I love school visits!!

I've just returned from two days of school visits in Southern Oregon. I don't like the four hour drive much, but the students and teachers and the awesome librarians made up for that!

My first visits were at South Middle School, where I did four presentations on Monday and two presentations on Tuesday, and had lunch both days with a select group of students. The kids were amazing - so many of them came up to tell me super nice things about my books and writing. A lot of the kids bought books and had me sign them. One girl told me she saved her dog-walking money so she could buy four of my books. FOUR! It must be her favorite number, because when I asked her how many dogs she walks, the answer to that question was four as well.

One of the language arts teachers reads CHASING BROOKLYN to her 7th graders every year. When someone told me that, I was like, oh my gosh, doesn't she get sick of it? He replied, "She just really loves it. You can tell." As a result, I had lots of fans of that book there, both boys and girls, which is always awesome to see. Another language arts teacher was reading IT'S RAINING CUPCAKES to his 6th grade students. Really appreciate that teacher support, let me tell you.

We got one of the lunch groups to pose for a picture. Here we are, getting our jazz hands on.

Tuesday afternoon I hopped over to North Middle School (that totally makes me sound like the Easter bunny, doesn't it?) where I met with another great group of students. They were in the middle of this awesome contest the librarian puts on every year involving peeps and dioramas. SO cool! Check out this Harry Potter one:

I've always said I write my YA novels with middle school kids in mind. They are my core audience, and I love spending time with them!

So, I'm back home and back to work on the current work-in-progress. But not this morning. Author Cynthia Lord is in town, and presenting very near my house, so I'm going to go and listen to her presentation this morning!

These are the days I really love my job.

Happy World Read Aloud Day!

Today I Skyped with kids all across America for World Read Aloud Day. It's a fun day where we celebrate books and reading. I only had one cancellation due to a snow day, so not too bad! I was worried there might be more than that.

Here's a couple rows of one of the groups I talked with:

Wow, what a cool looking library, huh?

I will get to talk to kids in person the end of this month when I travel down to southern Oregon for some school visits.

Talking with kids about reading and writing is one of my favorite parts of the job.

But for now, it's time to get to the other part of my job - working on the next book! While eating chocolate, of course.

IRA 2012 and School Visit recap

Sunday and Monday I attended the International Reading Association conference in Chicago, IL. The weather was yukky, but when you're so busy with workshops and signings and meeting cool people and eating fabulous food, who needs nice weather anyway?

Sunday was the all-day institute put on by eight incredible authors and me - Carolee Dean, Carolyn Meyer, Caroline Rose Starr, Kersten Hamilton, Kimberly Little Griffiths, Uma Krishnaswani, Esther Hershenhorn and April Wayland. We talked about using the story strategies of professional authors to inspire a love of reading and writing.

Here we are, looking all professional and authorly.

We went out to dinner the night before, where much fun was had, as you can see:

Simon and Schuster took its authors out to dinner Sunday night. I sat near the incredibly talented and kind author/illustrator Peter Reynolds and his brother, Paul. Here is a picture I took, so I'm not in the picture, but you can see Peter and Paul to the right, and that's Carolee on the left. And Carolyn Meyer who turned around just as I was snapping the picture.

Peter drew me this little gem that I plan to frame and place on my desk:

I didn't take many pictures at the convention center on Monday. I signed books for an hour in the S&S booth and met lots of fabulous teachers. I did find Kate Messner, who was there signing a bunch of her books, including her latest release, EYE OF THE STORM:

Of course you can't visit Chicago and not have deep dish pizza, so Carolee, Caroline and I went to Giordano's downtown Monday night and had our selves a fabulous dinner.

Tuesday I went to Blackhawk Middle School where I did three presentations for each of the grades and signed lots of books. It was a great day and the teachers and librarians there are obviously very passionate about reading.

Check out the wall of poems that kids wrote, inspired by one of my books that they read:

There were a whole bunch of sweet thank you notes, too!

And here's the stage lined with welcome posters:

Now, I'm back home, with some work on a manuscript I need to get to. When I'm finished with that, I plan on taking a much-needed break for a few weeks. I'm a very tired author about now...

Happy May!!!

Middle School Author Visit Recap

Last week, I traveled four hours to beautiful Grants Pass, Oregon, where I did a two-day school visit at South Middle School.

I had a great time talking to the kids, signing books, chatting with the Library Tech, Mrs. Anderson, as well as the Language Arts teachers and the Science teacher who is the Author Visit Coordinator. The visit went so smoothly and I'm grateful to everyone for their hard work.

When I pulled into the parking lot, this is the sign that greeted me:

Inside, this sign was hanging above the library, where I did all six of my presentations:

The kids were invited to enter a writing contest to have lunch with me, and a whole bunch of kids wrote some amazing stories. They were asked to write about meeting one of their favorite characters from one of my books.

Here is a picture of some of the eighth grade students, streaming into the library.

The Language Arts teachers were so great about getting behind me and my books. The sixth grade teacher read SPRINKLES AND SECRETS to his classes. The seventh grade teachers read CHASING BROOKLYN. And the eighth grade teachers read I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME. One of the eighth grade teachers said she was also having the kids write some verse of their own. And the seventh graders acted out some scenes from I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME. Love that!

Thanks to everyone at South Middle School for an amazing time!

Next up - Blackhawk Middle School in Bensenville, IL!

Photos from my elementary school visit

I had so much fun at my school visit a couple of weeks ago.

I took the kindergartners, first, second and third graders on an Imagination Safari, and Little Chimp from my picture book LITTLE CHIMP'S BIG DAY helped us find writing secrets in the jungle.

Here's a picture of me in my safari hat. (Behind me is my Powerpoint presentation that brought the safari to life for the students)

For the fourth, fifth and sixth graders, we talked about how writing is similar to baking cupcakes and I went over the "essential ingredients" necessary to make the students' writing simply delicious!! For that presentation, I wore my cute cupcake apron!

We gave away signed posters to some of the lucky students.

Over three lunch periods, eager readers and writers were selected by their teachers to come and have lunch with me. I made my way around the tables and gave them signed bookmarks and tried to answer all of their questions.

Such a fun day! Thank you Oregon Trail Elementary School students and staff for having me!

Thinking about school visits

Next spring, I will be participating in the Cavalcade of Authors, which I'm very excited and honored to be a part of. Middle school students from all over Washington's Tri-Cities come to learn about writing from a number of Pacific Northwest young adult authors in a full-day event. 

I'm leaving a day early so I can visit a middle school in Umatilla, a fairly rural area, the day before the Cavalcade. I'll be speaking to all of the students for about an hour.

I've been thinking about what I have to offer the students. I'm not a stand-up comedian, unfortunately. I know kids this age love to laugh, and I'll try to throw in some funny lines, but uh, it's really not my strength.

I'm thinking more along the lines of inspiration. I figure I'll share my bumpy path to publication, throwing in things I've learned along the way of pursuing my dreams - things that they can apply in their own lives. I want to inspire them to read and to write through personal stories - that those two things will help serve them well throughout life.

Do you think inspiration is a good goal to have at a school visit like this one? I'm curious how others might approach a one-hour talk like this one.