A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

Are you getting excited?!

Each year, I announce the line ups for our wildly popular literature programs!

For the Quill (ages 5-7), I reveal themes you’ll explore while building foundational pre-literacy skills in reading, writing, and math.

For the Dart (ages 8-10), Arrow (ages 11-12), Boomerang (ages 13-14), and Slingshot (ages 15-18), I give updates and announce the book titles for the coming academic year!

Book Reveal Dates!

Click the links to register for the Zoom webinars (space limited).

For kids ages 5-10: Thursday, May 30 (12:00 pm EDT)
For kids ages 11-18: Friday, May 31 (12:00 pm EDT)

(Or watch on Facebook.)

When you register, you’ll be entered for a chance to win one of our fantastic GIVEAWAYS!

SIX FAMILIES will win:

1. A gift card to purchase ALL the books for the year-long program of your choice
2. A bundle of enchanted tools for writing—markers, pretty papers, sidewalk chalk and more!*

You don’t have to attend the webinars live to be eligible to win, but you do have to register! So be sure you add your name to the webinar registration for at least one of the days.

*International customers will receive one gift card that covers costs for both books and tools for writing!

Come live! The chat will be FLYING!!

Use this PDF Download to keep track of the book titles during the lives.

The Programs

Our Mechanics & Literature programs teach:

• grammar,
• punctuation,
• literary devices,
• and more through living literature!

The big reveal is also exciting for you because these are:

• books your family will read aloud together and treasure all year 
• books that naturally teach all the stuff you worry about! (See above!)

Selecting the Books

Here at Brave Writer, we take the selection of these book titles Very Seriously!

All year, we read, discuss, and delight in the year’s latest fiction as well as relishing the classics.

• We aim for diversity of authorship and protagonists
• We incorporate a variety of genres: fantasy, poetry, nonfiction, historical fiction and the classics
• We carefully orchestrate the sequence of the books
• We balance book length against the holiday demands of a given month
• We alternate moving, poignant books with silly, lighthearted books
• We launch the year with a sure-fire winner and end with a warmhearted one

By the time we’ve settled on a book list, we’re chomping at the bit to share it with you!

You can expect a lively, inspired reading journey.

Our 2023–2024 year-long programs are still in the store! 
After May 27, they will only be available as Literature Singles! 

April’s Dart, Arrow, Boomerang, and Slingshot explore unique relationships amid complicated circumstances. While exploring writing, mechanics, and literary devices, your family will have much to discuss thanks to an unforgettable cast of characters featured in this month’s books. 

This month’s Quill is blooming with botanical big ideas and hands-on activities. We’ll have colorful conversations categorizing flowers and discovering all we can learn from petals and seeds!

A note about content

This month’s Arrow, Boomerang, and Slingshot issues include themes that open the door to deep conversations with your kids. You, as the parent, can decide how far you want to step into the room of discourse as you explore the books. We encourage parents to read ahead in order to be prepared.

Flowers

Stop to smell the roses with the next issue of the Quill!  

In the Brave Writer Book Shop, you’ll find books about flowers that we adore! These are not required (you can use any books about these topics that you have in your stacks or discover at your library), but we find it’s helpful to have a list to get you started.

In this Quill, we’ll:

• create a plant poster bursting with fun facts;
• have a colorful conversation about flower hues;
• gather a bouquet of botanical words;
• stretch our fine motor skills while planting flowers on a page;
• discover what petals and seeds can teach us about odds and evens; and
• cultivate the concept of categorization!

Get the Quill.

Big Foot and Little Foot by Ellen Potter

Meet Hugo, a young Sasquatch who longs for adventure, and Boone, his young human friend. Join this unlikely pair on a grand adventure searching for mythical beasts.

This month’s literary device focuses on Maps. We’ll also:

• encounter a classic storytelling opening hook;
• sidle up next to a comical juxtaposition;
• explore a superlative way to make words the biggest and best;
• discover the ins and outs of dialogue;
• marvel at words with multiple meanings;
• investigate an array of end marks; and so much more! 

Purchase the book.

Get the Dart.

Alias Anna: A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis by Susan Hood and Greg Dawson

This is the moving true account of a Ukrainian Jewish piano prodigy who avoids capture during the Holocaust. Told in verse, this story is sure to spark big juicy conversations in your home!

This month’s literary device focuses on Rhythm & Rhyme. We’ll also: 

• admire alliteration and its awesome attributes;
• watch possessive adjectives take ownership;
• be treated to tercets;
• see common nouns become proper;
• cement how concrete poems are created;
• appreciate anaphora again and again; and so much more!

Purchase the book.

Get the Arrow.

