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Ralph Fletcher
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A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You Paperback – July 29, 2003

by Ralph Fletcher (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 545 ratings
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Tap into your inner writer with this book of practical advice by the bestselling author of How Writers Work and the ALA Notable Book Fig Pudding. This middle grade book is an excellent choice for tween readers in grades 5 to 6, especially during homeschooling. It’s a fun way to keep your child entertained and engaged while not in the classroom.

Writers are just like everyone else—except for one big difference. Most people go through life experiencing daily thoughts and feelings, noticing and observing the world around them. But writers record these thoughts and observations. They react. And they need a special place to record those reactions.  

Perfect for classrooms, A Writer’s Notebook gives budding writers a place to keep track of all the little things they notice every day. Young writers will love these useful tips for how to use notes and jottings to create stories and poems of their own.

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Previous page
  1. Reading age
    8 - 12 years
  2. Print length
    138 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Grade level
    4 - 7
  5. Dimensions
    5.09 x 0.4 x 7.45 inches
  6. Publisher
    HarperCollins
  7. Publication date
    July 29, 2003
  8. ISBN-10
    0380784300
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0380784301
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ages 8-12. Fans of Harriet the Spy who want to try keeping their own writer's notebook will appreciate this inspiring handbook. Written in a direct, non-condescending style, writer-to-writer, it offers realistic, experienced advice on how to keep notes and use them to create stories and poems. Fletcher, author of the ALA Notable children's book Fig Pudding, fleshes the book out with numerous examples from his own notebooks and from those of other writers, child and adult.

From the Back Cover

Writers are like other people, except for at least one important difference. Other people have daily thoughts and feelings, notice this sky or that smell, but they don't do much about it.

Not writers. Writers react. And writers need a place to record those reactions. That's what a writer's notebook is for. It gives you a place to write down what makes you angry or sad or amazed, to write down what you noticed and don't want to forget . . . .

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins; Reissue edition (July 29, 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 138 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0380784300
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0380784301
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 8 - 12 years
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 4 - 7
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.09 x 0.4 x 7.45 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 545 ratings

About the author

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Ralph Fletcher

Ralph Fletcher

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Ralph Fletcher is a friend of young writers and readers as well as writing teachers. He has written or co-authored many books for writing teachers includng Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide, Teaching the Qualities of Writing, Lessons for the Writer’s Notebook, Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices, and Pyrotechnics on the Page: Playful Craft That Sparks Writing. Ralph has worked with teachers around the U.S. and abroad, helping them find wiser ways of teaching writing.

Ralph’s many books for students include picture books (Twilight Comes Twice, Hello Harvest Moon, and The Sandman), novels (Fig Pudding, Flying Solo, and Spider Boy), poetry (A Writing Kind of Day and Moving Day), and a memoir, Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid. His novel Uncle Daddy was awarded the Christopher medal in 2002. He has also written a popular series of books for young writers including Poetry Matters, Live Writing, and A Writer's Notebook. Ralph lives with his family in New Hampshire. He is a strong environmentalist who believes we all must work together to live in a more sustainable way. His other passions include travel, good food, dark chocolate, growing orchids, and sports.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

Natasha L.
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic for Any Age
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2012
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I am a student teacher currently in a middle school (7th and 8th grade) writing classroom. This book was recommended to me as a resource by my cooperating teacher. It is such a great resource! My coop has been using this book since September to create the students' Writers Notebooks, and it is phenomenal! The advice in here is awesome for anyone of any age looking to create a writer's notebook. The students seem to really like having a notebook that can also function as a journal. On days when they aren't instructed to write for ten or fifteen minutes in the beginning of class, I find that I still see students pulling their Writer's Notebooks out of their backpacks to write about whatever is on their mind. I asked one student who seemed to be so absorbed in his writing to the point of distraction what it was he was writing about. He responded that he is working on a story right now that he uses every opportunity he has to write in his notebook. Needless to say, a day or two later he told me he needed another notebook because he ran out of empty pages in his current writer's notebook! I am actually going to create my own once student teaching is over so I can organize my ideas and sources of inspiration!
3 people found this helpful
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Ram Sam
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Inspiration for All Ages
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2002
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While this book is written for a Young Adult audience, I just love reading about writing (of course hoping to jump in someday and do it) and this is a very good book to get you going.
Fletcher takes you step by step into the hows and whys of creating and keeping a Writers Notebook, and discusses the birth of great ideas from little notes on life. He also touches on great tips like writing with honesty, including about things that hurt the most.
While I believe this to be an inspiring book for all (I now have 2 notebooks for my writing observations) I see it as an impressive gift, along with a small nice notebook, of course, for that little someone in your life who may have the gift to see, and write, life as it is to them. If you enjoy the idea of writing your self, this is a great place to start.
56 people found this helpful
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Kimberlee A Kile
4.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read for Future Teachers of Writing
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2011
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Kimberlee Kile
April 21, 2011

Fletcher, Ralph. (1996). A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You. New York, New York: HarperCollins.

