| mel
boring |
Join us this afternoon
in the AUDITORIUM-Scheduled Events Room for an "Open Forum" with Web
Editor Mel Boring. Mel has published some 25 magazine articles and
stories, as well as eight books for the young readers market. He
taught writing for 18 years, while being home husband and parent to
two of his four children, and doing his own writing. He welcomes
your questions on time management, getting started, writer's block,
marketing, writing rights, writing earnings, or anything else you'd
like to discuss. Bring your QUESTIONS to this open forum-in five
minutes.
|
| mel
boring |
The Tuesday afternoon
"Open Forum" will begin promptly at 4 Atlantic/CANADA, 3 p.m.
Eastern, 2 p.m. Central, 1 p.m. Mountain, and noon Pacific. While
you wait for the "Open Forum" to start, feel free to use your ASK A
QUESTION button RIGHT BETWEEN THE YELLOW "MAP" AND THE RED QUESTION
MARK IN ICHAT to post some questions for the discussion group-two
minutes from now.
|
| mel
boring |
Good afternoon! Welcome
to this Tuesday afternoon's "Open Forum" session. I'm your
moderator, Mel Boring, and the Web Editor for this site. We're back
for an informal time of answering any questions you might like to
ask, on any subject. So feel free to ask what's on your mind--and
I'll tell you what's on mine! First, please read these
announcements, then we'll get started….
|
| mel
boring |
IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS:
Send questions you'd like answered or discussed by using your "Ask a
Question" icon/button. (It looks like a thought bubble icon, RIGHT
NEXT TO THE RED QUESTION MARK.) The moderator (me, Mel Boring) will
post the questions one at a time in the chat room and do my best to
answer them. Also note: If you want to make it possible to ask the
longest question you can, first type "/ask" (without the quotation
marks), then leave one space after the end of "ask", then type as
many characters of your question as you can. If your question is not
complete, send the second part next, then if necessary the third,
etc…
|
| mel
boring |
WARNING: If you don't
post anything at all, SOME of you will be bounced off the system in
15 minutes. TO PREVENT THIS, type something (either a question to
the moderator or even a private message) every 15 minutes to stay
active and remain online....
|
| mel
boring |
First of all, our Tasty
Word of the Forum, a FOOD word--very GOOD for after-Thanksgiving,
huh?...
|
| mel
boring |
It is "deipnosophist"
\dipe-NAHS-uh-fist\ noun...
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| mel
boring |
You probably have never
heard of it--see if you can find us a definition and send it to
me!...
|
| mel
boring |
Midge e-mailed to thank
kswcolorado for helping her last Tuesday to find the correct name of
the girl's magazine from the 1950s put out by the Girl Scouts.
THANKS, kswcolorado! And I Mel apologize to Midge for saying she
writes poetry--she does not.
|
| mel
boring |
THANK YOU, Midge! AND
THANK YOU, kswcolorado!!!...
|
| mel
boring |
The name of that
magazine again was AMERICAN GIRL, of the Girl
Scouts....
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| mel
boring |
I remember now that
Paula Morrow, Editor of Babybug and Ladybug Magazines, mentioned
that when she was our chat guest....
|
| mel
boring |
Last week charweb
kindly asked me for the guidelines for submitting to our ICL Web
Site and the CHILDREN'S WRITER newsletter. The URL for our ICL Web
Site guidelines:
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|
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| CHILDREN'S WRITER
guidelines: |
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| mel
boring |
Here is as follow-up
question to Sarah's caution last week about using Priority
Mail:...
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| spotslover2 |
As far as I can tell, the
Post Office has never delivered my manuscript package to Margaret
McElderry. The phone number for the Rockefeller Branch is wrong on
the USPS website and the phone info people can't find it. So there's
no way to trace whether the package ever got delivered. Should I
resend my submission and explain the confusion to Sarah Sevier, the
editor? Thanks, Sarah.
|
| mel
boring |
YES, I WOULD suggest
you resubmit the manuscript,...
|
| mel
boring |
and let Sarah Sevier
know what happened. She will understand!...
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| mel
boring |
Publishers sometimes
experience more discombobulation with the mail than we writers, so
write her, Sarah, and THANKS for following up....
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| mel
boring |
We wish you FULL
FORTUNE in selling that manuscript, friend!!!
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| mel
boring |
Here is some FRESH GOOD
NEWS from t green!....
