I did my last Forest of Reading event of the year and it was MASSIVE and very well-organized. It was for Peel and was held at the Powerade Centre on Kennedy Road in Brampton. There were 4,800 students in attendance! Other scheduled authors were Robert Munsch, Eric Walters, Peggy Dymond Leavey and Michael Boughn. I happened to be chatting with LM Falcone — this year’s winner of the Silver Birch Award for fiction — yesterday and mentioned the Peel event. Lucy hadn’t been told about this event and wondered if perhaps she should contact the organizer to let her know that she would be delighted to drop by. I told her I was positive the kids would be thrilled to have the winner of the Silver Birch show up! I gave Lucy the contact info, she called, and was added to the program.
A young lady by the name of Samantha was my student ambassador. Not only did she have to say a short speech about me, but she had to carry an enormous sign that had been hand-painted about Aram’s Choice. It was beautiful, albeit heavy.
All of the authors’ signs were awesome! Peggy’s was especially spectacular. And even though Lucy was a last-minute invitee, there was a sign for her and a student gave a speech. I was very impressed with the speeches the students made. It was nerve-wracking for me to get up in front of all those people, but to be able to do it while still in grade school shows a phenomenal amount of poise and preparation.
I loved listening to all of the authors speak and it was also fun to see the students do the wave and hold up their posters. What an event! Kudos to Peel for a successful event!
At the end of the program, I booted it out with an egg salad sandwich in tow. Good thing I was wearing an egg salad sandwich coloured blouse because it’s messy eating and driving. I hopped on the 407 and got to a lovely private school in Don Mills with 5 minutes to spare. The students were already sitting in front of a comfortable rocking chair and the teacher-librarian was talking about Aram’s Choice. We switched places and I continued on. It was interesting, going from a group of 4,800 to a group of 30. The students asked pertinent and interesting questions and at the end of the session I was given a chocolate sundae. Yum!
Off to Leamington early tomorrow morning for two days of readings.
