Spotlight on Professional Resources: Cracking Open the Author’s Craft

This is one of my FAVORITE books for teaching students how to live like a writer. In Cracking Open the Author’s Craft, Lester Laminack uses his picture book memoir Saturdays and Teacakes to show how a writer intentionally uses visual and auditory craft moves to affect the reader. 

Here is a video snippet of Lester teaching about visual and auditory author’s craft moves.

Some special features of this resource include:

• 15 ready-to-use writing and close reading mini-lessons
• A DVD of Lester teaching the lessons
• The 5-step process of “reading like a writer”
• Lester reading aloud Saturdays and Teacakes
• Suggestions of additional mentor texts that can be used to teach author’s craft

If you plan to use the lessons in this book, you will definitely want to get your hands on a copy of Saturdays and Teacakes.