Historical Fiction – Janet Ruth Heller

Janet Ruth Heller will speak about her books for children at the MASL conference in Bay City, Michigan on Friday, October 25, 2024

Post author:Janet Ruth Heller
Post published:October 20, 2024
Post category:Chapter Book Children's Literature Conference Presentations Creative Writing Education Fiction Historical Fiction Humanities Public Speaking Sibling Rivalry Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators Writing Workshop Young Adult Literature

Janet Ruth Heller will speak about and autograph her books for children at the Michigan Association of School Librarians conference in Bay City, Michigan on Friday, October 25, 2024 at the DoubleTree Hotel from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. She will discuss her school visits and creative writing workshops with librarians from different Michigan schools. She will sign copies of her award-winning fiction picture book about bullying, How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006; 7th edition 2022) and The Passover Surprise (Fictive Press, 2015, 2016), a middle-grade fiction chapter book about sibling rivalry. Janet's website is https://www.janetruthheller.com/ Other Michigan authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults who will speak at this event are Amy Dua, Heather Shumaker, Deb Pilutti, Mimi Olson, Michele Beresford, Matt Faulkner, Melanie Swiftney, Suja Sukumar, Naomi V. Dunsen-White, Kim Childress, and Suzanne Jacobs Lipshaw. All these individuals are members of the Michigan chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. #picturebooks #chapterbooks #schoolvisits #schools #literatureforchildren #childrensbooks #MichiganAssociationofSchoolLibrarians #bullying #bullyingawareness #autographing #creativewriting #workshops #siblingrivalry #youngadultbooks #societyofchildrensbookwritersandillustrators…

Review of the Downton Abbey Movie

Post author:Janet Ruth Heller
Post published:January 27, 2020
Post category:Historical Fiction Mass Media Movies and Videos Reviews Television Programs

Both the Downton Abbey movie and the television series have the same strengths and weaknesses. The acting is superb and the costumes are wonderful; however, the dialogue sounds flat and the plots are melodramatic and sometimes illogical. Audience members who have not watched the television series will be overwhelmed by the number of characters in the film. The movie version spends too much time on the British king and queen’s visit to Downton Abbey in 1927, which I did not find very interesting. Then, script writer Julian Fellowes throws several new plot twists into the last thirty minutes without really developing the characters or the situations, which I found much more potentially enticing than the pomp and circumstance of a royal entourage. Fellowes tries to tie up loose ends from the television show. For example, he finds a new love for Tom Branson, a new love for the scullery maid Daisy Robinson, and another new love for the gay butler Thomas Barrows. Marital discord between some royal and nonroyal couples gets quickly resolved without being…

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I love books by British writers P. D. James, Seamus Heaney, S. T. Coleridge, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, W. B. Yeats;

American writers Judy Blume, Edna St. Vincent Millay, T. S. Eliot, Maxine Kumin, Jim Daniels, Mong-Lan, Robert Hayden, Langston Hughes, Naomi Shihab Nye, Alberto Ríos, Gail B. Griffin, Jerry Spinelli, Jane Yolen, Kathryn Erskine, Gary D. Schmidt, Adrienne Rich, Judith Minty, Gwendolyn Brooks, Marge Piercy, Grace Paley, Alicia Ostriker, Jaimy Gordon; South African writer Athol Fugard;

Israeli writers Chaim Nachman Bialik, Yehudah Amichai, Rachel Bluwstein, Chaim Guri, S. Y. Agnon; and Hispanic writers Sor Juana, Federico García Lorca, Ruben Darío, Antonio Machado, Jorge Guillén, Pedro Salinas, and Dámaso Alonso.

I also love Japanese haiku, especially those by Matsuo Bashō.

My writing has been influenced by many other authors, including British writers Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, W. B. Yeats;

American writers Edna St. Vincent Millay, T. S. Eliot, Maxine Kumin, Adrienne Rich, Judith Minty, Gwendolyn Brooks;

Israeli writers Chaim Nachman Bialik, Yehudah Amichai, Rachel Bluwstein, Chaim Guri, S. Y. Agnon, and Hispanic writers Sor Juana, Federico Garcia Lorca, Ruben Dario, Antonio Machado, Jorge Guillen, Pedro Salinas, and Damaso Alonso.