocean and the animals that live in it. The Magic School Bus collection is a great reference for sparking enthusiasm for science in the classroom.

2009-12-05 (NC, USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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MSB
My daughter loves MSB books.... There is a lot of educational information within the stories.

2009-10-11 | JKFulmer (P'cola FL) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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luv the Frizz!
This is a great, almost un American book in that kids are told that it's OK, even wonderful and wondrous to be science geeks, be curious. Love the Frizz when she says "take chances, get messy, make mistakes," and encourages her students to explore. In a society that elevates sports and violence for boys, and beauty and cattiness for girls, this series stands out for encouraging gender neutral intellectualism and academic achievement. My geeky 5 year old can't get enough, having finally found fictional characters that reflect her and encourage her. Factual substance-wise, I as a 40 year old have learned tons.

2009-02-07 | Nanny Dog (Los Angeles) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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adventure with science content
A book that the primary children will love with great illustrations and information about the sea.

2008-08-30 (Bellevue, IDAHO USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Yeah Ms. Frizzle!!!
I used to watch the series on PBS when I was younger! It's great to see my daughter getting into this now! She loves the series of books and DVD's I purchased for her and just can't get enough of them!

2008-06-30 | Voracious Reader! (San Francisco, CA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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The World's Very Best Opera for Kids...in English!

List Price: $13.98 Price: $12.99 You Save: $0.99 (7%)

Product Details Made with the Pre-eminent Quality Material with your child in mind. Top Characteristic Children's Item.

Customer Reviews

Great way to introduce the joys of opera to children
When I came across this CD, I was interested and keen to discover if it lives up to its claim of being "The world's very best opera for kids...in English!" Well, it's that and much more. Even adults will love this, and the selection uncannily includes a lot of my favorite pieces like "La Boheme", "Tales of Hoffman", "The Marriage of Figaro", etc. I also loved the fact that it is in English, and the CD comes with complete lyrics (in English), opera synopses, and performers' biographies. The playing time runs to about 72 mins, and the recommended age is 4-adult. My preschooler loves music of all kinds (which we encourage) and has taken to this CD. Highly recommended!

2009-11-12 (TX) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Opera classics for children, fine performances
With the lyrics translated into English, these fine performances of child-friendly opera tales are an excellent way to introduce younger generation ( or even oldsters )to the world of opera. We have purchased this for a few of our grandchildren and intend to give more as gifts in the future.

2009-07-12 (Maine, USA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Fantastic Intro to Opera
I am pleased to say that this CD is truly a joy! Our children ages 10, 3, and 6 months love listening, singing, and tapping along to the music. What a treat... You will not be disappointed!

2009-05-19 (Tampa, Florida) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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I finally understand what these arias mean!!!
I love this CD and can't wait to use it with my music students when school resumes. Opera is always a difficult subject to create affinity for...this will be extremely helpful!

2008-07-30 | Music Teacher- Santa Monica, CA | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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If your child loves music...
This CD is a treat for anyone who enjoys opera. It includes many well known arias. The words are printed out so it is easy to follow along, something that lets you tell the story to a child. This serves as a good introduction for anyone new to opera.

2007-11-05 | Grandmother of a musical child | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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