Details that Convince

1. Details that Convince

2. If…Then Mentor Sentences I am here to say that if you like to do artistic things, or anything that’s “different,” then you should do what makes you feel good. -Michelle Roehm, and Marianne Monson-Burton, from Boys Know It All: Wise Thoughts and Wacky Ideas from Guys Just Like You If you love chocolate, then you should celebrate every September 13. -James Buckley, from from Who Was Milton Hershey? If you’re like most guys, you actually do like to write, even if you don’t advertise this fact. -Ralph Fletcher, from Guy-Write: What Every Guy Writer Needs to Know

3. Opposite Side Mentor Sentences Some people think that recycling is the answer and devote all their energy to that. Of course recycling is important, but there are better ways. -John Coad, from Reducing Pollution They say I’m too young. I’m not too young. I’m actually very mature for my age. -Judith Viorst, from Earrings! Some evidence suggests that BMI testing in school is not useful. -Toney Allman, from Food in Schools

4. Good Question Mentor Sentences What’s the point of studying history? Who cares what happened so long ago? After all, aren’t the people in history books dead? -Joy Hakim, from a History of US And what is interesting, anyway about a slim few acers of trees? -Natalie Babbit, from Tuck Everlasting What forces drive the ocean currents? What boundaries, if any, guide their path through the ocean? Can understanding ocean currents helps us to preserve the marine environment and the creatures that live in it? These are just a few of the questions that occupy the minds of modern-day oceanographers. -Loree Griffin Burns, from Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion

5. Imagine This Mentor Sentences Picture this: It’s late at night. You’re asleep in bed, with lots of blankets covering you. Suddenly, you wake up all hot and sweaty, so you kick off the covers. -Laurie David and Cambria Gordon, from The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming Imagine yourself slurping a soup full of tadpoles or finding a stuffed frog nestled in your rice. -James Solheim, from It’s Disgusting and We Ate It! True Food Facts from Around the World and Throughout History It is 2025. A catastrophic accident occurred when some toxic waste in India exploded. It was one of the worst environmental disasters in history, with consequences that no one can predict. Thousands of people have been killed or seriously injured, and the death toll is likely to rise dramatically over the next few years. The accident polluted many of the country’s rivers, and drinking water is now running low. -Christiane Dorion, from Earth’s Garbage Crisis

6. Imagine This (cont.) Mentor Sentences Imagine You’re living in Percy’s world: Does the donut store on the corner make a shiver run down your spine? Does the popularity of a certain coffee chain have anything to do with the mermaid on the logo? And what about the homeless man under the bridge near your apartment: Does no one think it strange that wears a muffler and trench coat all year-round? Or maybe you live in the country, and suddenly a lot of cattle are mysteriously disappearing. -Rosemary Clement-Moore, from The Demigods and Monsters: Your Favorite Authors on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series Imagine. You are a paratrooper suiting up for a jump. Guys on either side of you are doing the same. One jokes about having a dream that the chutes didn’t open. Another one says he’s glad everyone paid their insurance. -Tanya Lee Stone, from Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles: America’s First Black Paratroopers

7. Very Complicated Mentor Sentences The recycling debate is complex. Carla Mooney, from Recycling Cheating is a difficult issue to discuss. Bonnie Szumski, from Cheating Your brain is very complex. David Kessler, from your Food is Fooling You: How Your Brain Is Hijacked by Sugar, Salt, and

8. Numbers Game Mentor Sentences From 1930 to 1940 the number of farmers and agricultural workers in the Dust Bowl states declined by approximately 400,000; by 1937 the unemployment rate in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas had soared to 30 percent. -Jerry Stanley, from Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp Up to 66 percent of a human’s body weight is made up of water. -Richard Spilsbury, from Managing Water Forty-two percent of all game players are women. In fact, 37 percent of all gamers are women over the age of 18. Boys the age of 17 or younger make up only 13 percent of gamers. -Hayley Mitchell Haugen, from Video Games

9. Now and Then Mentor Sentences For many years, pollution was considered a local problem. But a series of major environmental accidents began to change people’s thinking. -Clive Gifford, from Pollution Well you might find this hard to believe, but there was once a time when girls weren’t allowed to become doctors. -Tanya Lee Stone, from Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell Once upon a time in America, long before stores the size of cities and pockets full of plastic credit cards, people traded goods. -Coleen Paratore, Recycle This Book: 100 Top Children’s Book Authors Tell You How to go Green

10. We the People Mentor Sentences We look at the clock and know that we have five more minutes to sleep, or catch the bus. We know that things called events happen as those minutes tick by. -Bruce Koscielniak, from About Time: A Fist Look at Time and Clocks You are one of more than 2.2 billion (2,200,00,00) children in the world. -David Smith, from This Child, Every Child: A Book About the World’s Children Two main ways to tackle our energy problems are to use less energy and to find energy sources that do not harm the environment. -Andrew Solway, from Designing Greener Vehicles and Buildings

11. Call to Action Mentor Sentences Make a promise to yourself that you’ll stand up when you need to. -Patty Kelley Criswall, from Stand Up for Yourself and Your Friends: Dealing with Bullies and Bossiness and Finding a Better Way Carry a reusable bag and you won’t need to accept yet another plastic bag. -David Rothschild, from Earth Matters: An Encyclopedia of Ecology You need to talk to your parents and discuss how to conserve gas, save energy, and reduce waste. -Dan Gutman, from Recycle This Book: 100 Top Children’s Book Authors Tell You How to Go Green