Children can become better communicators by expressing their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Effective communication through speech or writing enables children to successfully convey their messages. When teaching writing to children, educators often look to writing traits--ideas, organization, word choice, voice, sentence fluency, conventions--to guide the process. In Using Art to Teach Writing Traits, Jennifer Klein and Elizabeth Stuart Whitehead add art into this process, allowing children to learn about the writing traits in a text-free environment before applying those traits to their own writing. Children will learn how artists communicate their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. They will come to understand that the traits artists use to effectively express themselves and the world around them are the same traits writers use to achieve the same. In addition, the book discusses the important tasks of editing and revising.