CLASSIC STORIES Book Club and Creative Writing Workshop


Join us and explore a different world each month: a NYC subway station where a cricket sings opera, backstage in 1930s London as a trio of orphans struggles to become successful child actors, the hot sidewalks of an Ohio town as a tiny found object changes everything... These classic and beloved stories from 1880-1960 serve as jumping-off points for a creative writing curriculum packed with fun collaborative exercises and step-by-step, engaging writing assignments for ages 9-12.


Course dates: Semester 1: September 3 - December 18, 2026. Semester 2: January 4 - May 30, 2027.
Tuition: $288/full course, $170/Each Semester, $45/monthly. Students can join Classic Stories at the beginning of any calendar month, space permitting.
Class size: 20 students max. Sign up early to avoid disappointment.

What to expect in CLASSIC STORIES:
꩜ Read nine classic novels and talk about what you're reading with other kids your own age.
꩜ Participate in engaging weekly discussions and collaborative exercises on our text-based forum (no Zoom calls!).
꩜ Complete fun weekly writing assignments and build a portfolio of written work.
꩜ Listen to your own work in your own voice on our collaborative podcast, Niftycast.
꩜ Get published - an original piece of your writing will feature in our digital literary magazine, The Nifty Review.

COURSE TEXTS:
September: The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster (1961)
October: Half Magic, Edward Eager (1954)
November: The Borrowers, Mary Norton (1952)
December: The Cricket in Times Square, George Selden (1960)
January: Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfeild (1936)
February: The Story of the Treasure Seekers, E. Nesbit (1899)
March: A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905)
April: The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)
May: Heidi, Johanna Spyri (1880)

Course Requirements: CLASSIC STORIES students will need to log-on to our course forum on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Total weekly time commitment: 3-5 hours/week. All students will need access to a computer, and copies of the books listed above, to participate in this course.




ENROLL NOW


Pay for the whole course, the first semester, or by the month.

Please note: if you wish to sign up 'by the month,' you will need to wait until September when this course begins - otherwise you'll be paying monthly for nothing until then; our platform unfortunately lacks a way to 'start monthly payments later.' Space is not guaranteed.

Second Semester will be available for purchase in November 2026.

All tuition fees are in USD.

Course details: This course can be used as a substantive, high value extracurricular activity or as part of a homeschool language arts curriculum. We have capped the 2026/27 cohort at 20 students so that we are able to closely read each student's work and carefully scaffold the exercises and assignments to support individual growth.
Our primary goals in creating and delivering CLASSIC STORIES: 1) grow student capacity to read and enjoy syntactically complex, non-contemporary children's literature; 2) introduce a variety of genres and writing styles and create repeated experiences of writing as a joyful, generative experience; 3) create a supportive creative community in each cohort. This course is an excellent foundation for all our other classes.

Notes on the booklist: These books are widely available used, often for under $5. We recommend checking your local used bookstores and second hand shops, or ordering from Thriftbooks.com or used book sellers on Amazon. These books are all also widely available at public libraries; lining up borrowing dates with the course can be tricky, however, so we recommend buying a copy of each book. We strongly discourage the use of ebooks for this course. 
NB: Heidi and The Secret Garden are both available in a variety of non-original formattings - abridged, graphic novels etc. Please make sure the copy you purchase is a copy of the full original text!
Admission Guidelines: This course is for students ages 9-12 who can read books like the first Harry Potter book, though they may struggle with reading stamina and lose interest before finishing a long novel. Younger kids in this age range will likely need some adult help with copy-and-pasting assignments etc at the beginning of the course. We provide a printable checklists for each week of the course to help students stay on track.
If a student is generally ready to participate but is a slow reader, parents may find audiobooks a helpful tool. Avid reader but reluctant writer? We have worked with many young writers who bloom once they are in a writing community with purpose (other people will read and engage with their work!) and creative autonomy (important for all young writers - please, give your student creative space while working on this course: do not critique, edit, or compare your student's written work to that of other students!).

Code of Conduct: All students must abide by our code of conduct while participating in our course forums. Please go through these expectations with your student prior to starting the course. We will also go over them during the first week.
1) Be nice. Don't be mean.
2) Be curious.
3) Abide by the online safety rules introduced on day 1 of each course (no sharing external links, no sharing last names or addresses, no profanity, etc).
4) Abide by the guidelines given in each course for responding to peer work.
5) No contemporary politics (discussing the historical political context of course texts is fine).