ABOVE Author and Publisher Anne Brataas signs off on her children's book, Mira's Big Day of Wonder to authorize printing. (Click to play video)
BELOW Anne works with a young writer. You're next!
BELOW Anne works with a young writer. You're next!
Photo by Joey McLeister for The Story Laboratory, LLC. @2016-2019. All Rights Reserved.
Greetings and Welcome to Minnesota Children's Press!
I'm Anne! Minnesota Children's Press is my new educational non-profit authoring and publishing collaborative. It's a mobile, mentored publishing lab for Minnesota child authors, illustrators, designers, and editors in grades 1-8.
We are Story Scouts. We interview, research, write, illustrate, edit, design, craft, proof, sign off, and publish. If we need to raise money for a public good, we sell our own books, not factory-made cookies.
We don't need to sell our books, of course. But it's a good way to raise funds for life-improving projects. Need a project? Let's start now with a MinnChild Story Scout-powered fund that helps kids in your community graduate from college free of debt.
No cookie can do that. Books—and the many entrepreneurial skills you learn to create them—can. That's impact. That's us.
We are Story Scouts. We interview, research, write, illustrate, edit, design, craft, proof, sign off, and publish. If we need to raise money for a public good, we sell our own books, not factory-made cookies.
We don't need to sell our books, of course. But it's a good way to raise funds for life-improving projects. Need a project? Let's start now with a MinnChild Story Scout-powered fund that helps kids in your community graduate from college free of debt.
No cookie can do that. Books—and the many entrepreneurial skills you learn to create them—can. That's impact. That's us.
How it Works: Publisher In A School
MinnChild brings mentored, mobile publishing labs to your school, interest group, or club. If you don't have a group, start a Story Scouts Club. Our professional, award-winning writers, editors, and publishers help kids "skill up" for 21st century communication challenges by teaching entrepreneurial writing, illustration, editing, publishing, web design, and related career skills.
We finalize the files of your project with you, onsite, then print whenever possible with local printers in your area. If there aren't any, we print in Minnesota—perhaps in upstate New York—but always in the United States to ensure our books are non-toxic. Try getting a safety report on inks, paper, paper coatings, and solvents for books printed in China for review by a toxicology lab for a human health and safety assessment. Not possible.
We finalize the files of your project with you, onsite, then print whenever possible with local printers in your area. If there aren't any, we print in Minnesota—perhaps in upstate New York—but always in the United States to ensure our books are non-toxic. Try getting a safety report on inks, paper, paper coatings, and solvents for books printed in China for review by a toxicology lab for a human health and safety assessment. Not possible.
Our Focus: Original Voices of Children
Our focus is on you creating. We are original thinkers and doers!
Our priority service area is rural Minnesota, but 2019 is our prototyping year, so we will try to go wherever we're called—reach out now: anneATminnchildpress.org
Our priority service area is rural Minnesota, but 2019 is our prototyping year, so we will try to go wherever we're called—reach out now: anneATminnchildpress.org
Create Publications Like These
Cartoon ©Jordan, 11, Grand Portage, "Cig Shark" character for a 2016 public service announcement about the dangers of smoking and vaping as part of a BorealCorps kids' Story Scout public health project.
Castle cover ©Aaron, 9, for a class-written text about their medieval history studies.
TEXT BOOKS DIY and show what you knowDARK TIMES TRIBUNE Creative teachers can assign the publishing of a class-authored and illustrated text book to serve as a summative learning assessment for a topic they studied. Forget tests and reports. Book crafting is a far more demanding, rewarding, and instructive interdisciplinary project. Fourth-graders in St. Paul's Capitol Hill Magnet School learned this with their unit on Medieval Life and their creation of Dark Times Tribune. They supplemented class lessons with research. |
Click images to see our Children's Newseum of child-authored newspapers.
NEWSPAPERS Create your positive community AEROBIC NEWSPAPERS Newspapers written and illustrated by children—who walk to do their reporting, making it an aerobic newspaper—bring fresh voices and visions to community dialogue that connect, enrich, and delight. Newspapers are a foundation of our free American society because they encourage civil discussions that lead to productive, problem solving. |
My First Farm, book, ©Julia, 8. She drew the dog and chicken on our logo, too.
BOOKS Tell your story, your way, your genreMY FIRST FARM & JACK'S STORY The youngest Story Scouts create with paper and pencil, as 8-year-old author-illustrator Julia from Rochester does above in her book, My First Farm. Older Story Scouts, such as Sammie, 13, from Grand Marais, are fully digital in research, writing, and web book. Her story is historical fiction about the life of Jack, a Depression-era orphan. Sammie has been the editor of BorealCorps.org, Cook County's children's newspaper, since 6th grade. |
Do Fun Things Like This: Snow Read-Alouds
Photo Credit: Christina Hadjiyiannis.
Used with permission.
The All-Weather Public Read-Aloud is an educational pop-up format the Minnesota Children's Press pioneered. In this snowy photo, Anne is reading aloud her baby board book version, Mira's First Day of Wonder, in a snow storm at the European Outdoor Christmas Market at St. Paul's Union Depot in December 2018.
Why do this? To create a wonderfully vibrant, spontaneous Story & Book Commons.
Why do this? To create a wonderfully vibrant, spontaneous Story & Book Commons.
...and like this: Minnesota winter writing with fur feet
Winter Writing: On -30 degree F. days, stay cozy and write, draw, design, edit. For maximum comfort and perfect form, wear your grandmother's fur coat with your feet in the arms, as Anne is doing in this photo.
