Fall 2026 Classes
The following classes are currently available for enrollment.
Please note that we also teach small private classes that are not listed here.
If the offerings below do not fit your schedule, feel free to email us, and perhaps we can find a class for your young writer.
To register, please send an email to [email protected].
Please provide:
• The title of the course
• Your child's name
• Your child's age as of September 1
• A daytime phone number for us to reach you.
Either Writing Coach Shu-Hsien Ho or Royd Hatta will respond as soon as possible.
For the safety of all, we recommend masks during our in-person winter sessions.
Note: This Course has changed from In-Person to Online. Apologies for any confusion.
A Torrent of Twisty Tales
An Online Story Workshop for Ages 11-13
Taught by Writing Coach Royd Hatta
Tuesdays 10am-11am Pacific Time
Sept. 8 - Nov. 17, 2026
10 lessons
(No Sessions on Oct 13)
Tuition:
5 Students: $625 per student
6-9 Students: $575 per student
(Includes lesson prep, detailed feedback on assignments, 1:1 Zoom sessions, and travel fee.)
Imagine a story where we are running from three lions. We stop at the edge of a cliff, nearly falling over. Below is a raging river. Suddenly, the cliff crumbles, and we stumble, grabbing tree roots growing from the edge!
The power of a story is its ability to grab our attention, sustain this pull, and build enough of a relationship with the characters where we care.
And when we care, we hope for the best, and want our heroes to survive and thrive. But when their world crumbles around them, and their lives are at stake, we worry and imagine the worst. This is exactly where readers will turn page after page, late into the night, to discover what will happen next.
Our story workshop invites students to create surprising plot twists that push their heroes to learn something new, all while making the world whole again.
Join us as we explore techniques to build suspense and twists in your own stories.
All genres are welcome: fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, science fiction, or anything in between.
As always, we'll walk through all the steps in the creative process:
- understanding the structure of a great story
- learning techniques for building suspense, mystery, and action
- generating and organizing ideas
- writing with momentum
- revising for clarity and logic
- editing toward a final draft
Each student will be invited to present a reading on the last day of class.
Protest and Pursuit:
The Ongoing Search for Equality
An In-Person Literary Analysis & Writing Course for Ages 11-14
Taught by Writing Coach Shu-Hsien Ho
(No session on Oct. 13)
Sorry, this course is Full.
Location: Palo Alto Home
Hosted by Parent Katrina O. in her home
(Near 101 Fwy & Fabian Way)
This course will bring U.S. civil rights history to life through the lenses of a graphic novel and a fictional family story.
Our group discussions will be based on the following readings:
MARCH: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell is a graphic novel memoir from the point of view of Georgia’s long-time Congressman John Lewis, who passed away in 2020. This first book in the series shows his childhood and his early non-violent activism during the 1950s and 1960s. He was an organizer of sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville and brought the attention of inequality for all Americans to see.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor, is a modern classic based on the author’s father’s experience in the South during the Great Depression. Through strong-willed Cassie Logan’s eyes, we see her and her family’s struggle to keep their land and their family together in spite of the rampant racism in their schools, their community, and even the internalized racism exhibited in a close friend.
We'll discuss and debate the forces behind the continual struggle for equal rights and political representation in American society.
Students will develop their critical thinking skills while learning concrete tools for writing literary analysis essays. As always, we'll provide an essay structure and break down the thinking and writing into small steps. This course is ideal for beginning and intermediate level essay writers.
Writing assignments will include:
- Short journal entries
- Response-to-literature paragraphs
- First draft essays & revisions
To register, please contact:
[email protected]
March Book One - John Lewis Graphic Novel Biography
The Movie in Our Mind: Story Writing for the Visual Learner
An In-Person Workshop for Ages 11-14
Taught by Writing Coach Royd Hatta
- Pixar Films
- Disney Animated Films
- Studio Ghibli animated films
- Short Films
- Black & White Classics
- To Kill A Mockingbird
- The Bicycle Thief
Students will have an opportunity to read an excerpt of their story on the last day of class.
- journal entries
- short reviews of films
- short stories
- longer response essays
Jakob Owens at unsplash
Innes Kopu at unsplash
Includes lesson prep, detailed feedback on written assignments & up to 60 minutes of 1-on-1 coaching.
The beauty of diving into history is that it reveals stories of humanity, both challenging and inspiring, many occurring on the grounds we stand. We teach that stories permeate every aspect of our lives.
Some of you know that I enjoy fly fishing. It takes me to state parks I didn’t know existed. Many have a long history of Native Americans living along the rivers. Near some places, like Sequoia, you can still see their ancient markings on the cliffs! On the ground, there are areas with hundreds of small holes, probably for grinding anything from nuts, or making medicine from the plants around them. But how did our parks really form? Part of the story is that many Native Americans were kicked out or worse. The lessons of the past are better felt through the gentle and focused lens of fiction. Historical Fiction.
Join us as we dig into our past and reimagine the promise of the future back when the world had a different mindset, and uncover what was meant to be buried and forgotten.
This course will introduce literary concepts:
- Circles of Pressure
- Dichotomies and Hierarchies
- Individualism vs. Society
Readings will be selected from the following:
- Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
- Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
- Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
- The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
- Refugee by Alan Gratz
Assignments will include:
- Annotations of readings
- Chapter summaries
- Students' own historical fiction stories
- understanding the structure of a compelling story
- generating and organizing ideas
- revising for clarity and logic
- editing towards a final draft
Each student will be invited to present a reading on the last day of class.
To register, please contact:
[email protected]
Includes lesson prep, detailed feedback on written assignments, 1:1 coaching, and travel fee.
Imagine facing thousands of flying monkeys as they send bolts of lightning towards you and your towering castle keep. Luckily, your long-bearded mentor has a solution. He teaches you the ancient song of the Galaxy Cat, the only noise that will raise the winged-cow from her sleep and defend those who know this song!
This workshop will invite students to develop unique heroes, mentors, and tricksters, as they delve deep into the adventures, struggles, and unexpected solutions of their story worlds. We will introduce the Hero’s Journey, the hidden, underlying structure that permeates all stories.
Throughout the course, we’ll provide a highly interactive, playful environment to inspire students to create their own tales of fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, science fiction, or anything in between.
This course will walk through all steps of the creative process:
- understanding the structure and the power of a compelling story
- integrating colorful details and action
- generating and organizing ideas
- writing with momentum
- revising for clarity and logic
- editing towards a final draft
Each student will be invited to present a reading on the last day of class.
To register, please contact:
[email protected]
pexels: Jean-Paul Wettstei
Art by Renee Kwan