Steve Cotler Steve Cotler

Tag: Cheesie Mack

Cheesie Mack and the Reading Detectives

— 12:41 pm · View all 2 comments

How do you get kids excited about reading?

My answer is to show them how reading a good book is an adventure in itself. I get them to ask themselves questions. Questions like: Who are these characters? Why did the plot take that turn? How did the author create this mood?

I call it being a reading detective.

And in that spirit, my school presentations consist of lots of questions. Using my middle grades novel, Cheesie Mack Is Not a Genius or Anything, first in a series from Random House, I engage students, exhorting them to become reading detectives.

Here’s a short video that captures Continue reading “Cheesie Mack and the Reading Detectives” →

A Return to Kamala School

— 10:38 pm · View all 2 comments

I was in Southern California all last week hopping from bookstores to schools in an exhausting and exhilarating schedule of 22 Cheesie Mack book events and two Pobba concerts. All were fun and rewarding, but one visit, a spur-of-the-moment trip back in time, stood out.

In September 1952, Oxnard’s Kamala School (K-6) opened to students. I was one of those students, a fourth grader, full of energy.

Almost 59 years older, also full of energy, I returned to Kamala School Continue reading “A Return to Kamala School” →

Grandparent Nicknames

— 7:28 am · View all 2 comments

A couple of days ago there was an article in the New York Times about the many new and different nicknames for grandparents. Looking to stay and act younger, my generation is no longer just Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, and Papa.

In my first Cheesie Mack book, almost-11-year-old Cheesie talks about the unusual nicknames for his mother’s parents:

“I have never met anyone who has a Gumpy or a Meemo. I am collecting grandparent nicknames on my website. You can put yours in if you want.”

Lots of kids have sent in their family’s nicknames, and the list is very diverse. For a first-hand, child-driven take on this “I’m-not-old-enough-to-be-called-Granny” trend among the older generation, visit Cheesie’s grandparent nickname webpage.

Cheesie Mack on Sale Today

— 4:58 pm · View all 2 comments

Several years ago I had an idea for a book about an active, inquisitive ten-year-old boy. His name was Ronald Mack, but his friends all called him Cheesie. I envisioned him as full of life, talkative, smart, and funny…exactly the kind of youngster who’d get into complicated kid situations that would require clever kid thinking to get out of.

I gave him a best friend, Georgie, and loving family…with one exception: an older sister who would be much happier if he’d never been born.

I’m a Californian, and it would have been easy to build his world on the west coast. But as I began to write the first book in what will become a Random House series, Cheesie demanded to live in Massachusetts…Gloucester in particular.

Today that book, Cheesie Mack Is Not a Genius or Anything, appeared on bookshelves across the country.

Cheesie is my little boy, and I held him in my arms this afternoon.

Steve with students at an author event

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