This book is a veritable treasure trove of exciting and easy-to-do writing workshops for the young and the not so young!!
Whilst it is slanted towards writers and probably more specifically teachers in schools and other youth settings as the introduction explains these workshops can be adapted very easily and used in adult workshops. Quite simply this book should be in the tool-kit of anyone who has any inclination towards teaching creative writing workshops and nobody should plan such undetakings without a copy.
That is not to say that it makes it easy for just anyone to use it and transform themselves into a poet or a creative writing tutor, reading from a script is not good enough and as the authors rightly say at the outset it is the passion and the energy of the deliverer that will make a workshop work not this book. But without doubt this book will make it easier.
What you get is 50 creative workshop ideas that are guaranteed to work and I should know because as a fellow poet who works in schools I've used many of them successfully over the years. They are proven at the sharp end as it were and make no mistake they all do as they say on the tin and all will stimulate creativity from any class or group of people.
All 50 are explained well, illustrated with examples, have slight alternatives offered and are all tagged with an appropiate age-range for the workshop. This is where maybe I'd quibble with the authors as packaging each workshop in such a manner goes slightly against the one-size fits all ethos displayed in the introduction and does seem slightly arbitary and random. However I guess this grieance comes from a workshop leader who by neccessity has to work in varied workshop conditions everyday and so maybe can judge and change workshops better to suit the situation in a different way to the teacher who has to juggle creative writing with a host of other subjects on a daily basis with their class.
It should be said that this book does lean towards classroom teachers rather than freelancers but that doesn't mean that the latter are overlooked nor that they wouldn't find this book extremely valuable. Though many of the 50 workshops are familiair to me and are favorites of mine, there were still many to be found lurking that I've never come across and I can't wait to put these into the practice. I'm sure there'll all be winners!!
The book ends with much useful advice on how to further the creative writing experience beyond the workshops offered here. As I have said this book works best as a prompt rather than an end product and where you can go next is discussed, disected and pointers proffered, mainly in the form of invaluable and insightful website addresses.
There is also a section on how to snare the strange beast that is a writer and get them to come along to your setting to give a workshop, reading or seminar. This section is written very much from a writers point of view and is a list of basic do's and don't's to consider when booking a writer. They all ring true I can tell you and please do always remember that a writer is actually a human being and not a magician with the alchemy for instant creative writing success!!
This book is a vital accessory for a creative writing teacher and a teacher that teaches creative writing and is a bargain that nobody should be without.You need to buy it!!
The best thing about it is that it doesn't try and re-invent the wheel just reminds us why it was such a good invention in the first place.