Such a swarm of author visits in September! We were fortunate to have Andrea Davis Pinkney, Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Rita Williams-Garcia visit a number of schools, sharing their award-winning books and even more importantly, their heartfelt encouragement to continuously explore writing as a means by which to make sense of the world, and to share the stories that are in each and every one of us.
Andrea Davis Pinkney shared stories of how she writes and why she writes, illustrating her talks with examples of her numerous picture book biographies and longer works of historical fiction and current realities. Some students at BAM found out it was soon to be her birthday and were delighted to be able to sing for her. The 6th and 7th graders of Longfellow had their first assembly of the year with this author visit – talk about setting an energetic and engaging high bar! And in the evening, a first ever “Fireside Chat for Families” was co-sponsored with the Office of Family Engagement and Equity and the Black Parents Affinity Group, complete with a digital fireplace!
Jacqueline Briggs Martin‘s recent book Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious and last year’s Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table were perfect compliments to our ongoing interest in gardens and good food. Ms. Martin presented two “big kid” assemblies and visited the kindergarten classrooms, and then was treated to a tour of the LeConte garden where Farmer Ben had just harvested some figs.
Rita Williams-Garcia shared her life experiences and additional research that fueled her writing of One Crazy Summer, which the Willard students were crazy pleased to find out about. Ms. Williams-Garcia stayed on long after the large group presentation to answer many questions from budding authors.
Coming soon – snippets of our more “normal” day to day realities in our libraries!