Jack Gantos is the author of lots of great books for kids, including the Joey Pigza series and the Newbery Award-winning Dead End in Norvelt.

Now he shows kids how it’s done in a fabulous book called Writing Radar: Using Your Journal to Snoop Out and Craft Great Stories that’s instructive and inspiring.

This book is chock full of good tips, but it’s not just a how-to guide. It’s also the very funny story of how Jack Gantos became an author. Using examples from his own childhood journals, he demonstrates how to be observant and then shape events that really happened into compelling stories with a beginning, middle, and end and emotion as well as action. He also explains story structure and the revision process in clear and simple terms. It’s a must for the young writers in your life.