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1. Introduce yourself

2. Share your topic

3. What are your hopes for PYP-X? What are your fears?

4. What feedback does your mentor have about your project?

5. Set a time for your next meeting (Next week)

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Video Reflection / Check In...Friday, March 21st, 2025

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Video Reflection / Check In...Friday, March 21st, 2025

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Add a video to this post. Respond to the following questions:

​I'm excited about...

I'm feeling a little worried about...mostly because..

Something I really want to do is...

I'm not sure about...

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Padlet of Inspiration - Kids Changing the World

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Padlet of Inspiration - Kids Changing the World

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What is the PYP-X 2025? (Ongoing Slides)

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What is the PYP-X 2025? (Ongoing Slides)

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This week's goals are finding out more about what we are researching and reaching out to others

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Second Mentor Meeting - Sharing Research

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Second Mentor Meeting - Sharing Research

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1. Share your Central Idea

2. Share your MISO research plan

3. Share 2 pieces of research that made you think more deeply about your project? What surprised you? What did you learn?

4. Share some ideas about who you might like to interview for your project.

5. How can your mentor help find some information connected to your topic?

6. Share your next steps! (Any ideas for action yet?)

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Creative Stories impact people in different ways.

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Persatuan Penulis Malaysia (Malaysian Writers Society), fondly known as MYWriters, was established in September 2016 to facilitate activities and programmes related to Malaysian writing and publishing. We have organised events, gatherings, retreats, and festivals, and are constantly looking for ways to educate and advocate for Malaysian writers.

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11th of April, Friday! (Partner - Haruki)

Time - 8:55am-9:15

Mentor - Ms.Kathy

Location - LG1-18

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1. What inspired you to be an author?

2. Where do you get the idea of the story?

3. Why did you choose author as your job?

4. When did you first started writing a story?

5. Have you ever had a moment you felt like you are stuck and you have no more ideas for the story? What did you do? (Writers Block)

6. What kind of messages does your writing give to other people?

7. What inspired you to write a book?

8. Why do you think Creative writings/books are important to people?

9. What was your greatest challenge of writing a book?

10. What kind of book do you write? Horror? Fiction? Fantasy?

11. Did you improve in writing a book? How?

12. What is the goal of your work?

13. Do you have a author that inspires you? Who?

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How Authors come up with Creative Stories

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How Authors come up with Creative Stories

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Most of the author come up with creative stories by starting to think about the things that is happening in story, how the character are going to be, what place it is going to be in, what the story represents and point of view( Is it looking from the main character's eyes or is it looking from the reader's eye?).

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How Authors come up with Creative Stories

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How Authors come up with Creative Stories

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You might just start with thinking of a character. Maybe thinking about different character details like what the character is afraid of, what that character likes, how do they look like and things like that. If you think about the characters first, it will be way more easier to get the idea of the story.

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If you have a daughter, you need to see this.

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One of the very first books my now eight year old daughter loved was called Ruby Bridges Goes to School. Even before she could read well, she would return again and again to this slim volume, turning the pages reverently, frowning at the hateful expressions of pro-segregation racists, smiling as she contemplated the bravery of this 'real little girl.'

At the time, I thought that perhaps it was the similarity of their ages. Ruby was an entering first grader, as was my daughter. She was a girl of color, also like my child. But Ruby lived in such a different time, and struggled against such overt, violent racism. What did my daughter find so compelling about this book, that she preferred it to most others - including bookshelves full of fairy tales and princess stories?

Now, a few years and any number of books later, my big reader eight year old still gravitates to fiction and nonfiction exploring the lives of 'real little girls.' Unlike her older brother, who launched quickly from early chapter books into fantasy series like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Artemis Fowl, Septimus Heap, and the like, my daughter craves stories about realistic girl protagonists. I was at first a bit flabbergasted at her lack of attraction for fantasy - a genre her mother and brother both adore. In fact, my current middle grade novel is a fantasy adventure based on Indian folk-tales, and starring, you guessed it, a middle grade girl protagonist. So why doesn't my daughter enjoy the genre I so love?

As a parent, pediatrician, and feminist activist, I've always struggled against the notion that there even is such a thing as a 'girl book' or a 'boy book.' In fact, my beliefs had been seemingly verified out by my son, who as readily consumes male protagonist fantasy as he does more 'realistic' stories with girl main characters such as the Ramona books or Little House on the Prairie series.

