Author: Loree Burns

Photo by Eunice Swanson

Isn’t that a beautiful collage? It was created by students and teachers at The Sage School, where I spent two days celebrating Earth Day last week. Each member of the school community created a cutout of their footprint, inscribed it with their best wishes for how to better treat the planet, and added it to a massive wall hanging celebrating Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling.

In addition to seeing this collage in the making, and learning about the school-wide Trash-Free Lunch Day, I spoke with students about my adventures in the field (Pre-K through grade 1), the writing process (Grades 2 through 4), and the science of TRACKING TRASH (Grades 5-8). For each presentation I had the honor of being introduced by a student; thank you Tom, Lexi and Jonah for your hard work and kind words.

The surprise of the visit came when I met Allie and Stephanie, sisters who happen to know my childhood hero, Mr. James Micarelli. Mic taught ninth grade biology back at Everett High School, and he inspired me. So much so that I dedicated TRACKING TRASH to him, which is why he comes up so often in my school visit talks. Imagine my delight when Allie introduced herself to me as Mr. Micarelli’s great-niece! I met Stephanie the next day and posing for this picture was a thrill for me. Thank you, girls.

I shared thoughts and ideas with so many writers and scientists and beekeepers and conservationists while I was at The Sage School; it was, to me, the perfect way to celebrate Earth Day. Many thanks to Eunice Swanson, who organized my visit and sent photographs, and to the staff and students who made this visit memorable … and who treated me to some new Sage essentials:

 

On Friday I visited Marlborough Middle School in Massachusetts, where I was lucky enough to …

Talk to three hundred forty sixth graders about TRACKING TRASH;

Shake the hand of science teacher Laura Kirshenbaum, who purchased my visit for her students at a charity auction and is helping those same students color Marlborough Middle School green;

Meet librarian Cathy Rosenstock, who managed every detail of the day, including a tasty homemade lunch served on a real plate;

Lunch with the creative, intelligent, and talented youth in the C.I.T.Y. Kids program, who made me the excellent signs of welcome decorating this post and, now, my office;

Hear about exciting research projects conceived and conducted by students;

Catch up with my good friend and fifth-grader Natalie, who I have known since before she was born.

Thank you Marlboro Middle School … it was a pleasure to spend a day with you!

 

The town of Winchester, Massachusetts totally knows how to throw a book party. Last Thursday the entire town celebrated Authorfest, an annual event in which every public school student at every grade level has the opportunity to meet an author in their classroom. Twenty local authors participated, zipping from school to school and chatting with students about their work and their books. I was one of these lucky authors.

I met with fifth graders at Ambrose School in the morning and talked with them about the making of TRACKING TRASH. I was thrilled to hear how my presentation tied in to some work they are doing in science class. (Good luck with those discovery bottles, Ambrose!)

Later in the day I spoke with fourth and fifth graders at St. Mary’s School. Although these students heard the same presentation, they took our Q&A in an entirely different direction, asking all sorts of interesting questions about the places I visit while researching books. (Thanks for those questions, St. Mary’s!)

When the school day ended, all twenty authors convened at Winchester Town Hall, where our books were on sale to the public. We sat at a looooong table and signed books for students and their families. While surrounded by these folks:

David Biedrzycki

Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Jacqueline Davies

Karen L. Day

Kathleen Benner Duble

David Elliot

Mark Peter Hughes

Judith Jango-Cohen

Steve Krasner

Allen Kurzweil

Brian Lies

Susan Lubner

Scott Magoon

Dan Mahoney

Jeff Nathan

Barbara O’Connor

Heather Panahi

Nancy Poydar

Jamie Spencer

and their hundreds of amazing children’s books, it was hard not to feel a little shy. Lucky for me, though, we were seated alphabetically, which put me right next to David Biedrzycki (pronounced beh-DRICK-key). David doesn’t really allow shy. He forced me to practice my schmoozing techniques. I am not kidding. He whispered talking points into my ear as I signed books. He even drew this little cartoon to cheer me on:

Drawing by David Biedrzycki!

Can I just say for the record that it is hard to schmooze when you are sitting next to an Ace Schmoozer and he is drawing funny things on the tablecloth, making children giggle, and signing books by the stack all at the same time?

It was a pleasure to meet so many young book lovers, reconnect with fellow book creators, and make a new friend or two. Thank you to the entire town of Winchester, and most especially to Ceci Cordeiro and the many, many parent volunteers who made this celebration totally rock.

Happy reading!

P.S. #1
You can see some photos from the massive Authorfest sighing over at Barbara O’Connor’s blog.

P.S. #2
If you book school visits in the Massachusetts area, the list above would be a great place to begin your search for talented local authors and illustrators.

 

Yesterday marked the final stop in my state of Maine mini-tour. Students from Blue Hill Consolidated School, Brooksville Elementary School, Adams School and Penobscot Community School (together known as Union 93) came together on the campus of the Maine Maritime Academy to celebrate the Maine Student Book Awards.

The focus of the day was the ocean environment and students were given the opportunity to visit an ocean vessel simulator (which showed them what it would feel like to be on board a cargo ship cruising at 30 knots), a plankton lab, the vessel State of Maine (where they learned how trash generated on board and at sea is handled) and a presentation by the Calvineers, a group of Adams School students participating in a right whale protection project. They heard a keynote address and several workshops by yours truly, too. It was an intricately woven, perfectly planned event that went off without a hitch, mostly due to the efforts of the amazing school librarians involved. Here are Rick Alexander, Pat Horton, me, Helen Grakowski and Beth Jackson along with an assortment of Calvineers:

The weather was sunny and warm here on the coast and the students reveled in the freedom of good weather and a good field trip. Here they are back indoors, in the Delano Auditorium, waving TRACKING TRASH cards:

At the end of the day, librarian Pat Horton announced the winner of this year’s Maine Student Book Award (drum roll, please)…

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, by Jeff Kinney

(Congratulations, Jeff!)

After the MSBA festivities ended, I had some time to explore the town of Castine, and then for a lovely dinner with Rick Alexander and his wife-to-be Debbie (good luck with all those wedding plans, you two!). The Alexanders gave me a driving tour of Blue Hill, and it struck me along the way that seeing some local vistas at sunset on the first true day of spring Downeast was the perfect ending for a storybook week in Maine.

Thank you, Union 93!