Customer Reviews

Author: A True Story

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This enchanting book must be read to every class of learning disabled students, and should be in every elementary classroom as well. Ms. Lester shows, with amusement and the touching words of a small child, that writing can be fun-for anyone! Even if writing is a struggle, it can be enjoyed. This book will make students with problems know it's okay to be different, and that they can still go on to a productive, happy life. That is so important, as so many adults are scarred by the unhappy times they spent in schools, attempting to learn what was for them, almost impossible. I feel almost all students would enjoy this book. Thank you to Mrs. Lester for saying what so many needed to hear.

This is Helen Lester's true story of how she became a writer--from struggling in grade school to becoming a published author (many times). It's inspiring because it shows that writing is not simple--even for those gifted with the pen, but that it takes time and effort and a lot of rewrites. I would recommend it to anyone trying to show a child that writing does not always come easily, but that even the toughest writing struggles can be overcome with perseverance. It also explains the illustrator's job and how good illustrations help sell stories. Helen Lester's fiction books are hysterical and this companion "biography" is a must if you are a fan of her works.

This book shows children what many professional writers know. Writing isn't easy, but it is rewarding. I adore this book and how people of all ages and skills can relate to it.

As a teacher, I use this book to help my students believe that they are all capable of being authors!

First, I want to clarify that Helen Lester's story is fantastic, and a great teaching tool for struggling young writers. this Kindle version, however, is awful, and completely unusable in one's classroom or library. The pages of the print book are poorly scanned, and instead of digitally adjusting the grainyness, the story's text has simply been slapped on top. This results in low resution illustrations and blurry text, and the crisp "retyped" text hanging over or under the outline of the poorly scanned page. Kids (and even a couple of adults) struggle to read the crisp type on top, THEN read the same text on the blurred background of the crappy scan, and then the out-of-order text on the bottom!
Prior to this, I've purchased Kindle formats of children's books and really enjoyed them, but I just can't recommend this one, it's far too ugly. Lesson learned: I should have downloaded the sample first!

I love using this book for an introduction to writer's workshop in my classroom. It shows how even real author's go through tough times of not knowing how or what to write, but you push through and you will get there in the end. It also shows how writing even fake grocery lists as a 3-year-old is important and worth doing.