From The Mixed Up Files

By Faran Fagen I recently showed a MasterClass to my students from Michael Lewis, the author of Moneyball and The Blind Side (both made into popular movies). As the video rolled, I was reminded of how profound his writing advice is and realized a lot of his advice could apply to middle grade novels. Here are some of the highlights of his master class and how they apply to our craft: Lewis focuses on finding your voice, developing an idea, creating characters, structuring a narrative, hooking the audience, simplifying complexity, and crafting strong beginnings and...

As recently covered in the fascinating Vox article “The promising race to get kids reading again” by Constance Grady, kids read and read and read up until about age 9, when they drop off a reading cliff. There are plenty of theories for this, as outlined by Grady, including: Middle-grade books getting too long, due in part to the success of the billion-page-long Harry Potter series. Kids having less free time to sit and read because they are more scheduled than earlier generations. Covid-19 threw off reading habits, along with access to libraries and books in school. Potential readers putting...

The recent rise of books being taken out of libraries has made an impact on young readers. Now, more than ever, young people have less access to titles representing diversity. “The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked that of the 4,235 unique titles challenged in 2025, 39 % represent the...

Colors can affect our emotions. We invent fun names for colors and create color wheels to sort them into patterns. So, why not play with color a little this week? Here are two projects to get you started!...

As a young child picking strawberries alongside his family, Pedro Martin learned that hard work is survival. Even then, he loved to draw cartoons when he wasn’t in the fields and especially loved Saturdays when he could watch cartoons and draw. While in the fields, he imagined the characters of...

As a young child picking strawberries alongside his family, Pedro Martin learned that hard work is survival. Even then, he loved to draw cartoons when he wasn’t in the fields and especially loved Saturdays when he could watch cartoons and draw. While in the fields, he imagined the characters of...

Back to school means back to great stories! Here’s a variety of books coming out in September—from mysteries to magical worlds to sci-fi—to pique your imagination and curiosity this  school year.  BAD THINGS HAPPENED HERE  by Moniza Hossain. 208 pp. (Sept 1) Lonely twelve-year-old Sam Wells has never known his...

By Faran Fagen I recently showed a MasterClass to my students from Michael Lewis, the author of Moneyball and The Blind Side (both made into popular movies). As the video rolled, I was reminded of how profound his writing advice is and realized a lot of his advice could apply...