Just returned this past Friday from the Illinois Reading Council Conference in Springfield, Illinois. This visit, I did not go to the incredible, state-of-the-art Abraham Lincoln Museum (Greg, M & T, and I did that last year over spring break.) But I did . . .
catch up with other Illinois authors, like my good friend, Carmela Martino, author of Rosa, Sola, and blogger at Teaching Authors.Com.
Here Carmela and I are at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Booth. Viva SCBWI!
I also got to hear other authors, like Andrew Clements, Pam Muñoz Ryan, and Cynthia and Greg Leitich-Smith talk about their life and work.
And there was a great Reader’s Theater Performance by Avi, Sarah Weeks, Pam Muñoz Ryan, and Brian Selznick. What a quartet. They write contemporary classics! Interpret their work! Sing! And make incredible sound effects! Plus, they clearly have a blast, doing all that they do.
I also presented. (No sound effects, though. Note to self: work on sound effects). My talk was called Genre As Genesis—Inspiring Kids to Write, Working With the Books They Love.
I spoke a little bit about finding Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret
way down on the bottom shelf of Krochs & Brentano’s at the Yorktown Shopping Mall, and how basically Judy Blume wrote exactly the right books for me at the right time—my middle school years—and helped me keep on keeping on.
My thought is: if kids can begin to pinpoint HOW the books they love tick, and WHY those books make them tick, they can write out of their passion and understanding. Of course, this is a familiar goal for teachers; I just put the author’s twist on it. (Try the author’s twist. It’s right up there with the Electric Slide.) I talked about the Clique books, Captain Underpants, The Golden Compass, Feed, Sold, and Speak. I got all jazzed up about books and writing. I shared some writing exercises, related to elements of Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Contemporary Realistic Fiction.
Fun—and I learned more about what I’d like to learn more about, if you know what I mean.
(Oh, and this is the exact cover of the book I so loved. Saturday, cleaning out bookshelves in my ongoing effort to integrate my inheritance and recuperate after the Floods of 2009-2010, I found my copy, tattered, but intact. You can bet I’ll be rereading, or reading it to my daughter—or giving it to her to read on her own. How will it seem now, compared to then? Can’t wait to find out.)