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

History comes to life in this riveting story about communist Romania in 1989.

In this Boomerang, we’ll:

• sit with scintillating symbolism;
• touch on tools for emphasis;
• consider, then consider again, the power of repetition;
• appreciate the art of allusion;
• look ahead to foreshadowing;
• admire ambiguous endings, and so much more!

Purchase the book.

Get the Boomerang.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Set in 1920s New York, this classic novel tells the story of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. Studied for decades, it’s a story sure to spark lively bookish discussions.

In this Slingshot, we’ll:

• flutter through a frame narrative with a first-person narrator;
• survey some spectacular vernacular
• dissect dialogue conventions;
• associate images and ideas with allusions and similes and metaphors;
• weigh opposites with oxymorons;
• climb to the climax;
• sink deep into symbolism; and so much more!

Purchase the book.

Get the Slingshot.

March’s Dart, Arrow, and Boomerang shine light on the power of deep relationships. While exploring writing, mechanics, and literary devices, lean into the big, juicy conversations these stories will inspire!

And this month’s Quill is Pets, and we think you’ll agree it’s the purr-fect way to introduce new concepts to your kids. We’ll investigate wordplay and onomatopoeia, we’ll connect with nature, and play with vivid vocabulary!

Pets

Go off-leash with the March issue of the Quill!

In the Brave Writer Book Shop, you’ll find books about pets that we adore! These are not required (you can use any books about these topics that you have in your stacks or discover at your library), but we find it’s helpful to have a list to get you started.

In this Quill, we’ll:

• make like terriers and sniff out some book themes;
• expand vocabulary as we squirrel away pet names;
• take our imaginations for a walk by designing a dream pet;
• draw upon fine motor skills to decorate awesome animals;
• conduct a count of marvelous marks; and
• get carried a-weigh with pet weights!

Get the Quill.

Duet by Elise Broach

Embark on an adventure with Mirabelle, a young goldfinch, and Michael an eleven-year-old musical prodigy, as they work to solve a real-life musical mystery!

The literary device focuses on Lyrical Language. Join us for a closer look! 

Inside this Dart we’ll also:

• make colorful comparisons;
• collect commas in a series;
• discover a double-dot punctuation mark, the colon;
• scope out the jobs of a semicolon;
• consider closed compounds;
• meander through a magnificent description; and so much more! 

Purchase the book.

Get the Dart.

Peter Lee’s Notes from the Field by Angela Ahn

Eleven-year-old Peter Lee has one dream—to become a paleontologist. But that dream is put on hold when unforeseen circumstances turn his life upside down! Thankfully, Peter’s scientific savvy can help!

The literary device focuses on Journal Writing. Join us for a closer look! 

In this Arrow we’ll also: 

• explore the power of alliterative adjectives;
• illuminate interjections;
• sleuth for syllables;
• act out action beats;
• consider quotation marks;
• sidle up to symbolism,and so much more! 

Purchase the book.

Get the Arrow.

Romeo & Juliet (graphic novel) by Gareth Hinds

Gareth Hinds’s graphic adaptation of the Bard’s romantic tragedy will delight the most loyal of Shakespeare fans, and it will appeal to readers new to his work as well! 

In this Boomerang, we’ll:

• tune our ears to rhyme and meter;
• see how Shakespeare celebrated and satirized the sonnet;
• wonder what’s in a name and an identity;
• appreciate the art of abridged text;
• look into literary foils;
• charge into graphic novel action, pacing, and inference; and so much more! 

Purchase the book.

Get the Boomerang.

For ages 15-18, check out the Slingshot.

February’s Dart, Arrow, Boomerang, and Slingshot shine a light on the power of perseverance and self-determination. While exploring writing, mechanics, and literary devices, your family can glean inspiration from amazing individuals, some real, some imagined, as they knock down obstacles with a mix of intelligence, humor, charisma, and confidence.

This month’s Quill is Space: Planets, and we think you’ll agree that it’s out of this world! We’ll investigate infographics, master mapmaking, and ignite imaginations with interplanetary wordplay!

Space: Planets

This Quill is out of this world! 

In our Book Shop, you’ll find books about space that we adore! These are not required (you can use any books about these topics that you have at home or discover at your library), but we find it’s helpful to have a list to get you started.

In this issue, we’ll:

• investigate infographics;
• vroom our way through some playful planetary vocabulary;
• design a delightfully fact-filled planet poster;
• master mapmaking (and give our motor skills a marvelous workout);
• squash some shapes to explore dimension; and
• slice into the juicy topic of symmetry!

Get the Quill.

