What do you think?
Rate this book
Rip the Page!: Adventures in Creative Writing
Here are the ideas, experiments, and inspiration to unfold your imagination and get your writing to flow off the page! This is the everything-you-need guide to spark new poems and unstick old stories, including lists of big, small, gross-out, and favorite words; adventurous and zany prompts to leap from; dares and double dares to help you mash up truths and lies into outrageous paragraphs; and letters of encouragement written directly to you from famous authors, including: Annie Barrows, Naomi Shihab Nye, Lemony Snicket, C. M. Mayo, Elizabeth Singer Hunt, Moira Egan, Gary Soto, Lucille Clifton, Avi, Betsy Franco, Carol Edgarian, Karen Cushman, Patricia Polacco, Prartho Sereno, Lewis Buzbee, and C. B. Follett.
This is your journal for inward-bound adventures—use it to write, brainstorm, explore, imagine—and even rip!
This is your journal for inward-bound adventures—use it to write, brainstorm, explore, imagine—and even rip!
256 pages, Paperback
First published July 27, 2010
13 people are currently reading
299 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
March 26, 2011
Karen Benke is a gifted teacher and fantastic writer! This book is a must read for kids and adults alike! Filled with fun and inspiring ideas to move kids (and adults) imaginations forward!
September 18, 2015
Rip The Page! is a magic key for kids that are uncertain and hesitant writers.
I am connected with a non-profit organization that works with at-risk youth, to guide them toward developing a healthy sense of self-worth, staying in school, graduating with their class, and formulating a realistic post-secondary plan. The one thing a majority of our students share in common is a reluctance to turn in written assignments, or even to undertake to write, and that has had a telling effect upon their school careers. We have found that much of that reluctance is born out of a lack of confidence in their ability to write. For the most part, these young people are quite bright and creative, but have somehow missed out on substantial portions of critical training in writing mechanics. As a result they often get the disappointment and disincentive of negative grades for grammatical and usage faux pas, and spelling errors, with little attention being given to the meat of their writing. So, they just don’t write. How to overcome this Catch-22 situation?
Thankfully, through a series of very fortunate events, I met Author Karen Benke. During several ensuing discussions, I mentioned the problem of the non-writing students and she mentioned her books, Rip the Page! and Leap Write In!; and very generously sent a review copy of each.
One of the students I am working with this semester is a 12th grader at an alternative high school and an ESL learner; and he is concerned about failing English. He lists writing as his greatest obstacle to earning enough credits to graduate. He had been struggling with the need to complete a 250-word auto-biographic sketch. The day after I received Rip the Page from Karen, I copied pages 3 through 8 from the
book and took them, along with a Spanish-to-English dictionary, to my regular meeting with my ESL student. We spent an hour and a half with the pages ripped from Rip the Page!, doing the exercises, discussing words, and the two key phrases that seemed to set him free: “Anything you write is right,” and “Don’t worry about spelling or pretty, perfect letters.” At the end of the session, he took the lesson pages, the notes he’d made during our discussion and the dictionary and went home. Two days later (I meet with him twice per week) he walked into the classroom, and with great and obvious pride, pulled his auto-biographic sketch from his backpack and presented me with a paper that was topped with a B+ grade – and a few footnotes about spelling and punctuation. The sketch had been written from the viewpoint of a young alien who was being detained at Area 51, and whose alien parents had come to make a deal – release our son and we will improve your technology. It was an amazing piece of work, spelling and punctuation be damned – and it got the attention he needed. Thank you, Karen Benke, for the magic key! Another young writer unleashed!
The Executive Director of our program, the Principal of the school and I are in discussions to utilize Rip the Page! and Leap Write In! in the school’s English classes. As a footnote, I have been a professional journalist for more than 35 years, and a writer for all of my life. I like tinkering with Ms. Benke’s books. They’re a bit like chocolate....
Grant Branson, Professional Journalist and Editor
Program Development Director
Junior Leadership Development Program
I am connected with a non-profit organization that works with at-risk youth, to guide them toward developing a healthy sense of self-worth, staying in school, graduating with their class, and formulating a realistic post-secondary plan. The one thing a majority of our students share in common is a reluctance to turn in written assignments, or even to undertake to write, and that has had a telling effect upon their school careers. We have found that much of that reluctance is born out of a lack of confidence in their ability to write. For the most part, these young people are quite bright and creative, but have somehow missed out on substantial portions of critical training in writing mechanics. As a result they often get the disappointment and disincentive of negative grades for grammatical and usage faux pas, and spelling errors, with little attention being given to the meat of their writing. So, they just don’t write. How to overcome this Catch-22 situation?
Thankfully, through a series of very fortunate events, I met Author Karen Benke. During several ensuing discussions, I mentioned the problem of the non-writing students and she mentioned her books, Rip the Page! and Leap Write In!; and very generously sent a review copy of each.
