Want to give your teacher a reason to look forward to grading your next creative writing assignment?
Try the Mystery Writing for Kids workshop at the Times Festival of Reading. The session, geared to kids ages 8 to 12, will let you in on the mysteries of creating haunting whodunits and developing classic clues and suspicious characters to leave your readers on the edge of their seats. J.M. Taylor, author of Behind the Green Water and A Flash of Emerald, will present the program.
There will be plenty of other things for young readers to see and do, including a daylong schedule of local celebrities reading children's stories under the Big Top Story Tent, appearances by children's storybook characters (including the mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie) and a chance to talk about books with members of the Newspaper in Education "We're Talkin' Books Here!" clubs and their discussion leader, seventh-grade language arts teacher Holly Atkins. (The clubs discuss selections from the Sunshine State Young Readers list Mondays in the St. Petersburg Times' Xpress pages; you can read along at home and see if you agree with their opinions.)
Members of the Times' X-Team, the group of Tampa Bay area students who write for the Times Xpress section, also will meet readers at the Newspaper in Education display.
BIG TOP STORY TENT SCHEDULE
10 a.m.: Paul Loverne and Justin Dorman, St. Petersburg Public Library: The Elephant Sneeze
10:30: Pati Gross: Water Safety
11: Bhavana Vangara and Molly Hays, St. Petersburg Times X-Team: Jumanji and Polar Express
11:30: Jay Lasita, St. Petersburg City Council member: Curious George and Curious George Learns the Alphabet (special appearance by George character)
Noon: Santa Claus: Things Kids Say to Santa
12:30 p.m.: Ann Kelly, WWRM-FM 94.9: Corduroy and A Pocket for Corduroy (special appearance by Corduroy Bear character)
1: Dick Fletcher, WTSP-Ch. 10: Where the Wild Things Are (special appearance by Wild Thing character)
1:30: Michael Stearns: Kokopelli and the Butterfly
1:45: Rick Baker, St. Petersburg mayor,: The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear
2: Cory Stillman, Tampa Bay Lightning hockey player: Bear Snores On and Bear Wants More
2:30: James Bennett, St. Petersburg City Council member: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Take a Mouse to School (special appearance by mouse character)
3: Heather Foster and Jamie Sherman, St. Petersburg Times X-Team: Dr. Seuss Classics
3:30: Krystal French, Pinellas Park Public Library: The Little Old Lady Who is Not Afraid of Anything