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| t
green |
Mel, I had a Wonderful
Thanksgiving... made even sweeter with the arrival of a contract to
write my book for which I'd submitted a proposal way back in
February. I'll be writing a 30-day Devotional for moms titled
"FearLess Moms' Devotions to Go". Pub date is April
2007!!
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| mel
boring |
CONGRATULATIONS, t
green!!!...
|
| mel
boring |
That is MARVELOUS NEWS
for us ALL!...
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| mel
boring |
From February till now,
let's see,...
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| mel
boring |
NINE months!!! Do you
suppose it took that long for your book proposal to "gestate" at the
publishers? (-:}
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| mel
boring |
I'll be looking for
your FEARLESS MOMS' DEVOTIONS TO GO someday, t
green!
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| mel
boring |
And that SOMEDAY will
only be about a year and six months from now, APRIL
2007
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| mel
boring |
THANKS for letting us
know!
|
| dell |
People sometimes ask me
how sales are going for my picture book. I guess I'll find out when
I get my royalty statement, right? What would be considered 'good?'
Say the print run was 10,000, what would the publisher consider
'good' for the first year? Thanks!!
|
| mel
boring |
dell has recently had a
picture book published, you probably remember,...
|
| mel
boring |
titled HOW CAN I SLEEP
IN THAT BED?...
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| mel
boring |
If the print run was
10,000 they have GOOD expectations, dell!...
|
| mel
boring |
Because with children's
books, the first edition print run is usually only about
5000,...
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| mel
boring |
or maybe
7,000....
|
| mel
boring |
So YOUR publisher is
predicting great things for your first picture
book....
|
| mel
boring |
The rule of thumb I've
heard recently is, that if a book sells a THOUSAND copies a month,
that is a really GOOD book....
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| mel
boring |
At 1000 copies a month,
they will go through the 10,000 copies in ten months, and will have
to reprint, and will likely print up MORE at that
time!...
|
| mel
boring |
Keep us posted, will
you please, dell?
|
| t
green |
They say... patience is a
virtue... and Good things come to those who wait... I think the
publishing world just confirms those words
|
| mel
boring |
YES, I say AMEN and
AWOMEN to that, t green!...
|
| mel
boring |
There are LONG waits
involved in publishing books...
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| mel
boring |
I wonder when the
technology will arrive that will allow the PRINTING of a book to
happen in an HOUR?...
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| mel
boring |
That would speed up the
PRINTING, but the EDITING will still take about as long, I'm
thinking.....
|
| mel
boring |
Right now, the editing
usually takes at LEAST six months, often one year, and the printing
takes a good six months, in my experience....
|
| mel
boring |
So you're right, t
green, we are impatient people of PATIENCE! (-:}
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| mel
boring |
Here's that FOOD
word:...
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| spotslover2 |
A deipnosophist is my
brother Bill, who philosophizes at any table.
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| mel
boring |
EXCELLENT,
spotslover2!...
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| mel
boring |
A deipnosophist is a
person who is GOOD at dinner conversation!...
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| mel
boring |
THANKS to Lizette for
sending us "deipnosophist," which is pronounced:...
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| mel
boring |
dipe-NAHS-uh-fist\
noun: a person who is a good conversationalist at the dinner
table.
|
| dell |
Mel, I also wish to give
a genuine, heartfelt THANKS to all my fellow ICL chat friends who
have supported me by either buying the book or recommending it to
their library or just by patting me on the back. It's a deram come
true and I'm thankful for my cyber friends here!
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| mel
boring |
I'm sure I can speak
for them all, dell, that you are WARMLY WELCOME!...
|
| mel
boring |
I don't have your book
yet, but I am going to get it...
|
| mel
boring |
My impression is that
it is a VERY successful first picture book,...
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| mel
boring |
and just a VERY
SUCCESSFUL book, period. CONGRATULATIONS to you again,
friend!
|
| charweb |
How is the PB market,
Mel?
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| mel
boring |
I am GLAD you asked,
charweb! There is an article on the Web right now
called:...
|
| mel
boring |
"What Happened to
Picture Books?"...
|
| mel
boring |
It is found at:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6283257.html>
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| mel
boring |
and was published in
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Magazine....
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| mel
boring |
The article starts out
like this:...
|
| mel
boring |
Once an industry
staple, in recent years picture book sales have begun to slip,
pushed out of the way by a certain boy wizard and teen
angst.
|
| mel
boring |
And it speculates about
the future of picture books, charweb....
