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December 1, 2010
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Today was the last day of the Lower Mainland portion of the BC Book Prizes Tour. We all had a fantastic week together visiting all the schools and Libraries. Today we visited Gladstone Secondary and Grandview Elementary.
This is Ruth Campbell, illustrator of Elf the Eagle
Lisa signing a copy of her book for the Grandview Elementary Library.
Gillian and Shaena answering questions about their books at Gladstone Secondary.
Ruth Campbell, illustrator of Elf the Eagle and Lisa Cinar author/illustrator of The Day It All Blew Away and I all climbed into the van and made the trip to Mission Public Library on Wednesday night, where we received a very warm welcome!
Liesl Jauk, Executive Director of West Coast Book Prize Society, did a lot of posing on Monday night. First, with Byron Sheardown of Quills Poetry Magazine presenting a cheque to Margaret O’Brien of Vancouver Technical Secondary School. Then, with the folks from Grandview Secondary School, whose library is being sponsored by CCEC Credit Union.
Rogers’ Chocolates is sponsoring two Vancouver area schools this year: Gladstone Secondary and Charles Dickens Elementary schools.
Adopted school libraries will receive their choice of 2008 BC Book Prize books up to a value of $500 for their libraries.
With one exception: Here’s Christine Bourassa of Hewitt Associates presenting Hastings Elementary with a cheque. The staff of Hewitt Associates actually managed to raise $580 for this school!
Today we started out at Argyle Secondary and Boundary Elementary in North Vancouver. Then we headed over to Richmond for readings at Richmond Secondary and Samuel Brighouse Elementary.
Librarian Kelly Berry introduces Gillian and Shaena at Argyle Secondary
Robert and Librarian Felicity Eadon and Lisa at Boundary Elementary
Robert reads at Boundary Elementary
A quick lunch in Minaru park, Richmond
Lisa at Samuel Brighouse Elementary
Gillian and Shaena chatting with students at Richmond Secondary
This is author Shaena Lambert reading from her novel Radiance at the Vancouver Public Library on Monday night
Lisa Cinar shows the audience how her drawings changed over the course of writing her book The Day It All Blew Away.
Gillian reads from Soft Geography. Robert tells the audience a story from his childhood.
Today less events than yesterday for me, but it seems even more new people, questions and presentations. Did I mention it is ex-cellent fun getting to know so many talented and nice people? Due to this I am starting to build a fantastic collection of autographed books myself! Today I had a lot of fun doing my presentations and the kids seemed to be into it as well, which is always THE (obviously) best thing about this. The weather seems to love us as well, and so me Robert, Shaena and Gillian Wigmore had another day full of sunshine and happiness. Could we possibly get any luckier? (This is what I also asked myself after temporarily freaking out thinking I had lost my camera/which isn’t really even my camera… technically, ... but of course it ended up being in the tour van! Ha! ... Good thing I didn’t make a big fool out of myself calling the last school I was at and making them search the washrooms, staffroom, and library for it…. ..... .... heh.
As I am writing this it is already the end of my second day on tour but so much has happened in two days that I feel both deserve separate entries since both were chock-a-block full of amazing events!
First of all tough I would like to thank the lovely Jamie from BC Book Prizes for driving me around all day in the BC Book tour van and contributing to making me feel immensely special, nice work! 
At Hastings Elementary which was our first stop of the day I got to meet the ever so animated and kind Robert Heidbreder, which was really fun for me since I have read and enjoyed several of his books! However… if you are a fan of Roberts work I HIGHLY recommend actually seeing the man do a live reading (especially for kids), since he is a regular slapstick and comedy act and covered amongst others bunny-hopping, peeee-yuuuu-ing, falling down as well as various unconventional ways of making wishes in his presentation! A real treat!
My own presentation went well at Hastings Elementary and I decided not even to use the overhead projector for the images since the amount of children was just right so that they could all see the images from me simply holding up the book while reading.
Our second stop of the day was Charles Dickens school. It ended up being a lovely sunny day and since Robert had volunteered to drive me as well as himself to this event we had plenty of time to take a nice stroll around the school which we agreed was very beautiful. It was highly enjoyable to sit in the sun and talk about making Children’s books as well as getting to know each other a little. Then the bell rang and we knew it was time for our second reading of the day….
I enjoyed myself a bit more at my own reading this time, perhaps because I had just been sitting in the sun, but also because I was now much more comfortable with myself, and of course the children were all little angels, behaved very well and also had some very good questions to ask. For example, ‘Can children be authors?” YES! and ‘How long did it take you to make this book’ as well as ‘Will there be a sequel?’ ... Oh the children of today, so smart,so hip Also worth mentioning was the lovely librarian at Charles Dickens Elementary who certainly made me and Robert feel extremely welcome and at ease.
The last event of the day consisted of an evening of all the Authors from the Lower Mainland leg doing readings at the Downtown VPL. It was fun to meet some people who were buying my book and it was also nice to see some of my friends who had come to this event which was a nice surprise for me.
A busy day in which so much happened! I talked to so many children AND adults that I still can’t believe it was just one day, ... the first day that is.
Here we are at Van Tech Secondary with authors Gillian Wigmore and Shaena Lambert. Gillian Wigmore reading from her book Soft Geography
Robert Heidbreder, author of A Sea-Wishing Day entertaining the troops at Charles Dickens Elementary
This is Lisa Cinar, author of The Day It All Blew Away, with Hastings Elementary Librarian Frances Renzullo. It’s day one of the BC Book Prizes Lower Mainland Tour!
Here I am at the BC Book Prizes office learning how to blog! I can hardly wait to meet all my authors and look forward to visiting book lovers around the province.
