A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

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.