Well, that was a whirlwind!
Experienced authors warned us newbies that Canadian Children’s Book Week was both incredible and exhausting, and they were… not wrong. I crashed pretty hard after my last visit Friday afternoon and am just now starting to feel like myself again. But what a week!
Nickel City Literacy League
I started my tour in Sudbury, with the Nickel City Literacy League – the youth programming arm of Wordstock Sudbury Literary Festival. It was pouring down rain the first day, but some hardy souls came out to the library anyway! One girl asked me the best science question I have ever been asked during a presentation:
Is it true that there is more biodiversity in the Arctic than in Antarctica, and if so, why is that?
It IS true. The answer might be the subject of an upcoming blog post, because it’s just such a good question!
Signing Polar for a junior book lover and animal expert at the Sudbury Public Library!
The crowd the second night was a little bit younger than the target audience for my Polar presentation, but they were still down for adaptation-themed games and photos of cute wildlife.
My brother and me, taken just after we moved to Yellowknife. The distortion over my face is due to massive 80’s glasses. And yes, my hair was crimped.
And one junior book lover looked at the above photo of me and my little brother, and asked the next best question I’ve ever received during a presentation:
Why does your brother have a stick?
Given that it was 1989, I no longer have any idea whatsoever. But may I suggest this article about a community of official stick reviewers?
Book Talk
Speaking of Sudbury, my hosts arranged two media appearances for me! Thanks to Jonathan Pinto for having me on CBC Radio.
And thank you to Tony Ryma for chatting with me on CTV!
Fog is a Thing…
…a thing that, unfortunately, you can’t do anything about… which is why I ended up missing the two presentations I was supposed to give on Wednesday. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the airline had just said “We’re going to be delayed five hours.” It was the false hope and protracted torture of being bumped half an hour every half an hour… And because the Sudbury airport was small, the only food in the departure lounge came out of a vending machine. There were a LOT of cranky people in that lounge by the time we actually took off.
Fortunately, Tech Support was waiting with real food and a drive home. In fact – shout out to Tech Support in general, for his excellent chauffeuring and Book Week roadie services. I literally could not do what I do without his support – both moral and material!
Field Trips for The Boreal Forest
I don’t have any screen caps from the virtual visits I did, but thank you to the Waterloo and Pickering Public Libraries for having me in – and inviting some great classes to take part in science over Zoom! I love doing virtual visits, at least when technology is working, which it did!
The North Kawartha Public Library hosted an on-site visit, where the kids had made me this incredible boreal-forest themed banner!
A teacher from a neighbouring community (whose name I regret to say I’ve forgotten) packed up a bunch of her students and trucked them over for the visit. I still can’t believe that my talk was considered field trip worthy, but I sincerely hope the students had fun and that the presentation gave said teacher support to draw on when she’s trying to get them to REVISE their writing before handing it in.
Six drafts of The Boreal Forest, kids, and that was just with my editor. I never count all the extra drafts I do on my own!
Mileage and Marathons
From North Kawartha, we zipped back to Toronto for the night. Friday morning I did a presentation for a gymful of grades 1-2-3s at Yorkwoods Public School. They were AWESOME. So engaged and excited to participate! If the teachers managed to snag a photo of everyone pretending to be trees, I will update this post, because wow. A hundred kids waving their “branches” in the wind? That is a sight I will never forget…
…even though I DID manage to forget my slide clicker AND the adaptor brick that connects my Mac to projectors. And by the time I realized it, we’d already driven three hours to the site of my final Book Week visits – Wellington, in Prince Edward County. Thank goodness for Krista, the fabulous librarian, who swapped my laptop for hers and saved the day. Librarians are quite honestly the best.
I did two talks for groups from the local school, and they were both AMAZING. The students were an absolute dream, but I got the biggest kick out of the parent volunteers, several of whom were more engaged than the kids! There is nothing better than knowing I’ve managed to entertain young readers AND their grown ups with the same presentation. It was the perfect way to round out an incredible week.
Sincere thanks to the Canadian Children’s Book Centre for inviting me to tour with Book Week this year. And a huge thank you to all of my hosts, for offering me the privilege of presenting to your communities.
I am honoured. Exhausted, but truly, deeply honoured.
Up Next! Science Rendezvous Kingston
Science Rendezvous Kingston is the biggest family-friendly science festival in Canada. It’s 100% free to attend, and I’d love it if you stopped by my science-writer booth! Joining me this year are fellow children’s authors:
If you can’t join us in person, visit the event’s webpage, where you can download free STEM@HOME activities of all kinds.
That does sound absolutely exhausting and wonderful at the same time. I’m sure you’ve left the kiddies with some fantastic memories
and new science knowledge!
I certainly hope they learned some science! But I will absolutely settle for having had a good time.