This book allowed me to silence the internal critic in me that kept telling me that my feelings don't matter, aren't interesting, and probably aren't spelled right. :)

Overall, this book allows one to be freed from tyrannous writing rules. There are forty exercises in the book that guide you in essential techniques such as brainstorming, clustering, freewriting, and revision. This book allows one to open up their creative wellspring to pour forth a gusher of new ideas and possibilities.

Fantastic book for the person who can hear the writer inside them saying, "write something, write something..." but need a place to begin. I was in a writer's block when I picked up the book, lost from not having something assigned to me from a teacher or writing class. Once I started, I couldn't stop coming up with ideas. I have shared the book with friends who have always wanted to write and weren't sure they could, and now we discuss results over the phone. A really enjoyable book!

I absolutely LOVE this book. While it is helpful to read After the End to get the theory etc, if you are a teacher who loves writing with your children and is looking for new ways to help your children truly REVISE their work, this book is for you.

The book is full of wonderful mini-lessons which can be adapted to many different levels. I teach 6th grade, but have recommended it to many younger grade teachers in my building and they love it too. These teachers have not read After the End, but they still able to use the activities with their children and see progress.

This book is a strong compliment to Lane's earlier book, AFTER THE END. I highly recomend both, but this title will be less useful to those who have not read the earlier book. While AFTER THE END contained theory, activity suggestions, and limited samples, the Tool Box is largely activities. It contains many useful ideas, most applicable accross grade levels 2-12, addressing the difficult problem of teaching genuine REVISION , rather than simply re-typing or editing for conventions.

As a Middle School Language Arts teacher, I use several of the activities suggested in this volume to expand my kids work and our vocabulary for talking about writing. I hope to use more activities next year, as there are too many to take on all at once. Some are so simple that my students could teach them.

This is not a 'work sheet' book. These are activities that you will need to do with your kids as part of your writing program.

Written by Barry Lane and enhanced with the artwork of Miles Bodimeade, The Tortoise And The Hare Continued... is a charming and very highly recommended children's color picturebook that extrapolates from Aesop's famous "slow and steady wins the race" parable. As we all know, the tortoise challenged the hare to a race, and the tortoise won because the hare was lazy... but what happened the next day? And the day after that? Continuing the story of tortoise and hare exploits, and introducing new morals along the way, The Tortoise And The Hare Continued... is a delightful story that's just a little closer to the real world than most, since it acknowledges that there is no such thing as a pat ending. The final moral: "Made up stories can improve real lives."

Great book that teaches you to see past the end of fables. The illustrations are a riot! Especially when the Tortoises hire gophers to help them win the next race. I can see how teachers could use this inventive book to inspire children to create and reshape their own fables. Moral: Buy it!

What do overworked, frazzled English teachers need more than June, July and August? This book. Why We Must Run With Scissors is a practical, usable book filled with ideas that beg to be used by real kids in a real classroom. They were written by a real teacher who has used them, perfected them and presented them in one of the most user friendly formats I have encountered in years. While this book is touted as a writing text, it is really a literacy text because it is filled with reading, writing, connecting and extending ideas. I love this book, and I would recommend it to any teacher who wants to bring joy and laughter back to the teaching of reading and writing.-

Tired of trying to browbeat your students into revising their writing? Afraid you might scream if you have to slog through The Writing Process one more time? Try this welcome antedote. Humorously written but based on sound theory, Mr. Lane's book is chock-full of exercises that are fun, practical, easy to modify, and based on classroom experience. I've used them with third and fourth graders, high school students, and even teachers!
The book's first chapter, "Good Writing is Good Questions," is reason enough to buy the book. When we (or our students)
respond to a student's writing with questions about what we want to know more about, revision happens naturally.
"A large part of writing is simply trusting your own instincts and asking questions that will help you dig deep enough," Mr. Lane writes. Dig deep into this book. There's gold here.

Mr. Lane's book is packed full of ideas for those who wish to find a way to make writing (especially revision) fun for students. The book addresses everything from voice and tone to conferencing and questioning in an effort to make writing truly a student's own (not just what a teacher wants). I find it to be an excellant resource as a new teacher.

For so long, I have found revision difficult to teach for primary students. This book is a wealth of information. The vignettes given as examples are entertaining and are the basis for numerous mini-lessons to guide students through revision painlessly and effectively. This book will remain on my desk throughout the year. I highly recommend it.