mary e. pearson

Stockton rocks.  The drive from the airport to Stockton was beautiful. On the way I passed olive and almond groves, vineyards and pastures.  And the weather was perfect. 



Librarian Goddess, Miranda Nighbor, arranged all the details for the day and was also my escort, getting me where I needed to be.  She is amazing.  Thank you, Miranda.



Our first stop was Ripon High School.  We couldn't fit everyone into one picture so we took two.  The students were wonderful, asking lots of great questions.  After my presentaion I had a little bit of time to talk to students individually.  I love that.  They give me back energy. 


 
Here I am with librarians Alicia and Miranda, and teacher Cameron (?)  I hate it when I forget names.  I met several teachers that day and I may be mixing up her name with another, but I am grateful to them all for sharing
YA books with their students.  (l to r: Cameron?, moi, Alicia, Miranda)


Nest stop was Franklin High School.  Another wonderful crowd. (Did I say, Stockton rocks?) Sometimes large auditoriums can get a little restless, but I couldn't have asked for a more attentive and thoughtful audience.  I was way impressed.


My last stop was the Chavez Public Library.  What a fun group of librarians.  I wish I would have gotten a picture with them--enthusiastic with wacky great senses of humor.  A "volunteer" even did an impromptu puppet show for me while I waited in the office for my talk : ) Loved it.

My audience was a mixed group from teen to adult.  It was smaller audience so we had more time for some personal interaction--and food!  The Youth Advisory Commission posed some discussion questions to everyone about The Adoration of Jenna Fox.  It was interesting to hear various thoughts--one thing about AJF is there are lots of poles and opinions.  Here I am with some of the YAC's.  Joseph, the teen towering over us shorties, read a passage from AJF for everyone.  I have never heard someone ELSE read my book to an audience before and it gave me chills to hear it that way.


Thank you Miranda, Stockton-San Joaquin PL, Ripon, Franklin, Chavez and the YAC's for a fantastic visit.  You are awesome.

I know I have yet to post my BEA pics and report, but I just got back from an awesome school visit, sooo . . .

Why was this visit awesome?

Pajama Day!


Yep. There I am in the library and the students begin arriving in their PJ's. Darn, I wish I would have known. Rolling straight out of bed and into my car works any day for me. But there are lots of other reasons why the visit was awesome too:

1. The students had already read my book and were eager to talk books and ask questions. And they asked some terrific ones. You can always tell when students are prepared for a visit. We all get more out of it. (And hey they had some great slippers too. I think we all need to have a pajama day once a month, don't you think?)

2. San Pasqual school is so unique. I visited there a few years ago (and blogged about it) and was blown away by the beauty, the architecture, the staff, and the students.

3. Librarian Goddess, Teri MacDonald, who was responsible for all the above mentioned preparation.

4. And not only that, I had another Librarian Goddess, Vicki Reed, from the SDCOE who arranged the whole visit, and accompanied me.

L to R, Vicki, moi, and Teri, in front of the spectacular library "barn" with reading silo.


What a difference both of these librarians make, to make sure that no child is left behind in the truest sense. Not to get all sappy, but reading is where it's at. Period. Empower kids with the right book for them and you open their worlds. I've seen it happen over and over again. And that's what these ladies do. Okay, I got sappy. Sorry. But it's true.

Tomorrow, BEA!

Now here is something you never see in a California school . . .



Yep. That definitely caught my eye. Of course, you might see an earthquake drill sign in a CA school, or if you were a kid in the 60's like me, an air-raid drill sign, but a tornado sign is a new one for me.

In Kettering, Ohio, I met with juniors and seniors at Archbishop Alter High School in their library (very close to the middle stairwell, thank you : )


Again, lots of great questions, and considering we were on the eve of prom weekend and the end of the school year, I felt honored that their minds were there at all. Wonderful group of students.

Next I was off to the most ENORMOUS . . . ( Read more )

Next stop was Downer's Grove and Herrick Middle School in Illinois where I met with 7th and 8th graders and was even able to show them the book trailer for The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Here I am with Brooke, my media escort, Teri, of the awesome Anderson's Bookshop, moi, and Judy the middle school librarian who was our wonderful host. It was the first time I had used my power point presentation and after a few glitches and some team effort, we got the ball rolling. (they had a mac and I had only used it on a pc!) I was able to share pictures and reasearch that went into writing JENNA.


Afterwards Teri and Brooke took me out for lunch where I ordered a "garbage salad" that was absolutely delicious. Really. From there (after making sure all the garbage was out from between my teeth) we were off to Gregory Middle School in Naperville, Illinois. I was greeted with this fantastic sign, complete with skeleton arm.


And also this wonderful display complete with brains, flasks, and molecules created by Librarian Nancy Danforth. WAY cool.


A student did an awesome intro for me (I kept thinking, is she talking about me?) Students had already read several chapters of the book so they had a lot of great questions.



I even got to sign a book for a girl named Kayla. I told her there was a surprise for her in the book if she read all the way to the end.

And finally, I can't end this post without saying . . .

YAY, David Cook!!!

I had the BEST time at San Pasqual Union School yesterday. THIS is their library!!! The whole school is done in a rural motif. That silo is the "reading silo" filled with bean bags for students to hang around and read in. My visit was every author's dream: I met in the library with a small group of 40 students, and Super Librarian, Teri McDonald had them so well prepared--every one of them had read my book! Wow, what intelligent, thoughtful questions they asked. I was completely blown away. They even shared their food with me. A very generous group.

And the school itself is just incredible. It is the only school in the district, K-8 (I met with 7th and 8th grades) and it is in a rural area of Escondido. When they built a new school four years ago, they wanted it to reflect the rural heritage of the school and area--and does it ever. The gym/amphitheater looks like a barn, there is white split rail fencing around garden areas, and old antique tractors and bleached cow bones are landscape details. But the school is modern in every sense. It's absolutely refreshing to see some creativity in school architecture. It doesn't look anything like MY middle school.

Anyway, huge thanks to Helen Foster James for arranging this visit.

Valley Middle School in Carlsbad voted today for their choice for the CYRM. Library goddess, Peggy Hodge, made it an event, with food, prizes, and inviting two authors two chat with students. Peggy is amazing and her library is incredible. And then there are the students! They love to read!

I'm in this picture somewhere!


At lunch I sat at a table with students Cole, Michelle, Alex, Crystal, and Zandy, who read ALL the books up for an award–YA, Junior, and Intermediate.

The YA books up for the CYRM are Of Sound Mind by Jean Ferris, Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz, and Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes.

I also got to chat and present with Jodie Schull, whose book, Georgia O’Keeffe Legendary American Painter, is fascinating. Did you know that Georgia didn’t learn how to drive until she was 43? Neither did I! She traveled to Europe for the first time at age 65, and took a 185 mile river rafting trip at age 73! Lots of interesting personal details about this legendary artist.

Oh, and did I mention the food?



Peggy always makes sure these students are well rewarded for their reading efforts. Lucky me–that means I get food too! Pizza! Carrots! Cookies! She even had those yummy apple/caramel suckers that pull out fillings. I love those.




Peggy and Jodie--minus their caramel/apple suckers : )

Good luck to all the CYRM nominees!