The Business of Writing for Children: An Award-Winning Author's Tips on Writing Children's Books and Publishing Them, or How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book for Kids.
Aaron Shepard has written one of the most comprehensive guides available to anyone wishing to enter the competitive field of children's books. It's all here, from initial idea to successful sale, and then beyond to the essentials of contracts, promotion, and the ABCs of building a successful career. If you're starting out, start out here. (Amazon.com).

Tell it Slant
Creative nonfiction is the fastest-growing segment in the writing market. Yet, the majority of writing guides are geared toward poetry and fiction writers. Tell It Slant fills the gap. Designed for aspiring nonfiction writers, this much-needed reference provides practical guidance, writing exercises, and a detailed discussion of the range of subcategories that make up the genre, including memoir, travel writing, investigative reporting, and more.

Teaching Writing In The Content Areas
Most educators intuitively understand the critical relationship between thinking and writing: writing allows us to express what we think, but the very act of writing spurs a process of exploration that changes our thinking and helps us learn.

Teaching Writing in the Content Areas examines nearly 30 years of research to identify how teachers can incorporate writing instruction that helps students master the course content and improve their overall achievement. Building on the recommendations of the National Commission on Writing, authors Vicki Urquhart and Monette McIver introduce four critical issues teachers should address when they include writing in their content courses:

• Creating a positive environment for the feedback and guidance students need at various stages, including prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing
• Monitoring and assessing how much students are learning through their writing
• Choosing computer programs that best enhance the writing process
• Strengthening their knowledge of course content and their own writing skills

The authors also provide 35 classroom strategies, practices, and handouts that teachers can easily implement in most subject areas or grade levels. From prewriting guides and work sheets to instructional guidance and analysis, the strategies offer realistic options to help teachers tailor writing assignments and instruction to the needs of each class.

Teaching Writing in the Content Areas is more than a primer for teaching the mechanics of writing; it is a research-based guide to regularly engaging students in writing that pushes them to express themselves clearly, to explore new ideas, and to become critical thinkers.

The Teacher's Grammar Book
The Teacher's Grammar Book, Second Edition introduces the various grammars that inform writing instruction in our schools, and examines methods, strategies, and techniques that constitute best classroom practices for teaching grammar and writing. Designed for students who are preparing to become English or language arts teachers, as well as for credentialed teachers who want an easy-to-use guide to questions of methods, grammar, and teaching, this overview of basic English grammar includes the following major topics: a brief history of grammar, teaching grammar, grammar and writing, traditional grammar, transformational-generative grammar, cognitive grammar, dialects, black English, and Chicano English.
New in the reorganized and fully updated Second Edition:
*new chapter giving a brief history of grammar and grammar instruction;
*new chapter on best practices--strategies and techniques that actually work;
*expanded chapter on cognitive grammar--a topic not found in other texts of this nature;
*expanded chapter on dialects;
*summary and evaluation of the minimalist program (Noam Chomsky's most recent revision of transformational-generative grammar)--a topic unique among texts of this kind; and
*reduced discussion of transformational grammar.