Lunch With An Author

Over the summer, before 6th grade, Alyssa had to read some books - one of which she would choose to do a book report on at the beginning of the school year.
The book she chose was "Yankee Girl" by Mary Ann Rodman.

Today Mary Ann Rodman came to the middle school to visit with the 6th graders!

Students could write an essay on why they wanted to have lunch with her and a few would be picked to do so. Alyssa was one of the students that got chosen to have lunch with Mary Ann Rodman! She was so excited to meet a real author in person and ask her questions and have lunch with her. She also brought in her copy of "Yankee Girl" and had Mary Ann Rodman sign it!

So, that was the real post - but now a total side note:
I was thrilled that Alyssa got to meet an author of a book she read. I have gone to two Book for Young Readers symposiums at BYU (a fabulous opportunity if you ever get the chance!), where they have authors and illustrators come present. I told her how fun it is to meet authors and get to learn how they get their ideas and their writing process. But even cooler than that, you get a peek into their personality and even some of their quirks. (Like Alyssa seeing all the facial expressions that Mary Ann Rodman does.) I've met Steven Kellogg - who is so fun to watch draw in big swoops and he talks really fast and he really has a dog named Pinkerton and one of his books, "Can I Keep Him," was really about him wanting a pet and when he published it his mother didn't know how she felt about "airing their dirty laundry." :) I've met Christopher Bing who has re-illustrated classic stories, for one reason being that he wants them to be historically accurate - like "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" and like in "Little Black Sambo" he wanted the book to look like you picked it up in a jungle - water damage, ants and everything! He is amazing! I could go on. And the best part . . . I have a great little collection of autographed books for me - I mean my children!
OK, side note over - because as I said before, I could go on!