Your journal assignment for today is to describe the terrain or the countryside of the area around your childhood home. When I say describe, I mean just that. Provide sentences that capture how the countryside looked. Don’t just say: “I grew up 40 miles south of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Fort Smith has a population of…
Category: Setting
Where Is William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County?
In Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emilly,” Miss Emily lived in Jefferson, Mississippi, which is a fictitious town in the fictitious county of “…Yoknapatawpha County (/jɒknəpəˈtɔːfə/). “Yoknapatawpha County is a fictional Mississippi county created by the American author William Faulkner, largely based upon and inspired by Lafayette County, Mississippi, and its county seat of Oxford (which…
The Tuck Family Home in Tuck Everlasting – Home As Paradise
“It was amazing, then, to climb a long hill, to see ahead another hill, and beyond that the deep green of a scattered pine forest, and as you climbed, to feel the air ease and soften. Winnie revived, sniffing, and was able to ride the horse again, perched behind Mae. And to her oft-repeated question,…
Small in the City by Sydney Smith – A Picture Book that Looks at the City [as Opposed to Nature]
Small in the CIty Sydney Smith 2019 Holiday House Rated as One of the Best Picture Books of 2019 by School Library Journal This book has become one of my all-time favorites. But I won’t give away many of those reasons. This is the kind of book that you absolutely MUST read for yourself. There…
Jacki Kellum Looks at the Book Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Many of us write, but few of us create literature. Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting is literature. She had created literature before Chapter 1 of the book, Within a few words, Babbitt writes volumes–in the Prologue. Within a few words, Tuck Everlasting had become more than a mere spattering of words. Natalie Babbitt said the following…
Part of the Movie Tuck Everlasting Was Filmed in the Ozark Mountains
Hawk’s Bill Crag in the Ozark Mountains – A spot in the Ozark Mountains that is 38 miles from my house. Hawk’s Bill Crag is at Whitaker Point, and Whitaker Point is one of the most beautiful spots along the Buffalo River—America’s first national river. In fact, it has been called One of the Most…
14-Day Picture Book Challenge Day 3 – Picture Writing and Word Painting – How to Write Descriptively
Day 3 Challenge – 14 Day Picture Book Challenge – Part A: Read Jane Yolen’s description of the setting in her book Owl Moon and after you have reduced the words significantly, rewrite it — without losing the power of the initial words. Part B: Rewrite the Setting of Your Picture Book. In another post,…
14-Day Picture Book Challenge Day 2 – Describe the Setting of Your Picture Book
For the second day of the 14-Day Picture Book Challenge, your assignment is to describe the setting of the picture book that you will be writing. You don’t need to write in beautiful, poetic words yet. You don’t need to consider the voice or the format of your potential picture book. You don’t need to…