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| mel
boring |
I think
you
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| mel
boring |
would find the best
answers there, that is answers from within the children's book
industry....
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| mel
boring |
My OWN feeling is that
picture books have been a STAPLE for almost a hundred
years...
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| mel
boring |
I DON'T think they're
going to disappear,...
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| mel
boring |
or even diminish
big-time. It IS just a cycle thing, I believe....
|
| mel
boring |
The SAME thing was
being said about the picture book market around 1980 as is being
said today, that maybe it has died....
|
| mel
boring |
BUT it will come back,
as sure as there are children born, charweb!...
|
| mel
boring |
Just right now, we need
to keep in mind that publishers are not buying many picture
books.
|
| charweb |
Thanks a lot,
Mel.
|
| mel
boring |
You are WARMLY
WELCOME!
|
| dell |
Mel one more thing, a
couple people are PMing me to ask if HOW WILL I EVER SLEEP IN THIS
BED? is available. The answer is yes, it should be at every Barnes
and Noble in the country and probably at other bookstores OR at
Amazon.com etc. Thanks for asking. XXXOOO
|
| mel
boring |
You are WELCOME, dell,
and here is where it can be found at Amazon.com:...
|
| mel
boring |
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1402714920/102-8504994-7320119?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance
|
| cookies |
where can you look -up
all authors total sales?
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| mel
boring |
Only on their royalty
statements, cookies....
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| mel
boring |
That info is considered
private between the publisher and the author....
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| mel
boring |
And your royalty
statements will tell how many copies you've sold in a six-month
period....
|
| mel
boring |
since they come out
every six months.
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| mel
boring |
TS wants to know, in
light of recent discussion of writing rights: Since the discussion
of rights: first on-line rights, second, or reprint rights, etc.,
could you clarify all the rights possible for an article? How do you
keep up with what rights are used? Which rights are worth more or
worth less?
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| mel
boring |
GOOD question,
TS!...
|
| mel
boring |
First of all, the
"science" of online publishing isn't as developed
yet,...
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| mel
boring |
and I THINK any online
rights are just Electronic Rights or MAYBE First Electronic
Rights....
|
| mel
boring |
Because ALL Web sites
compete with all OTHER Web sites,...
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| mel
boring |
probably no Web site
would want so buy Second Electronic Rights...
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| mel
boring |
But there might be very
recent info that I don't know. I'll keep my ear out for it,
TS....
|
| mel
boring |
About HARD-COPY
rights,...
|
| mel
boring |
When a magazine story
or article is published the FIRST time, that takes First
Rights,...
|
| mel
boring |
and they can never be
had again. ONLY ONE magazine can publish a piece the FIRST
time....
|
| mel
boring |
After the magazine
piece is once published, THEN
|
| mel
boring |
you can sell Second
Rights, or they're also called Reprint Rights....
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| mel
boring |
And these rights can be
sold over and over....
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| mel
boring |
Technically, Second
Rights are gone with the SECOND magazine printing of a story or
article...
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| mel
boring |
But the term Second
Rights is not used very much...
|
| mel
boring |
It is rather called
Reprint Rights, and as many of those as are possible to count can be
bought, sold, used.
|
| mel
boring |
Also for a hardcopy
magazine piece, you may also sell Electronic
Rights,...
|
| mel
boring |
for the magazine to
publish it on a Web site,...
|
| mel
boring |
OR you could keep the
Electronic Rights and sell them to ANOTHER publisher, one that just
publishes online....
|
| mel
boring |
For BOOKS, the
publisher usually leaves the copyright in the AUTHOR's name, and the
author agrees to let them publish their book....
|
| mel
boring |
In the contract for the
book, they talk about Foreign Rights,...
|
| mel
boring |
Foreign Rights are the
rights to publish the book in ANOTHER country than the one it was
first published in....
|
| mel
boring |
Then there are Film or
Movie Rights, which are seldom sold for children's
books...
|
| mel
boring |
and their are what are
all put in Subsidiary Rights,...
|
| mel
boring |
which might be toys
that use the copyright of the book, and other
rights.
|
| obrienj |
Mel, I am a newbe, what
is the next step after the institute
|
| mel
boring |
A WARM WELCOME to you,
obrienj!!!
|
| mel
boring |
After you take the
course from the institute,...
|
| mel
boring |
you MAY be getting
published...
|
| mel
boring |
SOME students sell
their work from the course to publishers....
