Author Visit - Read Across America

I am so excited about this week!  I have been invited to be one of the guest authors at St. John Vianney school in Orchard Park, NY as part of their Read Across America program.  I get to read both of my books, The Swing and Clover and the Shooting Star,  to the pre-K through 2nd grade children and I'm so excited to meet them!  

Sharing my stories with young readers has got to be the ultimate satisfaction for me as children's book writer and illustrator.  Author visits are so cool because they can get kids reading, writing and creating illustrations.  I remember author visits in my school when I was young and loved them!  It's part of why I wanted to become an illustrator.   

I will also be sharing my creative process with the students to give them a little behind the scenes look.  When students learn the "inside stories" and ideas behind books they can't help but be drawn to them and become motivated to read more, write more and of course create wonderful storytelling art.  Children are natural storytellers and storytelling connoisseurs, so I can't wait to see how they respond to my stories.

And the staff at St. John Vianney have put together a fun program that gets the children involved in reading every day of the week!

As you can see in the events, Friday is the local author visit day...that's me:) And it's also "wear your favorite hat" day!  I just may wear my French beret.   

They are also featuring two other authors during the week on Thursday.  They are two amazing child authors who are in the same family - bother and sister named Soloman and Cecelia Schmidt.   Soloman writes about U.S. history and already has two published books, and Cecelia wrote a historical fiction love story, with God being the central figure of love.  I am so honored to share this week with these amazing authors.  And how cool is that for children to meet authors who themselves are children?  

I am really looking forward to this Friday!