Why do you arrange author visits?

So I've told this story so many times, it almost seems apocryphal.  When I was a little girl, 1st or 2nd grade at Sumpter, my class was ushered into the library at school to hear an author speak.  He was a young (seemingly to me at the time, tall), with a head full of curly hair.  I must have loved listening to him speak, because I still remember him telling a story about arguing with his publishers about whether 'inched across the room' was still appropriate now that the metric system was adopted in Canada, or whether 'centimetered across the room was the current usage'.  I doubt I understood what that was about, but I collected his books after that (sadly at the time, I had no book to be signed by him, my (possibly flawed) recollection is that we in my grade were included in this experience at the last minute).  I owned many books as a girl:  The Bruno & Boots Series, No Coins Please, I Want to Go Home, Who is Bugs Potter.    

I don't know what happened to any of those books, but even as an adult I would pick up his newer books, both children's and Young Adult titles.

When I started volunteering for the Scholastic Book Fair at Schirle, our wonderful Librarian arranged a visit for popular children's author Roland Smith to take place during my spring fair.  I was thrilled to hear this news, told that story to her, and worked to help take some of the fundraising burden off the library.

The kids responded to this visit with enthusiasm I hadn't imagined.  They lined up each book fair shift desperately trying to get more titles from the author.  I was sold on author visits even more than I had been!
Since then, I have booked or helped facilitate visits from:
Suzane Selfors

Stephanie Bodeen

Deborah Hopkinson

Robert. D. SanSouci

Which brings me to this year:
Gordon Korman

I had always had a goal of bringing him to my kids' school.  However, it is expensive, and he lives far away.  Due to the unprecedented success of a new fundraiser last year, I knew it was time to ask for the funding!

Many of the teachers (who were as excited as me) wanted to know:  how did you get him?  The answer:  I asked for the money and asked him.  It was more work than that, and I needed to find another school, as he wanted a 2 school commitment (he was already headed to LA for two days of this week).  Easy:  I asked my first choice school, Roland's (then future) middle school.  Even though it was a much bigger financial commitment for them (percentage-wise) they took a deep breath and said yes!

It was quite a bit of work to make it happen (I've never had an author come from farther, and I've never been point person when we were sharing an author with another school).  But it was wonderful.  The kids responded so well to his presentations, they laughed, and were generally very enthusiastic later.

Gordon Korman was so kind to me, and gracious to everyone he met.  I think it must be hard to through your lot in with complete strangers, but he is a champ.

Wesley and I had a chance to show him around downtown a little, and we enjoyed getting to know him.

Roland meeting the author, getting his books signed.

Crossler's day was pretty chill, but Schirle was a whirlwind of book signing, presentations, faculty luncheons, special guests from the district and Scholastic, and kindergarten classroom visits.

Some teachers were pretty excited!

I was so pleased it went off without a major hitch, and got a picture with the author before he left.

Major life goal:  Check!  Now I can't wait to book next year's author!

What is that trailer for?

So as a super duper special treat yesterday--I took the two oldest kids to a FIRST RUN theater!  They never do that with me, I'm not kidding.  The last movie I took them to see outside of a second run theater was Cars.  Not a humorous exaggeration--the actual film!

I selected The Giver.  Neither of them has read the book, though Molly has read and very much enjoyed other Lois Lowry works.  (As a side note, when Goodreads hosted chat with her, I was selected to ask a question, and my question got answered!):

 Do you ever do school visits anymore? I've been wanting to meet you since I was a girl reading 'Anastasia' books. (which my 10 yr old now loves) Thanks for all the wonderful hours of reading over my last 27 years or so!

No school visits anymore, alas! Too little time!

Cool huh?  So, though I am careful about PG-13 films, I had heard enough about the adaptation that I felt confident taking my oldest two 10 & 11 to see it.  And I was right.  Though some important changes were made, I felt it captured the spirit and ideas of that great book very well.  I really enjoyed it, especially when, about 15 seconds in, Roland leaned over to me and whispered, "I already like this movie".  I did have a few teary moments, especially when hearing the name of a character, Rosemary, then I let out a sobby yelp that my children clearly felt came out of nowhere.

But I have a beef with the experience.  Once we had our popcorn, and settled in to watch the trailers, the trailer for 50 Shades of Gray came on.   Suddenly I hustled those kids out and sent them for mandatory bathroom breaks.  I kept an eye on it from outside the theater, and though it was clearly the PG-13 trailer, I was steamed!  Who do they think is coming to see The Giver?  It is based on a Newberry award winner, and it's intended audience is no doubt young adults and their families.  Now I know I took my kids before they were 13, but so what if they'd been 13?  There is no trailer for a film like that that is appropriate to play before the movie I saw!  I wanted to complain, but to who?  Luckily my kids were blissfully unaware of the very adult content they almost got to see.  I hate censorship, but I love good judgement!

They look ready for adult films, don't they?

When is his Birthday?

Anthony's 2nd birthday is today!  He was so excited he learned a trick:

We couldn't enjoy him more, even as I'm tearing my hair out, trying to manage 2 naughty male toddlers.  He slides right into my soft heart!

 He's tiny and of somewhat Irish extraction, so possibly a Leprechaun.

  I don't have a jokey caption here, but I like this little pipsqueak!

 He wants to take the ball and run with it, in a very real sense!

I shared some more photos, because I used some birthday money his Grandma made him to make a photo book of his last year.  Happy birthday buddy!  We sure love having you around!

Shall we backtrack to Christmas?

Ho Ho Ho!

That's all that needs to be said for Christmas right?  It was a good season.  I made Lillian a new color-wheel quilt, and some other stuff...

Here is Anthony, by the Christmas tree, with his long curly hair.  I gave a little sob when I saw these photos.  Why did we cut it?

 Here are some running around outside this winter or maybe spring pictures.

I like those kids.

Do you ever get tired of hearing about my camera issues?

Well, the camera again is pretty caput.  But maybe blogging will inspire me to at least get those photos trapped in there downloaded.

But I'll post a photo.  That's a start.

Here is Molly, being Scout at the start of the show.  She says "Miss Maudie, this is an old neighborhood, ain't it?"

Miss Maudie says:  "Been here longer than the town"

Scout says:  No, I mean the folks on our street are all OLD.

Don't worry, I'll post more pictures, but won't be rehearsing the whole show.  

In the intervening days since we got our lives back from Maycomb, Alabama, I've been putting the kids to bed, trimming their nails, checking on teeth brushing, and trying to catch up on sleep.  I've read a lot, watched less TV than I'd like, and have now made it back to my aerobics class 3 times!