Yet, there is clearly a message being sent. And it's through the eyes of my daughter that I am finally able to see it. With the notable exception of Harry Potter's Hermione (whom my daughter loves), there are few central female characters in middle grade fantasy novels. If literature is a mirror - an opportunity to show children a reflection of their own lives and their own experiences (or approximations of their own lives and own experiences), then what is happening for my daughter is obvious. While she was able to see herself even in the struggles of a girl who lived in such a different time, like Ruby Bridges, she is unable to see herself in most of the the fantasy novels that populate the bookshelves in her house.

Even the names of each of her brother's favorite series send out the message loud and clear - fantasy is a boy's genre. Or at least a genre dominated by boy protagonists. And it's certainly not because women aren't writing fantasy. As this blog entitled Finding Female in Middle Grade Fantasy notes:

"Even fantasy books written by women have mostly male protagonists: Rowan of Rin by Emily Rhodda, Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke, The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black, Septimus Heap by Angie Sage, and The Unnamables by Ellen Booream. And among those books with females heroines, most are paired alongside boy heroes, such as A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snickett, Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, Rick Riordan's The Kane Chronicles, and of course, Rowling's Harry Potter."
Fantasy as a genre has perhaps been considered a vehicle to 'get boys to read.' Yet, without getting embroiled into a debate about whether the 'reluctant boy reader' notion is a myth, we as writers, publishers, parents and teachers have got to ask ourselves: what are the consequences of boxing female protagonists out of fantasy?

The problem can be examined from multiple angles. While both male and female authors are writing fantasy about primarily male protagonists, female protagonists dominate realistic fiction. Just consider, while both my son and daughter began their reading careers with The Magic Treehouse series (historical time travel fantasies with a boy and girl protagonist), my son soon graduated to The Time Warp Trio, The Bailey School Kids, and then rapidly to the fantasy series named above. My daughter, on the other hand, seemed to skip like a pebble against a lake from one to the other series of realistic novels with girl protagonists.

In approximate order, these books included: Ivy and Bean, Judy Moody, Amber Brown, Clementine... see a pattern? Each of these (wonderfully written) series were named for their girl protagonists. Even her most recent literary love affair - with Rebecca, Kit, Kanani, Lanie, McKenna - and all the other heroines of the American Girl series - follows this pattern.

Which has gotten me wondering (and worrying!): is the gendering of realistic vs. fantasy middle grade fiction simply playing into archaic gender roles? Ie. that girls should care about things like home life and friendships, while boys should be training to use magic, fight dragons, be secret agents, or discover treasure? Is our literature itself encouraging domesticity and relationships in female readers and imagination, bravery, and problem solving in boy readers?

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not trying to suggest that friendship and home life aren't important - for both boys and girls. Or that realistic fiction can't model problem solving or other important skills. Or even that there aren't some fantastic realistic fiction about boy protagonists (just think of Andrew Clemets' great school stories). But rather, what worries me is that the predominance of fantasy books with boy protagonists and realistic books with girl protagonists is a troubling gender divide.

So in writing this blog, I'm making myself a pledge. To try to at least introduce my realistic fiction-loving daughter to some girl protagonist middle grade fantasy, a partial list below. (Some more great suggestions here and here). I'm thinking some of these fantasy heroines just may match up to the bravery of Ruby Bridges, the zaniness of Clementine or the pluck of American girl Kit Kittredge. The goal isn't to steer my daughter away from realistic stories, but rather, open up for her the possibility of reading in multiple genres. Some of the books I've been thinking about include:

The Worst Witch Series by Jill Murphy

The Tiffany Aching Series by Terry Pratchett

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairy Land in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester
Sayantani DasGupta is a lover of fantasy, but also of traditionally 'domestic' stories. Her ideal fantasy-realistic fiction might be a Jane Austen inspired remake of Lord of the Rings. Hey, you never know. It could happen.
In the comments below, please suggest your favorite girl protagonist middle grade fantasy to add to the list!

