Hello School District 83!

I am busy organizing my presentation materials and beginning to pack for my trip to Salmon Arm, Armstrong, Sorrento and Sicamous next week. I will be visiting schools there and look forward to meeting all the students and staff.

It is a double pleasure for me to travel to the area because this is the school district where I was a teacher some years (decades!) ago. I have many happy memories of teaching at Armstrong Elementary School. In fact, it was teaching those classes of primary children that led to my becoming a writer — something I've never forgotten.

A big thank you to my friend and colleague, Chris McMahen, who invited me to the schools and organized my trip. Chris is a teacher-librarian in the district and he is also a popular and award-winning author. His most recent (and wonderfully written) book, Box of Shocks, just won the Manitoba Young Readers Choice Award. Hooray for Chris!

And now, it's back to packing... See you soon, District 83.

And Happy Spring to everyone else. I hope it's sunny where you are.

Cheers!

Thank you, Kent Elementary!

A big bouquet of thanks to the students and staff of Kent Elementary School for making me feel so welcome yesterday! It was wonderful to meet you all. From the attentive audiences, to the potluck lunch, student research projects on the wall, and the sign on the front of the school, it couldn't have been a nicer time!

Thank you especially to teacher-librarian, Karen Dumas, for inviting me and organizing the visit. Thank you to the PAC for making it possible, and to principal, Chris Wejr, and his wonderful staff and students. It was an amazing day!

Hello Kent Elementary!

I have the pleasure of visiting Kent Elementary School this week. Here's a photo from the school's website.

The school is situated in the scenic Fraser Valley and I look forward to seeing the mountains and trees on the drive out.

More importantly, I am excited to meet the students and staff who so kindly invited me to visit. See you all soon.

Cheers!

Thank you to Osler Elementary!

A big thank you to Patricia Bartha, teacher-librarian, and the students at Sir William Osler School in Vancouver. It was lovely to spend the afternoon with you yesterday! You were a fabulous audience, full of great questions and comments. :-)

When I looked out the windows of the school library, I could see several ornamental cherry trees in full bloom.

Here on the west coast, it is the season for beautiful blossoms and for spring school visits. What a wonderful combination!

I'm looking forward to spending a day at Kent Elementary in Agassiz next week. See you soon.

Cheers!

Happy About Hackmatack!

I just received the happy news that my book, Rescuing the Children, has been nominated for the Hackmatack Award. This is the children's choice award from the Atlantic provinces. Hooray!!!

The kind folks who administer the award apply for Canada Council grants to bring authors to their region for the award ceremony and for tours in the local schools. This will all happen in Spring 2014 (which seems a long time away), but nevertheless, I am thrilled!

If you are interested in reading more about the Hackmatack Awards, please go here.

By the way, the award is named after a tree (a species of Larch) that grows in the Atlantic provinces. The photo above shows the tree in bloom.

I look forward to seeing the tree in person. :-)

Cheers!

Quote About Writing

I enjoy hearing about other authors' feelings on writing, and I'm always pleased when I come across a quote I haven't heard before. Today, I read this one by Gloria Steinem:

"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else."

And that's exactly how I feel.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Dr. Seuss was born on March 2, 1904, so today we salute his contribution to the world of children's books. Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!!!

I was reading a bio of him on Writer's Almanac (check out the March 2 entry) and came across a quote that I had not seen before. He said, "Writing for children is murder. A chapter has to be boiled down to a paragraph. Every word has to count." 

Apparently, Dr. Seuss spent nine months writing the Cat in the Hat. I'm not surprised at all. It is true that shorter books for younger children often take more time to write than longer manuscripts. What did surprise me, however, was how well it sold. Here's another quote from the article: "Within a year of publication, The Cat in the Hat was selling 12,000 copies a month; within five years, it had sold a million copies." Wow! That is impressive.

Today, I have been trying to pick my favourite Dr. Seuss story and it is not an easy choice. One of the books I read again and again (both for myself and my children) was Bartholomew and the Oobleck (remember the great gobs of green goo that fell from the sky?) But there are many other wonderful stories, too. 

Which one is your favourite?

Happy Birthday, and thank you, Dr. Seuss!