My second school visit in Houston was just as delightful as the first! John Cooper School is located on a beautiful wooded campus in The Woodlands, just north of Houston. The Woodlands is a unique town because the city planners made a special effort to leave as many trees standing as possible. The school itself looks like a great place to learn. I began the morning with a presentation to the K-2 students, and then moved to the library and talked with 3 small classes of 2nd graders about journal writing. These groups were all keeping tree journals – where each student studies a different tree and records observations and drawings in a journal. Today I taught them how to make borders around their journal pages, which they filled with animals they had seen around their trees. While the students were working in their journals, I got to write and paint in mine! What a treat! After lunch, I got a tour of the school. The Art Barn was especially exciting. I wish my school had an art barn. Then, I shared a power point presentation about nature journaling with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. I hope the kids had as much fun as I did!

Thank you, John Cooper School!

Yay! My first author visit of the 2004-2005 school year! What a great way to start out the year. Annunciation Orthodox School has a fabulous bunch of kids. I spoke with K-7 throughout the day, and we had a fun time discussing the book-making process, as well as nature journaling. I love spending time with students who are as eager to learn as these kids were. They especially connected with how I used to be very shy before I started to do lots of author visits. I shared with them how I thought that using one’s talents and preserving the natural world seemed more important to me than being scared of speaking. I think they could really relate, because every student at AOS has to give a speech some time during the year. I didn’t sign any books on the day of the talks, because I returned after my visit to John Cooper to autograph at the AOS book fair. Something that I said must have reached those students, because I completely sold out of books. The librarian then had to start taking orders, so I signed several book plates to place in the additional books. It was a little exhausting, but nothing beats seeing parents and their children that excited about reading! Thank you AOS!

Have you ever had an exciting adventure just sneak up on you out of nowhere and totally surprise you? That’s what happened to me this summer. (Yes, this is my “What I Did On Summer Vacation” report…) I was all ready to have a nice, relaxing summer break from my school visit schedule, with a trip out to California to see my husband’s family, and hopefully lots of time to work on new book ideas, when SURPRISE!, John Sant’Ambrogio, the Principal Cellist of the St. Louis Symphony called me up. I had no idea what to expect. I packed up a bunch of art supplies and some of my favorite children’s books, and then got in the car with 2 complete strangers and drove the 16 hours from St. Louis, MO to Steamboat Springs, CO. Welcome to Arts For The Soul!

This is a photo of my new friends Emily Ho (a violinist in her second season with the St. Louis Symphony), Davin Rubicz (a cellist from Seattle), Chris Woehr (Acting Principal Violist with the St. Louis Symphony), Dmitri Pogorelov (an amazing young Russian violinist finishing up his senior year at Lynn University in Boca Raton, FL), and me – in the middle of the 11-mile loop up to Devil’s Causeway. See the blizzard that is about to dump snow all over us in the background?

I couldn’t even begin to imagine how these two weeks would change my life. Every morning, classes in chamber music, creative writing, photography, and painting were offered. My official responsibilities included teaching workshops about children’s literature and nature journaling. Every afternoon, the students had the option of taking hikes of various levels of difficulty, or catching a ride into town to explore the independent bookstores and coffee houses. All these options offered inspiration for the next morning’s creativity. The students who attended all showed up with different skill levels. Gail arrived with a children’s book manuscript in hand, and made it through 4 or 5 editing rounds before the end of the first session. While Rachel had just begun to play the cello this March. But at the end of each week, everyone had the chance to share their progress with the group. Gail read her story, and Rachel played a piece on her cello composed especially for her by Chris Woehr, an avid composer and violist with the St. Louis Symphony. I can’t tell you how inspiring it was to sit by the fire after that first session and watch all these people stand up and share a painting, a photo, a piece of writing or a piece of music. My job as a visiting author gives me the chance to work with lots of amazing children, but to see adults who were told some time in their lives that their art wasn’t important, or that they weren’t good enough at it, overcome those formidible limitations was just sublime.

As a wonderful side benefit, I think my own art and writing was definitely enriched by getting out of the studio and talking with other professional painters and authors. But I was just floored by the musicians, since I have the musical sense of a doorknob. You know, I just can’t afford to hire a string quartet to play in my studio while I’m creating my children’s books. So you can imagine how wonderful it was to walk around the condo complex and hear Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, and Brahms echoing down the cooridors. Sometimes I would sneak into their practice sessions and paint or write in my journal during the time when I wasn’t teaching.

I just returned from a long, but fabulous, week visiting 7 schools in DeKalb County, IN. After visiting McKinney-Harrison last Thursday, things got really busy and I didn’t get a chance to write about all the rest of the awesome schools I visited. In order, they were: Waterloo, JE Ober, Riverdale, Country Meadows, Butler, and JR Watson. I was totally impessed by all the artwork and books made by the students at these schools. Good job, kids! Thanks so much to all the parents and teachers who made this week work so smoothly.

Hello from McKenney-Harrison School! Fourth grade teacher Mr. Kindler worked with his visiting author committee to bring me to the Auburn, IN area where I will visit 7 elementary schools over the next week and a half. Today I begin my tour with a visit to Mr. Kindler’s school. I gave 2 main presentations, one for the younger students and one for the older ones. Then I met with 2 smaller groups of kids over lunch. These were students that were particularly interested in writing or illustrating, and they were fired up with tons of questions. During the smaller group meetings, I had a chance to show the students some pages from my journals. I was very impressed that every grade had writing projects displayed in the library! Good job, McKenney-Harrison!

