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    Page McBrier

    Author for young readers

    Cobras of the ancient world

    March 19, 2015

    MORE pests of the ancient world!

    March 12, 2015

    Stop Pestering Me!

    February 19, 2015

    "Coff" It Up: the backstory on the mummy's coffin

    February 11, 2015

    Abracadabra Tut book trailer video coming soon!

    January 29, 2015

    An Ode to the Ticonderoga #2 Pencil

    January 16, 2015

    The Real Isis

    August 25, 2014

    The Writing Process Blog Tour

    August 2, 2014

    OFF THE PAGE returns!!!

    July 31, 2014

    Cleaning out the Attic

    January 28, 2013

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    Off the Page - Recent Posts

    Stop Pestering Me!

    February 19, 2015

    Welcome to Off the Page

    May 1, 2011

    MORE pests of the ancient world!

    March 12, 2015

    1/10
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    Off the Page - Featured Posts

    An Ode to the Ticonderoga #2 Pencil

    January 16, 2015

    True confession. I’m in love with my Dixon Ticonderoga #2 pencils. No other brand does it for me. While other pencils imitate the canary yellow color and plump pink erasers, they lack what every pencil should do best: perform.

     

    Here’s the thing about a #2 Ticonderoga. First, it doesn’t shred or break when sharpened, not even the first time. The tip goes in flat and comes out pointed. Period – so to speak. No jaggedy shards blister off to annoy you with splinters. There are never any half-turned or broken tips. All one sees is a pencil eager for words, although to be fair, some credit goes to my efficient Boston pencil sharpener.

    Which brings me to the pencil's lead (which, by the way, is graphite and powdered clay, not lead. You can chew away, folks.) Something about how the faux lead glides causes me to wonder whether the proportion of graphite to powdered clay is a secret ingredient. Does Ticonderoga hold a special patent? Somehow, I always find it easier to keep writing with a Ticonderoga. The glide of the graphite makes me want to write and write and write. I don’t know whether the graphite in these pencils is considered a signature color (like Tiffany blue or Virgin Airways red), but it’s dark enough to read, and a firm a decisive gray that says, “I know when to use a semi-colon and how to spell artichoke.”

     

    Okay, here’s the best part, though. And teachers will back me up. Kids, too. Ticonderoga erasers actually erase without messing up the notebook paper. Again, it must be a secret ingredient, because I have yet to find another pencil that doesn’t leave the page smudged or torn. When I work in classrooms, I always bring a container of Ticonderoga pencils with me because sometimes kids try to be shifty and use up their writing time standing at the pencil sharpener or searching through the contents of their desk for a pencil, which turns out to be a 2” gnawed nub with no eraser left. I probably go through a few dozen pencils a year, but it doesn’t bother me. 

     

    Who wouldn’t want to end the day with a pencil that makes one feel like writing for a change?

     

     

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