One of the students I am working with this semester is a 12th grader at an alternative high school and an ESL learner; and he is concerned about failing English. He lists writing as his greatest obstacle to earning enough credits to graduate. He had been struggling with the need to complete a 250-word auto-biographic sketch. The day after I received Rip the Page from Karen, I copied pages 3 through 8 from the
book and took them, along with a Spanish-to-English dictionary, to my regular meeting with my ESL student. We spent an hour and a half with the pages ripped from Rip the Page!, doing the exercises, discussing words, and the two key phrases that seemed to set him free: “Anything you write is right,” and “Don’t worry about spelling or pretty, perfect letters.” At the end of the session, he took the lesson pages, the notes he’d made during our discussion and the dictionary and went home. Two days later (I meet with him twice per week) he walked into the classroom, and with great and obvious pride, pulled his auto-biographic sketch from his backpack and presented me with a paper that was topped with a B+ grade – and a few footnotes about spelling and punctuation. The sketch had been written from the viewpoint of a young alien who was being detained at Area 51, and whose alien parents had come to make a deal – release our son and we will improve your technology. It was an amazing piece of work, spelling and punctuation be damned – and it got the attention he needed. Thank you, Karen Benke, for the magic key! Another young writer unleashed!
The Executive Director of our program, the Principal of the school and I are in discussions to utilize Rip the Page! and Leap Write In! in the school’s English classes. As a footnote, I have been a professional journalist for more than 35 years, and a writer for all of my life. I like tinkering with Ms. Benke’s books. They’re a bit like chocolate....
Grant Branson, Professional Journalist and Editor
Program Development Director
Junior Leadership Development Program
December 27, 2010
Karen Benke has created an imaginative place for children to let their mind wander and write their hearts. This book is equal parts motivator, instigator, and proposition maker. Henke invites the reader to take chances, leap before they look, and explore the unknown.
Rip the Page! is filled with poems and other literary tidbits to entice the reader to respond in writing. The pages offer traditional lines as well as other innovative ways to draw the writer to the page.
Both struggling writers and the eager to ink up a page will find something of value in Benke's Rip the Page! and teacher's may want to keep a copy or two in the classroom to offer kids on their struggle-days.
Rip the Page! is filled with poems and other literary tidbits to entice the reader to respond in writing. The pages offer traditional lines as well as other innovative ways to draw the writer to the page.
Both struggling writers and the eager to ink up a page will find something of value in Benke's Rip the Page! and teacher's may want to keep a copy or two in the classroom to offer kids on their struggle-days.
January 9, 2015
From the title, you would expect this book to give you more tips on plot and characters and such. But there's none of that. It should really be called, 'Adventures in Poetic Writing'. *groan* I don't like to write poems!!!
July 29, 2016
Get ideas for journaling.
June 9, 2014
This book includes exercises that are good places to start for brainstorming larger exercises connected with concepts and lessons.
November 3, 2016
Отличные упражнения для развития писательского мастерства.
December 30, 2011
Excellent guide for people teaching poetry writing to children or people with child-like spirits!
September 3, 2017
This book is an excellent resource to help minds of all ages think outside of the box. I'm using this book as one of my TOP RESOURCES in a middle-school creative writing class, focusing on elements of poetry, descriptive exercises, word fun and more!! This book is an a creative-brainstorming-mind-stretching drills/activities book. It's full of FUN exercises! If you're looking for great exercises for school aged youth (elementary, middle school, high school), or if you're an adult looking to get out of a writer's slump with some great, fun, off-the-wall, out of the box activities... This is it. These activities can lead you to brainstorm other activities. Even if you're in your 60's or 70's or older, this book would be fun for the person who likes to write. If you know a writer who has writer's block, buy them this book and a big fat blank journal from the craft store and tell them to get busy having fun. It will make them smile, laugh, and get some great ideas flowing.
It's a great way to get the pen flowing and the mind-a-moving!! Great for all ages!
It's a great way to get the pen flowing and the mind-a-moving!! Great for all ages!
April 1, 2018
OK, so apparently our librarian functions on about an 8th grade level. In this case that's not insulting or bad - although I think that has more to do with this particular book and less to do with that particular librarian.
Anyway, this is another prompt book that I'm mining for my creative writing class. This book is clearly aimed at young writers (it says so many, many, many times) but it has some great, creative, fun approaches to writing, it's varied, and it also includes some nifty notes from authors which is nice. There's a good balance of writing, actions, and reading in here, too.
It's a pretty fun little book that I would definitely recommend to those with young writers and those who don't mind using a book for young writers.
Anyway, this is another prompt book that I'm mining for my creative writing class. This book is clearly aimed at young writers (it says so many, many, many times) but it has some great, creative, fun approaches to writing, it's varied, and it also includes some nifty notes from authors which is nice. There's a good balance of writing, actions, and reading in here, too.
It's a pretty fun little book that I would definitely recommend to those with young writers and those who don't mind using a book for young writers.
May 10, 2018
If I were still teaching language arts, literacy development, and/or writing courses--no matter the age of the students--Ms. Benke's superbly practical book would be by my side every day. The writing prompts are inventive, the author views are inspiring, the supportive, upbeat narrative voice goes a long way in building confidence, particularly for those language learners/users/makers who feel they have so little to say, so few life experiences to draw on as readers and writers. "Try This," "Suddenly a Story...," "Definition Decoder"---these series help build interest as much as they encourage deep thinking. Communi"ty: Ms. Benke builds a community of writers, thinkers, believers. I love this book. You will too.
