Researching for Chapter Books by Melissa Stoller #ChaBooCha

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

  RESEARCHING FOR CHAPTER BOOKS  

Today, I want to challenge us all to find research opportunities even during the pandemic. Of course it’s not easy to research in person these days. But there are many online resources available to continue the research process until we can find in-person sources and materials. 

 

Here is a list of some research resources, both in person and online, that might be helpful: 

 

Resources – helpful places 

• In person / phone / email / experts / field trips (to gain sensory details) 

• Local Librarians / Colleges  / Universities 

• Museums/historical societies/science centers/cultural centers/workshops/classes/associations/hobby groups 

• Books, articles, internet sources, footnotes found in internet articles, YouTube videos, podcasts, etc. 

• Cemeteries / headstones 

• 
  

Websites – Helpful sites include:  

• www.LOC.gov (Library of Congress) 

• www.SI.edu (Smithsonian research) 

• https://www.si.edu/openaccess (open access to photo images) 

• www.scholar.google.com (Google Scholar articles) 

• www.nypl.org/collections/articles-databases (New York Public Library) 

• www.archives.gov/research (National Archives) 

• www.Newspapers.com/ (largest online collection of newspapers) 

• www.Ancestry.com (ancestry research) 

• https://historyarchive.org/index.php (historical images) 

• https://www.statueofliberty.org/ellis-island/ (Ellis Island research) 

 

Here are a few examples of my ancestry research online – I searched for information about my father, Harry Z. Berger, on the Ellis Island website and through Ancestry.com when I was writing my picture book, SADIE’S SHABBAT STORIES. Now I’m digging deeper into the Leopoldina, the ship that brought my father back home to New York, for use in a chapter book I am working on. 

 

Another example of my pandemic research is for a story about seals. During quarantine, I have been taking lots of seal-watching walks along the coast of Long Island, New York. I also was able to do an online interview with a seal specialist at the Long Island Aquarium. Here are some photos. I’m trying to work this research into both a picture book and a chapter book draft.  

 

This year has certainly presented many challenges to us all – large and small – including staying creative and pursuing research for our stories. I hope that these ideas and resources will spark some research possibilities as you craft your own stories. Let me know in the comments. 

 

***** 

Giveaway

 

Melissa is offering  a choice of a critique (first three chapters of a chapter book) or a copy of THE ENCHANTED SNOW GLOBE COLLECTION: RETURN TO CONEY ISLAND (or any of her  other books), United States address only.  All you need to do to enter in the drawing for this prize is, if you are already a signed-up member of the challenge, is to comment on this blog post. The winner will be announced on March 14th, 2021, chosen by a random number generator.

 

 ***** 

Melissa Stoller is the author of the chapter book series The Enchanted Snow Globe Collection - Return to Coney Island (Clear Fork Publishing); and the picture books Scarlet’s Magic Paintbrush, Ready, Set, GOrilla!, and Sadie’s Shabbat Stories (Clear Fork). Melissa is a Regional Ambassador for The Chapter Book Challenge, a Blogger and Course Assistant for The Children’s Book Academy, a volunteer with SCBWI/MetroNY, and a founding member of The Book Meshuggenahs. In other chapters of her life, Melissa has worked as a lawyer, legal writing instructor, freelance writer and editor, and early childhood educator. She lives in New York City with her family, and enjoys theatre, museums, and long beach walks. 
 

 
CONNECT:   
https://www.MelissaStoller.com 
https://www.MelissaStoller.com/blog  
http://www.facebook.com/MelissaStoller 
http://www.twitter.com/melissastoller 
http://www.instagram.com/Melissa_Stoller 
http://www.pinterest.com/melissa_Stoller 
https://www.TheBookMeshuggenahs.com 
 
 

 

Write Outside Your Comfort Zone by Melissa Gijsbers #ChaBooCha

 

Image by Sozavisimost from Pixabay

Write Outside Your Comfort Zone

About five years ago, I got a phone call from a friend asking if I had ever written fantasy stories. I hadn’t, mostly because fantasy hasn’t really been my genre, but said I would give it a go. 

The result was Lizzy’s Dragon, a middle grade chapter book that has been popular among dragon-loving kids. 

Since then, I have made a point of playing with different styles and genre. I already wrote picture books and novels as well as chapter books, however my experience with Lizzy’s Dragon has encouraged me to continue writing different stories – from fantasy to mystery, to real-life to comedy, and anything else I can come up with. 

There are articles that exist that say authors need to have a ‘brand’ including the sorts of stories they write. To me, this is boring and is not much of a challenge. I know that I want to be known for more than one type of book. 