Fletcher's A Writer's Notebook is an adolescents' guide to everything that a writer's notebook should contain. The chapters are divided into important aspects of the writer's notebook such as lists, memories, and mind pictures. Fletcher's text is approachable and friendly to the young writer. Perhaps the most important use for the writer's notebook, according to Fletcher, is that it "gives you a place to live like a writer, not just in school during writing time, but wherever you are, at any time of day" (3). Through his own ideas and stories, Fletcher encourages young writers to think like writers and use their notebooks as a tool to store and "incubate" ideas (30).

Beginning writers are challenged to start small, by noting small, important, little details of their lives. He even urges them to write in fragments or lists in their notebooks because these always have the potential to lead to deeper writing. There is a chapter devoted to "mind pictures" where he encourages students to pay attention to their world and "drink in the world through your five senses" (44). Most importantly, Fletcher challenges young writers to be alert of the world around them, and to record what it is that they are curious about, what they know, and what they see.

A Writer's Notebook contains all of the necessary information that should be a part of a beginning writer's notebook, plus useful advice from professionals like Paul Fleishman, Naomi Shihab Nye, Louise Borden, and Lillian Morrison. It is a must-read for all future teachers of writing because it serves a basic model to the writer's notebook. Fletcher urges young writer's collect relics that inspire them, record their secrets and memories, and use their writer's notebooks as a place to "incubate" their ideas until it is time to use them. The last chapter, entitled "Rereading: Digging Out the Crystals" explains to students yet another purpose of the notebook, which is to serve as a storage shed for any and all ideas and when it is time to write a deeper piece, students can sort through the rubble and find the hidden gems.
8 people found this helpful
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BDiane
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2022
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Such a great book not only for children but adults as well. As a person finally taking her writing seriously and wanting to start writing fiction this book has given me a blueprint of some sorts to how I can collect thoughts, feelings, and words that I might able to use in my stories. This book puts to death my feelings of not knowing what to write about. I have always been fascinated by people who collect things now I can say I'm a collector of thoughts, feelings, words, and stories. So thankful for this book.
4 people found this helpful
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Sue B.
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun for kids And full of inspiration
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2018
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Are use this when I was a public school teacher with my fifth grade classroom and they got a kick out of it now that I’m retired and occasionally tutor I still pull it out it’s a handy little novel.
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Meghan M.
3.0 out of 5 stars Teaches you to be creative?
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2021
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This was recommended as a writing curriculum by a homeschooler. It is NOT. It is just a book that teaches how to create a journal to jot creative ideas that can later be used in writing.
4 people found this helpful
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Krysta Belliston
5.0 out of 5 stars Great ideas !!
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2021
Verified Purchase
I was inspired as a teacher and writer. I reflected on how to improve and I’m excited to put back the joy of writing in my classroom. It’s the one thing my students dread at the beginning of the year. I love all the list ideas for brainstorming or beginning to write —for FUN!
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Mcteacher
5.0 out of 5 stars A writing workshop read aloud...
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2013
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That is how I am going to use this book. It goes right along with the Writing Essentials but adds a level of closeness for students enabling them to reach the writer. The text is super accessible and students could even work their way through it on their own - but I want to make sure we actually use the concepts in our writing. ;)
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Top reviews from other countries

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Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars lovely little note book....
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2023
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Clear and simply written. Easy enough to use with youngsters and adults who consider themselves as 'novice' writers. Copy we received was clearly well used.
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federica
5.0 out of 5 stars Mi è piaciuto!
Reviewed in Italy on September 9, 2021
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Letto con piacere, ijglese semplice e lineare, l'autore fa molti esempi pratici di utilizzo del taccuino. Mi ha aiutata ad approfondire maggiormente l'uso di questo strumento per me e i miei studenti. Consigliato.
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Cassandra R. Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars Did just what I hoped!
Reviewed in Canada on June 8, 2017
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I am a published writer and I was excited to find this book for my kids to introduce them to the concept of the writers notebook I didn't actually expect the book to go into detailled explanations of what a writer notebook is and how to keep one it is a children's book after all and often books written for kids assume limited intellectual powers is part of childhood I was glad to see the author of this book was able to talk to children in an age appropriate manner he neither talked down to them nor used words they were unlikely to be able to understand on the contrary his word choice was most often whet their curiosity and thirst for more I can't ask for better than that
2 people found this helpful
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Flaviana Fabozzi
5.0 out of 5 stars Serve per capire come usare il taccuino nel laboratorio di scrittura.
Reviewed in Italy on May 30, 2021
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Si, va benissimo.
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rtooch
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on February 4, 2016
Verified Purchase
A great price and a fantastic read! Every writer should read this and put Fletcher's suggestions into practice!
One person found this helpful
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