Customer Reviews

Story Starters: Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Before

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This book has become a favorite of my 10 and 13-year olds. We use it for Creative Writing class in our homeschool. It's our "together" time--I read the start of the story to them, and of course, they finish it. The stories are very inspiring to their imaginations and they have become more descriptive in their writing. This book could easily be used for all ages - even younger children, though they might not be able to write, could finish the story verbally. I sure hope a second edition is in the works!

I recently purchased and browsed through Story Starters by Karen Andreola. All I can say is fantastic! I could have spent hours just looking over all the fabulous antique illustrations, of which Mrs. Andreola has collected over the years. These in and of themselves would be great story starters, and there is a section of the book set aside for this purpose. But section 2, the beginning stories themselves, are wonderful! Mrs. Andreola has written over 50 stories for the children to expand upon - lively stories of alligators, floods, and shipwrecks, and character building stories of honesty, helpfulness, and patience. There is something for everyone, boy or girl, 6 or 16. These aren't only exercises in creative writing. There are grammar, literary, and narration helps along the way in this 458 page oversized softbound book. My girls and I looked through it, and they are just as excited as I to start. With my 6yo, the stories are a bit beyond her reading level, so I'll be reading her the stories and typing up her narrations of the story conclusions for her to illustrate. My 9yo will be reading the stories herself, and we'll see how she does with writing the conclusions on her own. We may go with narrations for a bit too. We'll see what works. But they are EXCITED about writing, and this is a GOOD thing. :-)

We haven't had a chance to use this book a lot, but what opportunities we have, my daughter has enjoyed using it. It is a thick book, so it has a lot in it for the money. Can be used for several grade levels, especially good for those who like the classics or a more old fashioned approach to story writing. The illustrations are fun, straight out of vintage style books. I do recommend this for those who find their child likes getting a spark to get them going in their writing!

Story Starters begins with an explanation of how the book is intended to be used, and how Karen Andreola used "exciting writing" in her own homeschool. The first few chapters also include:

* ideas for using the book in various ways (as a scheduled lesson or an occasional game)
* instruction on how to use this book with different ages of children, and different writing abilities
* grading suggestions to use with high school students

The majority of the book is taken up with the story starters themselves. There are sixty-seven pictures, with exciting story starters, to get our children started on their creative writing journey. Some of the stories are marked B for beginner, and some are marked I for intense. Though any age student can use the B stories, they are especially suited for those just beginning.

At the end of the book, Karen has written a section entitled Hints For Polishing. Since this is intended for the older students, it is written directly to the student. It includes sections on adding descriptive language, engaging the reader's senses, choosing verbs carefully, and developing your character's description.

The next section of the book teaches you how to use Story Starters in an even more challenging way for the older students: having the student study the picture and narrate a story from the picture alone. Twenty-four additional pictures are included for story writing, without provided story starters. Karen walks the student through the major components of a story, so they will be able to develop their own plot, create interesting characters, have a point of conflict, and a resolution.

The final section of the book focuses once more on Charlotte Mason's views on narration. Narration is a natural ability that children have, which can be turned into the ability to write, with guidance. Story Starters helps provide the guidance by allowing children to practice their writing skills in a fun and non-threatening manner.

When I employed Story Starters in my own home, I chose one of the stories marked B for beginner, and read it to my three elementary age students. The first grader dictated his story to me, and I recorded it for him. Once he was done, he illustrated the story. My fourth grader took the longest to write his story, which included several plot twists. He needed encouragement and help with some of his spelling, as he isn't confident in his writing (or spelling) abilities yet. My sixth grader wrote her story quickly, and easily. All three of them were eager to read their stories to each other, to me, and especially to Dad once he was home. Their stories were unique and reflected their age, gender, and interests. The next day they begged for another story starter, though I didn't have it scheduled until later in the week.

With my junior and senior high students, I encouraged them to each choose their own story starter. My eighth grade and tenth grade daughters each chose one that interested them, and then developed their stories. Again, their interests and personalities were reflected in their stories. There are areas that need to be improved, and some of the children struggled with the resolution of their stories -- but they enjoyed the creative writing process, and that was my goal.

Story Starters made our first week of school fun! The children enjoyed developing their exciting stories much more than writing an essay about their summer or jumping into a more serious writing assignment. More importantly, they are looking forward to continuing to use Story Starters. They count down the days until their next writing assignment.

Story Starters does what it promises. It helps students write like they've never written before. Since Story Starters is reusable, non-consumable, and adaptable for every age of student, it's a great value for the homeschool family.

Thank you, Karen Andreola, for an excellent creative writing resource!

This item was provided free to me, for review purposes. This is an independent review.

We've been a homeschooling family from the beginning and my kids are 10 and 12 now. Teaching writing has always been a struggle for me, and the kids did not like writing at all. This book has the beginnings of very interesting stories, and the students' job is to write the ending. Each story starter also has guidelines (have the characters speak, describe the scene) suggestions for "vivid verbs", "artful adjectives" and more. My kids, who have NEVER liked writing, got so into it, I had to give them extra time to finish. The book has a section for educators that has a lot of useful information. Before I bought this book, I checked it out from the library to make sure I liked it. I ended up ordering it on Amazon before we started the second story!

I am a homeschooling mom of a 6 year old girl and a 9 year old boy. We just received this wonderful book by Karen Andreola and have only tried it out once so far, but I have flipped through the book and read some of the stories. There are many different kinds of wonderful stories to chose from. I did one with my 6 year old daughter and I actually walked her through the writing process instead of just letting her write, as she is so young, but I think she learned a lot from it. She asked me the very next day if we could "do another one"...and the next day. Karen has a whole section in the front on how to use the book and writing tips that are very helpful. I think this is a wonderful book and look forward to using this with my children.

We're just getting started, but our children ages 9 & 11 love this! And this concept could lead them to other activities, too.

This book was carefully thought out and well written. So far, we are all very impressed and glad we made this purchase.

This book is wonderful! Even my reluctant writer is having fun and producing interesting stories. We get together with 2 other children to read the stories together.

I absolutely love this book by Karen Andreola! I do believe my children will find themselves enthralled into writing stories from it! I am so thankful to the Lord for Karen Andreola and her family!

It is filled with lots of good stories. We use it for my nine year old son and he likes it and we like the stories very much!