This weekend, my husband Gabriel, and our good friend Michael Booth, drove out to Marthasville, MO. Our 9th grade biology teacher, Ted Munnecke, and his wife Martha, were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Gabriel took this picture of me, Ted Munnecke, and Michael. It was a great evening, even if it was raining like crazy.

Every teacher wants their students to learn and succeed. But here and there, the academic universe glimmers with educators who inspire their students to think big, to be curious, and to actually love learning. Ted Munnecke (who retired in 1997 and now enjoys exploring the world and restoring historic log cabins) was that kind of teacher. Mr. Munnecke, or “Munn” as we call him, taught 9th grade biology, as well as more advanced classes like Marine Ecology, at Principia Upper School. He had already been teaching for a generation by the time I walked into his class as a freshman in 1990. In fact, Gabriel’s mom, Anna Lisa, was one of his students. Yet he still started each lesson with a look on his face that suggested he was about to tell us the most exciting secrets ever.

At least once a week, Munn sent us out into the woods with journal and pencil for solo time, showing us that our own observations were valid and worth recording. He also taught us about rainforests. First we learned about biodiversity, and then we learned about deforestation. On the back of the test for that unit, I sketched a tree falling over. Munn stopped by my desk and whispered, “it doesn’t have to be that way.” That simple thought helped inspire me to create my first book, A Walk in the Rainforest.

He also started the Teton Trip, which is an annual epic “field trip” to the Teton Science School in Kelly, Wyoming - during the last week in January. Principia has been sending juniors and seniors on this adventure since 1982. The idea is to make connections between art, science, and writing, as well as to connect the students to themselves, each other, and their environment. I started to ask big questions out there as a kid. (I love that I get to teach art on this program now that I am out of school and “all grown up”. Michael Booth, who got his Ph.D. in forest ecology from Yale, teaches the writing workshops. This year we co-wrote Wide-Eyed Weasels as a text book for this awesome program.)

My senior year, 1994, I took Munn’s Marine Ecology class. He let me paint an enormous coral reef mural down both sides of the hallway outside his classroom for my senior project. Now you can see how I was inspired to write my second book, A Swim through the Sea. He taught us about Jacques Cousteau, (who I eventually got to meet in person) and made us construct 3D models of imaginary filter feeder species.

I hope every kid gets at least one teacher like this.

I am excited that this year it’s working out to visit more local schools here in the St. Louis area! Today I spent the afternoon at MRH Elementary in Richmond Heights, MO, which is only about 15 minutes from my house. I gave two presentations - one for the 2nd and 3rd graders and the other for the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Gloria Neiman, who kindly organized this visit for me, ordered about 35 paperbacks and raffled them off to the lucky students. Above, you can see the kids patiently waiting for me to autograph their books. Thanks MRH!

Today I did another book signing with Rachel Crandell, the co-author of The Forever Forest. This time we met up at Main Street Books in St. Charles, MO. Rachel arranged this event, and it was good to catch up with her, since she has also been doing all kinds of school visits with the new book. She had just returned from a week of Earth Day events in Macomb, IL. I think with two of us touring, we will really get the message out about this book and the Children’s Rainforest.

I shared my new book, The Forever Forest, with them. This book tells the inspiring story of the Swedish second grade class who began a movement in 1987 to protect Costa Rican rainforests. Twenty years later, the Children’s Eternal Rainforest preserve in Monteverde, Costa Rica is now more than 54,000 acres - the largest private forest reserve in Central America.

In the photo above, I am showing the students a picture I took of the Children’s Rainforest when I went there last year to do research for the new book. One of the teachers said she had actually visited the Children’s Rainforest herself. I wouldn’t be surprised if this sharp group of kids figured out their own way to help this special place.

In the weeks before my visit, they started working on a pretty cool art project. First, they read my two books Salamander Rain: A Lake & Pond Journal and Saguaro Moon: A Desert Journal. Next, they got busy making their own habitat dioramas with sculpted animals inside. They were still working on painting the habitats, but in the picture below, you can see some of the animals they made. Thanks to Mary Ellen Kopsas for organizing this visit.

To help celebrate Earth Day, Rachel Crandell and I were invited to do a book signing with our new book, The Forever Forest: Kids Save a Tropical Treasure, and my very first book, A Walk in the Rainforest.

