This is a good textbook for writing teachers, but the most I got from it was recommendations for a few books to read. I ended up skimming a lot of the material. The takeaway is that writing is taught in a linear fashion such as five paragraph essay style. Writing is a creative and nonlinear process, so you are forcing young students to write in a manner that is not natural or creative for them. Basically it is stifling their creativity.

I requested this book thinking it would go deeper into Daniel Willingham's argument about how to structure a class around stories and why to captivate students' attention. While there is some of that, there is a lot more theory than I was prepared for. If you're into that sort of thing, then go for this read. Newkirk does a great job outlining how story is important and how we can make use of the idea in the classroom. It's lighter on how to plan units or lesson plans out using it, but more on how to conceptualize learning and teaching through the idea of story.
There are some good points in here that I will keep with me, but the book felt a little off balance. I'm not sure that the average busy teacher, looking for some quick go-to strategies to implement in the classroom will feel reading from cover to cover will be beneficial; instead, I recommend checking on the TOC and finding what your interests and needs might be and reading those chapters/sections.