Sam Swope
Writing for ChildrenRobin Williams will star in a movie based on The Krazees!  Jack and the Seven Deadly Giants "What if the seven deadly sins were actually seven marauding giants roaming an imaginary countryside? That's the premise of Jack and the Seven Deadly Giants, a freewheeling, irreverent story that can best be described as a slapstick fairy tale. Borrowing stock characters from traditional stories—a giant killer named Jack, a funny little man with magic beans, seven obsessed giants—Sam Swope...playfully reconfigures them to investigate the nature of fairy-tale vice." -- Elizabeth Spires, The New York Times Book Review Children's Book of the Month Club selection. Read a chapter here.  The Araboolies of Liberty Street "A very vivid and entertaining tale of fair play and poetic justice..." -- The New York Times Book Review  |
I Am a Pencil was named one of the best books of 2004 by Publishers Weekly. It won a Christopher Award, a Books for a Better Life Award, and an excerpt won The Bechtel Prize. It was also featured on National Public Radio's program "All Things Considered." You can hear Melissa Block's interview of Sam Swope here. I Am a Pencil
A Teacher, His Kids, and Their World of Stories A teacher discovers how reading, writing, and imagining can help children grow, change, and even sometimes survive. (Scroll down for an excerpt.) "It's really hard to communicate the sheer pleasure in teaching, and really connecting with, students like the ones Swope describes in such rich and generous detail. Is there a book that more convincingly demonstrates that any students, anywhere, from any backgrounds or surmounting any obstacles, can be led to love poetry, to read like madmen, to write compulsively and be open to the possibilities of the word on the page? I Am a Pencil should be read by anyone who wants to find inspiration in today's students, teachers and the Sam Swopes that enhance the lives of both." -- Dave Eggers, author of An Extraordinary Work of Heartbreaking Genius “I Am a Pencil is a magical journey. Sam Swope clearly has a gift for inspiring in others the make-believe, and so it's a treat to watch as he taps the imaginings of his immigrant students, and in doing so discover the realities of their newfound lives here.” -- Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here “Sam Swope's marvelous, moving book revives the teaching memoir where it left off in the 1970s and takes it to new realms of tenderness, insight and humanity. Anyone who cares at all about children or writing or the drama of everyday life should have a great time with I Am A Pencil." -- Phillip Lopate, author of Being With Children “We know Sam Swope as a fine writer of children's books. Yet somewhere he has picked up a cardinal rule of teaching: you cannot teach a child if you do not like the child. Fortunately, Sam finds the children in Mrs. Duncan's clas enormously likeable, fascinating even, especially those who resist his lessons. It is the not-knowing a child excites the author who struggles to find the line between manipulation and respectful appreciation.... His study of a classroom of children learning to reveal themselves in story and poem is a drama that belongs on a stage. In fact, the metaphor of the title could well be changed to We Are a Stage." -- Vivian Gussin Paley, author of A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play "How I want to be in Mr. Swope's class, where words are gift-wrapped and trees are muses and the worst thing you can be is boring. Throughout the story of three captivating years, it becomes very clear what Swope and his students have in common: Their writing is powerful, beautiful, original and sweet.” -- Linda Perlstein, author of Not Much, Just Chillin' Excerpt from I Am a Pencil
"The Blackbird Is Flying, the Children Must Be Writing" Teaching Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" to fifth graders in Queens, NY. Children's BooksEssays, Articles & ReviewsRecounts the moment when an old teacher got in touch with me, which then inspired reflections on what students and teachers remember. Bartleby, Savitri & Me
As Dean of the New York Public Library Summer Seminars for English Teachers, I'd helped create a great program. Getting professional development credits for my teachers, however, was like something out of a Herman Melville story. The Occidental Tourist
Sam went to Japan to promote I Am a Pencil's publication. Click here to read about this alternately hilarious and moving book tour, which included a side trip to a school in Hiroshima. From Queens to Karachi
Part travelogue, part description of a conference for English teachers held in Pakistan. Under African Skies
A description of a writing conference for teachers in Tanzania, with participants from East Africa, India, Pakistan, and the United States. |
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