Author: Loree Burns

Freeport, Maine, makes some people think of LLBean. As of yesterday, that town will forever make me think of Mast Landing School and its vibrant, bustling and enthusiastic third through fifth graders.

Librarian Julia Colvin organized my day, part of which was spent touring her library space. It is a two-story, sunshiney place with lots of nooks for curling up with a good book. Take this red couch, for example, where a group of Mast Landing students snuggled up with, um, well, you know …

The library felt like a community center to me. Students roamed in and out, returning books, checking out new ones, flipping through options in a comfy chair. Those at a loss for what to read need only look to the wall, where Mrs. Colvin had displayed the Maine Student Book Award nominees:

Another highlight of the day was my lunch with students. Let’s just say I would still be there answering questions today—and probably still would not have eaten my sandwich!—if these saavy kids had their way. Their questions were interesting and the intensity with which they examined my answers was delightful.

Thank you to all my new friends at Mast Landing School. I hope we will meet again soon!

Edited to add: Do you know which book won the Maine Student Book Award this year? The votes have been tallied and I got the scoop today. But as that announcement was part of today’s visits, you will have to wait until tomorrow to hear the news.

Edited even further to add: Okay, I’ll give you some hints: This year’s Maine Student Book Award winner is not trashy, but it is a bit wimpy …

 

For my regular blog readers, this might feel like just another post about just another Maine visit, but you have to trust me … my school visits here in Maine have been anything but routine! They continue to be unique and marvelous and full of lovely connections that I will never forget…

On Wednesday, outside the library of the George E. Jack School in Standish, Maine, I was greeted by this flotilla of duckies:

and this sign:

Throughout the day I spoke with fourth and fifth graders about the writing of TRACKING TRASH. The students were fabulous, and in the final moments of my final presentation, a sharp-eyed fifth grader among them pointed out some books in the background of a photo I have shown hundreds and hundreds of times in school visits. It was snapped at my book launch party in March of 2007:

He was pointing out THE LAST DRAGON, a book he adored. But his looking deeply at the image made ME look at it deeply, too … and I noticed for the first time that my friend Sara Lewis Holmes’ novel, LETTERS FROM RAPUNZEL, is also in the picture. How could I have missed that? (Do you see it there, between our faces?) A special photo has suddenly become even more special.

Later, long after I had left the school, I had dinner in Gorham. I was sitting at my table reading a book and waiting for the check when a woman and her son sat at the table next to me. I heard them begin the age-old dinnertime ritual:

“So” Mom said, “how was your day?”

“Pretty good,” the boy said. “We had an author at our school.”

I stopped reading and started listening closer.

“Which author?” Mom asked.

“Well, I forget her name. But she wrote a book about trash called TRACKING TRASH and …”

“Hey! That’s me!” I said.

Or maybe I shouted? It sort of slipped out. It would have been embarrassing, except the boy, bless his heart, shouted right back, “Mom! That’s her! That’s the author who came to school!”

Oh, what a day. Heartfelt thanks to everyone at George E. Jack school for making my Wednesday day so lovely, and to Kevin and his mom for making my Wednesday night so memorable, and to Kris Zuidema for setting it all up.

 

I spent Tuesday in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, visiting with students at Loranager Middle School. Talk about a warm welcome …

Many thanks to Ali, Emily, and all their classmates who worked on these welcome signs; they are still making me smile. And I want to send a special “YOU ROCK!” message to Karly, who dressed up in a trash bag dress and a milk carton hat to bring attention to my visit and the subject of my book.

I took this next photo in the LMS school library, where students were reading and rating books nominated for this year’s Maine Student Book Award:

Can you see all those stickers under Jeff Kinney’s DIARY OF A WIMPY KID? That means the Loranger students dig that book. They also dig Linda Urban’s A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT. (Who can blame them on either count?) TRACKING TRASH had four stickers, which may not seem a lot, but they meant the world to me. Blue dots mean the student in question thought the book in question was “the best ever”. If there are truly four students in the world who think that about TRACKING TRASH, well, then I am a happy girl.

Many thanks to the students and faculty at Loranger Middle School. My day with you was warm and bright, despite the remnants of winter swirling outside. Happy reading and thank you all!

 

Cool things that happened while I was in Glenburn, Maine:

I enjoyed a potluck dinner with teachers Deb Crocker, Doretta Callahan, Sari Ohmart, Janet Ecker and Jean Watts.

I spent the night at Serendipity Stables, hosted by Glenburn Elementary School librarian Val Rich; Val even let me help feed the horses!

I listened in as a classroom of seventh graders read TRACKING TRASH together out loud. Seriously!

I talked with groups of seventh and eighth graders about the writing and researching of TRACKING TRASH, and answered clever questions about the ocean, plastic pollution, and saving the planet.

I learned, thanks to those seventh and eighth graders, that it IS spring in Maine; shorts and flip-flops are appropriate. (Who knew? Note to my boys back home: I guess you CAN start wearing shorts to school!)

I had lunch with fifteen student writers. We talked about writing and researching and our favorite books. I read from a work in progress and got insightful feedback from these future authors.

Many thanks to everyone who made my time at Glenburn Elementary School so enjoyable!