Book excerpt: Writing essays is hard. Kids must organize their ideas, overcome their fear of a blank page of paper, write a good hook, connect their introduction to their conclusion, use transitions and figurative language, vary sentence types, use good vocabulary and revise. How to Write a Fifth Grade (or any other grade) Essay shows kids how to do it all. This how-to book starts where kids start, thinking up an idea, and takes kids through the whole process. Like playing the piano or swimming the butterfly, writing essays takes practice, something kids hate. Right? How to Write a Fifth Grade (or any other grade) Essay takes away the pain by offering a baby-step by baby-step process which kids can follow to write any kind of essay. Plus examples from real students show how other kids do it. Revising is what creates great writing. How to Write a Fifth Grade (or any other grade) Essay takes kids through the revising process. Revising is not finding spelling and apostrophe errors. Revising is rewriting-moving ideas around, adding details, replacing weak verbs with powerful verbs, varying sentence openings and lengths, adding figurative language and leaving readers with a smile. For twenty years, Mrs. Powers has been helping kids write. How to Write a Fifth Grade (or any other grade) Essay collects her practical tips in for elementary, middle and even high schoolers. It's a quick, engaging read for parents and teachers too.