Spark Jr: Creative Writing Prompts for Young Adults, by Dusty Durston, is a fun collection of story starts and challenge vocabulary for middle-school students.

The short stories all offer intriguing beginnings, covering everything from mean bullies at school to the ominous Glitter Club oath to a garden of mysteriously ever-blooming plants. Homeschool teachers and summer camp counselors will enjoy connecting just the right story with the student. Spark Jr. includes stories for all different hobbies and interests, all with a mysterious or emotional hook in a couple pages. After presenting the setting and the opening of the story, Spark Jr. then asks young readers what they think could happen next and asks them to write the ending.

Each story introduces a vocabulary word that’s slightly above the reading level of the story, which would work either as a challenge for younger learners or reinforcement for a struggling student. Readers are asked how the story, a character in the story or a specific moment in the story connects to the vocabulary word. For example, after a story about a campaign for student president, readers are asked if the candidate seemed arrogant, and why or why not. The why or why not is key, since it invites students to think critically (and serves as comprehension questions for younger or struggling students), and explain why they think so. The open-ended questions after reading could be done as class discussions, journals, or just a chat between student and educator.

Spark Jr isn’t associated with a specific ELA course, but it could easily be used by classroom teachers. The blend of creative writing and comprehension questions seem like a perfect extension activities for classroom teaching. A lot of this could be student-led, with an optional sharing of stories at the end, which would work very well in a mixed-level English class.

Spark Jr: Creative Writing Prompts for Young Adults is written by Dusty Durston and  published by Novel Treasure Publishing.