Ways to Grow Love by Renée Watson

Spend time with fifth-grader Ryan Hart as she navigates relatable childhood twists and turns in this joy-filled sequel to Ways to Make Sunshine. (Note: No need to read the first book before jumping into this novel, but if you want to, we have a Dart for that one too!)

This month’s literary device focuses on Rhyme! 

We’ll also:

• zigzag our way through an exploration of action words;
• wrestle a tricky possessive pronoun into its proper place;
• festoon a horse with adjectives;
• grow our understanding of a literary theme;
• have a little fun with a lot;
• enjoy a good time exploring rhyme; and so much more! 

Purchase the book.

Get the Dart.

Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson

When a young boy named Homer escapes enslavement from a southern plantation, he finds a wondrous new community, but before he can enjoy his new freedom, he must liberate his mother from the plantation he escaped.

February’s literary device is Juxtaposition.

We’ll also: 

• discuss and explore conjunctions;
• find out why figurative language flies high in writing;
• admire the amazing abilities of alliteration;
• try playing with present participles;
• use symbolism to see the story in a new way; 
• walk and talk with verbs, and so much more! 

Purchase the book.

Get the Arrow.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

With eloquence and power, Woodson’s poetry relays her experiences growing up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s amid the civil rights movement.

In this issue, we’ll:

• mull over memoir;
• venerate verse;
• explore what happens when we show instead of tell readers what is happening;
• follow along easily with help from attributive tags;
• certainly see superb sentence structure;
• power through parallelism; and so much more!

Purchase the book.

Get the Boomerang.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Poet Maya Angelou’s debut memoir, the story of her childhood in the segregated south, is a modern American classic.

In this Slingshot, we’ll:

• time travel to explore historical context;
• mull over motivation;
• partake of poetic prose and hyperbole;
• associate images and ideas with allusions;
• analyze autobiographies in the context of coming-of-age stories;
• discuss denouement when we reach the end; and so much more!

A note about content: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings touches on mature themes of human experience. We encourage parents to read the book ahead of time in order to be prepared for deep conversations with your teens.

Purchase the book.

Get the Slingshot.

January’s Dart, Arrow, and Boomerang selections are about characters who encounter adventures and challenges of different shapes and sizes. From heartwarming storylines to white-knuckle adventure, these page-turners are an entertaining way to explore:

• writing,
• mechanics,
• and literary devices with the entire family!

Sow seeds of wonder and curiosity with this month’s Quill—On the Farm! Go on a hunt for noisy nouns, discover who’s who on a farm, and explore eggsellent egg activities with us!

On the Farm

Cultivate your young child’s curiosity with this month’s issue of the Quill!

In the Brave Writer Book Shop, you’ll find books about farmyard fun that we adore! These are not required (you can use any books about these topics that you have in your stacks or discover at your library), but we find it’s helpful to have a list to get you started.

In this Quill, we’ll:

• notice a number of nifty nouns;
• wonder who, what, why, where, when, and how;
• interview an animal and practice some mooo-ter skills;
• have an eggciting time with dots, lines, and curves;
• crow with glee over counting games;
• and we’ll cock-a-doodle-do a bit of skip counting!

Get the Quill.

Just Beyond the Very Far North by Dan Bar-El

Enjoy an adventure with Duane the polar bear and his arctic friends in this charming sequel to The Very, Very Far North (Note: No need to read the first book before jumping into this Arctic adventure, but if you want to, we have a Dart for that one too!).

This month’s literary device focuses on Personification and Anthropomorphism. We’ll also:

• tuck dialogue between quotation marks;
• plop capital letters into place in proper nouns and sentence starters;
• fall for figurative language;
• ponder prepositions;
• enjoy a bit of juxtapositioning;
• discover characterization through dialogue; and so much more! 

Purchase the book.

Get the Dart.

Honestly Elliott by Gillian McDunn

Meet Elliott, a big-hearted kid, who is doing his best!

January’s literary device is First-Person Narration. We’ll also: 

• use similes to make comparisons as smooth as butter;
• sneak up on the superscripts that lead toward footnotes;
• find out why figurative language is a writing superpower;
• dish out dialogue punctuation;
• sample sentences that are interrogative and declarative;
• ponder pronouns; and so much more! 

Purchase the book.

Get the Arrow.

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

This Victorian classic is a touchstone in the science fiction canon—Martians and Mars, oh my!

In this Boomerang, we’ll:

• ponder point of view; 
• get inside editions; 
• get behind the wheel of plot-driven versus character-driven stories;
• situate this book in context; 
• appreciate how science fiction can use realism;
• discover descriptive writing; and so much more.

Purchase the book.

Get the Boomerang.

For ages 15-18, check out the Slingshot.