Sort it Out!

Barbara Mariconda (Sort it Out!) is one of those people who “has done it all!” An educator (K-6), a mentor teacher, an adjunct professor of Children's Literature and Process Writing, Barbara has also written a wide variety of musicals, songs, and books. She has worked with Children's Television Workshop and Cherry Lane music on the creative staff of the Sesame Street Music Magazine. In addition to writing workbooks and beginning readers, her middle grade novel, Turn the Cup Around, was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for best children's mystery. She has also published numerous professional books for teachers, frequently speaks on the topic of writing for and with children, and provides professional development for teachers at seminars across the country. She is a partner in the educational seminar/consulting firm, Empowering Writers, LLC., and is a member of SCBWI. Barbara recognized that sorting and categorizing, so clearly recognized as a math and science skill, also powerfully relates to writing. In order to write in an organized fashion, to group like details with broader main ideas, to recognize the ways in which main ideas in a piece of writing may overlap and therefore encourage redundancy, it all comes down to the writer's ability to think critically and sort things out. Barbara's huge collections of sea glass, pottery shards, glass paperweights, nutcrackers, wine bottle corks, and cowboy boots, all artfully sorted and arranged, served as the inspiration for this book.