Around the Neighborhood in the Garden
Author Sarah L. Thomson (that’s me!) reads her picture book Around the Neighborhood.
Such fun visiting the Friends School of Portland to share Around the Neighborhood for their Stories by the Garden program! If you’re in the Portland area with little ones, do check out this program. What’s nicer than a visit to sweet, scenic Mackworth Island, a story to hear, and maybe a picnic lunch to enjoy afterward on the trail that goes all around the island?
The kiddos were energetic and delightful. We read the book (in the gym rather than the garden, due to weather), sang the song, and then scattered outside for a scavenger hunt.
This is such a happy, adventurous book for a summery activity or story hour. Check out the fun and free Activity Kit if you’d like to recreate our scavenger hunt. We had a great time!
Read MoreHappy Birthday E.B. White
Happy Birthday to E.B. White, a fellow Maine author and an inspiration, who once wrote to a young correspondent who asked when he’d have his next book out:
Read More“I would like to write another book for children but I spend all my spare time just answering the letters I get from children about the books I have already written. So it looks like a hopeless situation unless you can start a movement in America called ‘Don’t write to E. B. White until he produces another book.'”
Cub’s Big Read
Two readers doing what readers should do, at a book fair at Chenery Middle School. Kudos to super-librarian Karen Duff for pulling off a magnificent event, and may there be many more!
Read More
Tea & Celebrity
Just back from a three-day visit to Biddeford Intermediate School. Oh, my, my, my! The kids lined up to clap and cheer when I arrived. They sang me a song with fabulous percussion accompaniment at the assembly. And the Life Skills class baked me lemon-poppyseed cake and chocolate chip muffins and brought me tea every single day.
Now, while it’s nice (and I won’t deny it) to be treated like a rock star for three days, the really amazing thing was the way all of this enthusiasm and energy from the teachers and staff was transmitted to the students. They came into my writing workshops with wide eyes, bubbling over with glee, convinced that a middle-aged, mid-list children’s writer is a celebrity, that books and writing and the people who create them are the coolest things ever. That was way more than I could have done on my own in three days of one-hour writing workshops. My writer pals, if you ever get invited to Biddeford Intermediate–go. And not just for the muffins.
Sarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Thomson focuses on newfound connection, magic, and suspense to conjure a fast-paced, heartwarming mystery. Thomson’s world is populated by resourceful protagonists, fanciful creatures, and quirky supporting characters.”
—Publishers Weekly