Moe's Cafe Book

While driving with your friends or family some place far from home, your radiator starts steaming. You manage to find a gas station in a small town where they can fix your car, but it's going to take a few hours. You ask the mechanic if there's any place to get something to eat, and he points across the road to Moe's Cafe, a real dump. You don't have much choice, so you head inside and take a seat at the first booth on the left.

So begins Moe's Cafe, one of 48 innovative and intriguing prompts for student writing, grades 6-12. These classroom-tested prompts put students in a place or in front of a character and ask them to describe what they "see." The thinking and writing and scribbling they do for the prompts inspires them to create their own stories and poems. Prompts begin with questions, which are designed to help students think deeply and creatively about the subject at hand. After writing 90-word mini-stories, students read a short story or watch a film scene to help them expand on their own creative works. The book also includes a section of longer readings that are used to model writing strategies.