Little Red Writing

Joan Holub and Melissa Sweet are paired together in this beautifully executed story about writing a story.  This is such a fun way to introduce children to writing stories.  Little Red Writing takes a familiar story and remakes it to include tried and true rules for writing a story.  Our library offers a Write & Illustrate Your Own Book Contest each year and this would be a perfect book to read if we could offer a writing workshop for the contest.  When Mrs. 2, Little Red’s teacher, assigns the children to write a story of their own, Little Red wants to write about “bravery because red is the color of courage.”

Elementary school teachers, parents, and librarians would all be able to use this story to encourage children to use their imagination to write stories of their very own.  What I like most about this book, is not only the very easily understood teaching components, but how the story itself was written and illustrated to create a visually pleasing book as well as something extremely interesting to read.  This is a must-read for creative writing units in elementary school!

Joan Holub has written a number of books for children, check out her website, including some of my favorite picture books – Zero the Hero and The Day the Crayons Quit!  Melissa Sweet is a Caldecott Medal Honor illustrator and you can find more about her on her website!

Title: Little Red Writing
Author: Joan Holub
Illustrator: Melissa Sweet
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Publication Date: 2013