A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

C.S. Lewis was born November 29, 1898, and to celebrate his birthday we’re offering the Arrow based on his book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:

Half price through midnight Monday ($3.95) THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the first book (according to the original publication order) in Lewis’ acclaimed fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia. In the essay, ‘It All Began with a Picture,’ Lewis shared how the story originated:

The Lion all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: ‘Let’s try to make a story about it.’

That illustrates one of C.S. Lewis’ rules of writing. A student once asked Lewis for advice, and he encouraged young writers to “save odds and ends” for possible future use. Here are the rules:

8 Writing Tips by C.S. Lewis

1. Turn off the radio. [And if written today he might have added “television”]
2. Read good books and avoid most magazines.
3. Write with the ear, not the eye. Make every sentence sound good.
4. Write only about things that interest you. If you have no interests, you won’t ever be a writer.
5. Be clear. Remember that readers can’t know your mind. Don’t forget to tell them exactly what they need to know to understand you.
6. Save odds and ends of writing attempts, because you may be able to use them later.
7. You need a well-trained sense of word-rhythm, and the noise of a typewriter will interfere.
8. Know the meaning of every word you use.

~from C. S. Lewis’ Letters to Children, edited by Lyle Dorsett and Marjorie Lamp Mead

So, celebrate C.S. Lewis’ birthday plus take advantage of this special Arrow offer!

Also, if you’d like to buy a copy of the novel, it’s available through Amazon: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Full-Color Collector’s Edition (affiliate link).

The Arrow is a monthly digital product that features copywork and dictation passages from a specific read aloud novel. It’s geared toward children ages 8-11 and is an indispensable tool for parents who want to teach language arts in a natural, literature-bathed context.

We are so excited to offer this product! If you feel like the Arrow is a bit too much (too mature, too difficult) for your kids then the Quiver is just for you because it’s geared to the younger crowd.

From our store page:

A Quiver of Arrows is a set of 10 Arrows especially designed for 1st and 2nd grades. The Arrow is a literature guide that teaches the mechanics of writing through copywork and dictation.

This particular set of ten uses shorter literature passages than our regular Arrows, and includes a French-style dictation passage each week. French-style dictation is a modified dictation practice that isolates individual words for spelling in context (full explanation of French-style dictation in the product itself).

The Quiver includes the following ten titles:

• Sarah, Plain and Tall
• The Trumpet of the Swan
• The Mouse and the Motorcycle
• Charlotte’s Web
• Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
• Secret of the Andes
• Mr. Popper’s Penguins
• The Wheel on the School
• Cricket in Times Square
• House at Pooh Corner

Buy them as a set and save or purchase individual titles.

It’s Brian Jacques’ birthday today (June 15, 1939), and to celebrate, we’re making a special offer! The Arrow for his novel, Redwall, is:

HALF PRICE through Monday at Midnight! ($4.95) OFFER HAS EXPIRED

Redwall tells the epic tale of the animals of Redwall Abbey, who valiantly defend their home from the attacks of a one-eyed rat and his fearsome army. The story is a moving tale of the courage of the small and weak against the strong. Like the other 21 books in the series, Redwall contains wonderful descriptions of food, as well as delightful accents particular to each type of creature in the stories.

Although now acclaimed as one of the greatest children’s authors in the world, drawing comparisons to Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows and Richard Adams’s Watership Down, Brian Jacques’ first attempt at writing was not nearly so successful.

At ten years old, for an assignment at his school in Liverpool, England, Brian Jacques wrote a short story about a bird that cleaned a crocodile’s teeth. His teacher refused to believe that a ten-year-old could write so well and ordered Jacques to say that he had copied the story. When Jacques refused, he was caned. So it was that Brian Jacques first realized his talent for writing.

Before pursuing writing full-time, Brian Jacques worked as a merchant seaman, a fireman, a long-distance truck driver, a bus driver, a boxer, a bobby (British policeman), a postmaster, and a stand-up comic.

When Jacques began to write Redwall, his first audience was the children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind in Liverpool. Because he was writing to a blind audience, he attempted to make his writing as descriptive as possible so that the children could picture the events in their imagination.

In fact, Brian Jacques was only published when a former English teacher submitted Jacques’ story to a publisher without telling Jacques. The publishers loved the book and immediately drew up a contract for five more books. Ever since, the Redwall stories have been delighting children and adults all around the globe.

So, don’t miss out—celebrate Brian Jacques’ birthday and take advantage of this special Arrow offer!

Also, if you’d like to buy a copy of the novel, it’s available through Amazon: Redwall (affiliate link).

The Arrow is a monthly digital product that features copywork and dictation passages from a specific read aloud novel. It’s geared toward children ages 8-11 and is an indispensable tool for parents who want to teach language arts in a natural, literature-bathed context.