10 Books You Should (Re)Discover

School just ain't what it used to be. Or is it? Some books can take us back to our school days and teach us valuable lessons all over again. Here are some of our favorites.

1. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
Ahh, adventures in Paris--what could be better? Madeline and 11 other little girls live "in an old house in Paris," under the care and tutelage of Miss Clavel. This edition captures their exploits in three-dimensional pop-up spreads of selected scenes from the book based on Ludwig Bemelmans's original illustrations.

2. Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton
A gentle schoolmaster is ridiculed at first by his rowdy charges, but gradually his dignity and generosity gain the students' respect. Did you have a teacher you tortured, whom you later grew to admire? You're bound to identify your former teacher with Mr. Chips, who over the years has come to represent all beloved teachers, whose lessons extend beyond the classroom.

3. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
An heiress has a difficult time at boarding school after her father suddenly dies, leaving her penniless. No longer a "princess," she endures cruel treatment from the other students. Despite her change in fortunes, she remains determined to maintain her dignity and to give voice to her princess within.

4. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
What happens after Holden Caulfield flunks out of boarding school yet again? The school of hard knocks has some bitter--and often hilarious--lessons in store. Sixteen-year old Holden narrates this classic coming-of-age story, offering wry commentary on the "phoniness" of the adult world around him and hinting at the emptiness inside.

5. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Harriet is a young girl determined to be a famous writer. To gather material, she faithfully writes in her secret notebook everything she sees and hears while walking her daily "spy route." She makes brilliant observations of life's absurdities, and her writing career seems assured--until the notebook is discovered by her classmates who read it aloud. Suddenly, she finds herself a social outcast and the target of her vengeful classmates.

6. The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
The unbelievably popular series about life at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry starts with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. As you must know by now, Harry's unbearable childhood is transformed when an owl delivers a mysterious letter inviting him to attend a school for wizards. The young wizard-in-training encounters one adventure after another, and confronts the great destiny that awaits him. While you're waiting for the next novel in the series, have you reread the first one yet?

7. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
A tale of friendship and betrayal at a private New England school for boys during World War II. One is brainy and lonely. The other is handsome and athletic. The two form an intense bond that draws out both the best and worst in each. A Separate Peace is an unflinching look at the dark side of adolescence and a classic portrayal of the complexity of friendship.

8. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
An eccentric teacher in Edinburgh in the 1930s has a soft spot for all things Italian, including Il Duce. Is she liberating young minds or preaching fascism? A defense of individual thought in the face of unchecked conventionality, the novel explores Miss Brodie's intense, and ultimately dangerous, relationship with six of her students.

9. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
A teenager refuses to be bullied--into selling chocolate--and winds up in a larger battle. Did your school have fundraisers? Did you ever sell raffle tickets or wash cars? Well, things could be worse. When Jerry Renault refuses to sell chocolate for his school's fundraiser, he provokes such divisiveness that the entire social fabric of the school seems to come apart at the seams.

10. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
Surviving fourth grade and a rambunctious little brother isn't easy--can Peter do it? His little brother Fudgie is so disgustingly cute and so meddlesome that Peter's often not sure if he'll be able to make it another day. If you have a younger brother or sister, Peter's story may sound all too familiar--but this time it's fun.

So You Want To Write A Book

By Charles Williams

They say that everyone has a book in them. They also say that most people die with that book still in them. I decided not to let that happen to me. I didn't make that decision until after I retired in 2001 at age sixty-two. So, you see, it's never too late. It was 2006 and many false starts later before I published my first novel. The road to publishing that book was long and contained many pitfalls along the way. It was also a great learning process.

What I'm hoping to accomplish with this article and those that follow, is to get you motivated to write that book you have in your head. I'm going to do this by giving you the benefit of my experience so you can avoid some of the mistakes that I made creating my book. What worked for me may just work for you and if it saves you steps along the way so much the better.

I'm not going to tell you what to write because you already have some ideas about that or you would not be reading this article. I will only make one suggestion. When you are just starting out as a new writer it is best to write about what you know. That may be a memoir, a how to book in your area of expertise or a fiction novel based on some life experience you have had. Okay you have an idea for a book, what next?

Well first let's get your mind-set in the right place. It helps if you think of your writing as a pleasurable pastime and something you always wanted to do rather than a get rich quick scheme. To help with that here are some statistics, about 500 books per day are published in this country, of those only about 7% make money. Last year, in the United States, only one person in four even read a book. That does not mean that you can't write a best seller, just don't dwell on it. We will get into marketing and publicity later in this series.

Only you know what your abilities are and only you will know if you need help and how much. Personally, I had years of management experience and considered myself a competent business writer. However, creative writing is a little different, I discovered this the hard way and it cost me some time. After messing around with a couple of projects I realized that I did not know the first thing about writing a short story, let alone a book. There were things like, outline, plot, structure, characterization, dialogue and format that I had never even considered.

I found help at my local community college. Almost every city has a university or a community college and they all offer a variety of writing courses. Get a catalog and see what your local college or university offers. Audit a couple of classes to see if they are teaching what you need.
The first class I took was titled "If you can talk you can write". It was a great class and I went on to complete that instructors four course writing series.

The next article will cover good writing habits and what to do when, you think, you have a finished manuscript.

C.D. Williams in a retired U.S. Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer and the author of the novel "Palawan." You may learn more about the author and his writing activities at: http://www.cdwilliams.com

How Do I Know I've Found a Good Agent for My Book?

By Bill O'Hanlon

Two main ways:

1. Are they in New York? 99% of the best agents are in the New York area. Why? Because much of agenting is about relationships and most big publishers are based in New York City. The agents who live there lunch with editors, meet editors and publishers at literary events and often visit them in their offices to pitch books. There are a few exceptions to this general rules, but if you are a novice, I wouldn't take the risk without a lot of good reasons to make the exception.

2. You know someone who has used them as a agent and had a great experience.

Then look them up on the Internet and see what you can find about them.

If you get access to them, ask them for a list of books and authors they have represented.

Chat with them and discover whether you have compatibility with them and trust them.

It's still a bit of a crap shoot. You won't really know how they are until you deal with them for a while. It's a bit like a marriage (with kids, since if they sell one of your books, you're now joined for life, whether or not you move on to a new agent; they still have their 15% of the book they sold as long as it is in print and still bringing in income).

But, like a marriage, you can make changes, both within the relationship and by leaving it and finding another agent. So, if your agent wasn't that great, you can always move on, making it one of those ubiquitous "learning experiences" that life so often provides.

And an important note: In the publishing business, money always flows from publishers and agents to authors. An agent who asks you for money is almost never legit. Run, don't walk, in the opposite direction clutching your wallet or pocketbook.

Hope this helps in getting your book written and published.

Bill O'Hanlon, author of 28 books published by major publishers like HarperCollins, W.W.
Norton, Penguin, John Wiley and Sons, and other publishers. He appeared on Oprah with his book Do One Thing Different. His books have been translated into 15 languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, German, Chinese, Bulgarian, Turkish, Korean, Indonesian, Italian, Croatian, Arabic and Japanese. His latest book is Write is a Verb, published by Writers Digest. His writing and publishing information site is http://www.getyourbookwritten.com