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Rating: 
Summary: Content vs. Style
Review: All the things the previous reviewer said are true. The resources in this book are wonderful and the advice from children's authors is absolutely engaging--and useful. However, the copy-editing for this book is non-existent. It is replete with grammatical errors as well as spelling errors and inconsistencies (different spellings of the same word and name throughout). I'm not one of the "grammar police." I can put up with a few errant typos. However, the number of errors present in this book is disturbing. I would have rated it higher for content, but, whether intentional or not, such glaring lack of editing can signal a disregard for the readership and so three stars is as high as I'll go. I hope these problems have been fixed in the paperback edition.
Rating: 
Summary: Like a Attending a Writing Seminar with the Best of the Best
Review: Any author, children's or adult, would want to have this book on their shelves. It's got the best writing advice I've ever seen. After all, who knows better than children's authors how to write clear, concise, and vibrantly? In addition, it's delightfully funny. Don't miss the chapters on school visits and letters from kids. Lee Wardlaw's list of things children's authors hate to hear is worth the price of the book by itself.
Rating:
Summary: Inspires and Educates
Review: Anyone who is thinking about writing for children can glean enough encouragement, inspiration and advice from Koehler-Pentacoff's compilation of author insights and anecdotes to get that writing engine started. As a wannabe children's author, I found direction within the pages that helped me to be both more realistic and hopeful about taking on the challenge. Helpful hints intermingle with humorous vignettes in an easily palatable format that can be digested nugget by nugget at numerous sittings or all at once. Reading about the experiences of published authors gives the novice writer a view into the process and offers other published authors pieces of wisdom and support. As for the editing (slammed by another reviewer), I found it neither as neglected as suggested, nor as well done as one might desire; however, I feel only an editing elitist would allow this to interfere with the positives that can be gained from absorbing the content. Read this and reap...motivation and enlightenment.
Rating:
Summary: Inspires and Educates
Review: Compiled and edited by Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff, The ABCs Of Writing For Children features the experience and advice of 114 children's authors and illstrators on the art, business, and craft of writing books for young readers preschool through highschool. Invaluable and very highly recommended reading for anyone who aspires to write or illustrate children's literature, The ABCs Of Writing For Children combines "how to" advice with journal-like information on what a children's book writer and/or illustrator's life is like. All of the essential aspects and elements of researching, writing, rewriting, submissions, rejections, and getting published are covered in a thoroughly "reader friendly", 352-page text which is enhnaced with an extensive bibliography and a comprehensive index.
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