A few days ago, I blogged about my summer reading goal here. Today, I wanted to share my writing goal for the summer. Normally, I consider myself a reader. What do I mean by this? I love reading books, but I never gave any serious consideration to writing a book before. I consider myself a reasonable writer from a technical standpoint. I write a lot for work but that is very different than creative writing and story development. As a teacher, I also read a lot of student work and enjoy the process of helping them improve on their writing. So, I also consider myself a decent editor. But calling myself a writer,well that is another thing. I almost have this feeling of being taken back to preschool and to dress-up pretend play. I wonder if I am the only one who feels like this?

Yet, over the last year, I have felt the pull to try my hand at writing creatively. To stretch my brain and do something that may be uncomfortable and hard at times. Several friends have talked about creating a writing group that can support one another. To set goals and to work towards those goals. A couple of the members have manuscripts that they are preparing for query. Others, like me, have not even fleshed out a true chapter.

Of course when you decide to do something it seems like writing challenges pop up all over the place. Karen Mahoney, a YA author, started a Summer Reading Challenge which you can read about here. I signed up for it knowing that in June I would get little writing in and would have to play catch up in July and August. Then, on Judith Graves' posting on GoodReads about a 1K a day challenge. The lovely ladies over at YA Edge are hosting a 1K a day challenge for the month of July. You can sign-up here I encouraged a couple of my other friends to join me. Breaking the writing task into 1,000 words seems much more do-able. However, I don't think writing my blog counts towards my 1,ooo words. So, I am heading off to - yes, write.

I do have one quick announcement - In the next day or two, I am going to kick-off my summer book contests. I will be giving one book a way per week for the month of July in celebration of summer reading.

Happy reading or writing,

-Aly

School just wrapped up a couple of days ago and I am beginning to transition to my summer schedule. Since my work schedule is lighter, I try to attempt some things that are difficult to do from September to June. I won't bore you with my plans and goals for creating a better filing system for paperwork or for getting back into a regular workout routine. Instead, I am going to share with you my book reading goal for the summer.

Book A Day Challenge

Donalyn Miller is a 6th grade Language Arts Teacher and author of THE BOOK WHISPER. She challenged her students to set some summer reading goals. Her own goal is to read a book a day (picture books, and graphic novels count). You can read about her challenge here. Some of us on twitter have joined her. If you are interested please remember to use the hashtag #bookaday when tweeting your books.

Book A Day Week 1:

Picture Books:

Pinkalicious by Victoria Kahn Pinkalicious loves pink. She loves it so much that she consumes too many pink cupcakes which turn her skin pink. My 3 year old niece loved this story when I read it to her. She loves anything pink and anything with a fairy princess costume which this book had in abundance. A definite hit with girls under 5 .

Fancy Nancy and the Late, Late, LATE Night by Jane O'Connor Fancy Nancy makes everything fancy by dressing up or using big words. In this installment (there are a lot of Fancy Nancy books), Nancy stays up late looking at a neighbor's scrapbook and learns about consequences the next day. An enjoyable read with a good lesson.

Fancy Nancy and the Sensational Babysitter by Jane O'Connor In this Fancy Nancy book, Nancy learns that a teenage male babysitter may not have been what she expected, but may just be the perfect babysitter. I think I actually enjoyed this one a tad bit more than the other one.

Middle Grade Fiction:

Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith I couldn't help but laugh while reading this one. Any chocolate-aholic will surely appreciate Henry's love of chocolate and then the results of eating too much chocolate. I realize this was written many years before Pinkalicious but both are really different takes on the same theme and geared at different age groups.

The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Manus Pinkwater What happens when a six foot tall 266 lb chicken gets lost looking for her young owner? New Jersey may never be the same. A funny story of friendship between a boy and his chicken. A great read for reluctant readers.

YA Fiction:

Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus Fans of paranormal YA romance will want to pick up this debut novel by Anastasia Hopcus. You can read my review here.

I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder This was my first novel in verse and I fell in love with it. It is a beautifully told story of a girl who loses her boyfriend in an accident and how she learns to live again. Tender, touching, and well written. A great place to start if you have never read a novel in verse and a book that I would highly recommend for reluctant readers particularly girls.

I will continue to post my progress towards the Book A Day Challenge and next up, I will be back with my Summer Writing Challenges, an announcement on the name for this blog, and some summer book contests.

So what have you set as your summer goals?

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