Events

Nerdy Author Night

Posted by on Sep 19, 2018 in Events | 0 comments

A Nerdy evening with authors and illustrators (1) (1)Nerdy Author Night is always a fantastic event–great authors and illustrators, enthusiastic readers, lots of cool books for sale! Don’t miss it!

Morse Street School in Freeport
Friday, September 28, 2018
6:00-8:00pm

Park at Morse Street School or in the LLBean parking lot, come on in, and enjoy a Nerdy Night!

 

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Chenery Book Festival

Posted by on Jun 8, 2018 in Book: Deadly Flowers, Book: Deadly Wish, Events, Ninjas | 0 comments

IMG_0627 Version 2I love this book festival in Belmont, Massachusetts! Always a great crowd of interesting, engaging, talented writers and kids, parents, and teachers who are enthusiastic about books. This year I brought along the Ninja Rope Puzzle to promote Deadly Flowers and Deadly Wish, and watched pair after pair of brave aspiring ninjas try to get themselves untangled. They all made it (eventually!)

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Artists at Eldredge

Posted by on May 18, 2018 in American History, Educators & Librarians, Events, School Visits, Secrets of the Seven, SERIES: Secrets of the Seven | 2 comments

Last week I was visiting schools in East Greenwich, RI. At Eldredge Elementary some very talented artists had created posters for me based on the first three books of the Secrets of the Seven series. Marvelous! I love seeing books inspire creativity.

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The Eureka Key

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The Eagle’s Quill. Note very faithful representation of the three main characters–Marty with her glasses, Sam in a cool tye-dyed sweatshirt, and Theo (very tall!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Ring of Honor. In this poster, Alexander Hamilton has joined our three heroes in a search through Manhattan for his grave. Cool and slightly creepy!

 

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How to Do a School Visit Right

Posted by on May 11, 2018 in Author Visits, Educators & Librarians, Events | 0 comments

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The author’s parking spot!

Last week I went to Biddeford Intermediate School to talk with the third, fourth, and fifth graders about poetry. If you want to try being a rock star for a day, you should be the visiting author at Biddeford Intermediate.

They reserve a parking space out front “for the author.” All the kids line up to clap as you walk into the building. (For real!) They brought me snacks (yes, I am a sucker for chocolate) and an actual gift bag with goodies and a new blank book and a gorgeous pair of earrings. !!!

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Wow! And I needed a new journal. How did they know?

This sounds like a school just needs to offer me earrings and chocolate to melt my heart. (This is partly true. Earrings are optional.) But it’s not the whole story.
The kids just vibrated with excitement when they came into my workshops. They called my name in the hall and waved and a few of them jumped up and down. When I made eye contact their faces glowed. They were excited about words, about books, about poetry. Their teachers treat a visiting author like a celebrity and that fills the kids up with passion for writing and art and creativity.

The kids wrote incredible poetry.

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Some of the poetry the kids created, based on the images from Imagine a Night. This was before I even arrived!

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That’s why the gifts and the parking space and the chocolate are important–not because I need these things to enjoy a school visit (although, again, chocolate does not hurt) but because they are visible symbols of the commitment of the teachers at BIS to helping their kids care about literature. They are the real rock stars.

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