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| The World's Largest Jack Rabbit in Odessa, TX |
Now is
the time of year when the school year comes to an end, and similarly my “school
visit” year has come to an end as well. In 2013-2014 I had the opportunity to
visit many wonderful schools across North America. If I was more diligent at
keeping up my blog I would have devoted a blog entry to each school, but since
I am a sporadic blogger I’ll try to lump them all together in one entry.
I don’t
think British Columbia and Louisiana come into direct competition very often (not
a whole lot of curling on the bayou) but for some reason they seemed to be involved
in a contest to see which one could delude me into feeling like a literary celebrity.
They each booked me for a full week. In British Columbia I spent the entire
week working with a school full of young authors at Taylor Elementary. It was a
rare treat to be able to spend multiple days with the students, sharing first
my author/illustrator presentation, then having multiple workshop sessions with
each class.
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| This is me drawing a caricature of a contest winner in Taylor, BC |
In
Shreveport Louisiana I spent the week visiting 6 different schools and
participating in their city wide Art Break, where the city’s convention center
is devoted to student art and performance from across the parish. And they had
a definite agenda, and that was to send me home heavier than when I arrived.
Fried green tomatoes, crawfish, and barbeque were among their weapons of
choice.
I also
got to visit my first military base school in Fort Leavenworth Kansas. I made
it to schools in both Carolinas, Texas, and Ohio. I was able to visit family and
friends while visiting schools in Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.
I visited students in my neighboring state of Massachusetts, and finished up with
a visit to a school in Jamaica (Jamaica, Vermont, just 45 minutes up the road
from me).
Here a
few things I learned this past year:
1) In Canada they pronounce “The A to Z
Mysteries” as “The A to Zed Mysteries.”
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| Coming in for a landing in Canada. |
2) To eat a crawdad, twist off the
head, suck the juice out of the head, pinch the tail, pull out the meat (eat
it), then suck the claws. And most importantly: DON’T TOUCH YOUR EYES FOR THE
NEXT 48 HOURS! (the spices burn).
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| This a small serving of crawdads. Cathy and Louis Smith demonstrate the proper technique. |
3) The world’s largest jack rabbit is
in Odessa Texas.
4) In Hershey PA Chocolate Avenue is
lined with Hershey Kiss streetlamps.
5) There is a life size replica of
Stone Henge in Odessa Texas (not sure if the Druids would know what to make of
Armadillos).
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| Stone Henge, Texas style |
6) Vince-a-saurus, Maddy-a-saurus, and
Akeem-a-saurus are a few of the First Grade Dinosaurs in South Carolina
7) Kids who attend school on military
bases do NOT have to salute their teachers
It was
a great year, and I would like to thank all of the teachers, librarians, PTO
& PTA parents, principals and community leaders who worked hard to make my
visits possible.
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| A workshop with students in Clayton, NC |
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| One of many royal welcomes in Shreveport, LA. |