November 25, 2023
This is an excellent book to encourage kids to write creatively. Or at least, it encouraged me in creative writing as a kid. I even ripped the cover because the book told me to rip the page.
This book has sections written by writers both famous and not. Most of the non famous writers are poets, and some of their poetry is bad. That didn’t matter, because there were enough activities for me to engage in with this book to make up for that. I’m not that interested in poetry, but there was enough prose in this book to make up for that.
I liked this craft book. It didn’t make me write as much as some other crafty books I would own, but I still thought this book was really good.
This book has sections written by writers both famous and not. Most of the non famous writers are poets, and some of their poetry is bad. That didn’t matter, because there were enough activities for me to engage in with this book to make up for that. I’m not that interested in poetry, but there was enough prose in this book to make up for that.
I liked this craft book. It didn’t make me write as much as some other crafty books I would own, but I still thought this book was really good.
November 9, 2021
A wide variety of activities designed to help young writers (but really writers of all ages) to explore and expand their creative writing. Many authors contributed = a lot of variety and lots of examples. Good for individual or group/mentor use.
January 24, 2019
This book is geared toward kids ages 10-15, but I found plenty of things to use with my high school creative writing class. Fun stuff.
July 3, 2019
Very colourful, cute and easy to use!
December 31, 2014
This is a very nice, participatory title that will encourage writers of all ages to go out into the world and embrace what they already know. It will equip them with the tools to turn that knowledge into writing and will help them have fun along the way.
I was hoping to use this with my middle and high school writers groups, but I think it is a bit better in a one-on-one setting. However, there are a few sections that I think will work well for us as a group, or at least for me to use as the facilitator.
There's a lot of word-play, a lot of attention to detail and the unfamiliar, and the author definitely embraced and used poetry to her advantage. I was overjoyed to see that it wasn't (at all) all fiction-based.
This title definitely provides its reader with a lot of room for growth and experimentation. The only thing I may have liked to see a little more of is instruction. It's a little lacking in the area of DOs and DON'Ts which a lot of young, aspiring writers need to practice as they learn these acts of free-thinking. Good writing needs to have a balance of both. However, I don't think this is enough of a fault to warrant not giving this book a shot.
I was hoping to use this with my middle and high school writers groups, but I think it is a bit better in a one-on-one setting. However, there are a few sections that I think will work well for us as a group, or at least for me to use as the facilitator.
There's a lot of word-play, a lot of attention to detail and the unfamiliar, and the author definitely embraced and used poetry to her advantage. I was overjoyed to see that it wasn't (at all) all fiction-based.
This title definitely provides its reader with a lot of room for growth and experimentation. The only thing I may have liked to see a little more of is instruction. It's a little lacking in the area of DOs and DON'Ts which a lot of young, aspiring writers need to practice as they learn these acts of free-thinking. Good writing needs to have a balance of both. However, I don't think this is enough of a fault to warrant not giving this book a shot.
February 7, 2017
What an interesting and creative way to get people to write and write about things they normally wouldn't.
December 28, 2010
Children's nonfiction; creative writing. [reviewed from e-galley.] This kid-friendly book is packed with ideas and exercises to help any writer "Break rules. Take risks.... Make 'mistakes.'" I can imagine this book being heavily used by teachers or homeschoolers to get non-writers interested in wordsmithing, or to aid more avid writers to break out of their molds a little. Includes notes and tips from well-known children's authors (Annie Barrows, Lemony Snicket).
July 25, 2016
This is a great book for pre-teen to teen (not sure what age it is aimed at). I went through it for creative writing ideas for my elementary kids. There are a lot of great, very creative ideas that I plan on using with my kids. Some very good short writing ideas that can be done within an hour (many less than that). I split them up into poetry, on location (some would be perfect for doing at the library, park or grocery store for example), group activities and art based.
September 8, 2011
I did not finish every page of this book as it is a creative writing book. Because of some of the wordings this book uses, I would hesitate to recommend it. I would recommend using it as a creative writing idea book and not a book you hand over to your children!
April 11, 2015
This book seems to be aimed at kids but I think adults would understand the vocabulary and themes better. There were large parts that I didn't connect with but also some nice ideas and activities if you don't mind searching for them.
Want to read
April 11, 2011Bookmarking this to maybe use with my kids one day.
July 31, 2011
Good YA book.
August 12, 2011
Love it! Good for getting a young writer to think outside the box; great to get creativity going.
April 2, 2012
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11013232
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11013232
May 14, 2012
A fabulous book. Read my review at: http://angelalamturpin.com/?p=551
December 28, 2012
This book has diverse exercises to explore many types of creative writing. It's been beneficial to me as a teacher.
March 28, 2013
This is a great book! My kids (including my reluctant writer) actually looked forward to writing in it! I highly recommend it!
February 23, 2014
A book for kids to read if they wan't to write a story, essay or anything. It is a fun book and I like to read again and again.
August 3, 2014
It good if you just starting to write.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews