ReFoReMo Day 2: Melissa Stewart Shares the Power of Mentor Texts

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Registration ended last night at 11pm CST.  We have 270 officially registered participants and about 100 silent subscribers.  If you know others that did not make it to registration in time, they are still welcome to subscribe for ReFoReMo guest educator posts by email.  However, only officially registered participants will be admitted to the ReFoReMo Facebook Group and be eligible for prizes at the conclusion of ReFoReMo.  I am hearing lots of amazing revelations in the Facebook group!  I am so proud of our community!  Let's read!    ~Carrie

by Melissa Stewart

Whenever I do a book signing, there are a few people who tell me that they dream of writing a book for children and ask how they can get started. I always give the same two pieces of advice: (1) join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and (2) read 100 books in the genre they would like to write. I first heard this second tip from Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park back in 2006, and I couldn’t agree more.

It wasn’t until recently that I realized what I was doing from an educator’s point of view. I was suggesting that the aspiring authors use mentor texts. A hundred of them.

Educators know that using children’s literature as a model for student writing can be powerful. But the truth is that ALL writers can benefit tremendously by reading and studying the techniques employed by other writers. I often use mentor texts as I’m thinking about elements like voice and structure.

While I was writing Feathers: Not Just for Flying, I was struggling to find just the right voice. I can remember asking myself, “How did April Pulley Sayre craft the light, lovely voice of Vulture View?” To understand her process, I knew I had to put myself in her shoes, so I typed out the text of the entire book. Seeing the words, phrases, and sentences in manuscript form gave me enormous insight into how language devices can play off one another in books with a strong lyrical voice. 

When I realized that No Monkeys, No Chocolate would have a structure in which one piece of information builds upon another, I looked closely at the cumulative structures of various versions of The House That Jack Built and The Gingerbread Man. Even though these classic stories are fiction, they helped me see possibilities for my own manuscript.

I also looked at an assortment of books with layered text, including Beaks by Sneed Collard, When the Wolves Returned by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, my own book A Place for Butterflies, and several books by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. In each case, the layers were executed differently and served a different purpose. Understanding the range helped me see how I could use layers to the best effect in my own manuscript.

Do mentor texts have to come in book form? No way! The bookworms in No Monkeys, No Chocolate were inspired by Statler and Waldorf, the two old guys in The Muppet Show balcony. While watching an episode of the show with my nieces, I thought about their purpose—they commented on the action on the main Muppet Show stage and added humor. I instantly realized that my book needed a similar element, so I created characters and wrote dialog as a third layer of text. It solved a major problem with the book by allowing me to reinforce complex science concepts in a fun way.

No matter how much experience we have as writers, mentor texts can guide us as we strive to stretch in new and exciting directions.

Melissa Stewart is the award-winning author of more than 150 nonfiction books for children, including No Monkeys, No Chocolate; Feathers: Not Just for Flying, Under the Snow, and Animal Grossapedia. She maintains the blog Celebrate Science and serves on the board of advisors for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. You can follow Melissa's books at www.melissa-stewart.com.