Julie Sternberg's Author Visit

2nd graders and 3rd graders were in for a special treat on Monday, October 15th! Texas Bluebonnet Award-nominated author Julie Sternberg was here from Brooklyn, New York to visit us and talk about her amazing debut novel Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie. Students from 4th and 5th grade who had already passed the quiz on her book were also invited.  Julie was engaging, and our students were so well-behaved.  They sat still, asked great questions, and prepared for the visit ahead of time by reading her book (thanks, teacher!) Thanks for helping me make the most of our visit.

Author visits like Julie Sternberg are wonderful experiences for our children, but require a lot of financial help. Since Julie lives so far away, multiple schools pitch in and share her airfare and hotel costs. At Forest North, the PTA generously donates money to the library, and that paid for about 25% of our visit costs this year. The other 75% comes from fundraisers like the Barnes & Noble Book Fair (12/1/2012) and the Scholastic Book Fair (4/30/13-5/4/13).  Please support the library fundraisers so we can continue to have authors visit our school!















 Some students chose to purchase books and get them signed by Julie in person. I took a photo of each student who purchased a book and printed a wallet sized copy so they could have a souvenir of our special day. Pictured below is Julie Sternberg with Ruby, a third grader. Our books were purchased through local Round Rock bookseller The Book Spot, who were nice enough to let us buy books ahead of time, and took back any extras we didn't sell without financially penalizing us. How nice is that? They also covered the tax for us. Please patronize The Book Spot to thank them for donating their time and services to us! 

Thanks for a wonderful visit, Julie! The kids and teachers adored you, and we loved getting an inside perspective on your wonderful book. Can't wait for the sequel, coming out in April!

American Library Assocation 2011 Annual Conference

Mrs. Fournier, your loyal librarian, had a whirlwind trip to New Orleans for the 2011 American Library Association 2011 Annual Conference!

First, I had to drive for 10 hours to get there. I checked in at my awesome hotel, the Renaissance Arts. I shared a room to save money. My roommate was Sheri Boggs, who was also on the 2011 Theodor Suess Geisel Committee with me! Look how cool my hotel was! Here's a picture of this cool art made out of puzzles at the check in desk and a picture of the cool chandelier.

I had a wonderful time touring New Orleans and its rich history. Here are some of my favorite moments!

1. Eating beignets at Cafe du Monde with some old friends from library school
2. Posing near a giant snow globe with the cover of the new Wimpy Kid book inside
3. Letterboxing in the garden district and seeing lots of streetcars
4. A skull with "offerings" at the Voodoo Museum
5. A house where one of my favorite authors wrote a book!
6. A cool old jazz club on the famous Bourbon Street.

Of course, my very favorite moments were meeting some of my favorite authors! We were so lucky to be invited to lunch or dinner with each of our 3 Geisel award winners and honorees. I was so sad to miss lunch with our winning authors and illustrators from Bink & Gollie (you'll see why later), but had a great dinner with Mo Willems and a great lunch with Grace Lin, who both won Geisel honors in 2011, and my pal Sheri Boggs sent me photos of the great stuff we got from the authors, illustrator, and publishers of Bink & Gollie - most special to me being a watch!

After these wonderful meals, I was also graciously invited by Little, Brown & Co to attend the Newbery Caldecott Wilder Banquet. It's a special night where everyone gets really dressed up and listens to speeches from the people who won the most prestigious awards in children's literature for the year. It was a very special moment in my career as a Librarian!

I was also a lucky duck and got to sit next to Grace Lin! Even though I'd had lunch with her earlier that day, I never got to talk much to her then, so this was a very special meal for me!


I was also sitting at a table with two other famous authors - Andrea Davis Pinkney and Jewell Parker Rhodes.


As soon as the Newbery winner, Clare Vanderpool, finished her great speech, I jumped in my car and drove all through the night back to Austin! It was quite an adventure, and I was surprised that I barely got tired. I got back just in time to take a shower, pick up Shelby, my junior counselor, and to be right on time for CAMP BLUEBONNET! More on that later!

I didn't forget you either, Forest North! I lugged this giant bag of books (it must weigh 50 pounds!) from the Convention Center back to my hotel, and then drove it all the way back to Austin. I took a picture of the stack of books (there are 23 - I need to make sure they're all good for elementary students) but it doesn't look nearly as heavy as it felt to carry it for a half mile in the heat!

Weston writes his favorite author!

Weston, a 1st grader here at Forest North, has had a special connection to his favorite author since the beginning of Kindergarten. That author is named Scott E. Sutton and he writes a series of books about a hierarchy of mythological creatures.

Weston and Mrs. Fournier got Scott E. Sutton's address and spent weeks drafting a letter to write him. During the weeks when the letter was drafted, Mrs. Fournier happen to notice that Scott Sutton was going to be a featured author at the Texas Book Festival here in Austin. Weston and his mom went and met Scott E. Sutton!

In his letter, Weston told Mr. Sutton a little about himself, why he liked his books the best, and gave lots of great details. He even reminded Scott E. Sutton that they met at the Book Festival, and asked if he remembered him. The letter took a bunch of hard work, and as Weston licked the envelope and Mrs. Fournier put on the stamp, they really hoped that they'd get a reply.

Within a few weeks, their wish came true! Weston got a letter mailed to him here at school, and inside was a letter from Scott E. Sutton! It was a great day. Weston shared the reply with his entire class and Mrs. Fournier got it on tape. Weston read the entire letter aloud by himself! What great reading and writing we have going on at school!