I would use this book in the classroom as a read aloud prior to a free writing assignment. This books sends a message that you just need to get through the initial struggle of writing and it can have great rewards. I can still relate to this book as a students because I always have a though time reminding myself that my writing will be good if I write from the heart and stay original. What struck me the most is how much a reader can get out of this book.

This story is accompanied by quirky illustrations that support the text by allowing readers to follow along with what the characters are thinking. The characters in this book are believable in the real world because they are students like many readers with be with families that support their learning.

Many young readers and writers can relate to this story because many people have trouble deciding what to write about. She learns that the best story you write has to be your own and has to come form your heart. She looks to her family for help in deciding what to write her story about.

(Jan.The Best Story is about a little girl who finds out about a story writing contest and the winner get to ride a roller coaster with what happens to be her favorite author. Even the palette here changes with the story's mood, from dull grays and tans to cheery pinks, oranges and blues. With its carefully measured pace, Spinelli's gentle prose is perfectly married to Yalowitz's ( Some of My Best Friends Are Monsters The Spooky Eerie Night Noise ) contemporary-style colored pencil illustrations, rendered with skill and sensitivity. The newly adorable gentleman becomes so much a part of people's lives that when it is disclosed that the heart was delivered by mistake, his friends and neighbors rally around him in a loving demonstration. Hatch interacts with his neighbors and co-workers. Hatch with a note that reads, ``Somebody loves you.'' Just the thought of someone taking an interest in him completely changes the way Mr. One Valentine's Day a giant candy-filled heart is delivered to Mr. Hatch is a drab, predictable gentleman who leads a painfully ordered and uninteresting life, his dreary routine at the shoelace factory barely broken by the same joyless lunch day after day. This warmhearted tale examines the effect that love and tender regard can have on a lackluster existence.

The best story ever by eileen spinelli