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| mel
boring |
If NOT, then after the
ICL course, your next step will be to get published,
obrienj....
|
| mel
boring |
and that means
submitting and submitting and submitting till you get published and
then way BEYOND that....
|
| mel
boring |
I have known a good
number of ICL students to get published DURING their
course,...
|
| mel
boring |
and MANY to get
published shortly after the course, and some who didn't get
published till years later.
|
| mel
boring |
But the course gives
you a HUGE BOOST toward getting published.
|
| charweb |
For my 7th(ICL) lesson I
need to do markerting...
|
| charweb |
research for the mags I'm
targeting. But when I did so...
|
| charweb |
many of website either
don't have the writers guidelines...
|
| charweb |
or very difficult to find
them on the website. Mel, can ...
|
| charweb |
you please help
me?
|
| mel
boring |
If a magazine's
guidelines are NOT on a Web site, charweb,...
|
| mel
boring |
then you need to
snailmail them and ASK for their guidelines....
|
| mel
boring |
What happens with
guidelines on the INternet is that they CHANGE OFTEN, and the Web
site can't keep up with it...
|
| mel
boring |
And even
PRINTED-on-paper guidelines can change...
|
| mel
boring |
But write to the
magazines themselves and ask for guidelines, is my best
suggestion.
|
| gladys1 |
you answered my question
Mel thanks
|
| gladys1 |
Hi Mel had the day off
because of "snow" in vancouver, then got home to no internet, I was
some pissed off. You are talking about first and second rights does
that include online publication also.
|
| mel
boring |
No, I mentioned that
ONLINE rights are different, gladys1....
|
| mel
boring |
In that they are so
NEW. Online rights are usually just called "Electronic
Rights,"...
|
| mel
boring |
and I have myself never
heard of "Online Rights" mentioned as a term....
|
| mel
boring |
Second rights on the
Internet MAY not exist, since once a piece is published on the Web,
it's "all over" the Internet.
|
| cookies |
whats the format for
submitting mazes ,word puzzles,
|
| mel
boring |
The format would be to
draw/print/picture the maze on a regular sheet of typing
paper...
|
| mel
boring |
OR you may be able to
find a computer program that will FORMAT mazes for
you...
|
| mel
boring |
The same for word
puzzles. Because mazes and puzzles are a totally different format
from stories or articles, cookies,...
|
| mel
boring |
editors are OK with
receiving them hand-drawn, or an ordinary typing sheet of
paper.
|
| charweb |
Can anyone suggest me the
magazines for girls....
|
| charweb |
-age group 13-18
yrs?
|
| mel
boring |
I'll leave the question
open to others here, and chime in later with suggestions. Anyone
send me suggestions for magazines for girls age 13 to
18?
|
| charweb |
Do we have any PB writing
courses with ICL, Mel?
|
| mel
boring |
What is called the BOOK
COURSE has a picture book option, charweb....
|
| mel
boring |
I THINK it's largely
the same since I left teaching five years ago,..
|
| mel
boring |
and that was that you
told your instructor early in your Book Course....
|
| mel
boring |
that you wanted to do
"short books," and can do two or three picture books, actually, in
the one course....
|
| mel
boring |
Also, early in the
course when you tell your instructor you want to do a picture
book....
|
| mel
boring |
he or she may transfer
you to an instructor with special expertise in picture books,
charweb.
|
| mel
boring |
CJ e-mailed to ask:
When a contest, such as the Ursula Nordstrom Fiction contest, states
that the contest is open to previously unpublished authors, I get a
bit cunfused. I currently have no magazine articles or books
published, but if I were to have a magazine article published, would
that disqualify me from participating in a book contest, in which
I've no books published? Or does all of this just refer to not
submitting something that has already been published? And if so,
let's say I have a magazine short story published, and I decide to
later lengthen and go deeper into a character or story to make it
into a book, would that be disqualified as an entry, since it was
partially published?
|
| mel
boring |
Hi, CJ, THANKS for
asking!...
|
| mel
boring |
If you read the very
fine print at the bottom of the HarperCollins Web Site that
announces the Ursula Nordstrom fiction contest,..
|
| mel
boring |
they say that you must
not be published in BOOKS for the contest. Having published any
stories or articles in magazines would NOT disqualify you,
CJ....
