RUFUS the writer by Elizabeth Bram

My "dangerous" friend @mollienye72 knows books and has been recommending several to me in the last few weeks.  I've been holding off sharing them here with you in hopes she will take my nudge and start her own blog.  We even had a name or two for Mollie's new space; Mollie's Mojo or Mollie's Books and Knitting or how about Mollie's Mojo; Books and Knitting.  Maybe this public nudge will make her think a bit more about blogging or tweeting her favorite book titles.  Either could work Mollie and in the mean time I just had to share this title, hope you don't mind.

RUFUS the writer by Elizabeth Bram and Chuck Groenink is sweet, enduring, and delightful.  I love the warm tones created with gouache, acrylics, pencils, and Adobe Photoshop.  I'm always intrigued when an illustrator mentions technology with traditional illustrating tools because I can't tell where the technology was used.

Rufus decides he isn't going to have a lemonade stand this summer and instead he creates a story stand!  Yep, you read that right.  Rufus gathers a table, supplies, and dresses up in a jacket and bowtie to sit at his story stand.  Neighborhood friends come by to ask Rufus to go swimming.  He passes on the offer because he's got to run his story stand.  After they leave, Rufus writes his first story.  Readers will enjoy then reading this story and thinking about the interaction that just happened between friends to figure out where the ideas came from.  Three more friends stop by the story stand and Rufus then gets ideas for another story readers get to read.  

What I love about this book is how the Elizabeth Bram shows readers/writers where ideas can come from and how one idea can creatively turn into a bigger story.  I can't wait to use it during our launching writing workshop unit this month.