Laura Purdie Salas

Writing the World for Kids

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Hooray for Young Authors

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Over the past two weeks, I did three storytimes at libraries in the East Central Region of Minnesota. It was great to meet families and celebrate kids as readers, as (mostly) preschoolers and toddlers swooped like bats, bloomed like flowers, made monkey noises, did toothpaste art, and echo read  my books and poems. But a […]

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Ready for Earth Day? #ClassroomConnections

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It’s almost Earth Day! It’s a great time to pull out my Can Be… books, which all celebrate our planet. And if you want some book-related activities, go here to find links to teaching guides, activity sheets and more! The focus this year is on plastic pollution, so you might also look for Loree Griffin […]

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The Circle of Inspiration

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One of the very best things about being an author is when your own work inspires readers to create! On Instagram over the weekend, a mom and her daughter (I think this is the relationship) shared this image: Parla wrote that she and Brighton were inspired by an Author Access event I did with the […]

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Foreign Editions and My Next Book!

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Picture Book Foreign Editions All of my picture books with Lerner/Millbrook have had foreign editions published, and it’s always exciting to imagine kids on the other side of the world reading something I  wrote. Amazing! Here are a few of the iterations over the past few years. Here are some thoughts on foreign editions: Did […]

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Words Live [Slice of Life Tuesday]

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A couple of weeks ago, I came home to a box on my doorstep from Lerner. I thought it might be my author copies of my next picture book, even though that’s still 5 months from publication. I ran into the kitchen and tore open the box. Nope. Not If You Were the Moon. Instead, […]

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A Leaf Can Be… Korean!

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I opened a box from Millbrook/Lerner a couple of weeks ago and was delighted to learn that A Leaf Can Be… has been published in Korean, in Korea! I just love the way the text looks! Whee–it’s beautiful! Hardcover and…audio? published by Neungyule Education, Inc. It’s so amazing to think of my words–well, my ideas–reaching […]

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PreK Book List for Unit on Transformation

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I was pleased to see Water Can Be… on this book list put out by the NYC Dept of Education for a unit on transformation. That’s one of the things that appeals to me so much about water–its ability to transform from solid to liquid to gas AND its ability to transform the landscape and […]

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Books That Were My Mentor Texts

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Teachers, do you use mentor texts in your classroom? So do professional writers! I’m guest posting today at ReFoReMo (Reading for Research Month) with a brief post listing some books that have served as my mentor texts for my Can Be… books, If You Were the Moon (Millbrook, 2017), and If You Want to Knit […]

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Congrats to Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Plus a Ken Slesarik First-Grade Poetry Project [Poetry Friday]

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Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Life (both personal and professional) has been super busy lately, and I confess I wasn’t planning to post for Poetry Friday this week. But then… I saw that Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s Forest Has a Song, one of my very favorite poetry collections of recent years, […]

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Handout for My Nonfiction Picture Book Mentor Text Session

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Howdy, teachers. Yesterday, I shared the slides from my Hubbs presentation. Today, I’m sharing my handout. All three of the professional books I recommend on it are awesome! (I attended a poetry session using mentor texts put on by Lynne and Rose last year at ILA, and it was terrific!) Here is my Mentor Texts […]

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