Too Much Fun at Children's World Academy

It probably shouldn't matter when an author has fun during an author visit... but this author had SO MUCH FUN today working with the Grades Five and Six classes at Children's World Academy in Lasalle! You'll have to search for me in today's pics, but that's me grinning at the back of both photos.

The students were A-MAZING! In fact, there wasn't time to answer all their questions -- which is why I suggested that if they want to, they can post more questions in the comment section of this blog entry and I promise to get to them before the end of the week.

I have A LOT of favourite moments to share.

When I was talking about the importance of observation (ie. using the five senses) both in writing and in life, a student named Himmat (sitting quite close to me) raised his hand to say: "You have a cut on your leg." This comment (excellent observation, Himmat!) led us to discuss the difference between the words cut, scrape, scar and bruise. That kind of connversation might not mean much to some people, but if you're a writer it makes you HAPPY because writing is all about finding the right words. We agreed the word "cut" best describes the thingamajig on my right leg. (Don't worry, it's not serious.)

When I discussed a book I'd read where one of the characters (a mom) struck me as too stereotypically nasty (I used the word "witchy" to describe her), a student named Tristan nodded his head. I loved that because it showed Tristan understands how characters work -- people are never all bad or all good, but a mix.

Elisabeth wanted to know, "Do you ever NOT know what to write in your journal?" The answer was no -- that's because as many people have pointed out before me, writing is thinking -- and I'm one of those people (you probably are too!) who is always thinking.

A student named Zahara asked me, "Have you ever thought writing a book was difficult?" I answered, "Yes, all the time!" For me, writing is always difficult, but I think that's one of the reasons I can't stop!!

I had a short, but stimulating conversation with a student named Claire, who commented, "I don't think you should be grateful for or thank bad things that happened to you." I told Claire this was a super profound and mature comment for someone her age -- and that I do have a habit of turning bad stuff into stories, which I find makes the bad stuff more bearable. But that's a deeply personal choice, and not one that everyone wouold make.

I'll end with my favourite moment. At the end of my first session, I was telling the students I'd recently gotten married, and they burst into applause. I laughed and asked, "Are you clapping because I got married or because I reached the end of my talk?" -- and a student named Joshua made my day by calling out, "BOTH!"

Thanks to librarian Tiffany Clarke for inviting me to Children's World; thanks to teachers Ms. Reid (she was my student at Marianopolis! How proud am I? VERY!), Ms. Valerie, M. Lavallée, Ms. Eleni, Ms. Rebecca, Ms. Kimberley and Ms. Lim for sharing your students with me this afternoon. And thanks to the students for being so SMART and FUN and well... AMAZING!