Telling Our Stories: Author Laura Geringer Bass & the #BeYourOwn Writing Workshop

Everyone has a story to tell.

Often, we need a little encouragement to listen to the voice inside our heads and hearts that tells us, “Be your own!”

We are so proud to work with author Laura Geringer Bass to help empower young readers and writers to tell their own stories. Bass has developed a special set of writing resources based on her new novel The Girl with More Than One Heart to spark creativity in her readers and to spur storytelling.

“I was lucky enough to hear Michelle Obama at the opening of the 2018 American Library Association’s conference in New Orleans talk about storytelling,” says Bass. “She spoke about how there are so many people in this country and in this world who feel like they don’t exist because their stories aren’t told or they think their stories aren’t worthy of being told. It’s not just that we’d like to hear their stories. It’s that we need to hear them so that we don’t forget the humanity in one another.”

Saradine is a mentee in the non-profit program Girls Write Now. Laura is her mentor. Please take a moment to listen to her story “Tomorrow”:

Saradine tells her own true story with the help of Laura’s “Hurricane” writing prompt, and it has just been published in the new book, Generation F, the Girls Write Now 2018 Anthology.

Laura’s #BeYourOwn! resources based on her new novel, The Girl with More Than One Heart, are generously available for free to members of the First Book community of educators. This resource includes 32 writing prompt cards, a teaching guide, and two videos of students telling their own stories using the #BeYourOwn prompt cards as jumping off points.

Now more than ever, our young people’s voices need to be heard. Their unique stories matter. One story well-told has the power to spark change. Everyone’s voice matters.

“If we listen to one another’s stories with empathy,” says Bass, “if we don’t forget to be kind and inclusive, if we lend a hand to the most vulnerable among us, if we live with open minds and hearts in a diverse world, if we tell our stories and help others tell them, then we are not alone.”

Find Laura Geringer Bass’ #BeYourOwn writing resources on the First Book Marketplace.

Learn More About Laura:

• Meet-the-Author of The Girl with More than One Heart
• “We Need to Help Our Kids.” Laura Geringer Bass on The Girl With More Than One Heart

Click here to find “The Girl with More Than One Heart” & a link to download Laura’s #BeYourOwn writing resource.

Click here to find “Generation F: The Girls Write Now 2018 Anthology” on the First Book Marketplace.