A special request for teachers and librarians

Chestnut Publishing Group is considering publishing my collection of middle grade reader short stories, Tree Fort, Pigtails, Pollywogs, and More.

The company sells books directly to schools and libraries and is seeking input from teachers and librarians about this project.

Would you take a few minutes, go to the following link, read the information there, and give your feedback on this project? http://www.chestnutpublishing.com/index.php/feedback

Thank you very much!

Max Elliot Anderson

The book’s Introduction

Looking back, my childhood was something of an adventure all by itself. I grew up as one of seven children and our family lived in a rural area in Michigan.  Our house was surrounded by towering oak trees. A sweet scent of pine needles filled the air. Endless trails through the woods waited to be explored. Not far away were streams, hills, and a cool lake for swimming. In the winter we used that same lake for countless hours of ice skating. Our area used to get what they called lake effect snow, and there was a lot of it. Snow piled up so high on our single story house, we’d climb up on the roof and jump off into the drifts.

My father divided his time between film production projects and freelance writing. His writings included magazine articles, film scripts, books, and short stories. A few years before he died, he encouraged me to write short stories, too.

As my children were growing up, I told them original stories at bedtime that I’d make up as I went along. Looking back, I guess those could be considered my first short stories, but we just thought of them as fun. We’d turn off the lights, huddle together in the dark, and let the stories begin.

Most of my life has been spent in the production of films, television programs, video productions, and television commercials. Several of these also required that I write the scripts. Productions required a lot of travel throughout the United States as well as internationally.  Locations for these projects took me to many countries in Asia, Europe, or places like India, the jungles of New Guinea, and many more.

Then, a few years ago, I began working on books for kids. My first choice was to write action-adventures and mysteries for readers 8 – 12. Recently I’ve turned to writing short stories. So what you will find in this book is a collection of just a few of those. They originated from my childhood memories, characters I met along the way, places I visited, and even stories I told my children back there in the dark. These stories are intended to be fun for you to read to yourself, or out loud, and questions are included at the end so parents or teachers can use them in educational settings. As you read each story, close your eyes sometimes, use your imagination, and think of the story as a movie in your head.

I hope you will enjoy traveling through these pages when you read about tree forts, pigtails, pollywogs and a whole lot more.

A set of comprehension questions are included at the end of each story.

This link takes you to the feedback page:

http://www.chestnutpublishing.com/index.php/feedback