Back in September I was beyond thrilled when another Media Specialist in my county sent an email out telling us that she was hosting Henry Cole on March 1st and wanted to know if anyone else was interested in joining on to his visit. After talking to my principal and the school PTA, I let her know that we wanted him to come to my school.
Little did I know than, how much work went into a school visit by an author/illustrator! I've seen many authors/illustrators speak at conference and even at school, but I was always a observer, not the person in charge. It is a WHOLE different ballgame when you are in charge of the visit!!
It doesn't help that I'm a Type-A personality, but I had to have everything spelled out and organized. I made sure it was so organized that if I had to be gone, the visit would run smoothly. (Little did I know, I would have to miss part of his visit.)
I sold his books ahead of time. I think ordering the books was the hardest part of the whole visit. In order to order the books, we had to jump through many hoops. If I had known how many hoops we would have to jump through, I would have started the whole process a little bit earlier than I did. The other lesson I learned about ordering books, make sure to order extra books. Many of my teachers who didn't order when we did the pre-sale, wanted books after hearing him speak.
If you have not had the opportunity to see Henry Cole speak, you are missing out! He is a dynamic speaker who engages children of all ages and adults as well. His stories will make you laugh out loud, no matter what your age. Henry Cole also inspires the children to be readers, writers, and illustrators. I really loved two things that he told all the children. The first was he always carries paper and pencils with him, that way he can work wherever his is. The other thing that I loved was when he was explaining to the students how many times he had to draw an illustration or rewrite a book before he got it correct. It really made an impression that even a great author/illustrator had to do things over and over and over again before he was satisfied.
Henry Cole's visit was an huge success! The kids had a wonderful time. The teachers/staff enjoyed his stories. They all are still talking about his visit. He got the highest compliment from one of my Second Grade classes, they said that his visit was worth missing PE!
On a personal note, I was so thankful how understanding Henry Cole was because I had to leave in the middle of his visit. I had to attend a funeral of a dear family friend. She was like a second mother to me. I felt I needed to be there for her family. That is why I'm wearing red in this picture; it was her signature color.
Happy Reading!!
Stacey (@libraryjo92)
This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey. The kid's version was started by the lovely ladies at Teach Mentor Text.
I did get more reading done than I thought I would this week and weekend. I didn't meet my goal of reading 10 nonfiction books this past week, but I did read 5 nonfiction books. Below, I'll talk about the ones I read and my favorites out of the 5 books. I would have gotten more read, but I had to work on my taxes and I got sick towards the end of the week. I was starting to develop two ear infections.
I'm still reading The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin. I'm really just fascinated by rise and fall of Benedict Arnold. I haven't gotten to the point where he turned against his county. I'm really curious about what led up to him committing those acts. I'm reading this book while I'm at physical therapy, so I only read it two times a week. I have therapy today, so I can't wait to see what happens next!
I'm always looking for Titanic books. My kids are totally obsessed with the disaster. All of my Titanic books have been well loved. Dangerous Waters by Gregory Mone will be in my Spring Scholastic Book Fair and I wanted to read it because I know that the kids will be interested in it. Click here for a summary on Goodreads. I'm as bad as my kids, I read anything and everything about the Titanic. (But I really didn't like the movie.) I really enjoyed this book, the characters were very likable and the story of the thief kept me interested. I just loved how Gregory Mone really meshed fact and fiction in this book. I enjoyed learning more about one of his main characters, who was actually a real person, Harry Elkins Widener. It was interesting to learn that after he died on the Titanic, his mother paid a lot of money to have a library built and named after him at Harvard. It just goes to show you there are still some many stories associated with the Titanic that we might never know.
When I was in Target one day last week, I found The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen. I had forgotten that it was being published this month. Click here for a summary on Goodreads. This is the second in The Ascendance Trilogy. I, like many others, was worried that the sequel wouldn't live up to the first one. Well, I was not disappointed!! I loved this one as much as The False Prince. Jennifer A. Nielsen made me love the characters even more than I did in the first one and made me change my mind about one character. The only problem that I did have, is now I have to wait for last book in this wonderful trilogy. On an up-note, Jennifer A. Nielsen is writing book six in the Infinity Ring series. It comes out in December 2013. If you haven't started the Infinity Ring series, you really need to, it is great!
I'm happy I got through 5 nonfiction books, even though it wasn't the 10 that I hoped for. The books I read were Insect Fossils by Kathleen Connors, Face to Face with Polar Bears by Norbert Rosing with Elizabeth Carney, Harlem's Little Blackbird (The Story of Florence Mills) by Renee Watson, Zoo Borns! by Andrew Bleiman and Orangutans Are Ticklish by Steve Grubman with Jill Davis.
My two favorite's were: Harlem's Little Blackbird and Orangutans Are Ticklish. These books couldn't be more different from each other. Harlem's Little Blackbird is all about Florence Mills. I had never heard of Florence Mills before this book. I learned a lot about this talented lady, who grew up in Washington D.C. I really want to learn more about her. Click here for a summary from Goodreads. Orangutans Are Ticklish is a book of fun facts from an animal photographer. It was really neat to read the thoughts of Steve Grubman, who was the animal photographer. I never really thought about the photographers who get those great shots in the nonfiction books. This book gives the kids a great behind the scenes look at being an animal photographer. Click here for a summary from Goodreads.
Happy Reading!!
Stacey (@libraryjo92)
This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey. The kid's version was started by the lovely ladies at Teach Mentor Text.
I didn't get a lot of reading done this week because of the funeral for my friend and my visit from Henry Cole. I did manage to finish one book and start another.
The book that I finished was I Survived The Battle of Gettysburg, 1863 by Lauren Tarshis. Click here for a summary from Goodreads. I just love this series. I have found that this series has gotten a lot of my reluctant readers to actually pick up a book. They are short enough to not be overwhelming, but long enough to give a full understanding of the historical event.
The other book that I have started is The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin. Click here for a summary from Goodreads. I saw this book mentioned in Steve Sheinkin's Bomb, and I thought that it looked very interesting. I'm finding his life extremely interesting and I'm learning so much about Benedict Arnold. I'm also going to be looking for Sheinkin's newest, Lincoln's Grave Robbers. It sounds like another good one.
I'm trying to get back to reading all the nonfiction books I've checked out from the library. My goal is to read 10 nonfiction books this week. I figure if I post it, I'm more than likely going to follow through.
I'll also post, later this week, about my visit from Henry Cole. A great time was had by all.
Happy Reading!!
Stacey (@libraryjo92)
On a personal note, I was so thankful how understanding Henry Cole was because I had to leave in the middle of his visit. I had to attend a funeral of a dear family friend. She was like a second mother to me. I felt I needed to be there for her family. That is why I'm wearing red in this picture; it was her signature color.
