Creative Writing Tips and a Ghost Story Mixed With Science in This New Novel From Jacqueline West

Best-selling author Jacqueline West's Digging Up Danger, written along with the renowned educational organization The Story Pirates is a winning combination of a fun read-aloud novel for ages 8-12 and creative writing tips for children who like to write. Young readers and writers will be engaged with the mystery to solve and will want to use all of the ideas presented in the book to create their own mystery story.

Eliza has a mystery to solve. She loves ghosts and science, and these two interests begin her summer adventure as she spends the summer helping her mom study plants. Who or what is haunting the plant shop? One of the plants is missing and Eliza needs to solve this mystery. Eliza embarks on the search for what she supposes is a ghost that visits the plant shop. What is this mysterious wolf creature that appears? Could the strange behavior of the pizza delivery guy have anything to do with this mystery? Digging Up Danger is a page-turner that will have young readers eager to keep reading until Eliza solves her mystery about the missing plant.

The second part of Digging Up Danger contains a wealth of creative writing tips from The Story Pirates. Step-by step suggestions for young writers to create their own mystery story are presented. The first suggestion is that you keep a notebook so that you can keep track of all of the components as you begin to write. Brainstorming is a great idea to begin with. Setting the scene for your mystery begins with deciding what kind of place makes a great setting for a mystery and what kinds of characters would be found in this place. Characters should also have a weakness. Illustrations are provided throughout the second part of writing tips to aid young writers in developing their story. Highlighted bold print vocabulary words are featured throughout the text of the creative writing suggestions that young writers can use to create their mystery.

Digging Up Danger is actually two books in one with an amazing mystery to solve and the awesome ideas for young writers to use when creating their own stories. Digging Up Danger was published by Random House Children's Books, a division of Penguin/Random House. It is recommended for ages 8-12 and has an ISBN of 978-1-63565-091-4.

Creative writing has become an important skill for children to master. Even college resumes and applications may require that a student write a creative essay to include with their application. It is important that students begin to learn this skill at an early age. The educational organization The Story Pirates contributes a wealth of ideas in the second part of Digging Up Danger for young writers to learn the basics of creative writing along with the fun of reading Eliza's mystery that she must solve.

*Digging Up Danger is a chapter book. Students always like to read chapter books together in read-aloud sessions. Read a few chapters each day . Give students the opportunity improve their skills in reading aloud by having each student participate in the reading. Dramatic reading skills can also be improved when reading aloud.

*Call attention to the steps that Eliza takes to solve her mystery of the missing plant.

*The addition of The Mystery Creation Zone contains a wealth of ideas for students to learn to use when creating their own mystery story. Teachers might like to assign this part of the book for students to read on their own. This part of Digging Up Danger is also useful in preparing lesson plans for a creative writing assignment.

*Teachers might like to call attention to the bold printed vocabulary words throughout The Mystery Creation Zone. These bold printed words are words that students can use to create ideas for their writing.

*Each idea that is presented in The Mystery Creation Zone can be used as a separate teaching idea.

*The Story Pirates encourage young writers to think "Weird". Happy writing!