Having a brand can be an advantage as kids will know what to expect when they pick up one of your books. On the other hand, by writing a variety of books and stories, you can introduce kids to a wide range of different styles and genre that can then introduce them to other authors and a general love of reading. 

The Chapter Book Challenge is the perfect time to have a play with your writing and experiment with different genre. You can ask questions in the group, where someone is bound to have written in the genre you are writing. There are also articles and resources to help if you are stuck with some aspect of writing in a genre you’re not quite so familiar with. 

Experimenting with a story in a different genre than you’re used to can take you to surprising places. Since writing my first fantasy book, I have started writing a few more. They still need work, but I’m having a lot of fun creating dragons and writing about unicorns and more. I never expected to be a fantasy author, but here I am. 

I would like to challenge you, during the Chapter Book Challenge, work on a story in a genre that may be different to what you usually write. You never know where it will take you. 

*****

Melissa Gijsbers is an Australian author and booklover. She currently has three chapter books published, all written and edited during the Chapter Book Challenge, and one picture book. She lives in Gippsland in Victoria with her two teenage sons, their pet blue-tongue lizard, and two pet budgies. You can find her online at www.melissagijsbers.com 

*****

Prize Winner

Today's prize winner of a copy The Ancient Magus' Bride Vol. 1 by Kore Yamazaki, selected by a random number generator, is Judy Rubin! Congratulations, Judy Rubin. Please e-mail me with your mailing address and I will get your book out to you immediately. 

***** 

Giveaway

Today's giveaway is a copy of Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Beginning Readers and Chapter Books by Nancy I. Sanders. All you need to do to be entered into the drawing for this prize is be a signed-up member of ChaBooCha and comment on this blog post. The winner will be chosen by a random number generator and will be announced on the 14th of March 2021. The book will be sent out as soon as I am contacted by the winner with the correct address to send it to. If this book is not available at the time of purchase, an alternative book may be sent in its place.

Alternative books and stories for reaching young and teen readers #ChaBooCha

Image by Thorsten Frenzel from Pixabay

This past year, while not going out as much due to the pandemic, I found myself being drawn to other types of stories and other story mediums. Most of my children are avid readers, all except for one. She gets bored when reading normal length novels, even the shorter ones aimed at younger readers, and from when she was about ten years old until now, she has preferred reading manga and graphic novels. I've always been of the mindset that, as long as she's reading, no matter what format she is reading in or what genre, it's a good thing. 

Manga is defined in the Oxford English dictionary as "a style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels, typically aimed at adults as well as children." (A graphic novel is simply defined as a novel in comic strip format.) Now, it's true that some of these manga comics have very adult themes, but there are also many aimed at younger audiences. My daughter is fifteen and has been buying herself the Black Butler series by Yana Toboso recently.

Many manga comics and graphic novels get their start in webtoons. A webtoon is a series of comics published online. (Some of these manga comics and webtoons eventually lead to anime cartoons, but, for the sake of this challenge, we are focused on writing for children and teens.) There are some free sites for reading webtoons, such as webtoons.com. Webtoons, when they get a strong following, can often lead to publishing deals for manga books and graphic novels.

There are also books called light novels. According to Wikipedia, a light novel is "a style of Japanese young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. Light novels are commonly illustrated in a manga art style, and are often adapted into manga and anime." Light novels are usually shorter and they also contain few illustrations. They also tend to be easier to read.

Another type of book that middle school and highschool children (as well as adults) tend to like are D&D books. D&D stands for Dungeons & Dragons which is a table-top fantasy role-playing game. Each player gets to create their own character to play during the game, from fantasy characters to human, including their players skill sets, magic abilities, ancestry and background. Often, the one in charge of the game, the dungeon master, has to write up an extensive story for the game with several options as to where the story may lead based on the choices and the dice-roll of the players. There are many books out there to help with the creation of characters, foes, and worlds, as well as dungeon master guides and so forth. This leads to an endless possibility of book topics to compliment game-playing.

I'm listing off some of these different book types because they are not the ones we regularly think about when we think about writing for kids and teens. As much as I would love to write some graphic novels, I have no artistic skill so, if I ever decided to do so, I'd have to find a willing artist who could work well with my vision for the stories. But I know a lot of you in this challenge are already skilled artists, so when it comes graphic novels and manga, this is a route you might think about when writing your book.

As always, happy writing!

***** 

Giveaway

Today's prize is a copy The Ancient Magus' Bride Vol. 1 by Kore Yamazaki. All you need to do to be entered into the drawing for this prize is be a signed-up member of ChaBooCha and comment on this blog post. The winner will be chosen by a random number generator and will be announced on the 7th of March 2021, and the book will be sent out as soon as I am contacted by the winner with the correct address to send it to. If this book is not available at the time of purchase, an alternative manga book may be sent in its place.