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Realistic Girls and Fantastic Boys? Middle Grade Fantasy, Realistic Fiction, and the Great Gender Divide - From The Mixed Up Files

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One of the very first books my now eight year old daughter loved was called Ruby Bridges Goes to School. Even before she could read well, she would return again and again to this slim volume, turning the pages reverently, frowning at the hateful expressions of pro-segregation racists, smiling as she contemplated the bravery of this 'real little girl.'

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Posted August 22, 2018 05:12:42

What do you see when you really look at the books on your kids' bookshelf?

We read Nielsen BookScan's 100 top-selling kids' picture books of last year, keeping track of gender: who spoke, who was the lead character, what type of character were they?

The results suggest - at least when it comes to the books that are being bought in large numbers - this crucial cultural starting point for many kids is still male-dominated.

Males outnumbered females

Across the 100 titles, there were three male characters for every two females, and males outnumbered females in 58 of the books.

And when it came to speaking parts, 38 per cent were female.

When a character was given an important role in the story and a speaking part, the difference was more pronounced: 65 per cent were male compared to 35 per cent female.

Newer books were actually more likely than older books to feature more male characters than female.

Books were nearly three times as likely to feature more males than females, compared to the reverse.

No lead character more likely than a female lead

Twenty-four books had no lead character and two had a lead character with no gender, while 23 had a female lead.

Fifty-one books had a male lead - that's 69 per cent of books with a lead, or more than twice the number of female leads.

The numbers were about the same, whether the characters were human or non-human.

Fiona Stager, co-owner of Brisbane children's bookstore Where the Wild Things Are, says the findings were horrifying and a bit surprising.

"I really didn't think it was that skewed towards male characters," she said.

"Unfortunately that gender bias starts at birth.

"The number of people who come to buy a book for a baby, and they will tell you that it's a boy, and they'll particularly want the stereotype of what boys are interested in. And that's cars and trucks."

One train of thought in the publishing industry, according to bestselling Australian author Jackie French, is that boys prefer to read books with male protagonists, while girls will read books with either a male or female protagonist.

"I think there is some truth to that, but cultural changes generally make this less the case than it was," she said.

"With really gripping books, it doesn't matter at all."

Ms Stager said people need to be aware of their own unconscious bias about what kids are interested in.

"All the research says girls will read books with male protagonists but we've got it in our heads that boys won't (read books about girls)," she said.

"And I know they will, and I know they do."

The UK list of bestsellers was analysed by journalist Donna Ferguson for The Observer earlier this year, and showed a more balanced situation than in Australia.

Just over half the leads were male, compared to more than two-thirds in Australia.

More than twice as many books written by men

Some books had no author listed, such as the six Peppa Pig books, and three had authors of both gender.

Of the remaining books, 55 had a male author or authors and 27 had a female author or authors.

Ms Stager said prejudice means, even these days, many female authors continue to use their initials.

"The famous case is JK Rowling but there is still a whole lot who will mask the gender because they're afraid of the bias," she said.

Aaron Blabey had 10 books on the list - the most of any author.

He said gender isn't something he thinks about in any calculated way, but his characters tend to have a 50/50 split overall.

"I will go out of my way to find ways to include kickass female characters. It just makes the work so much more fun," he said.

The female author with the most books in the top 100 was Mem Fox, with six - including her latest book I'm Australian Too, which was out-sold by older favourites like Possum Magic and Where is the Green Sheep?

The gender split of the Australian list was the reverse of the UK situation.

Ferguson found 31 books on the UK list had a male author, compared to 45 female.

Five times as many books with all male characters

When you think of your favourite kids' book, are there any female characters in it at all?

For kids reading the top-selling books of last year, there was a decent chance they saw books where every gendered character was male. But the reverse was unlikely.

Thirty-one books had all-male characters, compared to six that had all-female characters.

Newer favourites and old classics were both as likely to not include females.

Half of the books featuring 100 per cent male characters were published in the past five years, including the smash hit Pig the Pug series, and half were published before then, such as the hugely popular Guess How Much I Love You and older favourites like The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

And there is a strong relationship between the author gender and the make-up of the characters.

Why does it matter if the author is a man or a woman? Most younger kids might not even know who wrote their favourite book.

One reason - male authors were much more likely to leave out female characters altogether.

Of the 55 books with male authors, almost half had all male characters. When we look at the 27 books by female authors, the all-male figure is three. That's 43 per cent compared to 11 per cent.

