Wicked Writing Skills: Over 90 non-fiction activities for children (Writing Skills for Children)

*I received a free copy of this book with thanks to the author and Rachel Gilbey at Rachel’s Random Resources blog tours. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.* I already reviewed Lexi Rees’ The Book Dragon Club, which explores the joys of reading and sharing the love of good books for young (and older) booklovers. I absolutely loved it. With this new resource for children (and adults) focused on writing non-fiction pieces, Lexi Rees cements her place in my creativity toolkit for my own children (currently 7 and 4), but I am not ashamed to admit that I will also be using her books to brush up my own skills too! The book is split into chapters which feature different non-fiction content: how to write opinions; how to participate in a debate; how to write instructions; how to write news articles; how to write a report of events (diary/journal) and how to write adverts. Each of these sections clearly explains the style and content required for the task in a fun and accessible way, taking you step-by-step through the whole process, from the basics to practicing and polishing. Every chapter is also stuffed full of fun, thought-provoking prompts to really get your brain revving – everything from “Could we end disease?” to “How would you teach an alien to swim?” The final chapter then contains a further selection of writing prompts for all categories. Both Minishine and Babybows were fascinated by the ideas presented here and approached them in slightly different ways. While Minishine (7) got out pen and paper and began doggedly working her way through the book in logical progression, finishing each task before moving to the next, Babybows (4) and I sat and simply chatted through some of the prompts to draw out his ideas in a less formal way. I have been banned from including a sample of her work here (self-conscious!), but will say that her opinion piece for “Convince your parents to buy you the latest mobile phone” was tackled with much enthusiasm and plenty of persuasive language – parents might want to watch out for that one! Similarly, Babybows firmly adheres to his opinion that sweeties and chicken nuggets are ‘the best food’, and while he was willing to acknowledge my healthy-eating counterpoints, he insisted that his feelings on the subject carried more weight than my puny facts. Ideally I would say this book is targeted at 7-8 year olds upwards, but Babybows proved that even little ones can get some value from learning how to structure a decent argument. (Whether this is a good idea to encourage this skill in recalcitrant small beings is another issue… maybe one for a debate topic in future editions!) As I said before, adults can also use this resource to sharpen and hone their non-fiction writing structure sucessfully. On the strength of the two books I have read and reviewed here, I have added Creative Writing Skills to my list of planned resources for Minishine, and will be keeping my eye out for further advice from Lexi Rees in the future! Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

"Extremely fantastic" is what six year old Roy thinks of this book. One of the first activities he looked at was "Should you say please and thank you to a robot?" His instant answer was "No" with the explanation that robots have no feelings. A few suggestions that other people may have different ideas started some lines of thought. He enjoyed several more of the activities and the discussions he had with his parents about them. The terms 'fiction' and 'non-fiction' are now well understood and I think it may have opened some doors for Roy. His mother thinks the activity book will be of use for years to come as many of the topics and tasks are rather advanced for his age. "It's sparked some really good conversations. I'm very impressed. It's something he can hide away to do, or we'll do together. We found some interesting things to talk about, things we hadn't considered. For example, the question 'Should everyone learn a foreign language?' We used all the little prompts on the side and together we came up with quite a few really cool things. This is a book we're going to be dipping in and out of until..." Roy added "Until it's full". I sent a copy to a nine year old relative in Californa who has been attending school online for the last six months. Non-fiction writing appeals more to him than fiction and the skills explored in this book legitimise his interests. His parents showed it to his teacher and she has now got a copy of her own. She was enthusiastic about adopting some to incorporate into her lessons. After chatting to a young father of seven year old twins the other day, I'm about to buy another copy. His boys are bright and read well but they don't want to do any writing. It seems it's because they don't know what to write. I'm optimistic this book will help them but as they are twins I'd better also get a copy of Lexi Rees's earlier activity book which tends more toward creative writing.

I have twin 7yr old boys who will always resist doing any written homework. This book is great for encouraging them not only to use their imagination and creative skills, but for writing too! It has definitely helped them sit down and put pencil to paper!

Esta muy bien

Nice writing prompts

After trying out Lexi Rees’s Creative Writing Skills book with my class in school, I was excited to have the opportunity to try the Wicked Writing Skills book. As our first topic this term was non-fiction genres it came at just the right time. Having been a teacher for almost 9 years now, I have come to realise that children do not enjoy writing. This book allows for plenty of activities that engage the children and make writing fun. We particularly liked the newspaper features and incorporated the activities into our Iron Man topic. The children wrote some great reports about the capture of the Iron Man. I like the step by step, chapter by chapter layout and it makes it more engaging for the children. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, child or adult, and definitely to any teachers who have reluctant writers in their class.

This book is really when teaching young ones