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?

Welcome 6th Graders and Parents!

Hello and welcome 6th grade families to my new class blog. I decided to move over to Blogger this year because the interface is much more user-friendly than Edublogs.

I hope this year will be a productive and exciting one for you.

So tell me 6th grade: what was something exciting you did over the summer?

As for me, my husband and I traveled to Europe and we visited Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. Since we used to live in Germany, some of our travels were old favorites (like Salzburg, Austria and our old hometown of Schweinfurt, Germany) and others were new adventures (like Hallstatt, Austria and Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic).

Some pictures of our adventures:

In Salzburg, Austria

Hallstatt, Austria

View from our hotel balcony in Hallstatt

Another view from our balcony

My husband and I in Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

Canoeing the Vltava River right before disaster struck: we tipped over and ruined our camera. Luckily the SD card still worked so we didn't lose our pictures, but the camera was toast.

One of the coolest parts of our trip was that I was able to meet the illustrator of the adorable and wacky duo of picture books Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? and Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums, Daniel Jennewein. My husband I and actually stayed with him and his wife, Lenore Appelhans, (who is a soon-to-be published author in her own right) in Frankfurt the night before I flew home. I met Lenore through a community of book bloggers and when she found out we'd be in Frankfurt she offered up their spare bed to us. I was touched by their generosity given the fact that I have family members who won't even offer their spare bed to us.

While we were there, Daniel was gracious enough to sign and sketch an impromptu picture of The Buffalo with my dogs in both of my copies of the books:

  Not only that, but he made a watercolor of my dogs for me:

 

This is definitely one of the best souvenirs I've ever brought home from a trip: a one-of-a-kind piece of art from a children's book illustrator. How cool is that?

So tell me what cool things you did this summer. At the very least I hope everyone read a lot of interesting books! :)