Twenty long letters from the students in Mrs. Mason's fourth grade class!
Wow! What a surprise! I have received 20 lovely long letters from the students in Mrs. Mason's fourth grade class.
Thank you!
The class used The Things With Wings to study the genre "fantasy" and also to review many of the science concepts they had learned throughout the year.
21 letters in beautifully illustrated envelopes
from Mrs. Ark's 2015 fourth grade class!
Mrs. Ark and her fourth grade class are the best! Several days ago I received an envelope with 21 letters about The Things With Wings, each one in a colorful envelope illustrated with scenes from the book.
The students had great comments about the book, and even asked me questions that no one had ever asked before. Thank you students. I hope that one day I will be reading YOUR books, and seeing YOUR artwork
Twenty great letters with colorful envelopes
from Mrs. Ark's fourth grade class!
Last week I received a big envelope from Mrs. Ark and her fourth grade class in Centereach, New York. Inside were twenty letters from the students in the class, and each letter was enclosed in an envelope illustrated with a colorful scene from The Things With Wings.
Mrs. Ark read The Things With Wings to her class a chapter at a time, and came up with some creative ways to use the book
Stephanie Whelan,
librarian at NYPL Seward Park
February kicked off to a great start with the most recent KidLit Drink Night. The 14th Annual Society of Children's Book Authors and Illustrators Winter Conference in New York City is taking place this weekend, so there were a lot of authors, illustrators, editors and librarians in attendance. The festivities took place at the Wheeltapper Pub at 141 East 44th Street, starting around 8:30 p.m.
I caught up with author and event organizer Mackenzie Reide and children's book illustrator Melanie Hope Greenberg. I also "re-met" librarian Stephanie Whelan.
McDonald's awning
near Varrick and West Houston Streets
I have recently finished jury duty, which lasted for three months and three days from October 9, 2012 to January 11, 2013, and a lot has happened in that time period. Perhaps the biggest news was Hurricane Sandy, which hit New York City on Monday, October 29.
Water damage in a power station on 14th street on the east side of New York caused a blackout below 39th street which lasted for about five days. Wind damage was not too bad, but I did observe a number of signs which had blown off of buildings.
An awning blew off a McDonald's restaurant near the corner of Varrick and Houston Streets. I had always thought these awnings were made of sheet metal, but I was able to touch it and see that it was actually made of vinyl.
Henry Drak with Melanie Hope Greenberg,
trying hard not to blink
This month's KidLit Drink Night took place at 5:30pm at the Houndstooth Pub at 520 8th Avenue in New York City.
This was the KidLitCon edition. Librarians, authors, illustrators and other fans of children's literature had a chance to mingle with children's and young adult book bloggers from around the country who were in town for Kidlitosphere Conference 2012 (or KidLitCon).
The conference was hosted by Elizabeth Bird of A Fuse #8 Production
Greg Holch with the poster created by
Mrs. Carroll's students
On a magical evening this past week, the Post Road School in White Plains, New York hosted its 13th children's book "author/illustrator evening." The event happens only once every two years, and I was honored to participate as the author of The Things With Wings.
The event is organized by Lori Mollo and Anthony Russo, and more than 30 children's book authors and illustrators attended, including Gail Carson Levine, Vicki Cobb, Dan Greenburg, and Stephanie Calmenson. I took the train up from Grand Central Station with Melanie Hope Greenberg, Laurie Calkhoven, and Jan Carr.
In the school gym, the students had created posters based on the authors' books. Thank you to Mrs. Carroll's students for their wonderful poster based on
Lots of letters in the mail room!
I received a wonderful surprise in the mail this month. It was letters -- 18 letters from Ms. M's fifth grade class in Florida. The students had worked on a novel study about The Things with Wings, and everyone had sent me a handwritten letter about the book. A few students even drew pictures. (Monkeys seem to be popular in Florida at the moment.)
I thank Ms. M and the other teachers over the years who have told me that they have found creative ways to use
Mackenzie Reide autographs her novel
This evening I attended the book release party for Mackenzie Reide's book, The Adventurers. The event took place in the back room of Stone Creek at 140 East 27th Street, and was hosted by the NY SciFi & Fantasy Meetup Group and co-hosted by The Group That Shall Not Be Named, the NYC Harry Potter Meetup Group.
In addition to being an author, Mackenzie is an aerospace engineer and the co-editor of the SCBWI Metro NY Chapter Newsletter.
Members of SCBWI were in attendance, and I ran into Melanie Hope Greenberg and Patricia Keeler and her husband.
The cover illustrator is Jennifer Drucker. Jennifer also owns a cake making company called Jenny’s Cakes With Character, and she made a cake which looked