Online course: Writing Little Kid Lit, Jan 24 – March 21, with guest speakers Jennifer Mook-Sang and Erin Silver

Writing Little Kid Lit

~ Board Books, Picture Books, Chapter Books and Middle Grade Novels

Online: Tuesday afternoons, 1 – 3 p.m.
January 24 – March 21, 2023
Offered on Zoom and accessible from anywhere there's internet 

See other classes starting this winter here.

This course is for adults {or teens} interested in writing Picture Books, Chapter Books, or Middle Grade books. Accessible for beginners and meaty enough for advanced writers, we’ll focuss on helping you develop your own writing projects. Through lectures, in-class assignments, homework, and feedback on your writing, we’ll give you ins and outs of writing for younger readers and set you on course toward writing books kids will love and parents will buy.

We’ll have two published children’s authors as guest speakers:

Jennifer Mook-Sang is the author of two picture books and a middle grade novel. For this class, she’ll focus on what she’s learned about writing picture books (unlike other classes where she’s mostly talked about her journey as an author), and of course she’ll also be answering whatever questions participants have.

Jennifer grew up in Guyana and moved to Canada when she was fourteen. While reading bedtime stories to her two sons, she fell in love with picture books and decided to write one of her own. In one of Brian Henry's classes, she found the beginnings of a story.  

That story grew into the humorous middle-grade novel, Speechless, published by Scholastic Canada, and since translated into Portuguese for Brazil (Não Cale! Fale!) and Turkish (Bir Konuşabilse).

Speechless won the Surrey Schools Book of the Year Award, was shortlisted for many others, and was recommended by the Ontario Library Association, the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, the CBC, and the TD Summer Reading Club. 

Jennifer has also published a picture book, Captain Monty Takes the Plunge, with Kids Can Press. Captain Monty is the boldest, stinkiest pirate to sail the six or seven seas; in fact, he’s never had a bath. Naturally, the Junior Library Guild immediately selected him for its fall list of recommended books; it was short-listed for the Rainforest of Reading Award; and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre put it on its best books of the year list.

Jennifer’s next picture book, The Care and Keeping of Grandmas, is coming April 4 from Tundra Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada.

Erin Silver is a children’s author and freelance writer with nearly 20 years of professional industry experience. Her work has appeared in Good Housekeeping, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Today's Parent, Chatelaine, and The Washington Post, among others.

Erin has five books out now: Just Watch Me (Common Deer Press), a middle grade novel about the perils of the online age; What Kids Did: Stories of Kindness and Invention in the Time of COVID-19 (Second Story Press), a nonfiction picture book about the amazing ways kids around the world helped during the pandemic; and Proud to Play (Lorimor), featuring outstanding Canadian LGBTQ+ athletes and allies who have made a difference.

Plus, she has two more books that came out in 2022: Sitting Shiva (Orca Books), a picture book about a child grieving his mother, and Rush Hour: Navigating Our Global Traffic Jam (Orca), a nonfiction book for kids 9–12. More books are on the way.

Erin has a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from King's College in Halifax, a postgraduate journalism degree from Ryerson University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto. She's a member of IBBY, The Writers Union of Canada, CANSCAIP and SCBWI. Visit her at erinsilver.ca

Instructor Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada's most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Saint John.  Brian is the author of a children's version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  (Tribute Publishing). But his proudest boast is that he’s has helped many of his students get published. 

Read reviews of Brian's various courses and workshops here (and scroll down).

Fee: $176.11 plus 13% hst = $199

To reserve your spot, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca 

See all of Brian’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend retreats here.