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February 05, 2008
Day Two, Act II
Today, Jaime picked me up in her darling red VW GTI and we motored through the rainy cold to View Ridge Elementary, where the warm welcome drove away all hints of gloom. Now some schools hoist banners or post welcomes on reader boards to hail my arrival, but librarian Amy Young made me feel right at home in one of my favorite ways. She greeted me with a fistful of paper, each page bursting with questions written by the amazing students at View Ridge.
They were curious about everything from why I set the story in WWI rather than WWII ("WWII is their favorite war," explained Amy), how many books I'd published (not enough) and what my favorite books were as a kid (I replied it was easier to answer in the reverse: what books didn't I like as a kid? The answer is NONE!) I managed to answer many of their questions during my presentation (I still can't figure out why the kids always laugh so hard at my 4th grade photo -- my mom thought I was adorable!) which they listened to attentively. I began to feel like Steve Martin at one point -- those fabulous kids chuckled at my every joke!
All in all, we had a terrific time. And I was reminded once again how powerful an author visit can be when kids are as well prepared as they were at View Ridge. When connections are made between kids and books, there is nothing sweeter.
Well, maybe the treat Jaime and I indulged in at Top Pot Doughnuts after the morning's assembly . . .but only by a little bit.
A round of applause to All For Kids Books and Music for hosting today's school visit.
The only bad part of today's appearance: Jaime and I both forgot to take our Ginko Bilboa so neither of us remembered to take photos.
Just imagine about 150 smiling, happy, adorable 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders and you'll get the picture yourself.
Posted by kirby at February 5, 2008 05:58 PM