A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

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.