No gendered characters more likely than all female characters

It's a small difference - seven to six - but the number of books with 100 per cent female characters was lower than the number of books with no gendered characters at all.

Australian author and broadcaster Andrew Daddo, whose two top 100 books had female leads, was the only male author on the list to write a book with a female human lead.

His book First Day is also one of only six on the list to include 100 per cent female characters.

Daddo says he wouldn't call himself a feminist, but he does think about the gender of the characters.

In the case of First Day, his wife was the one who suggested the main character should be a girl.

His next book, When I Grow Up, features children telling their class what their future careers will be, including a girl who wants to be an astronaut. In this book, he was more deliberate about gender.

"Why can't a girl be those things?" he said.

The bad guys are just that: guys

When we looked at the villains in the books, it was clear male baddies were preferred.

There weren't many villains in the top 100 list at all - only 10 in total. Nine of them were male.

A fox, a dragon, a cat, a dingo, several monsters and a Gruffalo were all male, while the sole female villain was a "terrible witch" with a pointy black hat and green face.

These findings are similar to The Observer's UK research, which found the only female villain in that list was a duck who stole Peppa Pig's golden boots.

Mums nearly twice as likely as dads to appear on their own

When only one parent was portrayed, it was nearly twice as likely to be a mum as a dad on his own (nine versus five).

But single parents of either gender were far less common than pairs of parents - there were 19 books featuring two parents.

In the UK study, dads were also far less likely to be present without a mum, compared to a mum on her own (four dads vs 18 mums).

Unlike in Australia, mums were more likely in the UK list to be featured on their own than as part of a parenting couple (18 single mums vs 16 pairs of parents).

Females make up half the animal kingdom, but not in picture books

Only one third of the characters given a gender were human, meaning the top 100 books featured more than 300 male or female non-human characters.

The gender imbalance was slightly more pronounced than with human characters: 64 per cent of gendered animals and other non-human characters were male, compared to 36 per cent female.

That means when crayons, bodily functions and imaginary creatures such as monsters were given a gender, it was likely to be male.

When it came to animals, larger or predatory ones - bears, foxes, monsters - were more likely to be male, and smaller or less aggressive creatures more likely to be female: chickens, rabbits, sheep.

These findings are similar to a 2011 Florida University study of 6,000 children's picture books of the 20th Century.

The authors wrote that animal characters could be seen as powerful, and potentially overlooked, conduits for gendered messages.

"The persistent pattern of disparity among animal characters may reveal a subtle kind of symbolic annihilation of women disguised through animal imagery."

According to that study, even when an animal was not given a gender, mothers tended to refer to it by male pronouns.

"The tendency of readers to interpret even gender-neutral animal characters as male exaggerates the pattern of female underrepresentation. The authors note that mothers frequently label gender-neutral animal characters as male when reading with their children, and that children assign gender to gender-neutral animal characters."

Newer books not necessarily more balanced

This analysis comes with a reminder that we are looking at the top-selling books of 2017, not kids' favourite books and certainly not the only books that are available.

Older and newer books were equally as likely to include all male characters, and equally as likely to exclude them altogether.

Ms Stager said gender bias begins at birth and appears to be getting more pronounced, not less.

"The number of times we try to offer a non-gendered solution and people will resist it at the counter. It's horrifying, it's heartbreaking. And I think it's got worse as well," she said.

"I think we all have to take responsibility for it, and that includes booksellers, publishers, book reps, it includes book buyers."

One possible reason for a persisting gender imbalance is a theory in the industry that reluctant readers, who are mostly male, will be encouraged back to reading by male authors and by default male protagonists.

The ABC contacted five top-selling publishing groups for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.

Jackie French, whose Diary of a Wombat is still a bestseller 16 years after publication, said the theory about reluctant readers was a "dangerous myth".

"Reluctant boys want to read different books, serious books, not short funny books," she said.

Ms Stager agrees, calling the reluctant readers theory "just a lazy cop-out".

"I think that's lazy on all our parts and I feel responsible for it, I'm not putting the blame on other people.

"And I still firmly believe that if you write a great, gripping story, it will be read and loved by any reader."

