"This is the everything-you-need guide to spark new poems and unstick old stories, with zany prompts to leap from ; dares and double dares to help you mash up truths and lies into outrageous paragraphs ; letters of encouragement written directly to you from famous authors. This is your journal for inward-bound adventures -- use it to write, brainstorm, explore, imagine -- and even rip!" --cover.

More than 1,500 commonly used words you hear at work, at school, and on the street. This new edition also includes a unit on the latest vocabulary in such areas as technology, communications, and the media.

"Nurture and encourage young writers in the most natural, developmentally appropriate way--through play! Children learn the skills needed for writing and reading on a continuum, over time and at different ages. Within the same classroom, early writers may make scribbles and draw symbols as representations of their ideas, while ready writers may use creative spelling, recognizable words, and illustrations to express more complex concepts and information....