Putting a Face to the Author: Webcasts

This past Friday, a 2nd and 3rd grade class watched a Scholastic webcast during library featuring the authors Dav Pilkey and Jeff Kinney.  It was part of their centers time, so they watched about 7 minutes at most.  The idea was to expose them to authors so they could start to see them as real people.  And what two better authors to see then two of the most popular authors in children's chapter books?!  The webcast was great because it featured children in the audience who threw out suggestions for the authors to create a story smashup.  



It was a very visual affair with the stage being covered with sketchpads for the Pilkey and Kinney to draw the characters, setting, and conflicts for the impromptu story.  This part offered students a chance to see the creative process in beginning a story.  The webcast intentionally stops on a type of cliff-hanger since the viewing audience doesn't know how the story ends, but that is where the process becomes interactive.  What a great tech-y way to present a writing prompt!  In the coming weeks, I plan on passing over power to students and asking them to finish the story.

Later this month, Jeff Kinney will be featured in another webcast for the big reveal of the cover, title, and color of the next Wimpy Kid book!  You can bet I'm signed up for that one, too.

The author Andy Griffiths will be discussing his new series via webcast, The Treehouse Series and I plan on having my 5th graders watch this one.  I already have the books on order.

My mom had a good point in asking me if I put these webcasts on my Only2Clicks site and I will be including ones that are easily accessible under the "Author & Book Websites" tab.  Typically, you have to register for webcasts, but I have ones that are available with the click of a button.

Bienvenido a Miami and a Few Awesome Authors

This past week, I flew to Miami, FL for the Educational Book and Media Association (EBMA) Annual Conference. This is the concept of the conference: K-12 trade book wholesalers, classroom and library, meet with publishers in what has been termed “speed dating” to work out agreements, talk about exciting new products, or exchange advice about what product wholesalers are looking for. There are also morning sessions about relevant topics to the trade industry—this year it was technology in the classroom. The wholesalers and publishers have breakfast, lunch, and dinner together to get to know each other better.

Now, that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I get to talk about the fun stuff! During this trip, I got to meet Matt de la Peña, author of Ball Don’t Lie and his newest, I Will Save You (grades 9-12). He was such an inspirational speaker! He was very personable and humble, while being humorous. He creates relatable stories. I found it amazing that he had been close to his father, but then after his father got involved with drugs they grew apart. His father came clean after Matt’s younger sister ended up in the hospital because of her addiction. Nowadays, he and his father are very close.

I also got to meet Patrick Carman, author of The Land of Elyon series (I’ve met him while working at Borders too) and one of the contributors to The 39 Clues series, The Black Circle (grades 4-7). Carman had me crying, I was laughing so hard at his tales of growing up. He shared highlights of the Germanic 1920s stories his grandmother passed off to his mom to read to him. Let’s just say they were ridiculously moralistic stories, that are so over the top, you want to laugh…You had to be there to get it. Carman went on to talk about how he found the integration of the physical book and multimedia the next step in certain areas of publishing.

And to top off my week in Miami…I got to meet JUDY BLUME!!!!! OMG! OMG! As soon as I saw her walk in the first thing I thought was, she looks just like her photo. She is awesome! She was just getting over the flu, but she came in to speak to us and sign books anyway. She was very personable and down to earth. I loved when she shared the story about how her grandchild loved to listen to her stories on audio--Blume is the one who narrates them—and her daughter made the remark about how she grows up, moves away from her parents, has a house of her own, and yet, she still gets to hear her mom’s voice every day. Blume’s book, Tiger Eyes (grades 7-12), is going to be a movie…did you know that?

Blume is also huge anticensorship activist and supports the National Coalition Against Censorship.

And there you have it folks, my wonderful week of authors!

Sharon Draper, Louis Sachar, and Dan Gutman…The Joy In Author Visits

It’s amazing what you can find out about authors when they come in to sign books. The following three AWESOME authors listed came to The Booksource (where I work) all within the last week! One of the benefits to local schools having author visits! ;)

Sharon Draper came in town to talk about her new title Out of My Mind, about 11-year-old Melody who has struggled her whole life with not being able to speak a word because she has cerebral palsy (for complete review check out my company’s June e-newsletter, Booknotes). ***Sharon Draper would like to write a picture book***

Louis Sachar came in to sign his newest title The Cardturner, about high school student Alton, who spends his summer being his blind uncle’s cardturner for his weekly bridge games. ***Louis Sachar does not plan on writing any more companion books to Holes***

Dan Gutman signed his latest, The Talent Show. His book centers around an elementary school that decides to hold a talent show to raise funds to help rebuild their town after a tornado. ***One of Dan Gutman’s heroes is Gary Paulsen***

Wonder who I’ll get to meet next?