Chicago School Visits (finally!)

Hey everyone,

I did lots of fun events in Chicago a couple weeks ago... and I've been meaning to post these pics ever since then!  One of my school visits was to the eighth graders of Bateman, who read Red Glass.  What an incredible visit-- I loved the teachers and students I met, and was blown away by their enthusiasm.  It's such a joy doing school visits like this, where the students have thought really deeply about the book and connected with it in so many interesting ways.

Delicious taco lunch with students...

The teacher, Mrs. Tellez, worked with university professor and author Steve Wolks to put together phenomenal activities to go with Red Glass.  (Steve is writing a book for educators on using literature in the classroom to explore social issues, and Red Glass will be featured in the chapter on global social issues.  I can't wait to read this book, and I'm sure I'll be recommending it heartily, based on seeing his ideas at work in the classroom.)  Here's a smattering of some of the activities displayed on the eight-grade classroom walls-- the first involves writing about memories:

They also did some interesting extension activities-- one involved learning more about the genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Guatemala.  And they took the international theme a step farther by talking about journeys they'd like to make... 

Inspired by the poetry that Sophie reads to Pablo and Angel on the roadtrip, students wrote their own journey poems:

And another poetry activity, to encourage students to make connections with poetry outside the book:

Here's another fun activity:

Not surprisingly, many students picked the scene in the world's most disgusting bathroom! ;)

I love seeing readers' visual interpretations of characters and scenes-- so much fun!

Hehehe! 

Here I am with the teacher, Mrs. Tellez, who put so much energy into making the Red Glass reading experience special for her students!  I'm grateful to her and Steve Wolks for letting me share their activities with you all...

Before Chicago, I was in Michigan for an event at Schuler Books (a great indie bookstore), I did a library presentation to a fabulous audience of avid readers and book clubbers.  Here I am with some teens from the library's teen group and the genius behind it all, librarian Mary Hennessey.  The world has some pretty spectacular teen librarians in it... and I'm lucky enough to meet a lot of them!  And the teen readers were so smart and funny and insightful... it was lovely having dinner with them after the presentation.

 I also did another fun school visit in Chicago, and had a lovely day with folks at the IRA conference-- I'll share those pics in my next post-- time to get Lil  Dude dressed and ready for his day now!

xoxo
Laura

Nebraska, Teen Lit Conference, Bookies...

Irena, Emma, Ruta, me, and Krista at my signing at Bookies in Denver

Hey everyone,

I've had an eventful week! I was in Blair, Nebraska for middle and high school visits-- had a great time there. Such nice people... Here I am with Anne and Dianne, librarians extraordinaire from the high school.


Check out this lovely display in the library...


I love feeling welcomed to a school with creative displays-- what a treat...


Here's a close up of the jewels-- cool, huh?


Pretty flowers...


And there's nothing better than being greeted with a six-foot-tall painting of your book cover! Here I am with middle school librarian Kris, who set up this whole wonderful visit...


Here's the artistic, book-lovin' man, Lynn-- a former English teacher-- who created this masterpiece!


Just after I got back from Nebraska, I had the Colorado Teen Lit Conference on Saturday in Denver. I got to hang out with the lovely Ellen Hopkins (of Impulse, Crank, etc fame...) and Matt de la Pena (Mexican White Boy, Ball Don't Lie, We Were Here-- he gave a fantastic, hilarious keynote, and he's a Delacorte author like me.) Here I am with Matt and Ellen...


I was on a panel with my good friend Todd Mitchell and some other fantastic authors who I was happy to finally meet! Here I am with Todd, who is very witty-- always cracks me up-- and he often waxes philosophical about writing-- I love hearing him quote the native American shaman Black Elk as he discusses how writers must enact our visions upon the earth (or something along those lines...) So true!


Todd Mitchell's next book coming in June-- it is SOOOOOO good! I've read an early draft, and I can't wait to read the final version...


Becca Fitzpatrick was another fabulous panelist-- I was so thrilled to meet her-- turns out we both live in Ft Collins and have boys the same age. It was especially exciting to hear that she, like me, watched Romancing the Stone a hundred times as a kid, and that it inspired her, too, to become a writer. And actually, once I thought about it, I realized I have had crazy bus adventures in Latin America, kinda like Kathleen Turner did... minus, of course, the alligators and emeralds and Michael Douglas... but it's funny to see some parallels. I didn't actually make this connection until I heard Becca talking about it on the panel!


Amy Efaw was another super-friendly and smart panelist-- she wrote After, which I'm really looking forward to reading-- I've heard it's an amazingly well-executed book. It's about a teen who throws her baby in a Dumpster... yet Amy manages to make you feel for the main character, despite the horrific act.


Tucker Shaw was the fifth panelist-- also a fascinating and nice person. I can't wait to read his newest book-- check out the pretty cover. I love the golden light. And there's a great story behind his inspiration for this book, involving another book (of poetry) slipping from the shelf into his hand as he was dusting... sweet serendipity!


Okay, that's all for now! Must get ready for the week ahead, which includes two school visits in Boulder... we're in the thick of school visit season now. Lots of fun, but very busy. I love going to Boulder-- I always stock up on exotic teas from the Boulder Teahouse and buy something cool at the second-hand shop downtown...

xoxo,
Laura

South Texas School Visits!

Hey everyone!

I spent a lovely morning in my trailer writing about The Jade Notebook and doing some interesting sea-turtle-related research for it. It feels good to get back to this book after time away from it traveling and working on other manuscripts (The Queen of Water and The Ruby Notebook).

So, as promised, here are pics from my super-fun school visits in south Texas last week! I *love* doing author visits when the students are this enthusiastic! Thank you for an amazing visit, guys!


Check out the looooong autographing line... I need to learn to sign books faster... but at least everyone was patient!


Look at the pretty Oaxacan shawl they gave me! Love the color-- makes me think of sunsets and mangos and melons and tropical flowers...


Here I am with Lucy and Ann, two of the librarians who orchestrated my visit-- we had fun in the evenings going out to eat yummy Tex-Mex food... one night a few of us went to South Padre Island for seafood and a walk along the beach... heavenly!

We had great food for lunches, too-- here we are at a Texas Barbeque place-- check out the drinks -- an entire pitcher per person to drink out of... isn't there some saying about how BIG everything is in Texas? ;)


The whole school district community gave me an enthusiastic welcome-- not just teachers and librarians and students, but the entire wonderful staff! Here I am with Cristobal, who's a fan of Oaxaca, like me...


Here I am with the awesome library folks at Biblioteca de las Americas... just after they spoiled me rotten with flowers and a fruit basket complete with Goobers!



Here's Luci Wiley-- English teacher and librarian extraordinaire... love the shirt! ;)

So many cool librarians with their cool T-shirts...


I even got to do a writing workshop with some teachers after school one day... loads of fun, lots of laughing! This is such a close-knit, warm community.


I loved all the small, thoughtful touches, like how one school played romantic Mexican songs as I signed books, and arranged these white flower blossoms (from the book!) by the autograph sign!

Interestingly, my first contact with this wonderful school district was Minnie Vasquez, of Athena's YA Blog (which is fabulous-- you should check it out!)-- she's a teacher there (and a creative writer herself.)

In the next post I'll show you pics of some cool art projects the students did, inspired by Red Glass! Thanks for reading!

xoxo,
Laura