Literacy Matters Vol. 25 Winter 2025

A squiggly story. Larsen, A. (2016). Kids Can Press. Illustrator: Mike Lowery. ISBN: 9781771380164 This story promotes early writing by showing that

educators can model gathering ideas, drafting, revising and editing as a class or small group before students engage in their individual writing. Educators can also model how to use a feature from mentor texts (i.e., sentence structure) with think-alouds for students to see how to integrate the writing feature in their own writing (Dorfman & Cappelli, 2017; Gallagher, 2024). Additionally, individual writing conferences with students are crucial to ensure successful mentor text use (Culham, 2023; Gallagher, 2024). For multi- or monolingual writers, encouraging the inclusion of illustrations, other artifacts, and multilingual learners’ home language can help balance out difficulties with writing while keeping them engaged in expressing their thoughts. For some children, it also may be easier to write journal entries or letters to their favorite toy, fairytale character, or most trusted person in their lives so they can picture a distinct reader/audience. Based on the author’s experiences with children who struggle with writer’s block, giving children such choices can lower anxiety about writing. The integration of mentor texts is versatile since educators can intertwine seasonal occasions, curriculum topics, or civic engagement with short writing practices of letters, cards or journal entries. For instance, journaling can include writing about a summer or weekend experience, different phases of a science experiment, or journaling from the perspective of a historical figure. To connect with others outside of the classroom, students can write letters or cards to members of a local elderly home or hospitalized people. To learn about cultural differences, children can also engage in international pen-pal exchanges (for more ideas, see Mitra & Serriere, 2015). For additional resources of mentor texts for writing that do not focus explicitly on writing cards, letters, journal entries, or stories, readers may consult Rose Cappelli’s and Lynn Dorfman’s publications on using mentor books (Dorfman & Cappelli, 2009, 2017; Cappelli, 2023) or Kelly Gallagher’s (2024) publication that organizes the use of mentor texts by purposes for writing such as reflect, express, inform, explore or inquire. Moreover, Culham (2023) offers over 90 children’s books to mentor elementary students in informational, narrative, and argumentative writing. Additionally, Culham (2016) shares a collection of mentor books that feature characters displaying Latino culture. Furthermore, Lindfors (2019) and Dollins (2016, 2020) share concrete ideas on improving children’s fiction and non-fiction writing skills based on in-depth analysis of authentic children’s literature. In conclusion, the collection of children’s literature highlights how young writers develop their craft, providing teachers with opportunities to use story characters as mentors to inspire and guide student-centered, motivating writing instruction; this aligns with what Gallagher (2024) considers the most important goal when using mentor texts, namely, preparing students to become confident literary citizens who feel comfortable communicating thoughts, questions, or events not only orally but also in writing.

everyone has a story to tell and can do so letter by letter, number by number, through squiggles and doodling before children can write letters, words, or sentences. The entertaining illustrations and speech bubbles add lively visuals that promote self-expression on paper before mastering the conventional print system.

Another squiggly story. Larsen, A. (2022). Kids Can Press. Illustrator: Mike Lowery. ISBN: 9781525304828 In this story, a 2nd grader shares how he overcomes writer’s block. Story panels and

speech bubbles help readers learn about the writing process, including planning, drafting, revising, and editing, all steps that can guide young writers towards a well-told story.

Literacy Matters Literature Matters

How to write a story. Messner, K. (2020). Chronicle Books. Illustrator: Mark Siegel. ISBN: 9781452156668 In this picture book, the author uses simple language

to talk through the steps of the writing process, which includes brainstorming, planning, drafting, editing, finalizing, sharing a narrative story with characters, setting, climax and resolution. The story also includes selecting a catchy title and illustrations. Illustrations include speech bubbles and writing samples as a story develops. Kate Messner invites children to send her their art or stories to display on her website. Teachers can use this book to walk students through the writing process of a story.

Abdul’s story. Thompkins-Bigelow, J. (2022). Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Illustrator: Tiffany Rose. ISBN: 978-1534462984 This book tells the story of Abdul, who is struggling

to write the stories that he loves telling. After going through frustrating phases of identifying and correcting mistakes he does not want to write anymore. Then, a brilliant writer comes to class and helps Abdul understand that making mistakes is part of becoming a good writer. This story illustrates the value of tenacity when revising and editing texts and offers encouragement to overcome writer’s block. Conclusion This selection of authentic children’s literature with card, letter, journal, or story writing as a theme provides educators with inspirational resources to infuse into mentor-text-based writing instruction in grades K-4. To connect reading, oral dialog, and writing after reading one of these books, academic discussions can occur about (1) features of the writing genre, (2) the story content, (3) any useful sentence frames or expressions and their effect on readers, as well as the purpose and function of punctuation. Lastly, educators can engage students in discussing how to proceed through the writing process and how to implement their discoveries of an author’s writing techniques. To that end,

| 24 | Literacy Matters | Volume 25 • Winter 2025

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