Chapter Book Challenge 2021 Badge #ChaBooCha

Sorry for the delay in getting the Chapter Book Challenge badges ready for the challenge. I've had two laptops die on me this past year and we also had to replace out desktop computer. All of the machines that went kaput on us were ones that had my picture-making program on them, and none of the new ones have a DVD player for re-adding the program from our CDs. (Also, I'm not sure we still have the authorisation code for the program anymore.)

So creating this badge was much more difficult than usual. Hope you like it anyway! I was unable to resize it, so if you use it, you may need to resize it as it is quite large. (Blogger allows me to temporarily resize your view of it, but the actual file is still large to view outside of Blogger.)

*****

Chapter Book Challenge 2021!!! #ChaBooCha

Welcome to the 2021 Chapter Book Challenge! For those of you who are new to the ChaBooCha, I will explain the details of the writing challenge.

The Chapter Book Challenge, otherwise known as ChaBooCha, first ran in 2012. It runs every year in the month of March. The challenge is to write one completed first draft of an early reader, chapter book, middle grade book or YA novel in the month of March, starting on the 1^st of March and finishing on the 31^st of March.

During the month of March, there are helpful blog posts from published authors, agents and publishers to help members hone their craft, and there are prizes available throughout the challenge.

ChaBooCha has a very relaxed atmosphere where members help each other to achieve writing goals. You can sign up on the website using the sign-up form, and you can also join the Facebook page for updates and information. There is a Twitter page at and members interact with one another throughout the year in the Facebook group.

It is completely free to join the Chapter Book Challenge. 

Normally, prizes are announced at the end of the month once the challenge is ending, but this year, I have decided to announce and send out prizes throughout the month. In the last few years, my procrastination has gotten worse and I have a terrible memory, so many prizes were sent out excessively late. It will be easier for me to get prizes out in a more timely manner if I do them during the challenge itself. Prizes for the first week of the challenge will be announced on the 7th and sent out immediately upon getting the addresses to send them to. Likewise, the same will be done for the weeks ending on the 14th, 21st and 28th.

ChaBooCha's mascot: Nabu the badger

You also might be wondering about our logo. The Chapter Book Challenge logo is all about our mascot Nabu the Badger. Nabu loves to read, and he is really looking forward to all of the new chapter books, middle grade books and YA books that are going to be written and published as a result of this year's ChaBooCha. Nabu was named after the Babylonian patron god of scribes, wisdom and literature. Nabu became our "mascot" back in 2014, just two years into the Challenge.

ChaBooCha Regional Ambassadors

The Chapter Book Challenge has been growing year on year and, there are some things I cannot do because of the restrictions of my location, such as meet-ups. As a solution, in places where there are more than just one member, ChaBooCha has Regional Ambassadors. 

ChaBooCha regional ambassadors are the people who coordinate Chapter Book Challenge events within their region. In order to become a regional ambassador, there first needs to be more members in your region than just you, and your main duties are to arrange write-ins and meet-ups with other members within your region and also to spread the word about the challenge within your region.

Promotional materials, when they are in the budget, get sent out to our Regional Ambassadors, and printable files will be sent as well. A special RA badge will be created for RAs to use on their blogs and websites, if they so choose. Regional Ambassadors will receive a ChaBooCha RA badge to wear in their first year of joining as an RA and in their second year as an RA, they will receive a ChaBooCha keychain. As things move along, there may be more perks added for RAs. 

If you think this is a role you might like to take on within your region, send me an e-mail. (There is only one RA per region, but they may choose a co-RA.)

Teapot Tales anthologies

To help fund the challenge, from prizes to advertising to RA gifts, we have created a series of anthologies with stories all written and donated by members of the challenge. There are currently four Teapot Tales anthologies available for purchase. Proceeds from sales of the anthologies go towards funding the Chapter Book Challenge. The anthologies can be found on Amazon. There were also two themed anthologies written and contributed to by past members which also help fund ChaBooCha: Ghostly Echoes (Halloween-themed) and Jingle Bells (winter holiday-themed).

Teapot Tales: Volume 1

Teapot Tales: Volume 2

Teapot Tales: Volume 3

Ghostly Echoes

Jingle Bells

Chapter Book Challenge 2020 badge

Due to a computer problem on my laptop that I has my photopaint software, I am late in creating the badge for this year's challenge. I hope I can have it ready for posting tomorrow, so come have a look back then.