Talking about Monsters Isn’t So Scary: My First School Visits

As the author of four novels for grown-ups, I do a fair amount of public speaking. But as a newly minted middle-grade novelist, I found the idea of school visits scary. When I imagined how I would be received, I had a hard time picturing anything but crestfallen faces once the kids learned that I was not Jeff Kinney.

Fortunately, I had a confidence-inspiring guide to help me get over my first-time jitters: my kindergarten teacher.

I have wonderful memories of Mrs. O’Keefe’s class, from building with giant cardboard blocks to singing along with her guitar to lying about what color underwear I was wearing. (I hated missing out on the Color of the Day.) I also loved reading and writing, naturally.

A week before the official publication of The Other Felix, I was scheduled to visit my hometown of Missoula, Montana, to take part in the Montana Festival of the Book. So I called Mrs. O’Keefe and asked her if we could visit our old school together. The first thing she said was to stop calling her Mrs. O’Keefe; Barb would be just fine. Next she asked whether I would like to visit some other schools as well. Before I knew it, I was scheduled to speak to fourth- and fifth-graders in a half-dozen different schools. Now all I needed was something to say to them.

Less than three weeks later, Barb met me at our first stop, Lowell School, on Missoula’s north side. A few weeks earlier she had a bad fall and fractured a bone in her back. She wasn’t in a wheelchair, but the doctor had insisted she use a walker. Frankly, I was grateful for this, because if she hadn’t had to drag the walker along, I don’t think I would have been able to keep up with her.

My very first school presentation was to two fourth-grade classes who had squeezed into one room. I started by asking them about the things they dream at night. I told them that The Other Felix had its origins in a dream of my older son, who is really named Felix. I told them how long it took to write the book, how many drafts I did, and how many people helped me along the way. Then I gave them a reading of the first chapter. (I can be pretty dramatic.) They listened attentively and, when I closed the book, begged me to read more.

Here I breathed a big sigh of relief.

Then it was question time. The questions were fun to answer and gave me a quick lesson in the kinds of things kids are interested in hearing—and seeing. The question, “Did you draw the cover?” gave me a chance to show the wonderful drawings by Oriol Vidal, an artist living in Spain. Then one girl asked, “Will you read a book that you wrote when you were a kid?”

I had brought along some little books I wrote, illustrated, and bound in the fifth grade. I hadn’t read them in years—in fact, I’d barely located them in my storage space the day before I flew to Montana. But I read one, and they loved it. And as well as they responded to The Other Felix, I think they responded to Me and the Unfortunate, Unlucky, Rotten, Stupid, Terrible Day even better, because it proved the author was once a kid their age. (A kid who, like them, had read Judith Viorst’s Alexander books.) Seeing that kid’s work, they drew a connection between writing for fun and publishing for real.

Some things from my school visits that I won’t forget:

*I gave all the kids bookmarks and, in almost every class, one kid would ask for an autograph—suddenly I had to sign all of the bookmarks. I heard more than one of them say, “I can sell this on eBay!”

*When I was asked “How old are you?” the classroom erupted in astonishment at my answer. Apparently, to a fourth grader, most adults look like they’re 20.

*A girl asked if I would like her to clean my glasses. She had glasses cleaner and a soft cloth, too.

*The boy who wanted a hug before I left.

Comments

[Genevieve Petrillo]

Great post! I remember well, the fear before my first author visit - in spite of the fact that I was a teacher for 34 years!! Author visits are now my favorite thing in the world. Rest assured that the more you do the better you do. I LOVE the kid who plans to sell your bookmark on eBay! Hilarious.

[Jordan High Heels]

am the flame and i am the dry bush