|
Blue
Ribbon Dad • Noises
at Night • A Closer Look •
Lemonade
for Sale • Power of the People •Books in Development
I like to write about things
that have really happened to my children, my former students,
my family members or myself. Writing from real events and then
stretching them into fiction helps keep the initial inspiration
of the stories I write fresh, while allowing me to play with
them. That way I am able to reach, delight or move any reader-
whether they’ve
had the same experiences or not. Ultimately, I like to write
stories that will have meaning for a child.
Blue Ribbon Dad
illustrated by Margie Moore, margiemooreillustration.blogspot.com
Being released in 2011 by Abrams
Publishing.
What can a little boy do all day while he waits for his father
to come home? He can make a special gift for his dad as he
remembers all of the wonderful and fun times they share together!
This rhyming picture book for ages 2-8 is suitable for every
day of the year not just Father's Day and will come with a
special art kit for a child to make a Blue Ribbon for their
own Dad or special person in their life!
Title
page of my upcoming picture book, Blue
Ribbon Dad, due out
in June of 2011! Start thinking ahead for Father's Day 2011!
Back to top
Noises at Night was
released on August 1, 2005. It is available at many bookstores
including: Borders
Bookstores, Barnes
and Noble, Amazon.com and
many independent bookstores near you. If you're having trouble
ordering Noises at Night, please email trudibartow@abramsbooks.com.
| |
 |
| |
Illustrated
by Bruce Whatley |
The
Birth of
Noises at Night
While taking a little break from teaching
in Wellesley, I was taking care of my first baby, Will. He
was the inspiration for lots of my unpublished stories and
for my first published picture book, Noises at Night.
Will was two years old at the time, and we had moved into a
new house in Stow, Massachusetts. The house had many new sounds
that Will wasn’t used to: the hiss of the heater, the
drip drop of the faucet, to name a couple. I sat next to Will
on his bed (yup, he was out of his crib at an early age!) and
told him my first version of Noises at Night to help
him get back to sleep. Guess what? It worked! Will fell asleep
and my first picture book idea was born!
Well, I went back to teaching, but kept on working
on Noises as well as many other stories. It was after
having my second child, Luke, that I decided to try writing
full time. While at home, I wrote A Closer Look and Lemonade
for Sale and sold them both to Rigby Publishing (now Harcourt
Achieve!). I also wrote many educational articles for ParentsandKids newspaper.
All the while, something was still bugging me about Noises!
But what was it? My version of Noises at Night was
rejected sooooo many times even after I re-wrote it and re-wrote
it and re-wrote it. Publishers and editors loved it, but something
wasn’t quite right. I suspected it was the meter (that’s
the rhythm of the words and how parts of words have certain
stresses ). I had joined a writing group in Wellesley, Massachusetts,
led by children’s author, Jackie Greene, and kept working
on my stories.
It’s a good thing that I met Susan
Lubner, my co-writer, a few years later at Jackie’s
writing group! We became fast friends. I noticed that Susan
was so terrific with meter that I invited her to re-write Noises with
me. I was so happy when she said, “Yes!” When
we collaborated, Noises was re-born and we sent
it out again…and again…and again! It was rejected
soooo many times, until finally, our editor, Tamar Brazis
of Abrams said, “We love it and we found a perfect
illustrator, Bruce Whatley, who would like to illustrate
your book!” So, that is how Noises at Night came
to be.
Read more about Noises at Night here.
Back to top
| |
 |
| |
Illustrated
by Jessie Reisch |
The Birth of A Closer Look
Did you ever look at a blank piece of paper
and think, “I don’t know what to write about!”?
Well, with A Closer Look, I didn’t have to worry
about that because A Closer Look came from an assignment
from my editor at Rigby Publishing. The story was a part of a
Guided Reading Anthology for fourth and fifth grade school reading
programs. I was given a topic (making inferences), and list of
synonyms and antonyms I needed to include in the story. So it
was my job to create a story within those boundaries. The theme
of A Closer Look was borrowed from Suspense Thriller
movie maker, Alfred Hitchcock’s, Rear Window.
This story is about making inferences-guesses based on clues
the main character thinks she sees. Her imagination gets the
better of her until, at a closer look, she realizes what she
thought she saw was not it all!
Back to top
| |
 |
| |
Illustrated
by
Jimmy Holder
|
The Birth of
Lemonade for Sale
Lemonade for Sale was also an assignment
that needed to be told within certain boundaries. I was given a
vocabulary list to build a story from. I was given the theme of
a Lemonade sale gone awry, but it was up to me to come up with
the way the story would be told. This story came to me when I looked
out my own window. I started noticing people and activities all
around me and decided to use “What I know,” to get
my story going. My children were having their own lemonade sale,
and my neighbor was cutting the lawn. I saw joggers outside stopping
for a drink and immediately, my sisters-in-law, who love running,
came to my mind. I used names of family members and friends in
my story and objects as well. The trunk for sale was actually a
Hope Chest my Nanny gave to me — because it was special to me,
I put it in the story. Using things and people you know can make
even a fictitious story seem real!
Back to top
Power
of the People; The National Civil Rights Museum
of Memphis
Beth writes about Tennesseans
honored in The National Civil Rights Museum in
Memphis Tennessee. She explores various exhibits in
the museum that was made famous by the untimely
death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This book was
written for a fourth grade non fiction series
that will be published by Houghton Mifflin later this
year.
Back to top
Books
in Development
(All books in development
ideas are ©2009 by Beth Raisner Glass)
Hello, Lunch!
co-authored by Susan Lubner
Room to Play
picture book co-authored with Duncan Putney
Fiona's Faire Day
picture book co-authored with Duncan Putney
A Date for Honey
Moone
middle grade novel
Jungle Ohio
picture book
The Bunnies are
Back
picture book
Back to top
|
