Meeting with students in Georgia, Michigan and Montana …

It was a fun couple of days presenting to all of the 5th grade students from Riverside Elementary in Evans GA over the course of two sessions, and then catching up with two schools who had been scheduled for quick drop-ins for World Read-Aloud Day but who got ice-stormed out.

It was a small but mighty group in St. Louis MO made up of avid readers who asked GREAT questions. Their teacher emailed later to let me know that one of her students left the meeting completely in AWE and said “my year has been made!” Isn’t that the kind of feedback that melts an author’s heart?

During one of the sessions with Riverside, a student who is writing a big fat fantasy novel with a friend came up to the screen and we had a GREAT discussion about what to do when you write yourself into a corner. At St. Pat’s in MI, we had a great conversation about how those things that challenge us also become our gifts.

I miss seeing readers in person, so it’s great to meet with kids through the ether this way.

Trapped in Hitler’s Web, Jan 23 event

Marta Czurylowicz did a wonderful job of moderating this virtual book event, or should I say events? It was supposed to be a single presentation but in order to reduce the audience size we did two back to back presentations. The questions were very interesting! I was thrilled to find out that Marta received an autographed copy of Hope’s War from her mother as a gift twenty years ago and receiving that book was one of the reasons she decided to go into journalism. That makes me so happy! Many thanks to Tania Onyschuk of Koota Ooma who organized the virtual event, and the Shevchenko Scientific Society for hosting the webinar. Thanks also to TWUC and the Canada Council for funding.

Virtual visit, classroom style

I virtually visited with Emily Stowe Public School in Norwich Ontario today and it was nice to be back. The last time I was here was in the winter of 2019 when the pandemic was not in our lexicon.

This was the first time I’ve visited with in-class students (ie, instead of each student logging in from home) since the beginning of the pandemic and it felt like a step towards normal. Thanks for the great questions, everyone!

Author visits while in isolation

It’s such a different way of life for all of us right now, as we all work together to stop the spread of COVID-19. It’s an especially difficult challenge for students and teachers who can only meet via screen for now. This spring was going to be a busy one for me, filled with lots of school visits and award events but everything has been canceled. There’s been one bright glimmer, though. Scholastic Book Fairs has been able to organize some Zoom visits, with students and teachers participating from home. I did two of these recently, one on Friday with Solar Prep in Dallas, and another today, with St. Laurence School in Sugar Land Texas.