I did an author visit at the White Oaks branch of the Oakville Public Library yesterday. The wind was incredible during the drive down. White Oaks is a very nice library — all open concept and with lots of outdoor light. There were about 50 grade six students and their teachers in the audience. At the beginning of my talk I asked who hated books. At first no one put up their hands, but then after some grins and nudging, two boys put up their hands. I asked them why they hated reading and both stated that it’s because books are boring. How true. So many are! And a dream book for one reader can be as boring as all get-out for someone else.
I talked about how I hated books too when I was a kid and how one book turned it all around for me. One thing that I like to point out is that if you can’t see the action in your head as you’re reading a book, that’s a good sign that the book is not enjoyable. I let the kids vote about what selection from my three young adult novels they’d like to have read. I have nicknamed those three portions Vomit, Bullying and Abduction. They voted for Vomit.
The kids asked fabulous questions and after the presentation the librarians took me into a back room and much to my delight and surprise, they had prepared a beautiful luncheon! I couldn’t stay long because I was meeting with Andrew Gregorovich, a Ukrainian historian par excellence, in Toronto later the same afternoon. However, in between showing the librarians some fabulous preliminary pencil sketches that my illustrator Muriel Wood has done for Aram’s Choice, I managed to scarf down a tasty sandwich and some lovely desserts!
Oh, and I got to use my brand new chattervox for the first time. It worked like a dream. Here’s what I’m talking about:
http://www.chattervox.com/index.htm
