Books, Librarians, & Friends

As a presenter last week at AASL in Charlotte, I had the opportunity to meet media specialists from all over the country. I was deluged by librarians for my poster session on "Wikis, Red Font, & Revision: Ride the Revision Wave of the Future." Willing participants learned how to exercise muscle words: vivid verbs, specific nouns, image-driven adjectives, similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, and alliteration. I talked with dozens of people about using wikis to practice word processing and revision skills. I just about lost my voice.

On Friday, in my session on "Learn from the Masters: How Creating a Fictional Character and Setting Enhances Reading Instruction," I read selections from six mentor novels: Blue, Imitate the Tiger, Write Before Your Eyes, Double Helix, Cecelia's Harvest, and Milkweed. In small groups librarians enjoyed brainstorming characters FAST as well as writing sensory settings.



After the sessions, particpants told me they were excited about sharing these activities with the English teachers in their schools. Both days ended with pictures of me with my friends Margriet Ruurs, Joyce Hostetter, and of course...books. This sculpture is conveniently located across from the Charlotte Convention Center where the conference was held.

Teaching the Story sold out and I went home exhausted and satisfied. Two good days work.

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Authors Visit

Since I live in the city where AASL is having their national conference, and since my passion is writing and books, then you may have guessed that besides presenting two workshops, I invited several author friends to spend the night here. The only "price" to stay at my home was a copy of a book--which these three authors cheerfully paid. Left to right in this picture is:
Louise Hawes, North Carolina author of Black Pearls.. Watch the book trailer on her website and you'll be hooked!
Clay Carmichael, another North Carolina whose new book Wild Things is receiving wonderful reviews.
Margriet Ruurs is the author of many picture books, several novels, a few books for Maupin House, and edits a wonderful online magazine which publishes children's' work.

Excuse me now. I have some reading to catch up on!
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