by Gail Carson Levine
Writing Magic is a collection of writing advice geared specifically for young writers, covering everything from voice to characters to dialogue to point of view, using examples from her own books and others to illustrate her point. Carson Levine is thorough, addressing nearly every aspect of storytelling, while keeping chapters short, easy, and accessible. Each chapter ends with writing exercises to practice the concept just discussed.
As a lover of kids’ books and of writing books, I really enjoyed this. Her tone is friendly, engaging, and helpful, and the exercises were intriguing (especially the one at the end, but I won’t spoil it). This is a wonderful book for any child or teen who loves to write (the recommended age is 8+, and I agree with that)–I wish I had had it when I was starting out.