Inspiring Day at #Kidlitpalooza 2017

On Saturday, April 1,  I participated in the second Kidlitpalooza, an event run by organizers of nErDcampLI. nErDcamp is an educational opportunity for teachers and librarians to learn from authors. Kidlitpalooza provides that same opportunity to kids. Here were the course offerings:

The event was attended by over 100 people. JoEllen McCarthy got the event going by introducing each author and having us each do a 3 minute read. Kids set a timer and dinged us when our time was up. I was so worried I wouldn't have enough to read in 3 minutes so was incredibly surprised when the ding came after a page. That 3 minutes sure went fast!

Charles Smith, Jr. wowed everyone during his turn by jumping up onto the stage and reading two poems that took exactly 3 minutes. 

After the 3 minute reads, it was time for the sessions. I taught two groups of kids about making the ordinary extraordinary. Though a series of writing activities, I helped them develop an interesting story about what they ate for breakfast. I was so pleased and impressed by the effort these kids put into writing - on a Saturday! Everyone I met, parents and teachers, were so excited about motivating these kids, and it showed.

Thank you to JoEllen McCarthy, nErDcampLI, and the staff of Northern Parkway Elementary School for creating such an amazing day. I hope to see you again next year!

#IMWAYR March 27, 2017

Each week I try to join Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers to share all of the reading I've done over the week from picture books to young adult novels. It's #IMWAYR.

Here's what I read this week:

Picture Book

This book was The Ugly Duckling with a wonderful twist. Kelp grows up a narwhal but he is really a unicorn. But unlike in The Ugly Duckling, Kelp, is accepted by both of his communities. It's a heartwarming story that would teach kids about accepting and embracing differences.

This book is simply hilarious. It emphasizes the point, "Be careful what you wish for." Kids will want it read again and again.

A fractured Cinderella tale where the Cinderella character plays baseball? What wouldn't I love about that? I can't wait to share this one with my class during our fractured tale unit.

Young Adult

When I read this book this week I hadn't heard the criticism and discussion about the representations in this book. Here are two different points of view by Justine Ireland and Sabaa Tahir.

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If you like my reading choices, you can check out all the books I've read on Goodreads and please leave a comment below. It's Monday, what have you been reading?

It's A Book!

I still can't believe that I celebrated the book birthday of The Perfect Trip on Friday. Unlike the first book in the series, The Sweet Spot, The Perfect Trip was based on a real life experience, a camping trip I took with my family when I was eight. 

Here are some pictures from that trip and the book cover created by Lois Bradley. 

I did not find it easy to take my personal experience and turn it into a book. I wrote a blog post for Middle Grade Minded last week where I shared the steps I had to take. Turning real life into fiction led me to my main character Sam and her journey, so it was definitely worth the revision work. 

Celebrations for The Perfect Trip started on Thursday night with a virtual book launch party. You can still log onto the party to answer questions and see more pictures from my trip. The celebration will continue next weekend at the Cos Cob Library in Greenwich from 3-4. 

I have lots of other upcoming events. You can see them all on the appearance page of my website. 

Happy Reading!

The Sweet Spot Series: 13-year-old Samantha Barrette tackles obstacles in pursuit of her dream to be a baseball player. In The Perfect Trip, Sam thinks she has finally achieved her goal of making the boys’ travel baseball team. But a cross-country family camping trip filled with secrets and surprises challenges everything she thought she knew about what the future will hold.

Buy it now at Amazon, Indie Bound, Barnes & Noble, or BAM.

Add it on Goodreads.