Middle Grade Fiction

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middle grade fiction

MIDDLE GRADE FICTION

One way to fix the middle grade fiction literacy problem and drop-our rate of our children in America is for authors to visit middle grade schools with loads of enthusiasm.

Yesterday marked the start of my adventure and doing what I can to get kids excited about reading middle grade fiction.  With the help of Mr. Murphy, an awesome middle=grade teacher here in Santa Monica, I spent my Friday morning with 5th, 6th and 7th Graders of St. Anne’s Catholic School.  The Daily Pretzel said I had “more energy and enthusiasm than a bus full of sugar-high 5th graders.”  It’s a good thing because I needed every ounce of it.  To say the room was BUZZING with energy would be an understatement.

We had close to 60 kids in one classroom and if you don’t bring your A-Game of enthusiasm with kids, they will eat you alive.  It truly was an awesome way to start the Saltwater Taffy National Tour.  Next up, Las Vegas!  More from the road coming up!

Eric DelaBarre is an award-winning filmmaker and the author of Saltwater Taffy.

MIDDLE GRADE READING: Bad Habit Thinking

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Bad habit thinkingMIDDLE GRADE READING: Bad Habit Thinking

Bad habit thinking can become a bad habit that follows us into our adult lives.  If allowed, a single middle grade thought can trip…you…out.  During the formidable years of middle school, life is stuck on hyper-speed and everything seems to be a matter of life or death.  IT…IS…NOT.  Middle grade years have the ability of becoming some of the best years of our lives if we keep the mental playground free of limiting thought patterns, otherwise known as

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MIDDLE GRADE READING: The Fear of Failure

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Middle Grade ReadingMIDDLE GRADE READING: The Fear of Failure

Middle Grade Reading can be a starting point of how tweens can learn how to dream a bigger dream.  The problem facing most kids is they don’t think they can achieve their dream, which is why they live in fear most of the time.  

Living in fear of anything limits our ability to perform in the very thing we wish to succeed in.  Let’s say, for example, we are in middle school and we are afraid of failing the exam we are about to take even though we spent hours studying the required material.  When we sit down to take the exam, we go into a brain lock and forget…

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MIDDLE SCHOOL CONFIDENCE: The Job of a Tween

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MIDDLE SCHOOL CONFIDENCE: The Job of a Tween

Middle school confidence can be a tricky thing, but having confidence in middle school is essential.  This is the reason I wrote Saltwater Taffy because I had zero confidence in middle school.

You might think I’m crazy, but there is actually a science to feeling good!  As a tween-ager, it is your RESPONSE-ability to feel good about who you are and who you are becoming.  It’s like this;

Your RESPONSE determines your mood

Have you ever received an A on a pop quiz or a final exam?  Have you ever heard someone say something nice about you?  This kind of stuff makes you feel good about being you, right?  I mean, feeling good, well…feels good.  Now, on the opposite side of the coin, what happens when you…

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