Hooray for Book Fairs!

I am a huge fan of a good Book Fair. 
For kids have no access to a real bookstore with books to touch and smell and share with friends and parents and little brothers and sisters, what could be more fun?

In fact, if invited to a Fair that's in my comfort zone (an easy drive from my house), I often turn up. Just to see all the books and hear what the kids are saying.

I also love it when my librarian friends send photos of their students enjoying my own book. 

So thank you very much, my North Carolina librarian buddy, Crystal Joyce, for these great photos.

I'll be smiling the rest of the week.

Book Fair Time!

Tomorrow I get to go to another BOOK FAIR. I love these days!

If you are near Dunedin (and who wouldn't want to be there on a beautiful sunny day?), stop in and say hello.

You can purchase the Scholastic Book Fair edition of THE WAY TO STAY IN DESTINY. My first book, GLORY BE, will also be available.

(Stay tuned for pictures.)



Everybody's welcome- hope to see some of you there. I'll be signing books from 1-3:00.

Curtis Fundamental Elementary
531 Beltrees St.
Dunedin, FL  34698

What Fun!

After a year and a half of talking to kids about writing Glory Be, I've learned a lot. One thing I'm sure of: If your publisher offers you what they claim is a Great Opportunity, take it.

The George Washington Carver School in Newark was just that. The kids were great. Their teachers were great. I loved this school.

Yes, it's June. It was warm in New Jersey. Carver School was celebrating Multi-Cultural Day with a big assembly. And some of the kids left early for a field trip to the Intrepid. A lot happens in this school. And yet the teachers had managed to share the book in class and teach their kids a lot about the 1960s. Every one of the 125 5th and 6th graders were beautifully prepared, well-read, and brilliant. I'm sure of it.

Here are the pictures to prove it.

The poster. Sigh.

Some of the messages:
Thanks for coming. 
We love your book.
I love your work. (I adore this remark!)
Thanks for being an author.

The kids, having fun! 
Posing with the poster.

(They were the best behaved listeners and questioners in the world.)









Scholastic Bookfairs, NJAfter3, and My Very Own Library teamed up to sponsor my visit. Scholastic donated books for every single 5th and 6th grade student at George Washington Carver and Bruce Street School for the Deaf.
(Way to go, Scholastic!)


Scholastic even sent me a ton of bookplates to sign, in case any of the kids forgot their books. Very few forgot. And those had printed a pic of the cover of Glory Be for me to sign.

(I have a lot of bookplates left. If anybody needs one, email or comment or Facebook message me, and I'll send it your way!) 




 

 These girls were part of the multi-cultural assembly. 

Dancers from the Dominican Republic!

 Here I am with the fabulous teachers. 

I loved chatting with them after my presentation. 

One had worked in a Freedom School and told me all about it. 

They'd all done an amazing job of preparing the kids. 

Thank you, ladies!

One teacher says her kids want to write a sequel: 

Whatever Happened To Robbie?

Now you know I love that...

(And a special shoutout to the Tech Guy, not pictured: Thank you for your help!)

What a way to end my school year, traveling with Glory Be!

I love letters.

And emails, too.

Finding this in my inbox, from a reader in North Carolina, makes me know all the hard work, all that revising, the research, the sweating over details--It's all worthwhile.

I just finished reading Glory Be - and burst into tears - you captured my childhood, right down to the charm bracelet! (which I still have)  I grew up with parents who were color blind and I had no idea what was going on in the world of the sixties, because for me, there was no prejudice in my home...later, I realized the schools were segregated, the churches were segregated - but in my world, the woman who cared for me and her family were welcome at events in our home and we were welcome in theirs. My siblings and I are now neighbors and friends with the third generation of this family - I am grateful for my childhood and grateful for your book showing me what was happening outside our own little world- and by the way, I did swim in the city pool with children both black and white and had no idea that was rare! 

Thank you, and I hope to share this book with others who may not realize what was going on...it personalizes that era beautifully. 

I am a retired teacher and currently a middle school librarian. I bought your book at our Scholastic Book Fair and just now had time to read it!