Beth Bacon's Blog
March 8, 2021
Blank Space- free ebook today
April 2, 2018
A page full of words
There may be nothing more daunting to a struggling reader than a page crammed margin-to-margin with letters. Reluctant readers "often look at a page filled with words and think, This is too much! And quit before they begin,"notes Dorie Raybuck in The Horn Book Blog. To counteract this reaction, Raybuck advocates novels in verse for middle grade students.
But what about children who are not yet ready for novels in verse? What these kids need are early readers in verse.
My new book, Blank Space, uses concrete poetry to tell the story of a student whose favorite part of a book is... the blank space. Empty areas on the page give striving readers a place to catch their breath during marathon reading sessions. (And for struggling readers, every reading session is a marathon!)
Concrete poetry
helps convey meaning for striving readers.
Concrete poetry convey meaning using typography and the graphical placement of words on the page. In Blank Space, a sentence about a magic carpet looks like a magic carpet. A line about a mountain range has jagged peaks. A diving board looks like… you guessed it!
Many of today’s reluctant readers are visually literate. Blank Space helps readers along by using their visual literacy to nudge along their alphabet-literacy.
What really matters, argues Raybuck, is that young readers feel successful during independent reading time. The concrete poetry in Blank Space helps them understand the story while giving them lots of refreshing emptiness to recharge their batteries as they perform the hard work of finishing a book.
March 10, 2018
What is meta storytelling?
Interactivity, brain teasers, and optical illusions: They're just plain fun. So when teachers and parents want to get striving readers to connect with a book, they reach for meta storybooks. What's a meta storybook? It's an interactive or self-referential book breaks the "third wall" of a physical book. Meta story books make the experience of reading a true physical experience by asking kids to think, move, and go beyond the expected behaviors of reading. The physicality of meta and interactive storybooks keep struggling readers turning the pages—and that's the name of the game for raising literacy skills. Stories like The Book No One Wants To Read by Beth Bacon makes reading time feel more like play time—and help align the goals of teachers, parents, and students.
Let's play
Meta storybooks make reading fun.
March 6, 2018
The Worst is yet to come
Most bad books are happy hanging out at rummage sales. Not this bad book. Its goal is to be featured on the Banned Books List. Unfortunately, no one seems to notice—until it teams up with its readers. Together, the book and its new friends shout, sing, and wiggle their way into the local librarian’s attention. Will the book see its cover on the library wall… or will it end up in the recycling bin?
Full of bold, colorful graphics and laugh-out-loud humor, The Worst Book Ever is ideal for read-alouds, story time, or independent reading.
Go ahead, ban me.
Coming April 2018
