Learning from Authors During NaNoWriMo

During National Novel Writing Month, we are fortunate to be hearing from multiple authors who will inspire our writing. The first author is my friend Marquin Parks, author of the Wrinkles Wallace series (Knights of Night School and Fighters of Foreclosure), who sent along some words of wisdom via video message:

We will also be Skpying with authors Gae Polisner and Natalie Lloyd.

Gae is the author of The Pull of Gravity 

and The Summer of Letting Go:




Natalie is the author of A Snicker of Magic and the upcoming February release of The Key to Extraordinary.

If any of these books sound interesting to you, I encourage you to support these wonderful authors and ask your parents if you can purchase their books. Even if buying books is not an option for you at this time, another way you can support these authors is to check their books out at the library (or my classroom library) while also talking about them and recommending them to friends.

What was I doing while in Las Vagas?

...meeting and hanging out with amazing authors and teachers!

This is just a small sampling of the amazing authors I met and hung out with while at the NCTE convention in Las Vegas:

Jennifer Holm, author of Babymouse, Squish, and Turtle in Paradise

RJ Palacio, author of Wonder

Ruta Sepetys, author of Between Shades of Gray

Shannon Hale, author of Princess Academy, et al

Blue Balliett, Rebecca Stead, Jo Knowles, Kate Messner, and Jody Feldman

Graphic novelists extraordinaire, Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman

Jonathan Auxier, author of Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, who not only gave the greatest book talk/yo-yo show ever but he also drew a very special picture for our class after his very special offer:

Check out his amazing yo-yo-show/book talk here.

So yeah, my time in Vegas was pretty awesome!

Interview with Katherine Applegate

As we finished The One and Only Ivan, many of you had questions about how Katherine Applegate was inspired to write the story. Here is a video that will hopefully answer some of those questions.

Author Carrie Harris visits St. Paul 6th Graders

On October 25th, Carrie Harris, author of the epically funny zombie novel Bad Taste in Boys, visited St. Paul to do a writing workshop with the 6th graders. She did a great job getting them thinking about character and plot and even had them write their very own Monster Prom scene.

And since Carrie loves monsters so much (particularly zombies), the 6th graders made sure she was greeted in monsterly fashion:

Fun was had by all:

Look who I got to meet

So I know how much you all love the graphic novel Smile by Raina Telgemeier. Look who I got to meet at the Kids Read Comics event at the Ann Arbor District Library this past weekend:

Yes, that's me with Raina Telgemeier, author of the awesome graphic novel, Smile:

Not only did she sign a copy of Smile for me, but I also got a Smile t-shirt too! I can't wait to wear it to school when we come back in September.

Other cool things at the Kids Read Comics Event:

Artist Chris Houghton signed a copy of Reed Gunther for me and then drew a personalized picture for my classroom.

 My friends Brian, Colby, Jen, and I pose with  Vordak the Incomprehensible (Photo courtesy of Colby Sharp)

Raina also gave a "turn your life into a comic" workshop at the Robot Supply and Repair Shop a couple blocks from the library. It was such a fun workshop about turning your life into a comic. Well, I say fun, but for me it was quite stressful since I can't draw even a stick figure to save my own life. It was much more inspiring to watch Raina at work than to try to do any sort of drawing myself.

Raina makes an outline of a story from an audience volunteer

Raina draws a comic from the story outline right on the spot

The hilarious finished comic

Overall it was a fun day of getting to hang out with friends and of course meeting great authors and artists. Oh, and let's not forget that I got a Smile t-shirt and a copy of the book signed. Yay! You will definitely see me sporting my Smile shirt when school starts back up again.

Guenter likes Smile too

I hope you all are enjoying your summer. What cool things have you done/will you do?

Questions for Carrie Harris

Since we ran out of time in class, if you have any further questions for Carrie Harris, post them here and she will answer them for us.

You can also share some of your ideas for the Monster Prom.