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.