|
| mel
boring |
You can only just not
have published a BOOK to qualify for that contest--and others work
the same way.
|
| t
green |
Mel, you talked about
getting a huge boost from ICL in getting published. I cannot
emphasize enough just how true that is. If you really WANT to be
published, i can't think of a better place to sharpen the craft than
ICL.... from crafting to editing and revising to marketing. I
would've never known how to go about submitting to editors or
publishers or the difference between a cover letter and a query
letter or a proposal if it weren't for ICL
|
| mel
boring |
GOOD and WISE words, t
green, THANK YOU!...
|
| mel
boring |
I began writing in
1969, JUST AS ICL started,...
|
| mel
boring |
but I did not know
about them then, and wish I HAD,...
|
| mel
boring |
because they would've
made things MUCH easier and faster for me, I am
convinced.
|
| pluto |
Sorry, pushed in there Do
writers often use metric prose to
|
| mel
boring |
pluto, there is
something I want to ask YOU, because I don't
know...
|
| mel
boring |
What is metric prose? I
would be ever so glad if you could explain that to us, and then I
think we could come up with an answer to YOUR question. Would you
reply, please, friend?
|
| obrienj |
What age is easiest to
get published with PB
|
| mel
boring |
Picture books USED to
be considered best for ages only up to eight years old,
obrienj....
|
| mel
boring |
And of course, there
were picture books for ages 2-4, and pbs for those from 4-6, and so
on....
|
| mel
boring |
NOW, I hear picture
books being touted for kids who are OLDER than
eight....
|
| mel
boring |
And some for ages
8-12....
|
| mel
boring |
What has happened, I
think, is that we have produced so many more less able readers in
the age 8-12 category that picture books can serve them
better....
|
| mel
boring |
AND I have EVEN heard
about "picture books for adults"!...
|
| mel
boring |
Consider POLAR EXPRESS,
for instance....
|
| mel
boring |
That Christmas book
would appeal to all children up to age eight, at
least,...
|
| mel
boring |
but children of ages 8
to 12 might ALSO find it interesting....
|
| mel
boring |
AND that book also
serves some ADULTS, as well...
|
| mel
boring |
But I would suggest for
a first picture book, obrienj,...
|
| mel
boring |
that you aim it at a
specific age, the 0-2, 2-4, 4-6 or 6-8 divisions of the 0-8 age
range.
|
| high
hopes |
What is a picture story
for a magazine?
|
| mel
boring |
A picture story for a
magazine, for the writer, high hopes, is JUST the
story....
|
| mel
boring |
Magazines have their
own artists they ask to illustrate...
|
| mel
boring |
And unless you are an
artist, you would submit only the story, and they would ask an
illustrator to illustrate it.
|
| writermom |
Mel I agree with t 100%
ICL gave me the boost I needed to get started on my
career
|
| mel
boring |
THANK YOU, writermom,
those are GOOD WORDS coming from a writer like you,
too!
|
| pluto |
Read in a book but don't
know how to use it or what it is.
|
| mel
boring |
THANKS, pluto! I am
going to find out what "metric prose" means, and answer the question
next Tuesday, OK?...
|
| mel
boring |
Meanwhile, if you could
tell me the book you read it in, that would help.
|
| gladys1 |
me too Mel ICL is the
greatest boost any writer can have
|
| mel
boring |
THANK YOU too,
gladys1!
|
| omalizzie |
Mel, which books are used
for English as a 2nd language
|
| mel
boring |
It depends on WHICH
language is the FIRST language, omalizzie....
|
| mel
boring |
In the case of Hispanic
children, books are published in English for them with special
consideration that their first language is another
one....
|
| mel
boring |
Go to the Web Site for
Seedling Publications,...
|
| mel
boring |
because THEY offer
books for children for whom English is their SECOND
language...
|
| mel
boring |
They are at:
http://www.seedlingpub.com/
|
| susan
ralston |
candlewick press has
pb/pop-ups for teens:dragonology, egyto
|
| mel
boring |
THANK YOU so MUCH,
susan ralston! I MUST go see those right away!
|
| mel
boring |
And I must GO, friends!
I'm overtime. THANK YOU for coming!...
|
| mel
boring |
No Guest Chat this
Thursday, the next one is December 8....
|
| mel
boring |
I'll "see you" in the
newsletter this Friday...
|
| mel
boring |
and I REALLY APPRECIATE
your coming today--and what YOU have taught
ME!
|