God bless parent volunteers! I love to see parents that care so much about their kids’ education. This is also the story of why I am so grateful that my husband took time out of his crazy web design business to build me a happy little author site. If he hadn’t, I never would have met Staci Harrold. Staci, a mother of two from Pennsylvania, emailed me at the beginning of the year to ask if I would visit her daughter’s school. She did a Google search for “author visit” and found my ad. I guess she liked my website because she had never heard of me before. Staci did a great job organizing everything, and we worked out a half day schedule for this morning. Well, I flew in to Pittsburgh last night , and had no more dumped my bags in my hotel when two third grade teachers, Ms. Brody and Mrs. James (and the entertaining Mr. James!) arrived to take me to the Monterey Bay Fish Grotto for dinner. I have to say that a gorgeous view of the Pittsburgh skyline, and the three rivers, not to mention the delicious macadamia-encrusted mahi mahi, is a pretty great way to start out a school visit trip. After dinner, I settled down in my room to autograph the books.

Today, I gave 2 presentations at Gill Hall Elementary. First I spoke with the primary students, and then the upper elementary. In between the two presentations, I had a chance to visit with David Pribish from the Mon Valley Education Consortium. Staci Harrold applied for, and received a grant from this amazing organization which payed for my visit and a set of my books for each classroom. It was great to connect with David so he could see how his grant was put into action. I love to see schools receiving this kind of support. After the talks, I toured the school to give award certificates to each classroom for their amazing door decorations. This is a picture of me with Ms. Brody’s third graders and their remarkable rainforest door. Next, the teachers & parents provided a catered lunch in the art room. Thank you Gill Hall School! Go Jaguars!

P.S. On the way to the airport, Staci told me that she was inspired to bring an author to Gill Hall because an author visited her school when she was in second grade. Just the kind of encouragement I needed!

Hello from Iowa! I spent the day at Grant Wood School in Cedar Rapids today, where I got to speak with some wonderful students. My husband Gabriel drove up with me (it’s about five and a half hours from St. Louis) because we plan to visit the new National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in the Port of Dubuque, Iowa on our way home tomorrow. It’s great to have company on these author adventures! Well, our hotel room was very nice, but we didn’t see very much of it because we arrived in Cedar Rapids at about 2:00am last night. This morning, we arrived at Grant Wood School at 8:00am and were greeted by teachers and staff, and a delicious buffet breakfast. A fabulous way to start the day. Next I signed some books, and then met with two groups of students who had made their own books for a contest. It’s an interesting idea – making a book as a team. One team of 3 girls made a book about what it means to be a good friend to someone, and the other team of 3 boys make a book about Cub Scout Pinewood Derby races. I spoke with the 4th and 5th graders before lunch, which was a tasty buffet of homecooked dishes catered by Barb Fulton. In the middle of lunch, some students even popped in to perform the Grant Wood Griffons cheer at the top of their lungs! In the afternoon, I visited with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders. This is a picture of me talking with some 5th graders who made a journal book for a class assignment. I love it! All these kids practicing their writing, illustration, AND their cooperating skills by making books together! The teachers were very generous and gave me lots of Grant Wood Griffons swag – I felt like I had just joined NPR or PBS! (…and at the $40 level, we have this lovely mug…) Mr. Hosford, the Media Specialist, even gave me a framed painting of an orchid he did himself! I was also given a copy of the ABC book “H is for Hawkeye: An Iowa Alphabet” which was autographed by all the Grant Wood teachers. Wonderful — I have the Michigan and Missouri alphabets in that series already. At the end of the day, Mr. Hosford invited Gabriel and me to go hot air ballooning with him, but we were so tired that we went back to our hotel and slept until 8:30pm. It was a nice offer, though. Thank you Grant Wood Griffons!

Today I had the opportunity to speak with a whole school full of 4th graders! I visited Harris Elementary in Amherst, Ohio as part of their Right to Read Week. This is a picture of me with some students who helped make gorgeous ocean and rainforest murals in preparation for my visit. I was thrilled with the intelligent questions that the students asked, and how well they sat and listened. Keep up the good work. Thanks to Mrs. Gambish for her wonderful hospitality – and all the teachers for their hard work to make this day happen. Thank you Harris Elementary!

We’re having a beautiful spring here in the Midwest! The forsythias, cherries, and magnolias have already blossomed, and now the red buds are bursting out everywhere. How fitting that I got to spend the morning driving an hour through sunlit farmland to Red Bud, Illinois to speak at a young author conference! I gave a 30 minute talk to students and parents, autographed books and answered questions. I was thrilled to see so many parents resist the temptation to work in their yards and support their children instead. Every one of the approximately 150 students at the conference made a book, which they proudly showed off to the parents. Congratulations to all the young authors!

Hi folks! I just got back to St. Louis from Carterville, IL. I spent all day at Tri-C Elementary talking with some pretty neat kids. I gave two big presentations – one for the older students and one for the younger ones, and then met with smaller groups for the rest of the day to answer questions. The students colored some awesome posters welcoming me to their school. This evening I got to speak with some parents as well. After my talk, we had punch and cookies and many of the students’ own books that they made were on display for the parents to see. It’s fabulous to see so many parents supporting their kids’ love of reading and writing! Thank you Tri-C Elementary!