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New Story in Kayak Magazine
Reading at the Franklin Children's Garden
Cover story in WILD magazine
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Choosing your own fun in Kayak Mag
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From chapter books to comic strips, I write fiction and non-fiction for young readers. My work has appeared in books, magazines and on television screens across North America and Europe.

This page features my latest writing news. You can read what I have to say about other stuff in my weblog, feeding change.

the requisite author photo

Latest News

September 5, 2005

Education article in Today's Parent


In what I hope is turning into an annual tradition, September brings another of my articles to the pages of Today's Parent magazine.

This time around I'm digging around to find out if grade one is harder on on boys than girls. From the article:

It's nearly noon in Heather Visconti's grade-one class in Toronto, and all is quiet. Boys and girls work together, adding and subtracting their bright pink and blue paper money in relative silence. In a few hours, this will all change.

"We don't even mention the word 'quiet' in the afternoons," Visconti says with a knowing smile. In her 15 years of teaching, Visconti has learned that quietly working boys in grade one don't stay quiet or working for long. Cartoon doodles replace math equations, laughter erupts between friends, and that's when the restless horseplay begins. "Grade one is difficult on most children," says Visconti. "There are always a few students who will struggle with sitting quietly, raising their hand and focusing on their work to complete a task - and they tend to be boys."

Thanks to all the teachers and blogging parents who helped with article.


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