These are some of the kids. Aren’t they adorable? I spent two days at their school. I gave presentations for K-5 in the auditorium, where I talked about my new book, The Forever Forest: Kids Save a Tropical Treasure, which is all about the Children’s Eternal Rainforest in Monteverde, Costa Rica.

The teachers were all very friendly, and one even grabbed me a chai at the coffee shop across the street from the school. I was so grateful to actually have made it to the school that I forgot about how little sleep I had gotten in the process. The friendly tech staff did a quick job of setting up my laptop as soon as I arrived, even though I don’t speak more than two dozen words in Spanish.

I visited the Prekinder kids in their classrooms. I brought a giant stuffed clownfish from the library and read them A Swim through the Sea. I couldn’t believe how smart these little ones were. They asked some pretty clever questions that I hadn’t heard before, in all of my many school visits. My favorite one was: “do you know what’s inside the fish?” I was glad I had an illustration of a jellyfish in my book, so I could show him that we can see right inside some fish.

This is my marvelous host, Ms. Fiona. She is the librarian at ASFM (American School Foundation of Mexico). She, and her wonderful assistants, did all the organizing for this trip, and took great care of us while we were visiting Mexico. On Saturday, Fiona took Gabriel and me to see the Diego Rivera exhibit at the MARCO (the modern art museum).
I loved it. We ended up seeing the whole museum, which also included an exhibit of other Mexican painters, and a whole floor upstairs for women artists. I wasn’t all that familiar with Mexican art, and had a great time soaking it all in.

One of my favorite things I got to do with the students was a nature journaling workshop on Friday afternoon. Fiona had the third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers each select one or two students to participate, and I ended up with 24 kids in the library. First, I talked with them about what skills are needed to write and illustrate non-fiction books. What do scientists do? What do artists do? Then I asked the kids what qualities both artists and scientists need. Right away, one girl raised her hand and said “observation!” Well, that made it easy. Time to go outside and practice those observation skills.

I took them out to a courtyard, where we observed a large, flowering cactus. First we looked closely at different parts of the plant. Then we sat down in the shade and wrote a list of five things we noticed about the cactus. Finally, we drew a far-away view of the cactus, and then a close-up of part of it. The kids really got into it. Several of them started asking questions and forming hypotheses about things such as why the flowers grow on the outside of the cactus, or why smaller plants grow in the shade of the cactus arms. This was my favorite part of the whole visit. Thanks, ASFM!

My Aunt Kim is the Elementary School Principal of the The International School of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, and she sent me this adorable picture of the Pre-K class, who read A Swim through the Sea in their classroom, and painted lots of happy clownfish for an art project. Adorable!

As many couples do, my husband Gabriel and I alternate spending the holidays with one side of the family and then the other. This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family here in St. Louis, MO and Christmas with his family in Orinda, CA. Since The Lord’s Prayer, (my newest book with the Christian Science Publishing Society) had just been released, my mother-in-law kindly set up a signing for me at her local Christian Science Reading Room, which is a kind of Christian bookstore/study center. It was a perfect place to have a festive Christmas event. I sold a bunch of books, and lots of kids came by. I read to them, and they colored some wonderful pictures. There were also cookies and hot cider. Thanks for organizing this event, Anna Lisa!

I have 5 new books coming out during the 2007-2008 school year, so get ready! Of course I will post here as soon as these new books are available.

Well, today I had a chance to visit with the teachers at Wilson School after classes. I talked with them about how I got started making children’s books and the new books I have been working on. I also brought a few original acrylic paintings on canvas to show them. That’s the nice thing about visiting local schools here in St. Louis - I can bring out originial pieces on occasion.

It was a good surprise to find out that Christina Hoerner is now teaching science at Wilson. We went to high school and college together, and I hadn’t seen her in a long time.

I look forward to speaking with the Wilson students next week!

Remember hanging out with your dad when you were little? Did you go to a ball game? Did you read a book together? Did he help you with your homework? Papa’s Opera is the true story of the day Karl and his dad went to see an opera called The Magic Flute. Karl’ s dad wrote all the music. Karl’ s dad is Mozart. How cool is that?

To find out more and purchase signed copies, please visit: letterstomozart.com