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A look at the top 100 kids' books suggests kids' bookshelves are on a lean

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Posted August 22, 2018 05:12:42 What do you see when you really look at the books on your kids' bookshelf? We read Nielsen BookScan's 100 top-selling kids' picture books of last year, keeping track of gender: who spoke, who was the lead character, what type of character were they?

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I think this is very unfair because it doesn't mean that a male character makes a story more fun or anything like that. Why would there be more male character than a female character? I really think that this is unfair for females. Female character doesn't mean that the story is boring. Is it just a coincidence or is it on purpose...

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Even if this image was from 2012, I think this should never even happen. Why would almost all of the book not be about Asians, Americans, Latinos and Africans? That is not fair! If the books were about European, it doesn't mean that the story will be more exciting!

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How Creative Stories Impact and Influence People's lives

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How Creative Stories Impact and Influence People's lives

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Creative stories impact and Influence people's lives in different ways. Some of the ways are managing emotions, leading to a deeper understanding, and social change.

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What Helps Authors to come up with Creative Stories

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What Helps Authors to come up with Creative Stories

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Some things that help authors come up with creative stories are:

Compelling characters

Chosing Theme

Point of View

Chosing Locations

Brainstorming creative ideas

Introducing a main character

Ploting where the Characters will be

Create a world

Tell someone a story

These things can be really useful with coming up with creative stories.

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Video Reflection for Friday, April 11th, 2025

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Video Reflection for Friday, April 11th, 2025

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What if I don't get a idea after I started thinking about the story? Do we just stop thinking about it?

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17th of April, Thursday (Partner - Haruki)

Time - 8:30-9:00am

Mentor - Ms.Kathy

Location - LG1-18

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Creative writing imapact people in differnt ways. They can write all the things that has happened to you today. If you do that, you can look through your selves a little bit more. Creative writing can also calm people's feelings down.

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Share someone you can interview. Have you been successful at interviewing them? Do you need to reach out to more people? You can do this with your mentor, just please CC your Homeroom Teacher!

Share some of your research findings. What has stood out to you as important? Have you answered some of your questions? What questions are you still trying to answer?

Ideas for Action! What are some ways you might take action, now that you have some research finished?

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How North Korean People do to get to South Korea.

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How North Korean People do to get to South Korea.

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North Koreans journey to South Korea is really hard. They have to go to South Korea by traveling through China and Southeast Asia, (Malaysia, Tailand, Vietnam...) a journey that is more than 5,000km. After they reach South Korea, they go to a place that helps the North Koreans settle well in South Korea.

This is one of the ways of North Koreans coming to South Korea:

1. Journey to South Korea

1. Crossing the lake between North Korea and China

2. Travel through China:

They may stay in China for a while, but are in danger of being returned to North Korea.

3. Southeast Asia:

They might travel to countries like Vietnam or Thailand.

4. Final destination:

They finally make their way to South Korea and find some organizations to help them settle in South Korea.

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Dr. Ann Lee - playwright Interview on Monday 14/4

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Dr. Ann Lee - playwright Interview on Monday 14/4

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What were your big takeaways from this?

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I think my interview help me alot with getting my ideas about my story. It also helped me with what I should start with, what I should do when I'm stuck, what I should do right now, and even why writing is important. Now I know all of these stuff, and I'm more confident with writing. Thanks to Dr. Ann Lee! Even if she was a playwriter, it doesn't matter!

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23th of April, Wenesday

Time-8:55 to 9:15am

Location - LG1-18

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Week 5 Reflection! Which learner profile do you connect with the most this week and WHY? What were your high points this week? What were your challenge? What are your next steps! 

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Week 5 Reflection! Which learner profile do you connect with the most this week and WHY? What were your high points this week? What were your challenge? What are your next steps! 

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All of my information about North Korea was from this book.

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Share some of your research findings. What has stood out to you as important? Have you answered some of your questions? What questions are you still trying to answer?

Ideas for Action! What are some ways you might take action, now that you have some research finished?

How can you plan your action? What do you want to DO with your information? What is your plan?

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At the global book fair, I talked to Jaymee about the book I had written so far and I showed her the writing. She read through my writing and she said to just keep writing. She asked me what kind of books I read and she recommended some books to me! Also, Jaymee asked me how I am going to make the North Korean stories go into my writing