Why I love to visit Schools

When my family and I spent a year in Italy, I took a bus every day up to a little mountain town above Florence, where I hiked up a trail past an elementary school. As I passed by, I could see the basket ball net in the gym and hear children laughing and shouting behind the high stone wall. During that year we were away, the school became a symbol to me of one of the things I love most about being a children’s book author—visiting schools, meeting my readers (and sometimes even my characters!) and talking to kids about writing.

With slides and props, I illustrate what I was thinking about when I was growing up, the ways my imagination got me into trouble (it wasn’t always considered a gift), and the small everyday things that inspired me, then and now. In my research workshop, Hard Facts for Tall Tales, I reveal my unconventional research methods.

Ideas come from the way you look at things—small things, funny things, failures and mistakes. I want kids to recognize this richness in their own lives, and glimpse how they can transform their experiences into stories and tales that have meaning for them.