Wednesday, May 7, 2014
I checked out of the Marriott and headed over to Akiva School in Westmount. My GPS wanted me to turn onto Kensington, which was illegal. I circled a few times, navigating the heavy traffic and one way streets, not seeing any place to park. I phoned the school and asked where I should park. “Ooooh, this is Wednesday,” said the receptionist. “Not a good day to find a parking spot in the area…” She suggested I park a couple of streets away, so I drove out of the immediate area and found a spot about eight blocks away. My presentation materials are in rolling luggage, so it wasn’t a problem. I got to the school with about 15 minutes to spare. Librarian Janice Camlot met me at the door.
As the students assembled in the library, I saw that many of them were holding their own copies of my books — in particular — Stolen Child, Making Bombs for Hitler, and Underground Soldier.Lots of great questions and enthusiastic comments.
After the Akiva presentation I enjoyed a stroll through Westmount to my car, enjoying the sun and the warm weather. My next stop was Westmount Park School and I did two presentations there, both sponsored by Montreal Children’s Library (Atwater Branch). One session took place before lunch and the other immediately after lunch. This meant that I had the opportunity to sit and relax and chat with librarian Elizabeth Macdonnell. What a treat it was!
Here’s a photo of my first group. I talked about my own reading difficulties as a child and the fact that I had dyslexia. I presented One Step At A Time and Last Airlift and I had a bizarre thing happen. I had just prepped the students for a reading from One Step and grabbed my book to open it to the marked spot, but my book mark wasn’t there! It took me one very long minute to find my spot and read the excerpt.
After the session, a child came up to me and said, “You have dyslexia, right?” I nodded. “I have pneumonia,” he said.
<!!!>
Over lunch, I checked the reading copies of all my books. The bookmarks had disappeared from them all! Elizabeth gave me strips of paper and I re-bookmarked them all so I wouldn’t be caught short again!
The second group was much younger, but they too were enthralled with Last Airlift and One Step At A Time. I think the fact that many of them had family that had escaped from war made those two books quite pertinent. Here’s a photo of them, sitting with rapt attention.
My last session of the day was at the Hebrew Academy, which was a half an hour away. Lovely students and thoughtful librarians. I really enjoyed the energy of this school. The students hammed it up for photos. 
And they asked really insightful questions about my World War II trilogy.
It was nearly 5pm by the time I got on the road. Next stop: Shawinigan. I drove through hours of terrible traffic but once I was out of Montreal, the traffic dispersed and the scenery was beautiful. So many flocks of geese in intriguing patterns in the sky. I got to Auberge Gouverneur Shawinigan just before 9pm, ordered room service, and was soon sound asleep.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Here’s what it looked like across the road from my hotel:
And here’s the sign that greeted me at Shawinigan High School:
Teacher librarian Kim Kiolet had been planning for Book Week since the beginning of the school year. When I stepped in, I felt like a rock star. All of the students knew who I was. First order of the day was for Kim and her colleagues to distribute a free book to every student in the school. This was from funding from the Literacy Foundation.
Here are the students, holding their books! I’m in there somewhere too.
Kim had set up a table for me at the front of the auditorium and she added the TD Bookweek poster, so I had to get a photo of it!
The primaries came in shortly after.
Here they are, hamming it up before we got started.
Here are the kindies.
This photo was snapped by Kim Kiolet as I was presenting Last Airlift to one of the older groups.
SHS teachers prepped their students on the geography and customs of the regions my books are set in. Here is a lovely wall display just outside the auditorium. And here is a great group of students!
I’m all packed up after 4 sessions and having a chance to meet every student at SHS. Thank you, Kim, for your wonderful preparation. This is Kim:
I hopped into my car and drove to Quebec City.
