Rip the Page!

“Rip the Page! is an invitation and a feast. Every page springs the imagination into freedom, eagerness, curiosity, the spirit of experimentation, and the power to express the abundant possibilities of both words and world.”—Jane Hirshfield, poet and author of Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

“Alive with ideas, playful, encouraging, and full of heart, Rip the Page! will help you uncover stories of inner treasure and express them in a fresh new way.”—Susan Wooldridge, author of Foolsgold: Making Something from Nothing

“Rip the Page! is fun, sassy, and zany. It’s a great resource for writers of all ages—and for teachers of creative writing—who want to put the zing back in their writing.”—Julia Alvarez, author of Return to Sender

“Rip the Page! inspires creativity to flow, sparkle, whoosh, and claim a child’s imagination. Karen Benke uses playful, inviting, inspiring language to form ‘hooks’ to snag the interest and ‘reel in’ the imagination of children to write. Great for an individual writer on their own, and wonderful as a guideline for teachers or home-school parents to inspire young hearts.”—San Francisco Book Review

“This collection of exercises and ideas inspires young writers with interesting prompts, friendly encouragement, and suggestions. Realizing that beginning writers often have potential for creativity, yet freeze when faced with the formidable task of constructing a composition, Benke introduces livelihood and fun to the risky process of recording one’s thoughts. Working to show kids that not all writing is dry, formal, or plagued by the pressure of getting a good grade, Benke stirs the imaginations of kids, never limiting them.”—ForeWord Reviews

“As a writer, I love the way this author brings fun to the experience of writing.Too many kids are scared of writing or bored with the whole exercise. I found many of the exercises to be fun and engaging: the kind that my kids found silly and different. And because they were, they didn’t feel like work. This book will do a wonderful job of adding a key element of fun to what can be a challenging part of your homeschooling day.”—Practical Homeschooling

“An inspiring, irreverent, and highly accessible book of ideas for writing. This is a riotous celebration of language and the exhilarating joy of words. Great Fun! Recommended for homeschoolers wanting a creative way into language and parents with a household of bored, creative children looking for an outlet on a rainy day.”—Juno (UK)

Karen (Karena) Benke is the founder of The Writer’s Nest, a creative literacy mentorship program for children and teenagers. She writes and publishes The Museletter, with a readership of more than two thousand internationally, and is a former Poet in the Schools.

She has presented her creative writing adventures program to thousands of children in hundreds of public and private schools, bookstores, libraries, and conferences, and read for the Library of Congress’s Lunchtime Poetry Series. Her poetry has appeared in anthologies and national literary journals, including Ploughshares, Poetry Daily, Rattle, Hawaii Pacific Review, and Poetry East. Her books have been featured in FamilyFun magazine, San Francisco Book Review, Kids’ Book Review, the Toronto Star, and Guernica Magazine.

The recipient of two teaching grants from Poets & Writers and writing residencies from Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Hedgebrook, Numeroventi Design Center (Italy), and The Moth (Ireland), she is co-author with Matilde Pettini of Lunch at Lola’s (Rizzoli, 2027), about the rising star’s trattoria, Dalla Lola, which was featured on National Geographic’s Tucci in Italy.

She divides her time between the San Francisco Bay Area and Florence, Italy, where she is always at work on a creative project.

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