Call it six degrees of separation. The kids in 8th Grade Writers Workshop are awestruck when their teacher announces that through her husbands cousin, shes met rock superstar Nick Thompson and has invited him to their class. Hes come to talk about writing and hes even cooler than they imagined. Nick, known for his music as well as his lyrics, tells the kids his secret: A song is just a bowl of fruitone must figure out how to paint it. Words are to a writer what paint is to a painter. How many ways can one arrange the fruit? An infinite number. Theres style, voice, genre, and much more to consider. Nick gives the kids two weeks to complete the assignment using seven seemingly ordinary elements. Each student must tell an interesting story, reflecting his or her style. And so The Fruit Bowl Project begins. Rap, poetry, monologue, screenplay, haiku, fairy taleand more.From the Hardcover edition.